Podcast appearances and mentions of jim kukral

Does this sound familiar? Have you been told that simply ignoring the symptoms or hoping they will go away is an effective way to address your concerns about colon cancer? But the pain and anxiety of not knowing, and the potential consequences of delaying timely screenings, can take a toll on your overall well-being. It's time to empower yourself with knowledge and take proactive steps towards early cancer detection.There's always somebody who's got it worse than you. So count your blessings and keep pushing forward. - Jim KukralIn this episode, you will be able to:Empower yourself with knowledge on the vital importance of cancer screenings for early detection.Grasp the weighty toll of cancer on mental health and the restorative power of therapy.Delve into the rich rewards of living with an abundance mindset and its transformative impact on service to others.Revolutionize your health, starting with gut wellness, by embracing constructive lifestyle changes.Champion equitable healthcare, shedding light on the necessity to eradicate disparities in healthcare delivery.Presenting Jim Kukral, an established marketing entrepreneur, accomplished author, and inspirational speaker, whose journey with health took a significant turn in 2020 when he was diagnosed with colon cancer. Instead of backing down, Jim stood tall and transformed his personal setback into a dynamic narrative about the urgency of cancer screenings. His experience, combined with his natural talent for public speaking, has led him to drive forward the vital conversation around early detection, making a profound impact on those who hear his story.

In this episode of Small Biz in :15, Executive Editor Shawn Hessinger talks with Jim Kukral and they discuss ways small business owners can better market their companies, brands, products and services to reach more people.

I'm happy to have returning guest Bryan Cohen on today's show. Bryan is the creator of Author Ad School, the founder of author copywriting agency Best Page Forward, and the MC of Self Publishing Live. He's also an author with eight novels self-published and over 150,000 books sold, as well as the co-host of The Sell More Books Show, a weekly podcast for self-published authors​In today's episode, we discuss:·      The hottest trends in book publishing, including TikTok.·      The long-running Sell More Books Show Podcast.·      Indie authors selling direct.·      Bryan's experience as a part of Pat Flynn's mastermind group.·      The rewards and drawbacks of owning your own company.·      Building a career around a lifestyle.·      Best practices for advertising your books.·      Dealing with rejection. ·      Bryan's success with his Kickstarter projects, including best practices.·      The importance of “Superfans!” And, how to keep them. All of this and more on today's episode of the Cops and Writers podcast.Check out Bryan on Author Ad School.Visit Bryan at his website. Enjoy the Cops and Writer's book series.Please visit the Cops and Writers website.If you have a question for the sarge, hit him up at his email.Join the fun at the Cops and Writers Facebook groupWould you like to buy me a coffee?Support the show

Jim Kukral is an entrepreneur and speaker. He is currently working on two different one-man stage shows, including Once Upon a Pandemic. After a cancer diagnosis at the beginning of the pandemic, Jim threw away his 25-year career in marketing to inspire others to change their mindset and change their lives. Join us as we discuss his cancer survival and recovery, how Jim faced his midlife crisis and shifted his career and mindset, what technology looks like now and in the future, and much more! I'm Zach Bohannon—I make my living telling stories, but I'm also a metal head, retired drummer, avid gamer, and most importantly, a loving father to an awesome little girl. Join me each week as I sit down with a fellow parent and discuss balancing a creative life with family, careers, hobbies, and all the other things we love. This…is the Creator Dad Podcast. Tickets are now available to The Author Life Summit, taking place September 10-11 in Colorado Springs, CO! Grab yours at https://theauthorlife.com/summit2022 Links Jim Kukral – https://jimkukral.com Creator Dad – https://creatordad.life Zach Bohannon – https://zachbohannon.com Are you a writer? Work with Zach! – https://zachbohannon.com/author-services/

Have you experienced a “life apocalypse” event? What are the steps to overcoming and making the most of a life apocalypse event? How has the pandemic encouraged a massive shift in people's approaches to life? In this podcast episode, Billy and Brandy Eldridge speak with Jim Kukral about life defining apocalypses. Meet Jim Kukral For […] The post Life Apocalypse with Jim Kukral appeared first on Beta Male Revolution.

Today Dr. Lycka welcomes Jim Kukral to the show. Jim retired from his 25-year internet marketing career to start a passion project called Life Apocalypse. The best way to describe it is with an example. You could spend the next 20 years dealing with that boss who you never really liked, or you could make half the money and be happier and live at home. For some people that is what they are doing. It's a revelation that could lead to a better life. Is it for you? Tune in and let's see.   Guest Bio: For 25-years Jim Kukral has been writing books (10), keynote speaking (150+), and building successful lifestyle businesses as a marketing entrepreneur. He is the creator of Life Apocalypse to help people like him who are thinking about legacy, death, lifestyle, and life purpose. Many people he has spoken to have told him that after this pandemic they want to do things differently. They want to live and think differently. They understand that the world could literally end any day now. With the Life Apocalypse brand and the text-based challenge, Jim is addressing mindset, impact, and purpose and helping people live a fulfilling life.   Contact Information for Jim Kukral WEBSITE: https://www.jimkukral.com/ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/jimkukral/ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/jimkukral LINKED IN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimkukral YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/jimkukral   Thanks for listening to the show! It means so much to us that you listened to our podcast! If you would like to continue the conversation, please email me at allen@drallenlycka.com or visit our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/drallenlycka.    We would love to have you join us there, and welcome your messages. We check our Messenger often.   As a big thank you for listening to our podcast, we'd like to offer you a free copy of Dr. Lycka's bestselling book. The show is built on “The Secrets to Living A Fantastic Life.” Get your free copy by clicking here: https://secretsbook.now.site/home   We are building a community of like-minded people in the personal development/self-help/professional development industries, and are always looking for wonderful guests for our show. If you have any recommendations, please email us!   Dr. Allen Lycka's Social Media Links Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/drallenlycka Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/dr_allen_lycka/ Twitter:  https://www.twitter.com/drallenlycka LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/allenlycka YouTube:  https://www.YouTube.com/c/drallenlycka   Subscribe to the show We would be honored to have you subscribe to the show – you can subscribe to the podcast app on your mobile device.   Leave a review We appreciate your feedback, as every little bit helps us produce even better shows. We want to bring value to your day, and have you join us time and again.  Ratings and reviews from our listeners not only help us improve, but also help others find us in their podcast app. If you have a minute, an honest review on iTunes or your favorite app goes a long way! Thank you!

Today Dr. Lycka welcomes Jim Kukral to the show. Jim retired from his 25-year internet marketing career to start a passion project called Life Apocalypse. The best way to describe it is with an example. You could spend the next 20 years dealing with that boss who you never really liked, or you could make half the money […] The post Mindset, Lifestyle, Impact & Purpose appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

Jim Kukral has been writing books (10), keynote speaking (150+), and building successful lifestyle businesses as a marketing entrepreneur. But the pandemic and a near-death diagnosis of colon cancer changed everything for Jim in 2020, so he threw away all his past success to start something completely different, a new brand called Life Apocalypse. As an almost fifty-year-old successful businessman, husband, and father of two, Jim realized that he needed to spend his remaining days on this planet helping people figure out how to live a life of significance, impact, and purpose. Jim created Life Apocalypse to help people like him who are thinking about legacy, death, lifestyle, and life purpose. Many people he has spoken to have told him that after this pandemic they want to do things differently. They want to live and think differently. They understand that the world could literally end any day now. With the Life Apocalypse brand and the free 21-day challenge, Jim is addressing mindset, impact, and purpose and helping people live a fulfilling life. Jim Kukral Vroom Vroom Veer Stories Grew up outside Cleveland Ohio in the suburbs running around in the wood; did not play kick the canHe was a solid D student in school; a guidance counselor told him to not bother applying for college and to be a garbage manTook that counsel as a challenge, went to college and got a 4.0 in Public Relations and CommunicationsHad a few small jobs but pretty quickly started a internet marketing company during the early days of the internetHad a 25 year career as an marketing entrepreneur; then in Aug 2020 got sick and his wife made him go see a doctorHe had a colonoscopy; then found a plumb size tumor; 10 days later he had surgery--after chemo and recovery he is now cancer freeRealized that life was too short to keep working in the company; so he quit and started working on his new business helping people in midlife create a positive mindset and create intentional impact and purpose. Connections Website

Links: www.jimkukral.comwww.lifeapoc.comBio:For 25-years Jim Kukral has been writing books (10), keynote speaking (150+), and building successful lifestyle businesses as a marketing entrepreneur. But the pandemic and a near-death diagnosis of colon cancer changed everything for Jim in 2020, so he threw away all his past success to start something completely different, a new brand called Life Apocalypse. As an almost fifty-year-old successful businessman, husband, and father of two, Jim realized that he needed to spend his remaining days on this planet helping people figure out how to live a life of significance, impact, and purpose.

#137: Jim Kukral - Life Apocalypse: Legacy, Death, Lifestyle & Life Purpose On this week's show Gary chats with Jim Kukral, a successful entrepreneur, multi-book author, in demand keynote speaker, cancer survivor which caused him to retire from a 25 year career in marketing. This cancer scare caused him to ask himself what he REALLY wanted to do, question his legacy, life purpose, and what kind of lifestyle he wanted. He asks, if you're not living your purpose and doing what you want now, then WHEN? Not to be missed! WHAT YOU'LL LEARN: Why financial security is not always the best legacy What IS the best kind of legacy to leave How his cancer shifted his mindset on values and HIS legacy The ONE thing most people want MORE of on their deathbed Why yesterday was the best time to do something, but today is the 2ND best time How the pandemic created the biggest mindset shift in history Why the pandemic caused many to reevaluate their lifestyle Why no one, especially Gen Z DON'T want ‘jobs' anymore Why YOU should be living your life purpose NOW! And MORE! Jim's Bio For 25-years Jim Kukral has been writing books (10), keynote speaking (150+), and building successful lifestyle businesses as a marketing entrepreneur. But the pandemic and a near-death diagnosis of colon cancer changed everything for Jim in 2020, so he threw away all his past success to start something completely different, a new brand called Life Apocalypse. As an almost fifty-year-old successful businessman, husband, and father of two, Jim realized that he needed to spend his remaining days on this planet helping people figure out how to live a life of significance, impact, and purpose. Jim created Life Apocalypse to help people like him who are thinking about legacy, death, lifestyle, and life purpose. Many people he has spoken to have told him that after this pandemic they want to do things differently. They want to live and think differently. They understand that the world could literally end any day now. With the Life Apocalypse brand and the free 21-day challenge, Jim is addressing mindset, impact, and purpose and helping people live a fulfilling life. Website/contact info for guest Web: http://JimKukral.com This episode proudly sponsored by Property Pathways - https://www.propertypathways.ca/ Property Pathways is an investor-focused architectural design service provider that specializes in secondary suite conversions throughout Ontario. We'll assist in developing a strategic design and renovation plan that will get the most out of your investment property. Real Estate Investment Club visit https://www.smarthomechoice.ca Gary's mentorship program visit https://garyhibbert.ca Start your own Podcast visit- https://www.podcastexperts.ca  

For 25-years Jim Kukral has been writing books, keynote speaking, and building successful lifestyle businesses as a marketing entrepreneur. But the pandemic and a near-death diagnosis of colon cancer changed everything for Jim in 2020, so he threw away all his past success to start something completely different, a new brand called Life Apocalypse. What's a Life Apocalypse? Well, get ready because Jim is going to tell you and also help you create your very own. Learn more about Jim and his work at LifeApoc.com

Episode 183 features Jim Kukrak, Founder of LifeApoc.com. As an almost fifty-year-old successful businessman, husband, and father of two, Jim realized that he needed to spend his remaining days on this planet helping people figure out how to live a life of significance, impact, and purpose.Find Jim Online:Life Apocalypse Website: https://www.lifeapoc.comPersonal Website: https://www.jimkukral.comLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimkukralAbout Jim:For 25-years Jim Kukral has been writing books (10), keynote speaking (150+), and building successful lifestyle businesses as a marketing entrepreneur. But the pandemic and a near-death diagnosis of colon cancer changed everything for Jim in 2020, so he threw away all his past success to start something completely different, a new brand called Life Apocalypse. As an almost fifty-year-old successful businessman, husband, and father of two, Jim realized that he needed to spend his remaining days on this planet helping people figure out how to live a life of significance, impact, and purpose.........Thank you for listening! If you wanted to learn more about the host, Brian Ondrako, Check out his “Now” Page - https://www.brianondrako.com/now Sign up for his Weekly Newsletter and 3x a Week Blog - https://brianondrako.com/subscribe/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Welcome to Episode 175 of Building My Legacy.In this podcast we talk with Jim Kukral, retired web entrepreneur, speaker and author. Jim's 25-year career includes owning businesses, marketing, and writing and speaking about entrepreneurship. But, after a cancer diagnosis and the pandemic, Jim threw it all away to start something completely different: Life Apocalypse. The goal of his new brand is to help people like him who are thinking about legacy, death, lifestyle and life purpose. He uses the word apocalypse in terms of a revelation — an important transformational moment in your life that, although it may create traumatic stress, can be turned into a growth opportunity. For those of you who are asking very important questions about where you want to take your life, Jim's message will be especially valuable. So if you want to know:– Why you shouldn't think of your life as a straight line– What it takes for most people to experience a mindset shift– What stops you from building the lifestyle you want– Why you have to start believing in the possibilities– How the pandemic has affected what we pay attention to– Different ways to define your legacy About Jim KukralFaced with the pandemic and a cancer diagnosis, Jim Kukral left a successful Internet marketing career to start a passion project called “Life Apocalypse.” His goal is to help people who, often as the result of the pandemic, have decided they want to live and think differently. With the Life Apocalypse brand, Jim is helping people figure out how to live a life of significance, impact and purpose. You can learn more about Jim at his website — lifeapoc.com — where you can take a free, text-based, four-day challenge to begin to experience the four components of a Life Apocalypse: mindset, lifestyle, impact and purpose. About Lois Sonstegard, PhDWorking with business leaders for more than 30 years, Lois has learned that successful leaders have a passion to leave a meaningful legacy. Leaders often ask: When does one begin to think about legacy? Is there a “best” approach? Is there a process or steps one should follow?Lois is dedicated not only to developing leaders but to helping them build a meaningful legacy. Learn more about how Lois can help your organization with Leadership Consulting and Executive Coaching:https://build2morrow.com/Thanks for Tuning In!Thanks so much for being with us this week. Have some feedback you'd like to share? Please leave a note in the comments section below!If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with your friends by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post.Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic episode updates.And, finally, please take a minute to leave us an honest review and rating on iTunes. They really help us out when it comes to the ranking of the show, and I make it a point to read every single one of the reviews we get.Please leave a review right now. Thanks for listening!Building My Legacyhttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/building-my-legacy/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/episode-175-jim-kukral-asks-where-do-you-want-to-take-your-life-building-my-legacy-with-lois-sonstegard-phd

