Lisa Pezik On The Right Balance Between Course Creation And Launching A Book 

In the world of marketing, one of the best ways to maximize profitability when releasing a book is through course creation. It allows you not only to connect with your readers on a deeper level but also to dissect your knowledge into easy-to-digest ideas. But many authors are misled by their desire to simply earn money in this regard, and thus are doomed to fail in both ventures. Sharing the right strategies in intertwining book authorship and offering courses with Robin Colucci is Lisa Pezik, a business strategist, speaker, and top international Amazon best-selling author. She explains how to properly approach three kinds of audience groups when providing a book-course combo, the importance of allowing your genuine self to reflect in your offers, and the right way to price such an intangible item without sacrificing your own worth. 

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Lisa Pezik On The Right Balance Between Course Creation And Launching A Book 

I have with me, our guest, Lisa Pezik. She is a business strategist, a number one international Amazon bestselling author, a worldwide speaker, and an RN who helps experts develop and promote their online businesses. She studied under the world’s best, such as Brendon Burchard, Bo Eason and Roger Love. Audiences say Lisa has fiery inspiration, contagious energy and to–the–point strategies. Lisa and her husband, Eric, and their teams specialize in done for you services with branding, content creation, funnels and websites with their agency, Infinite Design House. They also offer SEO, help with writing blogs, social media and lead generation with their Sales Booster Program. 

In this episode, Lisa and I are going to be talking about this intertwined relationship between becoming an author, developing, promoting and selling online courses. There are a couple of things that are relevant here to pay attention to. One is that it’s such an essential piece of maximizing the profitability of your book. Secondly, there can be a lot of questions that I hear very often from people that I speak with who are thinking about writing a book around, “What comes first, the course or the book? How do you know it’s the right time to do either or both?” Lisa and I are going to explore some of those questions. I invite you to sit back, tune in and enjoy. 

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What I would love to explore with you is you do online course development and launch. I have been a cheerleader of, advocate for and a practitioner of utilizing book content in conjunction with building an online course. This is something that is a tremendously powerful leverage strategy. I would be super grateful if we could talk about course creation through this lens of optimizing your experience and profitability as an author. 

I love that because you always want to have that next step for people. I was an ICU nurse before I got into being an entrepreneur. That was the one thing that my mentor drilled into me was before you do anything, you’ve got to know what the next step is. You’ve got to know what to expect to see. You’ve got to know what you want to happen and if that doesn’t, you go, “Why did that happen? Redirect.” I feel that a course is a really next step for that person who comes in. They read your book, they love the content. Where it gets a little awry is where everybody wants to take them 100 steps ahead, instead of that right next step. With a course, it’s very detail–oriented. They come in looking like this and by the end of their course, they look, feel, have, be, do this. 

A membership, you can flow and take them on a journey and month-to-month you’re teaching them. A course has a very defined outcome. Sometimes people will say, “I have seven concepts in my book. I’m going to create a seven–module course.” I’m like, “Is that too much dang information? Could that be seven courses on their own?” I know very early in my career, I was like a fire hose. People were like, “I love your information but give me a second to breathe. It’s too much. You want me to lose weight, make money, have a killer relationship and have better sex. You want to fix all my problems.” 

I want to pause and insert some insight because what you’re saying is so important for authors to know. If there’s one tendency that authors have, it’s to try to over-deliver. There’s this feeling and internal pressure that if I’m going to offer, I’ve got to give them everything. I’ve got to give them all my best. You’re saying something quite different. 

It’s like if you had this goal that you wanted to run a marathon, you go and you hire a running coach. On the very first day, they’re like, “Lace your shoes up and let’s go out and run 26.2.” You’re like, “You’re trying to kill me. I can’t go with that pace.” If you’re an author and you put out a book, you’ve mastered something, you have a process and you’ve overcome something. You have to remember where you were. That person reading your book is not as evolved and transformed and as far along in their journey, as you are. You might be able to move at that pace, AKA that running coach who has been running for many years can run 26.2. You on your very first day are lucky to even make it around the block perhaps. 

You need coaching on what shoes to buy. 

It’s meeting people where they’re at, and maybe that first time is letting them know what gear they need and what their planning is going to look like. That small win makes them go, “I like him or her. I’m getting somewhere. Give me more,” as opposed to, “This is not manageable. This is not doable. I don’t understand it. It’s too much content. How can they expect me to do that?” That’s where you’ve got to meet people where they’re at and go slow with the course. 

