The Most Important Thing to Do Before You Die.

This is going to sound morbid, but..

Have you ever pictured yourself laying on your deathbed?

Surrounded by your loved ones, reflecting back on your life…

What do you need to accomplish in your life, so that when you’re laying there you can be like:

“I’m good, I left it all on the court, I squeezed all the juice out of the fruit. I can die peacefully”.

One thing that will make me feel that way is to have taken all of the wisdom that I have gained that has made my life better..

And leave it all behind so that other people can benefit from it.

So that they don’t have to go through the same challenges I did.

I want to put every valuable thing I’ve learned into a book.

I want my great great grandkids to read those books, and anyone else who wants an easier and more enjoyable journey through life. 

Books are the one form of content that has stood the test of time. They’ve been around for thousands of years.

If you feel like you’ve learned something that—if everyone could learn it—the world would be a better place..

You have the opportunity—while you are alive—to take that story and lesson, and make it eternal by putting it in a book.

Writing a book also:

• Is the best way to package your message so it has the ability to reach the widest audience possible.
• Gives you authority you didn’t have before. 
• Makes people assume you know your stuff. (Which, to write a book that changes the world, you must)

As a reader, books have improved my life more than anything else. Most of the big leaps in my personal growth are linked to a book.

Wisdom communicated via a book sinks in the deepest.

If you have a business to grow or a mission to spread, you get even more benefit from a book.

The book acts like a little soldier.

You don’t have to preach your message as much anymore. You can preach about your book instead, and let your book preach the message. This is easier and more effective.

But Isn’t Writing a Book HARD?

If you like the idea of having a book, but not so much the idea of writing a book, let’s talk about what the process looks like.

Many people haven’t written a book because they assume it’s a ton of work. The bulk of the work is the manuscript. There are tricks to make it easier. Once you get it done, the rest is simple.

Susie is a client of mine, working on a book about narcissistic abuse. It’s her first book ever. She started with doubts about her credibility. She wasn’t sure if she was good at writing.

But, she did it anyway. Her mission is important enough, and she’s the type of person who believes she can accomplish anything she puts her mind to.

She’s nearly done with her manuscript and in the “downhill” phase, where things get easy and fun.

Amazon controls 50-80% of the book market in the U.S. To publish on Amazon, you need two files:

1. Manuscript
2. Book Cover

Pay someone a few hundred bucks to make you a nice cover. Write the manuscript yourself and work with an editor to smooth it out. Or, hire a writing coach to help you with the manuscript. If your message is important, this is an investment worth making.

You can also do it all yourself. That’s what I did when I wrote Fire Yourself, my first book about real estate investing. I just winged it. I edited it myself.

I did hire a cover designer and someone to format the manuscript into the right size. I spent $600 total.

That book brought in 90K in coaching client revenue within 12 months after being published. I don’t know how to do the math, but that’s a damn good ROI.

Many people will say:

“So, I just put it on Amazon, then?

Wouldn’t that be self-publishing?

Isn’t self-publishing sorta for losers?

I feel like I should wait until I can get a publishing deal…”

The publishing industry is changing. Self-publishing is more common. See this list and this list for examples of bestselling authors who earn millions of dollars—while self-publishing all their books.

Publishing companies want you to already have a readership before they will take a risk on you. It’s similar in the music industry. If you have 300K Youtube subs, you might get signed. Otherwise, you gotta grind it out on your own.

If I had a big following online, I could get a publishing deal. Since I don’t, I self publish and do the marketing myself. That’s what the publisher helps you with. Marketing. The reach they have is starting to pale in comparison to the reach you can build yourself if you know how to use social media.

If you decide to wait for a publishing deal, you might wait the rest of your life.

If you are a content creator already, you might write newsletters (like this one) for your email list or blog. Let's assume they are 1,000 words each. By the time you have written 20 (20,000 words) you can make them into a book. A 20,000 word book is around 75 pages, which, in my opinion, is kinda the minimum if you’re going to call it a book.

This is how to take work you do already and get more leverage.

Leave Your Legacy

One cool thing about smartphones is that we can document our lives with the camera. When we get old, we will have way more content to look back at than generations before us.

But, if I could ask for something to help me remember my great grandparents, I wouldn’t ask for pictures or videos. I would ask for a book, written by them. A book that went deep into their life story, how they felt, what they learned, etc.

That would help me know them on a whole new level.

You have the chance to write that book that generations of your family can read until the end of time. But only while you’re alive.

Leave your legacy.

Make a difference in the world,

Shit, make some passive income from book royalties while you’re at it.

It’s all waiting for you if you write a book.

If you want to write a book that will grow your brand or bring you clients, see how we could work together in my 1:1 program—​Get Clients With a Book​.

Here’s to you leaving your mark,

Brian