Welcome to Episode 175 of Building My Legacy.In this podcast we talk with Jim Kukral, retired web entrepreneur, speaker and author. Jim's 25-year career includes owning businesses, marketing, and writing and speaking about entrepreneurship. But, after a cancer diagnosis and the pandemic, Jim threw it all away to start something completely different: Life Apocalypse. The goal of his new brand is to help people like him who are thinking about legacy, death, lifestyle and life purpose. He uses the word apocalypse in terms of a revelation — an important transformational moment in your life that, although it may create traumatic stress, can be turned into a growth opportunity. For those of you who are asking very important questions about where you want to take your life, Jim's message will be especially valuable. So if you want to know:– Why you shouldn't think of your life as a straight line– What it takes for most people to experience a mindset shift– What stops you from building the lifestyle you want– Why you have to start believing in the possibilities– How the pandemic has affected what we pay attention to– Different ways to define your legacy About Jim KukralFaced with the pandemic and a cancer diagnosis, Jim Kukral left a successful Internet marketing career to start a passion project called “Life Apocalypse.” His goal is to help people who, often as the result of the pandemic, have decided they want to live and think differently. With the Life Apocalypse brand, Jim is helping people figure out how to live a life of significance, impact and purpose. You can learn more about Jim at his website — lifeapoc.com — where you can take a free, text-based, four-day challenge to begin to experience the four components of a Life Apocalypse: mindset, lifestyle, impact and purpose. About Lois Sonstegard, PhDWorking with business leaders for more than 30 years, Lois has learned that successful leaders have a passion to leave a meaningful legacy. Leaders often ask: When does one begin to think about legacy? Is there a “best” approach? Is there a process or steps one should follow?Lois is dedicated not only to developing leaders but to helping them build a meaningful legacy. Learn more about how Lois can help your organization with Leadership Consulting and Executive Coaching:https://build2morrow.com/Thanks for Tuning In!Thanks so much for being with us this week. Have some feedback you'd like to share? Please leave a note in the comments section below!If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with your friends by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post.Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic episode updates.And, finally, please take a minute to leave us an honest review and rating on iTunes. They really help us out when it comes to the ranking of the show, and I make it a point to read every single one of the reviews we get.Please leave a review right now. Thanks for listening!Building My Legacyhttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/building-my-legacy/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/episode-175-jim-kukral-asks-where-do-you-want-to-take-your-life-building-my-legacy-with-lois-sonstegard-phd

For 25-years Jim Kukral has been writing books (10), keynote speaking (150+), and building successful lifestyle businesses as a marketing entrepreneur. But the pandemic and a near-death diagnosis of colon cancer changed everything for Jim in 2020, so he threw away all his past success to start something completely different, a new brand called Life Apocalypse. As an almost fifty-year-old successful businessman, husband, and father of two, Jim realized that he needed to spend his remaining days on this planet helping people figure out how to live a life of significance, impact, and purpose.

Today's guest is Tory Element who has co-authored a book with Jim Kukral called Rock Rain. This is Tory's first book and we discuss writing with a co-author. Tory is retired Air Force and has been working as a fitness trainer along with writing. One of his favorite book series: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AP9XIK0/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00AP9XIK0&linkCode=as2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=5f87620a8d4f3edfcd557928fa47ba0d https://toryelement.com/ Tory Element Home Page He also is a fan of Auntie's Books

In this new episode of The RevolutionFI Podcast, Tim and Jim Kukral discuss the possibility of business as usual during the pandemic. “So, the question is this: How can 50+ folks like us, honest and hard-working, how do we manage our current responsibilities and still plan for retirement? 401ks alone won't be enough and we don't have 40 years to save, so how do we leverage our experience and wisdom to gain financial independence? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Tim, and welcome to the Revolution. The RevolutionFI podcast.” Get The Solopreneur Formula™ worksheet for FREE by going to RevolutionFI.com - https://revolutionfi.com/ Join the community on Facebook - www.facebook.com/groups/revolutionfi/ Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothyjamesdesmond/ RevolutionFI Approved Tools: Aweber - https://bit.ly/aweberrevfi Trends - https://bit.ly/trendscosub Music: Cool Rock by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3552-cool-rock License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this new episode of The RevolutionFI Podcast, Tim and Jim Kukral discuss David Ogilvy and becoming unskippable. “So, the question is this: How can 50+ folks like us, honest and hard-working, how do we manage our current responsibilities and still plan for retirement? 401ks alone won't be enough and we don't have 40 years to save, so how do we leverage our experience and wisdom to gain financial independence? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Tim, and welcome to the Revolution. The RevolutionFI podcast.” LINKS: https://www.jimkukral.com/ Get The Solopreneur Formula™ worksheet for FREE by going to RevolutionFI.com - https://revolutionfi.com/ Join the community on Facebook - www.facebook.com/groups/revolutionfi/ Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothyjamesdesmond/ RevolutionFI Approved Tools: Aweber - https://bit.ly/aweberrevfi Trends - https://bit.ly/trendscosub Music: Cool Rock by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3552-cool-rock License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this new episode of The RevolutionFI Podcast, Tim and Jim Kukral discuss why an abundance mindset is important. “So, the question is this: How can 50+ folks like us, honest and hard-working, how do we manage our current responsibilities and still plan for retirement? 401ks alone won't be enough and we don't have 40 years to save, so how do we leverage our experience and wisdom to gain financial independence? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Tim, and welcome to the Revolution. The RevolutionFI podcast.” LINKS: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/659-abundance-mindset-to-find-success-in-new-abnormal/id794030859?i=1000498953818 Get The Solopreneur Formula™ worksheet for FREE by going to RevolutionFI.com - https://revolutionfi.com/ Join the community on Facebook - www.facebook.com/groups/revolutionfi/ Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothyjamesdesmond/ RevolutionFI Approved Tools: Aweber - https://bit.ly/aweberrevfi Trends - https://bit.ly/trendscosub Music: Cool Rock by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3552-cool-rock License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this new episode of The RevolutionFI Podcast, Tim and Jim Kukral examine Squarespace's new support for memberships. “So, the question is this: How can 50+ folks like us, honest and hard-working, how do we manage our current responsibilities and still plan for retirement? 401ks alone won't be enough and we don't have 40 years to save, so how do we leverage our experience and wisdom to gain financial independence? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Tim, and welcome to the Revolution. The RevolutionFI podcast.” LINKS: https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/16/squarespace-member-areas/ Get The Solopreneur Formula™ worksheet for FREE by going to RevolutionFI.com - https://revolutionfi.com/ Join the community on Facebook - www.facebook.com/groups/revolutionfi/ Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothyjamesdesmond/ RevolutionFI Approved Tools: Aweber - https://bit.ly/aweberrevfi Trends - https://bit.ly/trendscosub Music: Cool Rock by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3552-cool-rock License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this new episode of The RevolutionFI Podcast, Tim and Jim Kukral take a closer look at Google's updated plugin for Wordpress. “So, the question is this: How can 50+ folks like us, honest and hard-working, how do we manage our current responsibilities and still plan for retirement? 401ks alone won't be enough and we don't have 40 years to save, so how do we leverage our experience and wisdom to gain financial independence? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Tim, and welcome to the Revolution. The RevolutionFI podcast.” LINKS: https://blog.google/web-creators/tenor-text-sets-captions-web-stories-wordpress/ Get The Solopreneur Formula™ worksheet for FREE by going to RevolutionFI.com - https://revolutionfi.com/ Join the community on Facebook - www.facebook.com/groups/revolutionfi/ Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothyjamesdesmond/ RevolutionFI Approved Tools: Aweber - https://bit.ly/aweberrevfi Trends - https://bit.ly/trendscosub Music: Cool Rock by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3552-cool-rock License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this new episode of The RevolutionFI Podcast, Tim and Jim Kukral talk about when to find a partner or go it alone. “So, the question is this: How can 50+ folks like us, honest and hard-working, how do we manage our current responsibilities and still plan for retirement? 401ks alone won't be enough and we don't have 40 years to save, so how do we leverage our experience and wisdom to gain financial independence? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Tim, and welcome to the Revolution. The RevolutionFI podcast.” Get The Solopreneur Formula™ worksheet for FREE by going to RevolutionFI.com - https://revolutionfi.com/ Join the community on Facebook - www.facebook.com/groups/revolutionfi/ Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothyjamesdesmond/ RevolutionFI Approved Tools: Aweber - https://bit.ly/aweberrevfi Trends - https://bit.ly/trendscosub Music: Cool Rock by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3552-cool-rock License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This week Bryan is joined by Patrick O’Donnell’s and Jim Kukral! Bryan has a Book Description webinar this Thursday on the 5 mistakes authors most commonly make with their book descriptions, be sure to check that out. Check out Patrick’s website at the link provided. This week’s Super Charger Story Course Winner is Lisa M. Lilly. Thank you to our featured Patrons - Email Lists Made Easy for Writers and Bloggers, Kiss Kill, and The Sell Smarter Collection. Top Tips of the week include what to know about Kindle Daily Deals, how to find the perfect audiobook reader for you, and what Dave Chesson is sharing about Amazon categories. The 5 News stories that matter most to indies this week include how much writers can work and still be considered freelance, who is interested in buying Simon & Schuster, why Amazon’s Audible Escape subscription service is being discontinued, why 20BooksTo50K indie conference is being cancelled, and what strategies you can learn to keep yourself sane as an author. Question of the Week: What are you going to do to connect with the people that you want to connect with this year via the internet since there are no in person events?

Genre HoppingMost people don't enjoy watching only one kind of movie, eating one type of food, or wearing the same clothes every day. Okay, maybe Zach likes that last one, but either way, it's not uncommon for writers to want to explore writing in different genres. But should you?On this ‘landmark' episode, the guys discuss the pros and cons of genre hopping. Does it make sense to write in other genres, and if so, when? Genre hopping is one of the most debated topics in the indie publishing community. Join Zach and J. as they discuss and give their opinions on this controversial topic.The Career Author Podcast is a podcast where co-authors J. Thorn and Zach Bohannon share their struggles and successes as full-time authors, advice for improving your writing craft, and honest discussions of what it takes to build a successful career as an author.In this episode, you'll discover:The big questions to ask when deciding whether to hop genresHow genre hopping can prevent burnoutWhat you can do to scratch your creative itch without investing too much timeHow switching genres can hurt your pursuit to earning more money as an authorHow to decide whether writing in another genre is right for youAlso, Zach recommends a book from friend of the show, Jim Kukral.Send us your ways and hacks - https://thecareerauthor.com/waysandhacks/ Leave us a comment: Do you write in multiple genres or do you aspire to? What has been your experience, or what do you hope to accomplish?Thanks to all of our patrons! Podcast sponsored by Kobo Writing Life - https://writinglife.kobobooks.com Get exclusive bonus content by supporting The Career Author Podcast on Patreon at www.patreon.com/thecareerauthorWant to work with us? Get the details at https://thecareerauthor.com/services/Links:Unskippable® by Jim Kukral - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Q4YJ94QThe Career Author Podcast: Episode 85 - Using Pen Names - https://thecareerauthor.com/the-career-author-podcast-episode-85-using-pen-names/2021 Events - https://thecareerauthor.com/events/ Chapter Check service - https://chaptercheck.com/ The Career Author YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/thecareerauthorThree Story Method - https://books2read.com/threestorymethod Three Story Method Workbook - https://amzn.to/37SAR1a Molten Universe Media - http://www.moltenuniversemedia.com See acast.com/privacy for

Jim Kukral is no stranger to the authorpreneurial mindset. For decades, he repeatedly struggled to create a stand-out book or brand, and the pressure to become a self-sustaining writer only increased when children and a mortgage were thrown into the mix. Regardless, through his unerring drive and determination for success, he eventually found the foothold he deserved. Jim is a non-fiction author, entrepreneur, and online marketing expert. He is well-known for his inspirational life guide, Your Journey To Becoming Unskippable, and for his talent as a keynote speaker. Kukral’s latest publication, The Unskippable Handbook For Dealing with Jerks, Idiots, and Terrible People, is available now.From Amazon.com:Jim Kukral delivers insightful and entertaining content to growth-oriented organizations on attention-getting marketing, creative branding and understanding how customers think, react and most importantly, buy. With a passion for speaking and teaching, Jim travels around the world to teach brands and business owners on how they can apply his UNSKIPPABLE method to their marketing and brand mission to generate positive ROI-based outcomes and purposely attract lifetime customers. Whether you’re traditionally published or indie, writing a good book is only the first step in becoming a successful author. The days of just turning a manuscript into your editor and walking away are gone. If you want to succeed in today’s publishing world, you need to understand every aspect of the business - editing, formatting, marketing, contracts. It all starts with a good book, then the real work begins. Join international bestselling author J.D. Barker and indie powerhouse, J. Thorn, as they gain unique insight and valuable advice from the most prolific and accomplished authors in the business.In this episode, you’ll discover:What sparks a mindset shiftHow to get out of a dark periodHow to take the first step into self-employementThe importance of creating a brandHow to write to marketLinks:J. D. Barker - http://jdbarker.com/J. Thorn - https://theauthorlife.com/The Career Author Summit 2021 - https://thecareerauthor.com/summit2021/ Jim Kukral - https://www.jimkukral.com/Your Journey to Becoming Unskippable by Jim Kukral - https://books2read.com/BecomingUnskippableThe Unskippable Handbook For Dealing with Jerks, Idiots, and Terrible People by Jim Kukral - https://books2read.com/UnskippableHandbookMusic by Nicorus - https://cctrax.com/nicorus/dust-to-dust-ep Voice Over by Rick Ganley - http://www.nhpr.com and recorded at Mill Pond Studio - http://www.millpondstudio.comContact - https://writersinkpodcast.com/contact/ “Muggable” quote by Harley Christensen - https://www.mischievousmalamute.com/*Full disclosure: Some of the links are affiliate links. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Lillian Cauldwell interview with Jim Kukral on Marketing and Branding. Really a very helpful interview.Now more than ever your business needs to be “UNSKIPPABLE“ Jim Kukral is an Expert in online marketing and branding. Adjunct professor (10 years plus) University of San Fransico, Internet Marketing Online Program. Author of Marketing books, one of which is called “Be UnskippableWe want to help with the crisis we are in and that is why we will provide different ways to help in with your business. Let me know if you have ideas on this crisis we are all in. Sending Hugs and hope you are safe and well. Jeanne White, Station Manager Passionate World Talk Radio.