What you’re saying is we have the book and we have the upsell to course number one, but this is sounding more like one of those long drawn-out meals where the staff comes over 5 or 6 hours and gives you many courses. 

My husband and I go on our anniversary to this place and it costs us $300. We would never spend that money on a regular date night, but that’s exactly it. It’s the chef’s special. We get a seat at the chef’s table. We have no idea what they’re serving us. We know it’s going to be delicious and it’s going to be paired with wine. It’s a slow experience that we can enjoy instead of getting in, pick your food, eat as fast as you can and get the heck out so we can fill your table. 

I won’t use any names of those bigger franchise buffet restaurants, where it’s heap as much on your plate as you can and wolf down as much and then get out of here. That’s a good analogy because what we’re talking about is using the fine-dining approach to course creation. Something I’m sniffing out here is the idea of the upsell. Buying a book is a $20 commitment–ish. That’s a great entry point to create a relationship. For those of you writing books to grow your business, this might be the most important hour of your life in 2021. 

You have that book. You are building that foundational relationship and intimacy with the reader. You have this next step of an appetizer course, not trying to give them the entire meal in one course. How do you look at this, Lisa, in terms of course creation? Do you look at it as a graded stairway up the ladder of upsell or do you look at it more as a level field where you’re giving them incrementally, getting them farther down the road or do you look at it as both? 

It does depend on you, your business, your expertise and what you’re able to do. It’s about you and how much you have to give as an author. I always think there are three buckets of people. There’s always somebody, I don’t want to say the lowest of the low, but they’re just not sure. They want to get in, “That’s the book? It’s the $20, no-brainer. I’ll buy it. If I don’t like it, I’ll pass it on to someone else. If I love it, I’ll see what else you got.” There’s always that middle range people who want to go deeper. Chances are, if you put out a great book and somebody finishes it, they’re your best core students because they put in the time to start and finish it. 

You already warmed them up. They’re with you, they’ll go with you where you want them to go. There’s always that middle range, which can be a course, a group coaching program, an event, a virtual event or a live event back when we can do that. Who knows when that’s going to come around again? Hopefully, sooner than later because I miss people in person. You always have those people that don’t want to be with the masses. They want that one-to-one experience. They want high–ticket. There are some people when you’re like, “What shoe store do you want to go to?” Some people will say, “I want this very commonplace,” and other people are like, “I want the place on Rodeo Drive to get my shoes. I’m going to the local mom-and-pop shop here to get my shoes.” You’re always going to have those kinds of people. 

The distinction too is also about the level of service. It’s fine with me if I go try it on in the aisle with everybody else who’s clamoring in the aisle. Other people are looking for that experience where they’re going to sit down and someone’s going to bring them a bunch of selections and they’re going to have that opportunity to choose from there. They’re going to have somebody who’s an expert advising them on the fit, on the look and everything else. 

An important piece that we forget in business because the messaging is always to serve your audience. It’s all about service. It’s all about being there for them. It’s all about providing solutions. That is very true. It’s also about you and your business. Some people don’t want to do one-to-one. They don’t want to give that much time to people. Some people don’t want to run group coaching programs. I remember I had an opportunity very early in my speaking career to get into the circuit and beyond some of the biggest stages. It was this amazing opportunity. My son was two years old at the time. At first I was like, “I’m going to get on the circuit. I’m going be here and there.” The glitz and the glamour were amazing. 

I thought, “Every weekend, I’m going to be in a hotel in a hotel room. I’m going to be living in and out of airports. I’m going to be in different cities. When am I going to see my family? When am I going to see my little boy? I don’t want to miss putting him to bed at night and reading him stories. I don’t want to get a phone call that he said this word or did this funny thing, and I wasn’t there.” I thought, “That’s a great opportunity, but it’s not the right opportunity for me right now.” Don’t forget that you are as important in your business. Before you go and create all these offerings, courses and events and all these things, is that what makes sense for how you want to live your life? 