The more reviews you have, the more books you sell. And the more books you sell, the more reviews you get. The post How to Get More Book Reviews with Jim Kukral appeared first on Author Media.

Storytelling doesn't have to be complicated. In this episode, Mark chats with J. Thorn and Zach Bohannon about their new book THREE STORY METHOD which proves that storytelling can be straightforward. Bohannon and Thorn are successful co-authors, are the minds behind the Authors on a Train, Vampires of New Orleans, Sci-Fi Seattle, Night of the Writing Dead and Cleveland Rock Apocalypse writing retreats. They also launched their Career Author podcast in January 2018, the same week that the Stark Reflections Podcast was launched. Prior to the interview, Mark waxes poetic about the previous times J. and Zach were on the podcast, including episode 74, where Mark had shared details about how he had proposed to his girlfriend Liz on the 50th birthday during an Alicia Witt concert, with a song Alicia wrote for him to use for the occasion. He also shares a short clip from the chorus of the song. Mark then talks about working on getting a representative from Google Play Books to come on in a future episode, and reminds writers that it's easier than ever to create a direct Google Play account for publishing: New publishers can visit g.co/play/publish and create an account in just a few easy steps There's no longer an invite code or waiting period when setting up a new publisher account Mark also shares a word from this episode's sponsor, Findaway Voices... You can learn more about how you can get your work distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway. In their conversation, Mark, J., and Zach talk about: The origin of Three Story Method and how the process for it was developed over the course of publishing a dozen books together The importance of a having a process that can be used in a similar way for multiple different projects How the book is meant for getting from an idea to a first draft of a manuscript and should be all that a writer needs. There's no up-selling or courses associated with it The accompanying workbook that can either be downloaded for free or purchased for the lowest price they could set on Amazon for it Ongoing dedication to learning, and re-learning, and continuing to refine the craft of writing The importance of starting off with a good book before you even begin or consider heavy marketing The value of the community that comes from running a weekly podcast Why they value tight-knit, intimate groups when it comes to hosting author gatherings The experience of brainstorming a universe for an anthology in a room full of engaged authors J.'s ways and Zach's hacks (a bit they do on their own podcast) ....and more.... After the interview, Mark reflects on the importance of life-long learning of both the business and the craft of writing. He then shares how listeners have until the end of day March 31, 2020 to leave a comment on the show notes for Episode 123 at www.starkreflections.ca for a chance to win a free copy of Three Story Method and the accompanying workshop, courtesy of J. and Zach. Mark asks that commenters leave either a "Way" or a "Hack" that they've found useful for either the business or the craft of writing (in honour of the J.'s Ways and Zach's Hacks bit that the two regularly do on their own podcast. Mark also mentions that Patrons who support this podcast over at www.patreon.com/starkreflections are all automatically entered into a drawn to win the same prize. $1 / month patrons will be entered in for one chance. $3 /month patrons will be entered in twice. $5 / month patrons will be entered in 3 times.   Links of Interest: The Career Author Podcast Three Story Method Findaway Voices Episode 116 - Taking the Short Tack with Matty Dalrymple Episode 21 - Real World Connections in a Digital World with J. Thorn and Zach Bohannon Episode 74 - Perspectives on the Past, Present, and Future of Publishing (with J, Zach, Mark, Jim Kukral and T.W. Piperbrook) Alicia Witt Patreon for Stark Reflections   The music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Are you unskippable? Jim Kukral explains why you need to bring joy to customers, especially the way they shop. (Hint: People don't want to leave their homes anymore.) Welcome to Episode 293 of the Entrepreneurship Elevated Podcast!

In this episode, Content Marketing Institute’s Robert Rose explores how viewing the world (and work) through a lens of gratitude changes everything. Plus, he rounds up some of the best news you might have missed this year and shares highlights from some favorite interviews. And finally, he points you to inspiring content marketing examples to review while you’re trying to resist the temptation to do some online shopping. And that’s a wrap for the week ending November 29, 2019. NEWS ITEMS of the Week Human Activity in China and India Dominates the Greening of Earth, NASA Study Shows In Most Wholesome Facebook Post Ever, Thousands of Dog Lovers Describe Their Pups for a Blind Man You Can Now Get Directions From the Cookie Monster Thanks to Navigational App’s New Voice Option INTERVIEWS of the week Jim Kukral on “Unskippable” content Sydni Craig-Hart on empathy Jeff Fromm on the advantage of purpose Kathy Klotz-Guest on the permission to experiment Ann Handley on obsessing over quality Todd Henry on managing for creative productivity OUR CONTENT MARKETING IDEA of the WEEK Learn From the Best: 8 Inspiring Content Marketing Examples

How about a little Jim Kukral nostalgia? Episode 300 is so close! Bryan's back from 50 Books! Bryan has an Amazon Ads Makeover coming this Friday. Jim has BIG news at the end of the episode! This week’s Happy Books Review Winner is J. Thorn. Thank you to our featured Patrons: Prometheus Rising, The Unknown Devil, and Flotsam. The Top Tips of the week include why you may need MyNoise and not Noise cancelling headphones, what 38 free things you need according to Shaunta Grimes, and how to keep moving forward. This week's Honorable Mention goes to, why Instagram may be bringing poetry back. The 5 News stories that matter most to indies this week include why amazon is ordering fewer books, what is happening with ACX, why you may not want to get Klingon married, and how you may be able to have your own bookshop. Question of the Week: What's been your favorite Jim Kukral moment from Sell More Books Show history

What is an end... but a beginning? In this episode of Wake Up Call we explore the theme, “End.” Whether a TV series, job, or relationship -- most things come to an end. What do we do then? Find out what our community has to say. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is an end... but a beginning? In this episode of Wake Up Call we explore the theme, “End.” Whether a TV series, job, or relationship -- most things come to an end. What do we do then? Find out what our community has to say.

We all have a lot on our shoulders. But what happens when you're the primary breadwinner? Does that weight eat at ya? Make you nervous? Or does it pump you up because, he that's what mean are supposed do is carry the load. Take the stress off and give yourself a guy break, no guilt necessary as my buddy Jim Kukral and I explore the other side of a guy needing a guy break and some guy time, and why it's hard for men to find that guy they can have intimate conversations with about the challenges of life. About About JimJim Kukral is recognized as an expert in online marketing and branding. He delivers insightful and entertaining keynotes to growth-oriented organizations on attention-getting marketing, creative branding and understanding how customers think, react and most importantly, buy. Connect With Jim Website (https://www.jimkukral.com/) You can also listen to the podcast on… (https://apple.co/2Q4nnbt)   (https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/rick-clemons/forty-plus-real-men-real-talk)   (https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/40-plus-real-men-real-talk-854094)   (https://radiopublic.com/40-plus-real-men-real-talk-WoBlp5)   Hey Guys, Check This Out!Are you a guy who keeps struggling to do that thing? You know the thing you keep telling yourself and others you’re going to do, but never do? Then it’s time to get real and figure out why. Take the  Unapologetic Life Assessment - Click Here, (https://rickclemons.com/ul_lp/) and stop playing it safe. For a real, deep-dive, one-to-one coaching session where we make things happen to get you out of your own way, check out my "Your Next Move" Strategy Session.  Check it out - Click Here! (http://rickclemons.com/discovery-session) Break free of fears. Make bold moves. Live life without apologies P.S. get your free My Bold Life Manifesto, right here - (https://rickclemons.com/manifesto/)

Meet Jim Kukral, he travels around the world to teach brands and business owners on how they can apply his UNSKIPPABLE method to their marketing and brand mission to generate positive ROI-based outcomes and purposely attract lifetime customers. The post E5: Marketing Expert Jim Kukral Shares How to Stand Out In the Crowd appeared first on The Simple Life.

Meet Jim Kukral, he travels around the world to teach brands and business owners on how they can apply his UNSKIPPABLE method to their marketing and brand mission to generate positive ROI-based outcomes and purposely attract lifetime customers.