One of the very first exercises I have my clients do is to make sure that their book concept is aligned with them. Is it aligned with how you want to be known? Is it aligned with the activities that you want to be doing to promote your book? This is exactly what I’m talking about. Your story is the best illustration I’ve ever heard of this point. What so many authors do and I would imagine course creators as well, is they get so into sharing the information. They don’t think about the mechanics. They don’t think about how am I going to use this content? In what context am I presenting it? Is it an automated click and buy, plug and play, and you never see me again? Is it a high-touch introduction that’s set up as an upsell to six-figure programs? It will color every aspect of your book‘s contents. It will color every example you use. You don’t want to use a bunch of examples of you doing things with people you don’t want to do anymore. 

There’s nothing worse than building it, getting to the top of the mountain and realizing you’re on the wrong mountain. You’re like, “This is not where I wanted to be.” 

You have all these people who are super excited to hire you privately and then you’re like, “I don’t do private coaching anymore.” 

People say like, “Put that in the book and put this.” I always say, “Life can change like this.” You have to be careful if you’re putting that, “Book me for private coaching.” Something might happen and you don’t want to do that anymore. 

You don’t want to say that in the book. You never want to be that direct in your sales with the book. If you use a lot of examples of people that you’ve coached privately, and you don’t want to do that anymore, maybe you need to build the course before you write the book, so that you can use examples of people who took your course as ways to illustrate that your methods work versus your private clients. 

A lot of people love the bundle too. I’ve seen a lot of people who don’t even offer the book as a one-off. They have it as a $200, $300, $500 package or whatever you price it at. Depending on what you price it, they don’t even have that option necessarily. They just buy the one-off book. You want them to go deeper with you and you sell it as a bundle. That’s a way to get students to give them more value, get them in there and get them reading that book and doing your courses when you have it as a bundle. 

Do you have any preference when you’re working with authors? Do you tend to recommend that they build the course first or the book first or the two in tandem? Do you see a general trend of what seems to be the most efficient or does it vary? 

It does vary. I see a lot of people who write the book. They have fantastic content. They work with someone like yourself, who is absolutely fantastic. The book is a huge success and they go, “I had no idea that the book was going to take off like this. People want more of me and I need to create something.” A lot of times the book comes first and the course comes second, or I find they have an idea they want to share, and they’re not that clear yet in what should be in the book. Creating the course gets them clearer on what their actual message is, their deliverable is, how they serve the world, who they are and what personal stories made them have these kinds of insights and lessons and experiences. The course lays a beautiful foundation to now write a book. It’s a personal individualized experience, person to person. 

I’m going to throw in one more about how I wrote my book. I knew I had to write a book for a while, especially a book coach who hasn’t written a book is problematic. I started working on it back in 2012. I realized that like any busy entrepreneur with a lot of clients and whatever, you have to carve out that time. I know I’ve helped my clients through that, but I was having trouble getting myself to write it. What I did is I created a course and I had to deliver a module every week. I sat down, wrote the chapter and taught the module off the chapter because I was teaching it live. I finished writing my book from that point, 4 or 5 months. I made $56,000 in selling course admissions and upsells after the course to private programs. 

The biggest thing there is you took action and you started. It’s like the chicken or the egg, “What do I do first, the book or the course, the course or the book?” Do something. Start with one and it will morph into what it’s meant to morph into. 

How do you look at pricing? This is a question that I get quite a lot from my clients, who are considering putting courses together. My impression is people tend to underestimate what they should charge, but I’d like to know what you have to say about this. 

I have two things on this. The first thing is many times we say, “It’s a six–week course. I’m going to charge them on what I think six weeks’ worth of value is.” No. I can remember when Roger Love, who I was able to study with, he’s the number one voice coach in the world. He’s helped Bradley Cooper on A Star is Born and Joaquin Phoenix on Walk the Line. I was able to work one-to-one with him, which was so amazing out in Hollywood. It was this crazy experience. 

Are you a singer? 

I am learning. I was with him for speaking because my problem is I sound too young sometimes because I’m so excited a lot of times. He said, “That’s not good in selling because when you sound young, people think that they can cut your prices. You’re not worth as much.” I had to work a lot. 

I didn’t mean to diverge you, but I’m a singer also. We’ll talk about that another time. 

I am taking voice and piano lessons in 2021. When he would work with recording artists and they would come in the studio and he would say, “How long did it take you to put this album together?” They would say, “About a year.” He would say, “How old are you?” They’d say, “I’m 26 or I’m 30 or I’m 35.” He would say, “No. It took you 35 years to bring this CD or this music, this record into existence?” Courses are the same. It’s not the six weeks. It’s the decades for most people of studying, life experience, even past jobs, even if you’re not doing what you do, you still take pieces of it from the roles, jobs, experiences and things you’ve had in the past. That’s what makes you, you, and that’s what makes you unique. 

Can you price it on that? Probably not. Everyone would say, “I am priceless. My experience is priceless.” I then go into what I call the 3D approach. The first D is the Duration. You do look at how long. Something that’s three modules and you can complete in a weekend, you’re going to price it a little bit cheaper than something that is 6, 8 weeks, a little bit more in intensives, the duration. The second is the Degree of implementation. The more that you have people do, the more you can charge for it. Meaning is it a PowerPoint? You’re just telling them stuff and they’ve got to master it on their own. You’re presenting the concepts or you direct to camera teaching them something. They’ve got worksheets or something that they have to now journal entries or things they’ve got to fill out. 

The more you have them do to make it stick, the more you can charge. The more bravery and courage you have to get direct to the camera, look somebody in the eyeball and speak to them, the more you can charge because there’s a higher connection. It’s Duration and Depth of implementation. I always create a course with direct to camera video and then some worksheet or something they have to do to make it stick, some kind of implementation action. Lastly is the Desire. How is their life going to change from this course? All those things we said in the beginning, if someone is not making any money in their business, about to close down their business, lose their home and whatever it is, and now they’re going to become profitable. You’ve taught them how to be better at selling or you’ve taught them how to dial in on what their secret sauce is, that’s worth so much to someone. 

Someone’s marriage is failing and they think they have to divorce their spouse, and your course tells them how to communicate better and it saves their marriage, then makes them a better mom or dad to their kids, that’s worth a lot. That’s always the one people get stuck with, but I challenge people on how to get real with yourself on how deep you’re going and how committed you are to getting the person that outcome. That always goes back to how good is your content. Are you slapping it together and getting it out? Are you intentional about the way you’re teaching them, and the stories you’re telling and the way you’re showing up to get that person to dig in and do what you’re asking them to do so they get that result? 

When that desire is there, when there are no other options and their businesses and butts are on the line and your course is the solution, you can charge a lot more for that. The things I don’t want you competing on are price, “This person priced it at $400 so I’m going to price it at $350,” because there’s always someone who will price it at $250, $200, $100 and free. Never compete on price and on deliverables because someone is always willing, “I’ll throw in this bonus course. I’ll throw in this book and I’ll get my buddy to give you a free session on this.” Someone will always give more and a timeline. Someone’s always willing to do it quicker. That’s a lot for service–based stuff if you’re selling, but I never want you competing on those because you’ll always lose and you won’t get quality people. 

That is gold what you’ve shared. This is so vital, especially for authors. If you’re an author, you’re claiming a certain level of expertise. You’re claiming, “I am above the fray. I’m not the snake oil salesperson. I’m not the shill. I’m not the person who’s ripping off everyone else’s content, putting up courses and your money. I don’t give a crap about your results. I am someone who’s a credible authority.” When you are approaching it that way, you can charge whatever you want in some way, if you’re willing to have enough conversation. 

One of the terms I’ve heard around the internet marketing world is massive transformational value. What you’re talking about is what you’re selling is the transformation. You’re not selling the course. You’re not selling the modules. You’re not selling the videos or the handouts. You’re selling the transformation. When you’re thinking about pricing, you’ve got to be factoring in what’s it worth to the person, if and when they get the transformation? I charge 1/10th of what that’s worth. I want them to get ten times the value that they paid. 

When I’m thinking about my pricing for my private program, that’s how I’m looking at it. I know they’re going to take the minimum outcome they’re going to get. I don’t do it person by person but as a general rule. I divide that by ten and that’s where my rates are going to be, then I know I’m delivering that value. It’s also part of understanding as someone who’s offering content, courses and providing value that, like you said from the beginning, you do have to account for yourself. What went into your ability to create that course, to write that book and understand that the value that you’re creating for someone is worth money? Even if it’s an intangible value, how do you put a price tag on your marriage or your relationship with your children? They will be able to see if you communicate well in your marketing what it’s costing them not to have that result. At that point, your price point is going to seem very reasonable. 