Discoverability is a true challenge for authors in today's publishing landscape. The Internet is a crowded place and it's getting increasingly difficult for authors to get their work seen. Jim Kukral is an Internet Marketing veteran who has helped companies like Fedex and Ernst & Young to understand how to use the Internet to grow their businesses. He is also a bestselling author of non-fiction books and an international professional speaker. On top of that, he is the co-host of the Sell More Book Show podcast. In this episode, he visits the Am Writing Fantasy podcast to discuss how to conquer the “visibility issue”.  Jim's most recent book, “Your Journey to Becoming Unskippable" can be found here: www.beunskippable.com  Tune in for new episodes EVERY single Monday. SUPPORT THE AM WRITING FANTASY PODCAST! Please tell a fellow author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review. Join us at www.patreon.com/AmWritingFantasy. For as little as a dollar a month, you'll get awesome rewards and keep the Am Writing Fantasy podcast going. Read the full transcript below. (Please note that it's automatically generated and while the AI is super cool, it isn't perfect. There may be misspellings or incorrect words on occasion). Narrator (2s): You're listening to the amwritingfantasy podcast. In today's publishing landscape, you can reach fans all over the world. Query letters are a thing of the past. You don't even need a literary agent. There is nothing standing in the way of making a living from writing join to best selling authors who have self published more than 20 books between them. Now onto the show with your hosts, Autumn Birt and Jesper Schmidt. Jesper (31s): Hello, I am Jesper and this is episode 38 of the amwritingfantasy podcast and we are going to talk about how to conquer the visibility issue in today's world. And the internet is a crowded place nowadays and it's getting increasingly difficult for authors to get their work seen. So today I actually brought on a guest who will help me understand how to navigate the issue of visibility. And that guest is Jim Kukral, who is also an internet marketing veteran who has helped companies like FedEx and Ernst and young to understand how to use the internet to grow their business. He's also a bestselling author of nonfiction books and an international professional speaker. On top of that. He also hosts the sell more books show podcast. So that was quite a bio there. Jay, welcome to the amwritingfantasy podcast. Jim (1m 24s): I am happy to be here. You have a wonderful podcast here and I've heard lots of great things about it and I know that's people who listened to it, so congratulations. Jesper (1m 32s): Oh, thank you very much. We actually only recently shifted onto a 100% podcast focus because beforehand we had the Brown, I primary source was actually YouTube videos and then we just sort of uploaded a podcast version of it, but recently we shifted it around. So it is now a podcast where we only just uploading a YouTube podcast so to speak. So, so that's great. I'm, I'm glad you liked it. Jim (2m 0s): I do. Jesper (2m 2s): Anything else? Uh, you could tell us about yourself other than what I just mentioned in the intro? Jim Jim (2m 8s): um, I'm uh, from Cleveland, Ohio and I have a family and I have been publishing content online for over 20 years before even blogs started. I started my first blog, uh, two months before nine 11. I am have written books before. They were called, you know, eBooks and just give you apps online. You know, so I've been doing this a long time. I am definitely not Seth Goden or Malcolm Gladwell, but I would like to be, uh, so, uh, I, I love, uh, producing content that helps people. Jesper (2m 47s): Yeah. And, uh, I'm also a regular listener of the sell more books show myself and I really liked that. So, uh, since this is also a podcast, I might be listeners who are not familiar with your other shoulder. So perhaps before we dive into today's topic, maybe you could just share a bit about what you and Brian are doing over on the sell more books. Show Jim (3m 6s): yeah, about five years ago, if you can believe it. I think it's five years. I'm bad at math. If you listen to the show, you'll see that we're bad at it. Jesper (3m 13s): Yeah, I know. Jim (3m 15s): We started a podcast called the sell more books show me and Brian Cohen and we did recorded the 282nd or 83rd episode yesterday. So we've done it once a week for all of these years. We're approaching our 300 episode and it's all about the news of what's happening in the world of publishing and self-publishing. It's really for indie authors of any genre who want to learn about the latest tools, tips, tactics, strategies involved in self publishing. It's a fast paced format, 35, 45 minutes show of news and tips where we offer a little bit of commentary. Jesper (3m 57s): Yeah, no, I, I re I really enjoyed also because you know, between you and the creative Penn podcast, you sort of get most of all the news you'd need. So you don't have to sit there and read tons of articles yourself. You can just sort of, you know, tune in once a week and listening to your podcast and then, uh, at least you sort of get the main picture of what's moving into publishing world. So that's, that's really good. Jim (4m 19s): Yeah, that's the point. The point is to quickly give the indie author the information they may not have found on their own and then just offer a little commentary as well on how to help them sell more books. That's the whole why of the show. Jesper (4m 36s): Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And the 300 or five years that, that's a ton of episodes that you have released. I was almost about to say $300. I don't know why that, that number popped up in my mind, but, uh, it's a lot of episodes you have guys have released every week. Uh, that must have been quite a journey. Jim (4m 56s): Yeah. You know, it's the longest podcast I've ever done. I've been doing podcasts before Heath Dube and you know, all kinds of stuff and this is the longest one I've ever participated in. The key to having a long podcast and doing it is just doing it consistently and having a consistent format. Um, if you're starting a podcast, definitely just have it be consistent every single week, release it at the same time and also have a very consistent format so that your listeners can get accustomed to it and used to listening to it. Jesper (5m 31s): Yeah, yeah, exactly. That, that's also something we've tried to be mindful of now that we shifted to a a hundred percent a podcast instead of YouTube videos too, to try to build in some consistency. And you know, regular sections so that indeed, as you say, people can get used to the format. So that's good. But, uh, we wanted to talk a bit because you just released a book, a Jim called your journey to become, and, uh, we wanted to, I guess, use status as a bit of a springboard into a conversation about visibility and perhaps how, I guess that's self published authors, worst enemy now nowadays. So, uh, I hope we can yeah. Get, get a bit around and look at this from different angles and so forth during our conversation here. Jim (6m 20s): Well, yeah, I mean it's, the book just came out this summer and I'm very proud of it. It's the best book I've ever written. And you know, I make the argument in the book that the world has become skippable. Um, VR is allow us to fast forward through the commercials. When you're watching a show on Netflix, the very first thing that pops up when the show is over is the little button in the bottom right corner. It says, skip to the next show. Uh, people can't wait five seconds to watch the next show, right? Uh, we become a skippable society. We, we have the technology to fast forward through the content that we want to consume and the content that we don't want to consume. And that comes all the way down to your brand as well. Um, it's not that attention spans are decreasing. We can still pay attention that the thing is we've just become really good at focusing and deciding what content we want to pay attention to. So in your brain, there's a thing called the reticular activating system and it's the little thing in your brain that decides what information you're going to pay attention to and what information you're going to skip. It's a a great example of if you were in a very crowded room with 300 people and your a brother or your spouse is at the other side of the room and they a yell your name, there's a reason you hear it, number one, you hear it because it's your name, your condition. Your brain is conditioned to be open to that sound. And it's coming from a familiar tone of voice of person that you are used to hearing and that's what your reticular activating system does. So I guess my point is that in this very skippable world that we're living in as authors, we have to find ways beyond just creating great content to get people to want to pay attention to us. Jesper (8m 26s): Yeah, and that's definitely the hotline. I also noticed, uh, I think the, you know, Netflix apps, uh, I think they are a bit different in different places of the world, but at least here in my part of the world, I noticed it, it's probably only like maybe two months ago. But, uh, whenever you start a show, normally they run this sort of, uh, what happened last time on blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, that sort of thing. And then, uh, about two months ago, this option appear every time on the screen. Now we can just click like a skip intro. So, so I think that goes very hand in hand with what you were just saying. You know, that we are very much skipping over everything nowadays and just want to get to the, to the main gist of things Jim (9m 6s): we do. And we, we, we want to skip things. We've become a society of people who literally are just so busy. Uh, and we just don't have, we have so many things being thrown at us more than ever. More adds more content, marketing, more books. Um, and our brains are looking for reasons to skip things. And as an author you have to find ways to become unskippable. Um, and that's what the book's about. Jesper (9m 38s): Yeah. And, and I, I think since you've written this book, I think I'm not going out on a limb in saying that, um, you probably share my view that, you know, discoverability in today's busy world is one of the most difficult things for us authors to deal with. But I'm curious what your view is on, on this topic, or maybe I should put a different, you know, since there was so much content on the internet, as you just said, and I guess in that way, consumer behavior has also changed quite significantly. Maybe over the last, I don't know, decade or so. But what is it that we need, we authors need to understand about the modern reader because I guess it's the readers that we are, we're sort of after here. Jim (10m 21s): The first thing you need to understand is that, uh, everyone's using their phone, right? So all you have to do is get on a bus or go to a waiting room or a doctor's waiting line or, or anywhere. And I want you to be very conscious of what people are doing when they are not distracted by anything. There was a report I wrote about my book that Microsoft did that said, when people said, when they're not distracted by anything, 77% of them picked up their phone as their first reaction. And they looked at, we spend an average of three hours a day looking at our phones, not talking on them, okay? They beans spend an average of nine hours a day looking at our phones. All right? So the first thing that an author needs to realize is that we are living in a mobile world and people are staring at their phones, uh, hours and hours and hours per day. So keep that in mind when you're thinking about how somebody might come across your book, they probably found it on a recommendation on Twitter or Facebook or they were browsing the Amazon app or Kobo app on their phone. And that kind of leads into the line of thinking then, well, does your cover pop? Does your title, uh, make sense? Does, um, does your cover look like the other covers in the science fiction or fantasy categories? Right. Cause people buy what they're used to. You know, if, if I'm a big, I'm a big science fiction, I'm a reader, you know, I'm looking for, I made that consciously be doing it, but I'm subconsciously looking for books that look like the other books that I liked. Does that make sense? Jesper (12m 22s): Yup. Yup. Absolutely. Jim (12m 23s): This is why the romance industry has what I call the shirtless Cowboys on it. Um, there's a reason there's a, you know, really six pack abs, a shirtless man on the front of 90% of all romance novels because that's what people are used to and that's what people want to buy. And that's what makes the books on skippable. So I cover to market strategy as long as uh, as well as a right to market strategy definitely helps make you unskippable. Jesper (12m 59s): Yeah, and I think, I mean that there's 100% true in, in what you're saying around the, you really need to hit young our expectations and that's both entitling covers because otherwise you'd just in a came, especially today. And, and maybe just to use the Netflix example again here for a second, because I also noticed, you know, sometimes my wife and I have your we might be watching the same series but on on at different times. So she might have it in her watch list and I have it in my watch list. But it's quite interesting when you then go into your watch list. The image that is displayed is different. So, so the same series, but the image that they show in the thumbnail for me is different than the one that show for her. It probably, because you know, they know why male and she's female. So they are showing us different things that they believe or they probably know through a statistical whatever that tha that that's something we like. More right. So, so, and I, I know I've heard you and a pen speak about this in the past as well, how she would love to be able to do different covers for different territories in the market. So, so there's something about that too, you know, that, that our culture also dictates some of what we like and don't like. Jim (14m 7s): Uh, yeah. I mean the companies like Netflix and Amazon especially are doing all kinds of, uh, testing. You know, Joanna is right. The AI part of this is becoming a big part of how it works behind the scenes. There are programs that are starting to be developed that will, uh, automatically right, uh, advertisements for you headlines. Interesting, right? So there's one coming out that I saw that will automatically do Facebook split ad testing for you and um, and it will write headlines. It will write copy right and it will run a massive amounts of ads and determine which one is highest click. I mean we're eventually going to reach the point where a program like that you could just hit a button and it will put in a budget and it will run ads and create them all for you and just return the results later and say, well this one performed at the highest level, um, all written by AI. Um, now we're not completely there yet, but it's definitely coming. Jesper (15m 18s): Hmm, that's interesting. And I wonder what they will charge for such a service, but that is certainly interesting. Jim (15m 25s): Well, they will charge for it for sure. Um, but the beautiful part about it is, is that it is run by an, you know, a computer. It's an AI. So you know, the, there is no human labor involved so hopefully the service will be cheaper. Here's the problem though, when if you make it cheap enough, you've got a lot of authors using it and then all of a sudden the AI is, you know, producing all of these ads for all these different, you know, if you get, you know, 10,000 science fiction authors using it, you know, then I'll, the marketplace gets flooded. You know, one of the reasons that, uh, if you find the time to learn how to do ads and learn how to market your book and put the time and effort and you could stand out, um, because you know, when you push that Boulder up over the Hill, you, you, you learn how to do it. You spent the time and effort and you spent the money and you could definitely a stand out above other authors. When the technology gets to the point where everyone can do it, uh, and the cost is low enough, then the playing field gets leveled a little bit. Jesper (16m 37s): Yeah. And that's both good and bad. I mean, it's good that everybody can, can get to play, so to speak. But on the other hand, I mean we, we've seen it at least also with Facebook ads or especially with a Amazon ads that, you know, the, if you really want to hit those top keywords, you have to pay a lot per click nowadays. So it's, it's just been almost become impossible unless you're like selling box sets and whatnot, so you can afford to spend more. But, uh, on a single book it's almost impossible to at least for the good clicks, you know, the high profile words. Very true. So that's, that's sort of the world we live in. Uh, and, and that all plays into why visibility is such a problem for us. But I think also, I quite liked how I picked up in the beginning of a your unskippable book where you are, you are sharing sort of your epiphany and you're, you're talking about how many defined success as being money. And basically we just talked about that too. You know, we, we, we just had the angle of how do we sell more books and, uh, I have also set before that, you know, getting rich might not be the best of success criteria is it's great if it happens, but it might not be the best to strive for. But, but that's sort of what I picked up in the beginning of your book a bit capita. But perhaps you can elaborate on your line of thinking. Jim (17m 57s): Yeah, I mean, uh, my book is a business inspirational book and I tell some personal stories in the book and one of the themes as you mentioned is, you know, why are we always shooting for as a human race, you know, how rich we can get and how successful we can get. Um, I personally personally believe that, you know, money being filthy rich and having a ton of money and losing my life because I spent so much time working to reach that goal is not the most appropriate thing for me. There are some people who that's what they're into. They want to have a lot of money and that's fine. That's totally fine. If that's what you want to do. Um, I will say this, you know, it's a short life and the dream of, you know, being the next, you know, Andy Weir and the Martian is is a great dream to have, but you know, are you going to, uh, spend so much time and so much effort going after that dream that you miss everything else happening in your life? Um, and so there's a lot in the book about, you know, just mindset and trying to be in the moment. You know, I think it comes from the fact that I'm in my late forties now, you know, I felt when I was younger and that's natural, but everybody goes through their own journey, especially authors, you know. However, I will say this, that you do need to have a business mindset when you are writing books. Uh, we talk about this on the summer book show all the time. Uh, the authors that are successful are the ones that, number one, right? A lot of books, a number to treat it as a business. You know, the romantic dream of writing your first novel and the publisher comes and sends a limousine with champagne and writes you a huge check and you know, then you're on, you know, the tonight show after like that doesn't exist. Uh, it's, it's a, it's a dream and the reality is, uh, the people who are having success are writing a lot of books and who are, who are doing all the cover to market and cover two and write to market strategies and who are, you know, learning how to do ads and who are learning how to turn it into a business. And that is the reality of the, uh, of the, uh, writing business today. Jesper (20m 25s): Yeah, 100%. Uh, I mean the days where you could just write something and put it up on Amazon and then, you know, here we go. Those days are long gone. So yeah, I fully agree. You have to be really professional in, in getting good cover design and of course not forgetting professional editing of the books and, and those things that any like professional publishing company would do anyway. Even though you're just one author with your one-man company, you still need to do all those things, otherwise it's certainly not going to be successful and, and well, that's especially where you become skippable instead of unskippable. Right. Because then it's just, ah, this was another pile of rubbish and people would just move on. Jim (21m 4s): Well, you know, I'm, I write nonfiction books. However, I just started a project with a fiction author. We're going to co-write a science fiction adventure book together, which should, yeah. And I announced it on the show this week. So, you know, this is going to be my first attempt at writing a fiction book and I'm not a very good fiction writer, so that's why I teamed up with somebody else. Am right. One of the things I'm very cognizant about is right to market strategy. Um, I read scifi books and I know what I like about scifi books and my, and I know what scifi book covers look like that sell well, I've done the research. Um, so one of the things I'm really worried about when writing the book is writing it to market writing putting the cover to market. So, um, I am, while writing it is going to be a fun thing to do. Uh, the reason I'm writing it is cause I want it to be successful. So I'm using it all of the knowledge and information I've learned over the years from fiction authors and doing the summer book show podcast to uh, make a really good attempt to try and write it like a business. And does that take some of the fun out of it? Yeah, it does. Right. Um, I'll give you an example. Uh, my coauthor and I were doing some character development and some of our first meetings the other day and the antagonist. Uh, you know, we needed like a, a good name for the antagonist and you know, I wanted to pivot and kind of give the antagonist kind of like a funny, uh, you know, light light name, you know, something, you know, really kind of, you know, against the grain. And my coauthor said our readers would hate us for that. Why that? Because they don't want, you know, you do a play on the name for the antagonist, they want it to sound evil. And so in my brain, I wanted, I wanted to do something that I thought would be fun, but then the marketplace would reject that. So I said, fine, let's keep it, you know, the trope that it currently is. And that's kind of a, that's kind of like a decision that I needed help to be made and I want the book to be successful more than I want to use some counter intuitive name. Does that make sense? Jesper (23m 33s): Yeah, completely. And, and, and I think it ties, we'll back to what we just talked about. You know, what, what the goal is. Because of course if, if one wants a book to be successful in terms monetary value, then obviously you need to play into to some degree at least to to the, to the market tropes and what we does I expecting and then you know, tweak it and twisted a bit so that it's not exactly what they've seen before. But at the same time they do recognize it. And I think when we're talking about, you know, a goal of monetary value then then I think a lot of this is also something that is something that we are just, uh, I don't want to use the word society, but we sort of brought up by thinking that you're only successful if you are a financial successful. And I like to think that, you know, we need to take a bit deeper. And actually I, I also find a quote here, I could just drop them from your own book here where it says being unskippable, it's about mindset and the specific actions you take to achieve your goals and dreams. So there's a lot of accountability in that quote and, and it's talking about your goals, meaning that you need to decide for yourself what you find successful. And that could of course be, I want to earn a lot of money from this book, but I still think that if you have something underneath the need to sell more books, it could be, for example, I want to sell a lot of books because I want to be free of my day job. I want to have more freedom or whatever. However you wanna phrase that, that is probably a better driver or what do you think? Jim (25m 6s): Yeah, I agree. Um, there's, you know, I think, you know, in America there are definitely, uh, different ways that people think about these things. You know, one of the things I wrote about in the book was, you know, these America Americans consider the sign of a stagnant career if you're only working 40 hours a week. Yeah. Jesper (25m 29s): Oh, Jesus. Jim (25m 32s): Which is kind of really where the state of mind, you know, we have people here working, you know, and then there was another thing I just read about how um, you know, 30% of Americans are working a job but then also trying to figure out some kind of side hustle job like driving an Uber am. So we are very work focused here and that's a rental thing. And I, and frankly I don't think it's healthy, um, but it is where we are the rest of the world, you know, does it seem to have that mindset? But nevertheless, that's where we are and everybody needs to make a decision of how they want to move forward with their life. Um, financial circumstances are a big driver of that. You know, people having to work multiple jobs to get by. I will say this, it's very important for you to set a goal and the goal should be, you can make it a financial goal because that's usually what sets people free from doing the things they want to do. So write down how much money that you need to make per year to replace your current financial situation and then break it down into months. So if it's $100,000 a year divided by 12 months, that's how much you need to bring in every single month. So you can finally break free and quit your job if that's what you want to do and replace it with writing income. But know this, the way you're going to get there is going to be a ton of hard work. It's going to be, instead of watching, uh, eight hours of a new show on Netflix, it's going to be, I'm going to write for eight hours instead. Uh, it's going to be, I'm not going to, uh, spend time on Facebook. I'm going to shut my phone off and I'm going to write for three hours instead. Um, it's, it's all about how high your pain level is and what you really want and uh, how bad you want it. And that's what's going to make the difference of you having success. Cause again, go look at the top authors in your genre right now. There are V I guarantee you there's very few of them that have just written one or two books. Of course they're going to outliers. The people who are making big time money and who are being very successful are writing lots and lots and lots of books, you know, and look, use publisher rocket and look to see who these people are and see how they're doing it and how they're doing cover to market and how, you know, find ways to write more books. If that means you have to come and find ways to collaborate with other authors, then you need to find a collaboration partner and start writing books. But that is the key right now. Jesper (28m 26s): Yeah, I agree. And, and of course there is a, there was a challenge embedded here as well because I asked you just said, uh, some people work several jobs in the U S just to get by on a, on a daily day, day to day basis. Right. So, so there is, for them at least the question also becomes, well, how can I write if I also need some, some money to live? So, so yeah, I guess that, well, the point about how bad do you want it still applies, but, but, uh, it, I, I just want to acknowledge that it, it's probably difficult for some people even though they would really want it. Jim (29m 1s): Is it really that difficult though? You know, I'll be the, I'll be the bad guy here. You know, I want you to examine how much time you spent on social media today. I want you to think about how much time you watched Netflix or Amazon prime or some show, right? So like, you gotta make a decision. How bad do you want to do this? How bad do you want this to happen? And examine the choices you're making in your life and decide and, and again, if you don't want it that bad, then that's fine. That's totally fine. Some people don't want it that bad. I have a friend who is probably one of the most talented writers I've ever met, and he could be writing sitcoms and comedy specials. He's the one of the funniest people I've ever met in my life. But he had zero interest in moving to Hollywood. And having a career in it. He just likes to do it for fun. And that's frustrating as all you know what for me, because to see that kind of talent not apply itself, but guess what? That's his decision. He has zero interest in, in using that to build a career and do that. And I had to learn how to deal with that. Uh, I have another friend who's one of the funniest people I've ever met in my life. He's Jim Carrey times 10. Am. Every time I meet him he makes me laugh so hard. I wanna pee my pants, but he is, he is so funny, but he has zero interest in starting a YouTube channel. He has zero interest in becoming a comedian. Um, it's just how some people are. You have to decide what you want to do and if, if that's what you truly want, if you truly want to be the next Mark Dawson or Joanna Penn, um, then you're going to have to go ahead and put the effort in to get there. And that's the sad truth of it. There is work involved. Jesper (30m 52s): Yeah. I mean, there is no shortcuts to success, no matter how you twist and turn it. You know, you'll have to put in the hours. Jim (30m 57s): Nobody wants to hear that. Jesper (31m 0s): No, no, maybe not. But at the end of the day, that's how it is. I mean, nobody got to the place where they are if they are successful by watching Netflix shows and the in the couch. Right. I mean, that's not how it works. Jim (31m 11s): Yeah. I know. And I hate to bring that stuff up because like I said, nobody wants to hear that. But it is the truth. Jesper (31m 19s): Yeah. Yeah, indeed. But I'm also wondering sort of if we're looking ahead Jim because, okay. Looking backwards for a second first maybe, you know, we came, I don't know what, maybe 10 years ago, you know more than this than I do because you were very much involved in the internet business like 10 15 years ago, but, but at least we came from a place where there wasn't as much content on the internet. Uh, of course you didn't have as many tools as you have today to, to help you to easily do things. But it at least you didn't have the crowded space on the internet back then. And then nowadays we S we are in a place where it is pretty crowded. If you're smart about it, you can still become visible. And we talked about some of those things that you could do already here in this episode, but if you're looking ahead Jim like, like I dunno, 10 years ahead of something, where do you think that the future of marketing is going on the internet? Jim (32m 16s): Well, I've seen all the shifts. I've been doing this for over 20 years. Um, technology plays a big part in it. Uh, you know, how, how people react. It always comes back down to one thing, which is authenticity, uh, and great content. Um, so, you know, there was a tie, we went through this shift where everything became automated. You know, everybody talking about chat bots and you know, automated sales funnels and those things are, those are good tactics and they still do work. But I think the biggest thing I want to point as this, you know, there's never been a greater time in the history of the world to build a brand and to get your name known and to sell a product or a book right. In that then right now there never has been and just because there's more competition doesn't mean that it's harder. It's actually easier than ever if you and I wanted to, right now it's like we wanted to meet in a room for the next seven days and write a book together. We could have a cover designs, we could write a book together, we can edit it, we can put it up on Amazon and you and I could then go on Facebook and Twitter and tick tock or wherever else, Instagram, and we put it out in front of millions of people with a click of a button and have the opportunity to sell that right away. Right. That is a game changer. Before the internet, before all these social media channels, it didn't have that you, you couldn't just instantly create a brand and a business overnight. You can do that now. Um, and that is a huge opportunity. That's still a lot of people. I just don't think, I think everyone takes it for granted how simple it is. I could develop a course. I could get off this podcast with you and go, you know what? They gave me a great idea for a course on how to help authors. I could sit in my office for the next 24 hours, create the course, put a website up for it, and start selling it a day later and making money. That's an opportunity. Um, it's just, again, how bad do you want to do it? But it all comes down to the core basic principles, which I write a lot. You know, there are two reasons people use the internet. Number one is to have a problem solved. And number two is to be entertained. Now, when you put that into the book conversation, uh, to be entertained as fiction and to have a problem solve this nonfiction. So when you start thinking about things in that term, all your, if you're writing fiction, you need to entertain people. If you're writing nonfiction, you need to solve problems for people. And that's just the basic core of business and how you approach writing as a business, solve problems for people or entertain them at the highest level and then just go out and start putting it out there. You don't have to be salesy, but you do have to go out there and be authentic. You know, um, authors that are really working on social media to share parts of their, their lives are authors that are telling stories and bringing in people. Uh, I would highly recommend that everybody do a Google search for something called 1000 true fans. Um, it is an amazing piece that was written years and years ago, probably 10 years ago now. And it basically makes the argument that any artist, whether it's a musician, a writer, uh, anyone who creates content or any type of business can survive and build a successful business off of 1000 true fans. Because if you have a thousand people who are true fans of you, you will sustain a career. Um, because a true fan is somebody who, uh, will drive four hours in a snow storm to come to your next book signing because they love you so much. On top of that, they will advocate for you and evangelize about you and create bog blog posts and do videos about you without you asking. Um, that's a person who will buy the, you know, six box set of your book, even though they've already bought all of your six individual books are ready because they just needed to have the box set. So if you can cultivate a true fan in today's world, then you can build an entire career off a thousand those thousand people. And that's the only way you're going to do that is build trust and be authentic with who you really are to your audience. And they will reward you for that. Um, if you are, uh, the days of being stand offish and known not answering your emails, I still get frustrated at this. Like there's some very big time authors who have come onto the scene in the last year and one of them I've been trying to reach for six months and I've tried Facebook, Twitter, email, uh, tried to go through networks to find phone numbers. This author is a complete ghost. They, they, they cannot be contacted. And you know what? I'm annoyed. I'm completely annoyed by it. You can't, you can't respond to me on Facebook. You can't, you can't send me an email back. You can't, you know, just say hello, right? I, I'm not asking you for anything. I wanted you to be on my podcast, but at least tell me know, you know, that annoys the heck out of me. I'm not gonna say who it is and their content of their book is great, but you know what? I have a bad taste in my mouth from that author and I, it's not somebody that I respect because they just can't even talk. I respond to every single email. I give people out. My cell phone numbers say texts me in my book, in the book I gave, here's my cell phone number, text me, tell me if you're enjoying the book. That's just how I operate. Jesper (38m 4s): Yeah. And, and the, and I think that is important. I think it's important to be approachable. And I also just want to acknowledge that a 1000 true fan, uh, input you gave there. If, uh, if the listener is looking for it, you can also go onto YouTube and actually just search for 1000 true fans. And there isn't, there's an interview with the, with the guy who wrote that article and I think indeed it is like 10 years ago, but it still holds so much true today and it's, it's really good. And it's funny because it was just sort of a thought that he had and he, he didn't know if it was true or not, but at the point when he says in the interview, when he wrote that article, it was more like, I think that it might be like this. And then he published that article and it just resonated so much with especially people in the creative community like authors and, and stuff like that. So, uh, so I, I really think that that is, uh, if you haven't seen that one yet, deal isn't it? And go and check that one out because it's really good. The other thing I was just thinking based on what you said Jim was, uh, I also think that we need to be careful not to always focus on the negative, right? I mean, probably like 10 years ago, people were complaining that, well, well there was also those people who thought that the internet would go away tomorrow affect them. But, but I guess there was also complaints about how, you know, you needed to know a lot of coding and it was not easy to make content on the internet and so forth. And as time went by, now it is actually pretty easy to, uh, produce content. But now people are now complaining that, well, what we're talking about here today, that discoverability is an issue. And I got, I don't know, in five years from now it'll be something else people are complaining about, but I think sometimes we, we also need to take a step back and just acknowledge what you said before Jim in the sense that it is a, it's a very good time to actually be selling books now and because we have all these tools, yes, maybe there is a discoverability issue, but it's also a matter of trying to find the opportunities and how to, how to stand out of the crowd, which is definitely not easy, but I mean it's still better than what it used to be in today's market. Jim (40m 12s): You like to go back? Let's go back in time. Okay. Let's go back in time to before Amazon, before the internet to be discovered, you had to go through a gatekeeper as a publisher or an agent and they had to determine if your content was worthy enough to be given to the masses. Okay. The select few who were chosen to have good content enough where then a distributed out to bookstores and popped about and New York times bestseller list and things like that. So a couple people in the entire world, we're controlling all of the content distributed to the rest of the world. Would you like to go back to that? Cause I wouldn't, there was an absolutely terrible time to be a content creator, to be an artist, to be somebody you had to spend 20, 30 years building a brand, creating content or would you rather have it now where everybody has an equal opportunity and I don't buy the argument that discoverability is harder than ever. You are just not using all of your best effort to get there. Um, there are, uh, there is the very easy ability to go out and learn how to use Amazon ads and create ads and start getting your book out and start selling immediately. There is a very ability to start using Facebook ads. There is a very easy ability to start your own podcast or create a video or create some type of content that will help people find your book. You just maybe just don't want to do it and that's because you are still in that romantic dream of that. I'm just going to write a book and everybody's just going to come and read it. But the world has changed. You have to treat this like a business, right? A lot of books, right? Covered a Mark, right? Right, right to market, covered a market, have amazing book descriptions. Make sure you price it the right way and for and here's really what you're asking me here. There is a lot of people who still are in the artist's mentality. Um, and the art mentality is I am doing this for the art of it and I just loved to do it and I'm upset that I have to treat this like a business. And unfortunately that's exactly what we're where we're at. If you do not want to treat writing books like a business, the odds that you are going to have success diminish by you know, 99% and again, people are like dang it Jim why are you telling me this? Well, it's just the truth and I think everyone listening to this knows that but sometimes they need to hear it again. Jesper (42m 55s): Yeah. We were back to the fact that you have to put in the work right at the end of the day that that's what it is. Jim (43m 1s): Very preachy thing by me. I wasn't my intention to do this at all. Jesper (43m 9s): No, but, but uh, at the end of the day it is true. Right? I mean, and I, I certainly think that there is an, I'm also speaking to myself here. I mean making like visibility, your worst enemy is also something that you choose to do. I mean we can focus differently. We could try to focus on, okay, maybe my covers are actually not sugar specific enough. Maybe my titles is not selling what this younger is to do. Rita, maybe I didn't do enough editing or I skipped something along the process there. And then, yeah, of course you do suffer discoverability consequences of those choices. But on the other hand, things are so easy today with, with, with online stuff. Did you, you can still go back and change it and it doesn't, it doesn't require too much. Like you don't have to go to your major publishing company and say, can you please take change my cover? And then they tell you no, and you can just do it first. So maybe we need to focus on the post attention Jim (44m 5s): that came out almost 10 years ago was published through Wiley as my only traditionally published book. And, uh, I didn't like the cover that they did for me. Of course they wouldn't let me do my own cover. Um, I didn't like the title of the book. Um, that ultimately they decided, um, I didn't like any of it and I would like to go back now if I had the rights to it and redo the book with the cover and the title, but I can't do it because they own it. Right. So, you know, that's, you know, that's a problem for me and which is why I self published now because, uh, I just want to have that control. I want to be able to change. Like if I, you know, book cover designs change, you know, there's two years from now we might be seeing a totally different trend of covers might be more illustrated covers in a specific genre. We don't know. You need to be. Jesper (44m 56s): Hmm. Yup. Exactly. And uh, I can also see that we're coming up on time here. Am GM. So I want to make sure to thank you very much for that. You took the time out to come and talk to me here today and uh, maybe you can share, where do you prefer people to pick up your book from if they interested? Is that just Amazon or how do I do about that? Jim (45m 19s): You get a copy of, I will say this, the um, people who were the arc readers of the book, we're all authors and I have gotten since 84 positive reviews of the book in about less than two months. So if you are an author and you're thinking, this book is not for you, you would be wrong because all of my arc readers were authors in fiction, authors and nonfiction authors and they really enjoyed the book. So if you go to be unskippable.com that just takes you to my website, it's much easier to spell than my name. So be unskippable.com you can find my book there and check it out. I think you'll really enjoy it. I think it'll will inspire you. Jesper (46m 3s): Excellent. I'll put the link in the show notes as well. So, uh, for you listeners out there, if you're interested, just check out the show notes and click through debt and you don't even have to make a note if you're out on the move at as you listening to this. So, uh, thanks you. Thank you very much. Jim for for talking to me today. And um, and thank you for your focus on motivating people on a daily basis. I know you guys do that over on the sell more books show as well. So I think we need more people like you. Jim (46m 31s): Well, I think we need more people like you who will consistently produce content in a great format and continue to do shows like this. So thank you so much for doing the show and thank you so much for having me on. Jesper (46m 44s): All right. Thank you very much. And uh, thank you for tuning in again this weekend, your listener, and uh, yeah, just come back next weekend. Make sure to subscribe if you haven't done so already. Narrator (46m 58s): If you like what you just heard, there's a few things you can do to support the amwritingfantasy podcast. Please tell a fellow author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review. You can also join autumn and Yesper on patrion.com/amwritingfantasy for as little as a dollar a month. You'll get awesome rewards and keep the amwritingfantasy podcast going. Stay safe out there and see you next Monday.