I had a mentor say to me, “It’s not the ROI, the Return on Investment. It’s the COI, the Cost of Inaction.” That is the biggest. It’s not like, “What are you going to get when you do this?” It’s, “What are you not going to have? What pain are you going to continue to be in? What is that cost of inaction going to be in your life or your business? I love that you’re saying that because that emotional, that we talked about, another mentor of mine said, and what always stuck with me too, Brendon Burchard said, “You can’t push somebody off a fence with information. You nudge them off with emotion.” Meaning they don’t give a crap about, “It’s seven modules and you get these worksheets.” That’s exactly it. It’s emotion. 

Why do we love Superbowl commercials? Why do we love good movies? Why don’t we love those books that grab us around a story? Why do we love music? Why do we sing? Why do we play instruments? It’s because we feel something. We‘re moved emotionally and that is the same thing in your marketing. We are in the transformation economy. We used to be in the brand economy where it was like, “I love Nike.” We still are a little bit. People love the big debate between PCs or Apple. That used to be in the ‘80s, ‘90s and the early 2000s, with the Air Jordan shoes. We used to be in the brand economy. We then got into the experience economy, meaning that, “This is what it is going to look like. This is what it’s going to feel like to go on this cruise ship or buy a house like this.” 

We’ve shifted, especially in 2020, into the transformation economy, “What is this going to do for my life? What is this going to do for the people around me? What is this going to do for my legacy? What I’m doing in my life, does it even matter?” We’ve shifted into a transformation economy. Those that can help people transform, those businesses and personal brands and authors and all of that are the ones that people are going to be giving their money to and investing with. 

I haven’t heard that this is the transformation economy. I’m excited for all the coaches and consultants who are reading this because those are the people who need to be writing books and creating courses. People who are advising others. 

That’s like my big bugaboo. It’s funny when you were on my podcast, you were like, “Here are all Robin’s bugaboos.” I’m like, “One of my bugaboos is because I came from the speakers’ world as well, is the whole TED Talk thing.” You get a TED Talk and you’ve made it in the speaking world. It has in some parts become a ‘who you know and a pay to play’ scenario. It has nothing to do with the quality of your content. Some are still integral and wonderful. Secondly, not everyone’s idea is worth sharing. That is what TED birthed from, ideas worth sharing. It’s like you said where I’m like that bugaboo of, “Everybody has a story and everybody should write a book.” 

It’s the same with TED, not everybody should be gracing that TED stage. It becomes bland instead of like, “That is a phenomenal story. That is an innovative, exciting idea. That is a groundbreaking new age, let’s get behind this kind of thing.” I’ll tell you the other misconception, maybe this happens with books too, is people say, “I’m going to get on that TED stage and my business is going to blow up.” I know many people who have been on a TED or a TEDx stage and have not made one ounce of difference in their impact, income, reach and growth. It’s not a one-shot, “I made it here.” It‘s a prolific pattern. It’s the compounding effect. Yes, the book or the TED could be that domino that made it all topple or that chain reaction or that rocket ship that made the thing take off but the runway was long. 

I never thought of it this way before. You’re not the first person I’ve heard talk about this lowered status of standing of TED in people’s listening, which is unfortunate because it was such a brilliant idea. One of the issues is TEDx because it’s become ubiquitous. It doesn’t seem like the bar is super high for who can run one. A lot of times, it’s inconsistent in the branding, even though it’s not supposed to be. TEDx videos on all different kinds of stages, including not stages like in a room with a screen behind them and no red dot. They’ve lost some of their branding. I’m thinking, it’s like self–publishing. There are great talks on TEDx stages. There are great self-published books. There is a lot of crap out there, which unfortunately dilutes the prestige and the impression of TEDx as a whole or self–publishing as a whole because there’s not the same bar of who gets that stage. Believe me, if you’re on a TED stage, you probably still do have an idea worth sharing. There’s a much more stringent vetting that goes on. 