Jim Kukral is recognized as an expert in online marketing and branding. He delivers insightful and entertaining keynotes on attention-getting marketing, creative branding and understanding how customers think, react and most importantly, buy.

J Thorn is a top 100 author in Horror, Sci-Fi, Action and Adventure and Fantasy. He’s one of the lead hosts of The Career Author Podcast, alongside Zach Bohannon, and the Writer’s Well podcast, alongside Rachel Herron, as well as a certified StoryGrid editor, writing coach, a part-time radio host and musician. J is the indie king of collaboration, and now co-runs his publishing company, Molten Universe Media, alongside Zach. Through this company they publish post-apocalyptic fiction, and host events which have taken budding authors all across America. 2020 will also see their first writer’s conference as they take over the Sell More Book Show summit from indie superstars Jim Kukral and Bryan Cohen, and host the first ever Career Author Summit in Nashville.In this episode we go deep into:J Thorn & Zach Bohannon’s 'Three Story Method'How to perfect your writing processHow to systematise your life to increase productivityChoosing a collaborator and levelling up your fictionThe changing attitudes of collaborationPros and cons of organising events for writersTaking over the Sell More Books ShowPursuing traditional publishing at ThrillerFestChoosing the right projects and managing opportunity costsHow best to divide your time as a full-time authorJ answers questions from Patrons:Jon Cronshaw: What's the value of podcasting? Do you find it's better for engaging readers or as a tool for networking and expanding author services?Ian J Middleton: Any advice for writing horror in a series?Jon Cronshaw: What tips do you have for marketing to am audience (such as post-apocalyptic) who just want to be left alone and have no interest in engaging with authors?Find out more about J Thorn:The Author LifeMolten Universe MediaLinks from the show:Three Story MethodAristotle’s ‘Poetics'R.L Stine’s MasterclassSpecial thanks to:Intro vocals: Persephone RoseShow theme: Karl HughesBecome a Patron of the show! Get exclusive bonus content, find your tribe, and get early access to all episodes.Thank you to my patrons:David HinesHarley ChristensenJon CronshawJenn MitchellInnes RichensIan J Middleton See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What if people's attention spans AREN'T really just 9 seconds? What if it is YOUR fault people aren't reading your content, listening to your podcast or opening your email? What if you could become "unskippable" like some of the coolest ads you've ever seen? This week's conversation is with the one and only Jim Kukral, author of the page-turning book Unskippable. It's a helpful read, and this conversation will help you with some practical insights you can use to make yourself more interesting, more unskippable, and less a part of the noise in the world. More from Jum Kukral: Buy Becoming Unskippable. Visit Jim Kukral's website for more insights and articles. 

Is it really worth it attending author conventions and events? And if it is, how can you ensure to get results from it? What is you would like to organize your own convention or event? What do you need to consider and are there financial risks to take into account? Zach Bohannon & J. Thorn from The Career Author podcast (http://thecareerauthor.com/) are sharing their experiences. New episodes EVERY single Monday. To subscribe on YouTube, go here: http://bit.ly/1WIwIVC PATREON! Many bonus perks for those who become a patrons. https://www.patreon.com/AmWritingFantasy LET'S CONNECT! Closed Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/AmWritingFantasy/  Blog and Courses: https://www.amwritingfantasy.com/  Jesper on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SchmidtJesper  Autumn on Twitter: https://twitter.com/weifarer  Read the full transcript below. (Please note that it's automatically generated and while the AI is super cool, it isn't perfect. There may be misspellings or incorrect words on occasion). Jesper (0s): Have you ever wondered if it's worth going to writing events and is it worth your money and is it really worth your time and what if you are sort of further along in your career and then you won't be speculating about is it worth creating some of my own events? That's what we're going to talk about here today. If you're fantasy author then you've come to the right place. My name is Jesper and together with Autumn we've published more than 20 books and it is our aim to help you in your writing and marketing endeavors. Jesper (36s): So today I have been joined by somebody else. Then the, actually it's the guys from the Korea author podcast. I listened to their podcast every week and I will let her put the link in the description field below for our podcast so that you could go and listen to if you want. But the reason that I wanted them on here to cover this topic is because I know that they have talked about it before because, and they also have both of their perspectives on this thing, so they both joint conventions by themselves. As a participant, but they have also an art creating events for other authors themselves. Jesper (1m 10s): So we want it to try to cover both angles here and they're welcome to, uh, the amwritingfantasy, uh, channel. Uh, Jameson. J. Thorn (1m 19s): Yeah, thanks. That's for, we're really happy to be here. Thanks for having us. Jesper (1m 23s): Thanks a lot. And, uh, well I guess we can sort of just jump right into it. I know you guys have participated, if we start with sort of the participation angle, and I know you guys have gone to different events just as participants where you have not been new organized so a bit, but I wonder if you could sort of share a bit about is. Is it worth the time and the money that it takes to go to these events? And if you do go to these events, how should, could you go about it to make sure that you actually get anything out of it? Because, uh, it, it is at least, I think quite a both expension of time, but, but also as S introvert authors, maybe it's not the coolest thing that we can think of. Jesper (2m 1s): Is it worth it? J. Thorn (2m 3s): Yeah, I think it's totally worth it. I can say that without hesitation. Uh, I'm thinking back on some of the live events I've done more recently. So I've done, I did the indie author lab that was put on by publishers weekly. Uh, last year I did podcast movement I think in 2016, 2017 which sort of like a big convention. Uh, I did a story grid certified training and a and a story grid weekend with Shawn Coyne last year and a couple of years ago. J. Thorn (2m 34s): Uh, so yeah, participation I think is really important in those and. And I think what's most important is that it's not necessarily what you think you're going to get. It's going to be what happens when you're there that you can't plan for. You can't anticipate things like conversations with other authors over a cup of coffee that leads to a further discussion that leads to a possible project or you know, you meet someone who happens to know somebody else and it's a good connection way. And I, I hesitate to use the term networking cause especially for introverts that makes our skin crawl. J. Thorn (3m 6s): It's got sort of this really dirty connotation, but, um, it really isn't, it's not networking in the, in the sleazy internet marketers sense. It's more about making connections with other people and, and really allowing yourself to be in the moment and to absorb what's happening. Certainly the speakers and the content is important and I think people will probably only sign up for events that they believe are going to help further their career. Um, but I don't think that's the main reason for going to a live event. J. Thorn (3m 36s): I really believe it's the interaction with the other participants, possibly the people who are putting on the event and then all the potential that comes from that. And even if I don't meet someone and I don't have a very, uh, concrete outcome from that meeting, there's always a skill or a strategy or a new way of looking at things that, that comes out of those events that doesn't happen for me online. Jesper (3m 59s): Yeah. No. And I know, especially from what you've shared in the past, us facilitated that you get quite exhausted from Merde, sir, you said in person events or things. So how do you go about it? You know, if you, uh, if you are like an author who are very introverted and don't really like seeing other people, do you sort of mentally pitch yourself up to, okay, I need to talk to a few people today are, how are you doing? J. Thorn (4m 25s): Yeah, that's a great question. And uh, I mean it is, it's a very broad generalization that, that creatives are introverts. Not all creatives are introverts, but I anecdotally, in my experience, I've found most of the writers I deal with are introverted or towards the introversion scale of, of the Myers Briggs and and. There's really sort of two ways, uh, an introvert can approach a live event to make it more manageable. The first one is exactly yes for what you, what you mentioned, which is to kind of set a little game of buy it for yourself and just say, okay, today at this event I'm going to talk to at least two people. J. Thorn (4m 59s): I don't know. I'm going to introduce myself to two people or one person. Like it doesn't matter the number, right? It's that you are your creating a little incentive for yourself that will put you in the right mindset and sort of open, um, you know, you're sort of opening your mind to, to meeting other people. But then on the flip side, it's really important to both at the event and after the event to have time to decompress. And I think this is where introverts really have to do this for themselves because it's not usually built into the events. J. Thorn (5m 31s): You need time within the day of the event to go and sit by yourself for 30 minutes or go read a book or go journal or just go and not talk to anybody like you. That has to be built into the day. And then I think it's also good and I think this applies to for extroverts as well. Once you get home from the event, you need time to decompress as well. I think it's really hard to just kind of jump right back into your, into your daily grind. You need time to, you need time to recharge and get some of that energy back. J. Thorn (6m 2s): Because for introverts, being in those crowded environments is not impossible. And it's not that we hate it and that's a misconception. It's just very draining on your energy and you need to, you need to be able to wait to do that and not sort of at a secondary level. I think it's really important both leading up to during and after the event that you are paying very close attention to your biological needs, making sure you're getting enough sleep, your eating properly, you're exercising if possible, because there's a tendency at these events to kind of go off the rails and eat and drink and, and, and you know, and do things that you wouldn't do at home. J. Thorn (6m 37s): I call it living like a teenager. And so if you're not a teenager that, you know, that's gonna take its toll too. It's, I think all of that taking that sort of comprehensive approach can really make not only an experience great, but make the least amount of disruption in your day. Zack (6m 52s): I'll also add real quick, like, I mean I'm definitely JL straight up, call me an extrovert. I don't know if I'd go that far. I mean I definitely have introvert tendencies, but um, I'm definitely more extroverted than he is in a lot of other authors and but to me, one thing I've noticed being at these events though too is that, you know, this, it's not the same thing as going to like a cocktail party or like a work Christmas party or something. I mean, there's a lot of other people in the room who are Waikiki and I think that knowing that comfort and that you're not the only introvert, most of the room is going to be introverted from what I've seen. Zack (7m 25s): I think that really helps open up people talk. And I know with our bigger events, specifically our conferences, you know, we try to, uh, you know, we, we do like the round tables where people were kind of forced to sit together, but it's not like there's never really been any kind of uncomfortable thing for me. Then we have our genre at dinners where people put together by the genre. So like we're kind of encouraging people to kind of break out a little bit, but not in like a funky like, uh, you know, speed dating type of way or something like that. But it's like really uncomfortable, you know? Zack (7m 56s): So that's just kinda my perspective from being a little less introverted, much less introverting I should say. Jesper (8m 1s): Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think from my own experience when I've been to sort of conferences or events or stuff like that is it's not as hard to strike up the conversation as one might think in a way you just sitting at the table and as long as you're sort of smiling and are open to people, then usually you can start talking. But where I think it's a bit difficult and where I'm curious, what would you guys say about this? Because the aftermath of it, you know? Okay, so you've gone home, you talk to five people, but how and why should you get in contact with them again? Jesper (8m 32s): That that part is a bit mysterious mystical to be, you know, how are you supposed to do that? I mean, okay, I can just find a, send an email to somebody. Hey, it was great seeing you at that event. But that's it's a bit, yeah, I dunno. I think that's J. Thorn (8m 45s): a good first step. And a lot of times you don't really know how or when or if that's going to happen. Uh, I remember I went to podcast podcast movement when it was in Chicago. Brian Cohen up from somewhere book show and he's very outgoing and extroverted and he had no problem walking up and talking to a lot of people. And and I think that was good for me and I, and I think if you are, if you tend to be more introverted and you have a more of an extroverted buddy you can bring with you, I think you can play off each other's strengths in that way. J. Thorn (9m 16s): And so I was able to kind of kind of tag along with Brian and then like I was really good at sort of looking at all of the offerings and saying, okay, well why don't we look at this one and sort of thinking about this one. And that was not something Brian was like really good at. So we kind of, we kind of balanced that out. And then what I did was when I came home, of all the people I met, I did exactly what you said. I sent an email and just say, Hey, it was really nice to meet you, a podcast movement. Um, if you, if there's anything I can ever help you with, just reach out. J. Thorn (9m 48s): And I kind of gave myself permission to leave it at that and I thought, you know, I'm going to do that. It's sort of a, it's courteous, it's kind and um, if something's meant to come from that, I'll hear back from them. And some people, I didn't, some people I didn't and and you just never know. I think the big thing that we always preach is that if you start a relationship by giving as opposed to asking, it's always, it's always better that way. So even, even the following up with a thank you from a live event, I think if you're just saying, Hey, thanks a lot. J. Thorn (10m 19s): If I, if there's any thing I can ever do for you, just let me know and then leave it at that. I think, um, that's, that's a good way to approach it. Not feeling that pressure to sort of work all those contacts that you just, you know, you just got all, all those business cards, you collect it. I don't, I don't think you necessarily have to have to force yourself to, you know, make connections with those people that aren't a natural. Jesper (10m 41s): Is there any specific events that is spread? You mean, I'm going to hook you up on the spot here, so it's okay if you don't know, but, but I'm just thinking that some of the people who are watching this video and, or listening to this podcast might be people who are also pursuing my traditional publishing wrapped. So are there, in your view, certain places that are better than other, if anybody wants to walk over there? J. Thorn (11m 5s): No, it's perfect timing because as we're recording this, I'm about three weeks away from heading to New York city for thriller Fest for the first time. Uh, so I, I think, uh, you know, if your listeners are not familiar, thriller Fest is the annual gathering for the thriller writers and that's where they have all their awards and there's Pitchfest and agents are there. In fact, I'm going to pitch fast, I'm going to be pitching a project to am to several agents. And I think every sort of a top level genre has that annual gathering. J. Thorn (11m 36s): Like for the horror writers association, they have Stoker con, uh, waa, waa has a big gathering. Uh, the, uh, science fiction and fantasy writers of America have an annual gathering. So I think if you are looking for, you know, an agent or if you're more interested in sort of the traditional publishing world, those, those, those are the events that you want to attend. And those are the big ones. And, uh, and, and they're, they're somewhat affordable. Like they're not, they're not out of reach. I think for, you know, a few hundred dollars per ticket. J. Thorn (12m 8s): Uh, you can, you can go to any one of those. And, uh, and I think that that would be a great way for people to get to know what, what that industry is like. Jesper (12m 17s): So I guess we can conclude, conclude that it's definitely worth going to these events and you need to put a bit of your extrovert hat on and then go through wasn't and try to build a bit of relations but, but I'm wondering then if we sort of jump into the time machine he say then we fast forward a couple of years and now the people listening or watching the video, they have sort of grown a certain pattern to a certain level in their career and they're starting to thinking, okay, maybe it would be cool to actually organize some events on my own and thus maybe use it as something that supplementary income to my book selling or whatever it may be. Jesper (12m 53s): Maybe it would be worth if you guys just spend like a minute of talking a bit about what you guys are doing and who you, so just to set the scene a bit for talking about what kind of events you are renting and how you're going about it and what you're thinking about and so forth. Zack (13m 8s): Yeah, we, uh, the, the whole thing started kind of funny for us. I mean it really came out of, we ended up doing a authors on a train is kind of our like a event that responded and that came out of us going on a train trip with Lindsay broker and Joanna Penn and spending a week writing and a VALIC. We went, rode on a train plan to book out and it's been a week in new Orleans, Louisiana. I'm writing a whole novella together and you know, J and I were sitting outside one night, uh, having, having a burger before went to a concert while we were in new Orleans and we just kind were like, man, I'm like, why couldn't we do this with other people? Zack (13m 48s): This is like a really cool niche event type of thing that really we didn't, we don't see anyone else doing stuff like this. Like you see people doing writer's retreats from, they'll go like rent a cabin every, want to work on their own stuff. And um, you know, you see the conferences and stuff, but you really don't see these like smaller, really unique things. Like who else was taking people on a train? And then my, you know, the really weird thing and that's really what started it. And it's spa, you know, it kind of snowballed into the smaller, like the world, the world building type advanced or we'll go and we'll pick a unique place and go build a world out together. Zack (14m 24s): Um, and then of course we're stood in authors on a train and we have our bigger conferences as well, which is the career author summit, uh, formerly the somewhere bookshelves summit. Um, so yeah, that's, that's kinda the, the main stuff that we have going on and we can obviously as conversation goes down deeper in each one of those. J. Thorn (14m 39s): Yeah, I would add to that there's sort of an intermediary step for someone who's, who's thinking about this. And, and I, I think it's very, uh, this was really good. I think it's really great to be thinking about diversifying your revenue streams as an author. I would ha, I would highly encourage people who feel like either organizing or putting on one of these events sounds like something that like to do. I think that you should definitely do it. Am don't listen to that. The, there's too many or there's too many people doing it. I don't buy into that. Um, I think there's always room for more voices, new voices, new experiences. J. Thorn (15m 12s): But I think between being at an attendee and then, uh, running our hosting, there's this other space that I would recommend people explore, which is start, uh, talking or offering to speak at other events that you're not running. I think it's really important to not only refine your public speaking skills and your ability to present because as you know with a podcast, whether you're on a podcast or on a stage, you are performing, it's a performance. And it, and it takes a certain level of skill and practice. J. Thorn (15m 43s): It's not the same as having a casual conversation with somebody. So I think you need to practice getting in front of people. And the way I did it is I started offering to do talks for fruit for my local library system. And I would go in and I would hold these little workshops and I would do these talks. And I did that for years. And uh, and I was a classroom teacher before that, so I had sort of the presentation mode refined. But doing those presentations sort of gave me the understanding of, okay, number one, what do people want? And number two, if that's what they want, how can I provide it? J. Thorn (16m 13s): Or how can I find someone who can provide it? So I think there is this middle ground where you, you really have to kind of find tune your chops. And one of the ways you can do that, going back to our previous point is you could reach out to people who are organizing events and offer to speak for free and say, Hey, I'm, I'm getting, you know, experience and speaking. I love your event on, uh, you know, I've been following you. I would love to S I would love to present for free to your audience if that's okay with you. And you know, some people are going to ignore you and some people won't. But I think getting your feet wet and really getting experience presenting, especially on a stage live in front of people would be really important before you kind of go all the way to that point where you're going to be the organizer of the event. Zack (16m 54s): I think another, I think another step you could even take is not think this is kinda gonna depend on where you live. Um, but I almost feel like running some kind of really small event locally could be really good. And even if you don't charge anything, you know, go rent a room at like a local coworking space or something. And obviously you know, you, if you're probably gonna want to be in a city where there's like gonna be a lot of writers that could come, but there's a whole other level of complexity of planning event and risk when you're talking about go like, you know, and for instance, in September we're going to Seattle and we live in Cleveland and Nashville and Seattle is a like fi five or six hour plane ride for each of us. Zack (17m 34s): So like to plan an event in Seattle and not live there is like, there's a lot of complexity around that and you know, J and I both have a background playing music and I know me personally, I know he has some, like I used to plan like a festival on stuff. Like I'm a small music festival and so like I have some event planning background and um, and I mean there's a lot of little logistical things that you may not think about whenever you're playing an event. And you know, we're still learning as we go and learn along the way. Zack (18m 4s): But I think that doing something locally small, maybe you get, try to get 10, 15 people or something to come show up and you do like a lecture type thing. Or maybe you guys do like a world building, I don't know like, but I think that can kind of help you start to see kind of the logistics of putting something together and getting people to show up as well, which is kind of a step ahead of like having a library organized, something you showed up in speaking, which I also think that's a great, great way to get started on that too. Jesper (18m 30s): Yeah. And it is a great point around getting a bit of practice with people or speaking in front of people because even for an introvert is certainly doable, but, but you sort of need to to get used to it a bit and then you can, uh, you can make yourself do it, so to speak almost. But, but I want, I mean I, and I think it's a good point too, to sort of work your way up to it and, and do some of those smaller events for four. I started if that's what you want to go, but, but at the same time I also know that it's pretty important for you guys that the event doesn't grow too big. Jesper (19m 2s): So I'm wondering how do you balance this side of, okay, you, you're of, you'll have some costs into it because you have to rent a place and probably get some food and drink and whatnot. And then at the same time, if you don't have enough people come in, then I guess either you can have a very, very high ticket price, which I don't think you guys are doing either, unless I'm mistaken. Or you can have a ton of people at a lower price, but what but how do you balance it out? Because if you're doing, I mean if you're just doing it for fun, then it's fine. But if you're doing as a sort of supplementary income, then you need to learn a bit from it. Jesper (19m 35s): Right? So what are your thoughts on that? J. Thorn (19m 38s): Yeah, I think it's really important to be completely transparent and honest and say that anytime you're organizing an event, you're taking a risk, uh, financially, mostly financially, but you're, you're risking your reputation as well. I mean, I, I don't think we're at this point anymore, but I remember we had conversations of like, what if we went, if we roll out an event and no one shows up or no one's interested like that, you know, there's a cost that's involved there. Um, and at a certain point, but, but more importantly, you know, the, the events, you know, for, for authors on the train, we're renting a mansion in San Francisco. J. Thorn (20m 14s): Well, we had to put 50% down on that before we put up the landing page. And for the career author summit, we had to secure the, the, the conference center before we put the landing page up. And, you know, so part of that is you need some savings. You need to have some money set aside that you're willing to risk. I mean you can mitigate your risk, but at the end of the day, anytime you're putting money up before you're selling tickets, you are taking risks. So I think it's important to recognize that. And uh, and we've been, we've been willing to do that. J. Thorn (20m 44s): And you know, we've been successful. We haven't lost a ton of money doing and we've made money in most cases, but you do need to have many willing to sort of put up and to secure those. As far as the event themselves are concerned. Our wheel house, our specialty is really these small sort of intimate gab world-building gathering since. So authors on a train and am PSI Phi Seattle and vampires in new Orleans, these are events, we're really taking a dozen people. J. Thorn (21m 14s): So we know that we don't need to have, you know, $100 in Facebook ads. Are they running to drive traffic to that landing page? Cause cause we're, we're going to sell them out. It's only 12 people and we charge enough that we're going to make some money, but it's not so exorbitant that people can't afford it. So that's sort of the, the one style of event that we really like doing. The career author summit, we kind of kind of fell into our lap. Um, it wasn't something we had planned on doing. Uh, summer book show, Bryan Cohen decided he didn't want to do that summit any longer and we had such positive energy momentum for that event. J. Thorn (21m 47s): We didn't just want to let it go and so Zach and I went to Jim Kukral and said, all right, well Brian doesn't want to want to do this anymore. And it was all good. In fact, Brian is going to be speaking at the career author summit, but we said, what if we continue it? We'll rebrand it as the career author but we made a very hard, definitive decision, very public decision and said, we're not growing it. It's at 120, 115 hundred 120 years about the match. Yeah, that's about the number of seats we're going to sell. And we're not growing it past that. I will not sell out those sell out. We could, we could buy, you know, we're, we're very close to having that sold out now and it's 11 months away, so it's not, and that's not a slight against events that grow larger become larger. J. Thorn (22m 29s): But we find in our own experience that, uh, once you go above 115, 120 people, it's, it starts to feel more like a trade show and less like a conference or a workshop. And that's just not what we do. We, we'd like to be able to walk around and interact with everyone. We like people to have the opportunity to meet all the other people there. And once you go North of one 25, it's hard to do that, Zack (22m 51s): I think. I think going back to kind of swing back to your original question too, is, you know, it's, it's very risky and J will tell you like what we kind of laugh because we joke that when we're coming up with these things, J always starts with yes. And I always start with no. So J comes to me with the super ambitious ideas and I'm always like, no, no, we've got to pare it down. And we ended up somewhere in the middle and it really works out. But I think that not getting too ambitious and trying to knock it out of the park so hard the first time when, if, when you're not really sure what all the costs are going to be in stuff, uh, it's, it's really important. Zack (23m 26s): So don't, you know, you obviously want to put on a good event, but you know, that doesn't necessarily mean you have to take all your attendees to the fanciest restaurant and have the fanciest venue. And we've made that mistake. I mean, we, we had, uh, one of our events, you know, we, uh, we're going to try to make it a little bit bigger and we rented a bigger type of, who ran a whole theater, you know, and, uh, we, we did a lot of different things and that event, as awesome as it wasn't as fun as we ended up having on it, uh, ended up losing money for us. So, and it's because we kind of went, we got too ambitious and we learned a lot from that though and and realized, you know, we, we'd rather deliver these really cool experiences. Zack (24m 5s): The problem was is that we were trying to get more people than we really should have and we really realized then like for our smaller well billing events like 15 people, max is kind of like that's really worse. Sweet spot is. And with that, you know, we can still make enough money to like be at the rock and roll hall of Famer at the Mo pop museum and see like we could still do really or rent a mansion. You know, we could still do this really cool stuff and still have room for us to make money as well. Jesper (24m 33s): One element is around the venue that you are reserving are paying for, but the other part is also how what type of event you're running. And by that I mean if you're running something like, like you're talking about here, like a willpower thing event where it doesn't take much prep in the way that, okay, maybe have some initial idea for a world that people then come to the UN and and basically the work is done, they're in the oven. But if you have more like a presentation type of event, either you would need to run the same presentations every time so that you don't have to prep too much or you what because if you do want to create a new presentation every time at the end of the day that his time away from writing and unless you are really earning money on that event, if you're just covering your cost or earning $1,000, you know, my question would be is that really worth it? J. Thorn (25m 26s): I I think that's a very legitimate question. I think the answer is going to be really dependent on on the individual situation Zach and I need to make enough money to make it worth our while. We sort of, we know between us what that is and that that's got to cover our own costs of, of getting there. The cost of not writing during that time, I think, I think that's an an another cost factors into it. And I think it depends on the event. So if you're talking about something like the career author summit, preparing to present at that, a lot of the work comes ahead of time and then you present and it's kind of over. J. Thorn (25m 59s): But world-building is kind of the opposite of that. So there's not a ton that we do leading up to it. But then once it's over, we published an anthology and Zach's right now is going through all the stuff from, from rocket park in Cleveland and that's, that's a full on anthology publication, revision, editing. It's a lot of work. So you know, and like that's, that's work that we're not quote unquote getting paid for. That was part of the ticket for the event. So that's just stuff that we're obligated to do that we enjoy doing. So I think it really, it really comes down to the person as far as like what type of event do you want, do you want to put on, what do you hope to get out of it and, and what sort of resources do you have to spend on it? J. Thorn (26m 40s): And that's both time and money. Zack (26m 41s): And I think too, I think, I think it is important to mention too that there's two of us, which are best, not obvious, but for people who don't know, you know, we do these events together, but we also write fiction together. So even when our fiction production doesn't necessarily have to stop you because J might go do be working on a presentation, but I might be working on our fiction. So I do think that's important to bring up cause, but that's not to say that one person's still couldn't manage this stuff on their own and still run their fiction business and do events. There's nothing that says that by any means. Zack (27m 12s): But, uh, I just think that's important to bring up for this conversation to those. Jesper (27m 16s): Yeah, true. Yeah. And I certainly don't think that this is anything, you know, the, the starting out author should really worry about or try to do. But even if you're not collaborating with somebody else, you know, if you're a bit further down your career path, you might have a virtual assistant who can help booking stuff and whatnot. So, so Zack (27m 34s): of course you're probably gonna need some help to do an event. There was no doubt. Yeah. Depending on the size and scope, what you're trying to do that you're probably gonna need some help. But like you said, you can definitely hire people out to help you or stuff. So Jesper (27m 47s): is there anything else we should cover around organizing events to say anything that I should have asked you that I do? J. Thorn (27m 56s): I mean, as far as organizing an event goes, I think it, you know, really the big takeaway, what Zach mentioned is is if you're, if you're really interested, do something very small and local for free. And that's the best way to get a feel for a lot of this. Everything from logistics to, uh, the type of people you want there to, the presentations or the workshops that you want to do. And maybe depending on where you live and who's near you, you can just invite a few of your friends and just say, Hey, come for free. You know, let's all do this together. J. Thorn (28m 26s): I'll, I'll sort of run it and I'd love to just get your feedback on it. And I think starting small and starting locally is probably the best way to do it. Because the last thing you want to do is to, is to think planning something like the career author summit sounds awesome. And you'd love to do that. And then you start to do it and realize it's not something you enjoy or it's, or it's something that you don't want to spend time on and then you're kind of stuck. So I think if you start small, then you're going to have a much better, uh, you'll have much, uh, a much better idea for yourself as to what, whether you can do something more grandiose in the future. Jesper (28m 60s): I think that's very good advices. And, uh, it's all, it's always good to get some advice to somebody who has actually done it, you know, rather than people speculate to be good on that. So I very much appreciate that. Sure, absolutely. I did mention the Korea author podcast in the beginning and I will put a link to that. So if you're watching on YouTube, it's going to be right below this video. And if you're on the podcast, just go to the show notes, but is there anything else, guys you want to mention where people can find your, or is this just the curiosity podcast you want to point people? Zack (29m 31s): Yeah, I mean, everything's over@thecareerauthor.com you can get the podcast there. Uh, if all our events are there. So if you're interested in attending one of our events, um, you know, we're, right now, we are, uh, all our 2019 stuff. Well, the only thing we have left to by Seattle, it's sold out. Our 2020 stuff is almost sold out. So, um, we, we have the career author summit in Nashville, Tennessee. That's a in may of 2020. We've got some great speakers will be there. We've got Joanna Penn, Lindsay broker, Brian Cohen, Jim Kukral, Mark Leslie, the fade, a honorary quarter. Zack (30m 7s): We've got some really good speakers lined up for that. Um, and we're getting really close to being sold out for that as of this recording. I don't know what it would be when you guys, when you air, but we're, I think we have like maybe 12, 15, 20 tickets, 15 tickets. Um, so we've got that going on. We have a authors on a train, California dream and is what we're calling that am. So we'll be taking a trip, we'll be taking a train from Los Angeles, California to San Francisco, uh, with a group of authors. And we will be doing, we'll be staying in a mansion for a few days and we're gonna build out an anthology together, write stories, collaborate. Zack (30m 43s): That's a collaboration event. Um, that has like one or two tickets available as of right now. Um, and then we also have vampires of new Orleans, which, uh, will be taking place Halloween weekend, which if anyone who's never been in new Orleans, that's like a the best time to go to new Orleans. The weather's really good. Um, and, and there's so much cool stuff that happens there during Halloween and, uh, we're going to be doing, we got some really cool stuff lined up. We're gonna be doing more. We're there, but then we're going to be writing vampire stories, publishing anthology. Um, and that is, we don't have any treats left for that either. Zack (31m 15s): I don't think so. And again, yeah, so this is all for 20, 20, so you can check all that stuff out. I mean, if you're someone, again who's interested in may rain events, you can, it's got all the stuff there. You can kind of see what we're doing and um, you know, maybe, maybe that will spark some ideas for you as well. So yeah, but everything's at the career author.com Jesper (31m 33s): yeah, and I don't take just anybody within this, a fantasy author audience here who doesn't like vampires. The only thing you need is you. You're missing the dragons, so you need to put them out there. We'll get there eventually. One a 21 maybe we'll come closer where you live and I will get a castle somewhere and dragons. Yeah, exactly. All right. Thanks a lot for coming onto amwritingfantasy guys. I appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you for having us. We appreciate it. All right, and to your opt in, see you next Monday.