One thing I’ve heard though is a lot of people say when they get on those stages and it makes me think of books too, is there’s a lot of, “You can say this, but you can’t say this. You can go there, but you can’t go there.” For me, I could care less about being a TED or TEDx. I know there are other ways I can make an impact. If that were ever to come my way, I could consider it, but I don’t ever want to be somewhere where they’re like, “You can say that, but you can’t say that. You’ve got to water that down a little bit. That’s not going to go over well.” You’re not going to be rude or confrontational. I get that. I feel that if you have an idea worth sharing, share it. You don’t need the TED stage to do that. If you have a book, and you can speak more to this, but I’ve always thought of it as work with an editor that understands your voice. There’s nothing worse than someone saying, “We’re going to completely rewrite it this way.” You get your book and you go, “That doesn’t sound at all like me. That’s a disconnect from who I am as a person.” 

I also think though with books and with course creation as well and speaking, one of the great opportunities of preparing a book, a talk or a course is you get the opportunity to understand your own work better. You get the opportunity to organize your thoughts, see more of the connections between your ideas and take a deeper cut into what is behind a particular idea that you’re teaching and have a deeper understanding of your work overall. This is where no matter how much you make selling your book or your course, for the content creator, you will earn more across the board through that greater understanding and you’ll be a better authority. 

When you are in your authentic voice and power, you can see it. Have you ever had that with someone where you’re like, “They’re not a bad person but there’s something about them, I don’t know?” You’re going to go buy something and the sales associate comes and talks to you and you’re like, “I don’t know.” You can’t put your finger on it. They didn’t do anything crazy or rude or abrasive or in a big red flag but you’re like, “I just don’t know.” That’s usually when someone is trying to say it like someone else has said it, present it like someone else is presenting it. They’re not in their own authentic power. 

They’re not speaking from their own experience, they’re speaking from what they’ve read someone else says. That’s a big one. I want to take a leap here. One of the biggest challenges, and I know this is true for authors. Since we’re talking about authors, you’re doing content creation and course creation. I’ve seen this over and over. I’ve done this myself. Great at creating content, outstanding content and excellent content that remains the best-kept secret because there are the launch and the promotion, the marketing of it. Speak to us a little bit about that. For many of our readers, if you’re a writer, you’re probably introverted. Even if you’re not a writer, not everybody feels at home in the marketing space. Talk a little bit about this piece because no matter how great your course is, if no one knows about it, it’s not going to transform anything. 

I always think of your course and your book, it’s like your baby if you have kids. I don’t know what I had on my phone before I had a child and pets and all of that. If you scroll through my pictures, every single photo is either my husband, my cats or my kid. It comes up in conversation. It is my life. You brought this up on my show, which is if you don’t love it and you don’t want to talk about it, you’re not proud of your book, and that stuck home with me when you said, “If you’re not proud of your book, you’ve got to figure out what you want to do with that.” 

It’s the same with your course. I’m not saying it has to be perfect because nothing is ever perfect. Don’t worry, even a course, that’s why you see version 2, 3, 4, nothing is a written-off done, signed, sealed, delivered, but you have to love it and you have to believe in it. Many times, we want the validation and the approval, “Is this good? Is anybody even going to like this?” That’s a sign that you don’t like it and you don’t think it’s good. 

You’re just a perfectionist and terrified. I know a big stop for people is like, “I’d love to create a course, but I have no idea how to get people excited about it.” 

Bring people along in the journey. Many times, we want to tell people when it’s launched, “I have this course that’s available. Buy it.” We feel like we have this backseat, pulling back the curtain view. I have some clients that they choose hair and some clients just hair and makeup and in the studio. I’m like, “Take a video of that like, ‘Guys, here I am. I’m shooting a module on X, Y and Z. I’m in the studio. Here’s my videographer, Jane. Here’s my lovely makeup artist that did this.’ Take people along and show what you’re doing.” 

I want to go reshoot my course. That’s a great idea. 

Take people along. When you hit a bump in the road, take people along, “I thought this was going to go so seamless. I was going to get in, get out and shoot this video. I got a phone call from X, Y and Z, I got bad news. I had to get my butt in the studio to film this content. Here’s how I changed my mindset.” It’s an opportunity to teach because in education–based marketing, when you teach, you solve problems. Could you imagine if they put out a behind-the-scenes of a big movie and you’ve got to see little bits and pieces of this movie being made, like a teaser almost? What happened when that movie comes out? You’re like, “I want to see how this thing played out. I want to see how this came together.” That’s why they do the preview and the trailer. 

What I love too with what you’re saying is you get to show people who you’re being in your transformation. There’s nothing more credible than you letting people see you’re struggling with a step in your transformation and how you handle it. 