Publisher Jim Kukral from Author Marketing Club wants you to create a non-fiction book to solve a problem, or a fiction book to entertain. Jim lays out a scenario where he targeted a big group to solve a problem with a clear title, as in, "Social Media Marketing for Real Estate Agents." In the book, he explained what business owners should do, and provided a free 15-minute phone consultation in the back of the book to close clients.

Chris Jones and Kayla Dawn Thomas discuss the best podcasts for writers and authors from fiction writing-focused podcasts to general creativity, entrepreneurship, social media, marketing and leadership.  Fiction Podcasts The Creative Penn iTunes | Android Host Joanna Penn offers information, inspiration and interviews on writing, self-publishing, book marketing and making a living with your writing.   Self-Publishing Podcast (Explicit) iTunes | Website These guys put a whole new spin on the self-publishing world! You'll get everything related to getting your writing published ... and making money doing it ... in today's new DIY digital publishing frontier.   Sell More Books Show iTunes | Android Gives the news in the self-publishing world.  Jim Kukral and Bryan Cohen give you helpful tips and ideas to make your book sales soar.   Rocking Self Publishing  iTunes | Website Podcast interview authors who have made it in the self-publishing world. The interview provide actionable advice and inspiration for those who want to self publish.   General Creativity Magic Lessons with Elizabeth Gilbert iTunes | Android A companion to her book "Big Magic” this podcast helps another batch of aspiring artists overcome their fears and create more joyfully.   Entrepreneurial Podcasts EntreLeadership (Inspiration)  iTunes | Android EntreLeadership Podcast features discussions and tips on leadership and business by some of the top minds in the business, like Mark Cuban, Seth Godin, Jim Collins and Simon Sinek.   The Cardone Zone (Sales) iTunes | Android Grant Cardone pulls no punches when it comes to a no-nonsense sales-focused podcast. You'll learn how become a better sales person and the value of creating streams of revenue around your products. Not for the faint of heart and does have some language.   EOFire (Entrepreneur Inspiration) iTunes | Android John Lee Dumas talks to entrepreneurs from every walk of life about how they started, what their biggest failures were, and how they overcame them.   Kate's Take (Business Building) iTunes | Android Kate Erickson is a systems and processes kind of girl. You your writing business need structure and foundation, she's your girl. Her Fire Path series is perfect for the writer who isn't fully sure where the fit in the marketplace and that needs a self-paced discovery pep talk.   Online Marketing Made Easy w/ Amy Porterfield (Social Media) iTunes | Android Amy rocks when to comes to the digital world, monetizing social media marketing and blogging in particular. With her, you'll learn about creating lead magnets and courses around your products, creating editorial calendars for posting your content on your blog or social media, and how to grow your audience with Facebook Groups and Live, Instagram, and others.    ProBlogger (Blogging) iTunes | Android Darren Rowse has been in the blogging game since 2005. His podcast focuses on turning you into a power blogger who can earn income using your blog as your mothership.   The Portfolio Life (Writing-Life Balance) iTunes | Android Jeff Goins hosts this podcast about how writers can get head, grow their businesses, and stay balances while doing it. He features guest interviews, tips, strategies and thought provoking shows that help every writer keep the portfolio of their life in perfect balance.     If we missed a great podcast that you love and would like to add to our list, comment below. If you question specifically for me you email me at chris@readywritelaunch.com. I'm also on Twitter at chrisjonesink. And you can find Kayla at kayla@kayladawnthomas.com or on Twitter at kayladawnwrites.

  In this episode, Chris interviews Jim Kukral, one of the leading experts in online book marketing and founder of the Author Marketing Club. Jim and Chris debate the pros and cons of getting your book noticed in today's crowded marketplace and Jim shares his one smarty pants marketing tip that authors cannot do without. Show Notes: In today's show Jim shares his background in online marketing and shares his take on how book marketing has changed with the advent of self-publishing, Amazon, and social media. Also, you'll hear Jim's tips on the essential every newbie needs to start effectively market their books. Jim and Chris talk about how many social media channels authors need to be on and how to claim your digital land.  Hear the details of how The Author Marketing Club started and what kinds of services it offers. And finally, Jim shares his one tip that all authors need to sell their books--you'll have to listen to find out. Links for today's show: Author Marketing Club: http://www.authormarketingclub.com/ Sell More Books Show: http://sellmorebooksshow.com/ Click here for Jim Kukral's Amazon Author Page Click here for details on how to participate in the June Kickoff Contest and win great prizes for sharing the podcast with your friends - #SmartyPantsPodcast 

In this episode I interview Jim Kukral Founder Of Sproutar And Author Of What Is Personal Branding. Jim's been building web businesses for 18 years and teaches us the importance of problem solving.

While every author has heard the age old advice that it's important to have a professional looking and beautiful cover that appeals to the target audience, not as much attention has been paid to the blurb, description or "sales copy" that helps inspire the potential reader to click that all important BUY button. This interview with Bryan Cohen, author of the TED SAVES THE WORLD series, podcast host and man for all seasons includes an in-depth look at the importance of a strong and solid blurb. Also included are two different amazing prizes for writers. Contest 1 -- Win one of three carefully crafted book description services valued at $149 USD. Giveaway ends Sept 31, 2015. ENTER HERE Contest 2 -- $1000 Copywriting for Authors Giveaway. Giveaway Ends October 9, 2015 - ENTER HERE   Bryan is interviewed by Kobo Writing Life Director Mark Lefebvre. During their chat Mark and Bryan discuss: The great work that Bryan and Jim Kukral do putting together the SELL MORE BOOKS SHOW podcast and how that keeps Bryan on top of things for his own writing The non-fiction works that Bryan has written to help prompt writers to get started, which include the first one that Bryan wrote in 2010 (1000 Creative Writing Prompts), and how these books are still often among his best-selling titles How, if Bryan himself is ever stuck doing his own fiction writing, he can often turn to his own prompts Bryan's site Build-creative-writing-ideas.com which has about 700 articles and sees significant traffic on a daily basis How writing something timeless will ensure its long term viability and sales Bryan's YA podcast co-hosted with Robert Scanlon about reading and writing called The Split The work that Bryan does writing "sales copy" blurbs for writers (BEST PAGE FORWARD) -- and how the demand for those services has recently exploded How a solid writing blurb can work as effectively as a good cover at helping convert those looking at your book's landing page into buyers THE CONTEST BY WHICH a KWL LISTENER CAN RECEIVE A FREE BOOK BLURB FROM BRYAN How Bryan is looking into also helping writers with drafting email campaigns for auto-responders, helping with Facebook ad copy, author bios and similar communications The importance of priorities when it comes to maintaining a balanced life while producing as much content as Bryan produces Knowing your own strengths and weakeness for performing different types of tasks at certain times of the day and what makes Bryan a fantastic husband (he may love his readers, but he loves his wife more) How TED SAVES THE WORLD came from watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and asking the question: "What if Giles and Buffy were the same person? (ie, combining the intelligence & wisdom with the power and ability)" When Bryan, who used to do improv comedy, changed himself from a "panster" to a "plotter" while developing TED SAVES THE WORLD from a novella into a full novel and series. And the seeming contradiction in how Bryan often feels like he is "pantsing" in the discovery process of plotting out a novel. The replacement of the original terrible cover and the local photo shoot with actor friends that helped Bryan to produce a well-branded and consistent series. http://robotbraindesign.com/ Bryan also shares his favourite advice for beginning writers   Mark then provides a quick summary of some of the advice and examples regarding a strong professional product as gleaned from the interview and then provides further details about the aforemention contests.   Other links: Bryan's website Bryan on Twitter Bryan's TED SAVES THE WORLD BOOKS on Kobo Bryan's non-fiction writing on Kobo Sell More Books Show Podcast

Kobo and Kobo Writing Life have long been known for being open, social and collaborative. And this episode of the Kobo Writing Life podcast is no exception. In fact, to start 2015 off on the right foot, we thought it would be useful, in our ongoing communication with authors regarding the importance of making your work available on multiple platforms, and not just on Kindle, to help with that. This episode contains a collection of tips curated from the Author Marketing Podcast by Author Marketing Institute founder Jim Kukral covering tips and things you might not know about publishing a book to Kobo, Nook (Barnes & Noble), iBooks (Apple) and Google Play. Kobo Writing Life Director Mark Lefebvre sets up the various clips from Jim's fantastic podcast. The tips that Jim shares are from the following original podcasts 7 Things You Didn't Know About Publishing A Book on Google Play 1) The Play Store is popular 2) You can post your book for free 3) It has Permafree benefits 4) There's less competition 5) It takes patience 6) Keywords matter 7) For some authors it's #1 or #2 Read the full blog post with details or listen to the Author Marketing Podcast 6 Things You Didn't Know About Publishing A Book on Apple iBooks 1) Apple is the #2 US eBook retailer 2) You need a MAC or a 3rd party to publish 3) More readers have iBooks access 4) Content is curated 5) You need to show your support 6) There are features you can't find on Amazon Read the full blog post with details or listen to the Author Marketing Podcast 6 Things You Didn't Know About Publishing A Book on Nook Press 1) Nook is on the decline 2) Indie authors dominate the bestseller list 3) You need to pay attention to format 4) Support has a bad reputation 5) Connections with merchandisers are key 6) It's still #2 for many authors Read the full blog post with details or listen to the Author Marketing Podcast 5 Important Things To KNow About Publishing A Digital Book on Kobo 1) It has an international focus 2) Kobo took over for SONY 3) You can schedule promos ahead of time 4) There's a page for Free Book Promos 5) Success requires networking Read the full blog post with details or listen to the Author Marketing Podcast   There's also discussion about the Author Marketing Live events as well as other great resources from AMI, including: Author Marketing Academy Author Marketing Club    

Welcome to The Horror Writers Podcast. Join J. Thorn and Richard Brown as they discuss writing and publishing horror using strategies that work for all genres. A new podcast is posted every Monday.   http://thehorrorwriterspodcast.com   Email us: thehorrorwriterspodcast@gmail.com Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/horrorwpodcast Like on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehorrorwriterspodcast

Jim is a 16-year Internet marketing professional who was recently named by Dun & Bradstreet as one of The Most Influential Small Business People on Twitter. Jim also serves as a Program Faculty Member for the University of San Francisco's Internet Marketing Program where he teaches classes to students around the globe on the topics of Internet marketing, entrepreneurship and social media. In addition, SmallBizTrends.com chose Jim as one of 100 top small business influencers online. You can find out more about Jim, or pick up a copy of one of his books at his website, JimKukral.com.

Welcome to episode #325 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast. I first heard about Jim Kukral when my friend, Chris Brogan (co-author with Julien Smith of Trust Agents and the soon-to-be-released business book, The Impact Equation) would not stop talking about the book, Attention! This Book Will Make You Money. I tend to shy away from books that claim to help people get rich from the Internet. On top of that, the rest of Kukral's digital content felt like it was slipping into the the "get rich quick" type of affiliate marketing that just isn't my cup of tea. A while after that, Hugh McGuire (PressBooks and author of Book: A Futurist's Manifesto) was telling me that Kukral was using his PressBooks platform to publish all kinds of business books. I finally met Kural in person at Content Marketing World earlier month, and he explained that he's now in the business of helping people publish their own books. His knowledge is second-to-none and he's a smart individual passionate about helping people - like me and you - to write and publish our own books. Enjoy the conversation... Here it is: Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast - Episode #325 - Host: Mitch Joel. Running time: 37:04. Please send in questions, comments, suggestions - mitch@twistimage.com. Hello from Beautiful Montreal. Subscribe over at iTunes. Please visit and leave comments on the Blog - Six Pixels of Separation. Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook. or you can connect on LinkedIn. ...or on twitter.  Six Pixels of Separation the book is now available. CTRL ALT DEL is coming in Spring 2013. In conversation with Jim Kukral. Digital Book Launch. Attention! This Book Will Make You Money. Follow Jim on Twitter. This week's music: David Usher 'St. Lawrence River'. Get David's song for free here: Artists For Amnesty. Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast - Episode #325 - Host: Mitch Joel. Tags: advertising podcast attention this book will make you money blog blogging book a futurists manifesto brand business book chris brogan content marketing world david usher digital book launch digital marketing facebook hugh mcguire itunes jim kukral julien smith marketing marketing blogger marketing podcast online social network podcast podcasting pressbooks social media the impact equation trust agents