That’s exactly it. You’re taking them through the good, the bad, the ugly, the real that builds trust. When people trust, they buy. That builds community and momentum. They’ve seen it all the way here. Now we get to the finish line, “I want that thing. You’ve let me in on the insider path the whole way along.” 

You’re reminding me of a woman that I worked with. I don’t feel like I did very much for her at all, but we had a couple of very productive conversations. Her name is Susan Dennard. When I first spoke with her, she was seeking an agent and wanted to get wanted to sell her first novel. I know we’re mostly talking non-fiction here, but I love this story. I went to her website and I noticed something on her blog. I was reading some of her blog posts and I realized she was only blogging about two things. She was blogging reviews of new books in her genre, and she was blogging about her process. I was like, “It’s genius in two ways.” 

You can take this, by the way readers, for nonfiction. It was genius in two ways. One is she was helping Google help people who like her genre, which is paranormal and young adult fiction. People who like her genre would now find her website along with Publishers Weekly, Kirkus and whoever else was reviewing the book because Google is the great democratizer in this way. Her reviews would come up and she could attract people who like her genre, which is very difficult to figure out with fiction. You could use this for a business book. You could use this for a relationship book. People are so into those books. 

Sharing her process did what you’re saying. It brought people in and created this base of an audience who was eagerly anticipating her first novel, Something Strange and Deadly, which was published by Harper Teen as part of her three–book deal. I told her, “If you’re ready, send your stuff to agents.” She sent it to four. She got all four agents. She sent it to those who wanted to represent her. She picked one and she got a three–book deal for Harper Teen and became a New York Times bestselling novelist. I was like, “Are you doing anything?” She’s like, “No, I just do this but I do it consistently.” 

That’s huge because people say, “I don’t know what to do first. I can do all these things. How do I have time?” It’s a very dialed–in process. 

I’ve seen firsthand the evidence what you’re talking about being accurate. She shared about her process, good writing days, bad writing days, the time she felt discouraged, the time she was excited, and people were ready and excited and waiting for her book. 

It makes you human. That is the human experience that we all go through, and we want to do business with people who are human. We don’t want to do business with magical unicorns that seem untouchable. If you have a book and someone buys that book and they put it on their bookshelf or it’s in their home, it’s in the bedroom with them, it’s such a personal human experience. Let people see you. Take people along in that process. That always wins one way or another. Even if it’s buying the book or buying the course, they refer someone to you. They keep downloading and digesting everything you put out. Maybe they’re one of those people that want that big high-end thing if you’re going to pitch it and you pitch some $30,000 mastermind and they’re like, “I’m in.” That video when you were saying that you had the worst day ever and you thought you were going to pack it in, but you still finish the book, I knew how committed you were to help me with my dream so I want to go all the way with you. 

Letting people see you, letting people see your flaws. I said to a client, “An author isn’t the perfect being savior. That’s someone else.” You don’t have to hit that bar. You just need to be your best, and show them that part of being your best is being authentic with the struggles and the challenges that you faced, that you continue to face, that you are a work in progress. As a matter of fact, it’s very annoying to read a book by or listen to a course by someone who thinks they’ve got it all figured out. 

The first thing we do is called BS. It’s like with your kid when you’re like, “Go brush your teeth,” and they don’t want to. They’ll find every reason why they don’t want to go brush their teeth. They will take it like a jury to the stand. It’s the same when someone is so perfect, your brain wants to find the reason why they’re not, and that’s wasted energy. Whether you’re vulnerable and real, they love you right away, because there’s no barrier, no wall. They’re right in there with you. 

You’re showing them that you’re not perfect and you’ve got the results. They can too. Lisa, this has been such a pleasure. I always love talking to you. Thank you so much for joining us on the show. 

It’s such an honor to be here. I could talk to you forever. Thank you so much. 

Important links: 

• Infinite Design House 
• Sales Booster Program 
• Robin Colucci on Lisa Pezik’s show 
• Something Strange and Deadly 
• https://www.LisaPezik.com/site/home 

About Lisa Pezik

Lisa is a Business Strategist, #1 International Amazon Best Selling Author, Thrive Global Author, Worldwide Speaker, and RN who takes your business online with excellence. Her strategies and systems help customers connect and become clients, fast!

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