Ready to transform your brand and attract clients on autopilot? In this engaging episode, host Juliet Clark dives into the world of brand book writing with Jessica Andersen, the founder of Brand Book Bootcamp. Jessica helps entrepreneurs replace traditional content marketing with a “Brand Book” that positions them as go-to voices in their industry. Discover how writing a brand book can clarify your business vision and align your offerings. Jessica shares the importance of deadlines, the value of generosity with content, and why a brand is more than just visuals. Tune in for valuable tips on leveraging your expertise through writing, navigating self-publishing, and embracing imperfections in your marketing approach.
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From Concept To Creation: Building Your Brand Book
Welcome to the show. Our guest is an editor-turned-book coach. Being that this is the end of August 2024, if you are thinking about writing and publishing a book for 2025, it’s time to get started, and you need a book coach to help you along the journey. Before we get started with Jessica, I want to invite you. This is the last week to sign up for the AI Author Academy. It is our four-week course where we teach you about all sorts of platforms you can use to strategically build your author platform and their AI platform. We can go from platform to platform and make your life easier by creating content, posts, courses, and quizzes. The quizzes we did last time were very easy.
It includes 4 group coaching sessions during September 2024 and 4 one-on-one sessions. We can take what you learned and integrate it into your platform, which is the stumbling block for many people. It’s easy to learn and listen, but to implement and execute can be very daunting. That’s where we help get you started with that process. You can sign up at AIAuthorAcademy.com.
Our guest is Jessica Andersen. Jessica is an editor-turned-book coach from the United States who moved to France in 2010 and never looked back. Since starting her business a few years ago, she has worked with authors all over the world on dozens of books. As the Founder of Brand Book Bootcamp, she serves entrepreneurs who want to replace their content marketing with a brand book, which will position them as the go-to voice and attract ideal clients on autopilot. That brand book is really all about getting your voice out there. One thing Jessica and I agree on is that you’re not going to make much money directly from that book. It’s how you use the brand book to bring people into higher-ticket offerings. Stay tuned for Jessica.
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Welcome, Jessica, it’s great to have you.
Thank you so much for having me.
We won’t do random stuff. For those of you who don’t know, we had a very random conversation before this started. We were joking about what people would do if they could hear these random conversations we’re having. Tell me a little bit about your editing background and why you decided to transition from editor to book coach.
It started back in 2020, as many of us did during COVID. I was trying to transition out of my position as a front desk agent in a luxury hotel. As part of one of our random conversations, we realized that Juliet also spent time as a guest in the industry where I used to work. That was funny. I started a family and didn’t want to be beholden to the hours in luxury hospitality.
I remember speaking to a good friend of mine who has become my unofficial career coach, and he said, “What could you do all day long and then get someone to pay you for it?” I thought, “Books. I love books. I love reading books. I love writing books. I do love editing other people’s writing.” That’s what kicked me off. I took a course in proofreading and started out that way.
As I got to work with more clients on their books, specifically brand books, which we can talk about in a minute, they kept asking me for higher levels of editing. You know in our industry, the jargon is copy editing, line editing, and developmental editing. What that means is we’re taking a wider view of the manuscript each time. Normally, we start with very high-level, organizational broad strokes and big ideas, and then we get down all the way to the end to proofreading, which is the nitty-gritty. I had started there and worked my way back.
I then got into book coaching because I felt it was an easier term for people outside the industry to grasp. I found myself having to do a lot of education with prospective clients about the different levels of editing. To be honest, the clients I work with don’t care about our industry jargon. They want a coach or a consultant to help them achieve the transformation they’re after. That’s how I landed in book coaching.
The Concept Of Brand Books
Let’s talk about the brand because that’s one of the things I consider when I get books that are outside a book developer’s scope, which we don’t take many of anymore. Our books are always connected to your business in some way. In the book industry, you’re not going to make a lot of money directly from your books. I know there are people who say, “Publish 72 books on Amazon and you’ll make money.” It really is about how you can get them from the book into those big-ticket programs. The brand is so essential that, without a guide along the way, you’re likely to get off track with what your brand is many times. What are your thoughts on that?
For those who can’t see us because you’re reading this, I’m nodding my head as Juliet is saying this. The brand is key, and it’s part of the reason why I started calling the books I work on brand books. I also find with my authors, especially when I work with them in the very beginning stages, that the process of writing such a book, which will promote your business or brand in some way or develop your platform as a thought leader, requires you to get clear on what your brand is and what you do in your business. You might have thought you were clear on it before. At that point, you were like, “Now I got it. I’m going to write a book about it,” but you’ll find that the process of writing a book makes you much clearer on what you do.
The process of writing a book actually makes you get way more clear on what you do. Share on XThat’s one of the huge benefits of writing one for yourself. That benefit ultimately trickles down to your customers, clients, and the people you help because they’ll see, “That person made this for me. It’s not just the book,” which is a low-ticket item for $10, $20, or whatever, “but they also made this other offer for me.” That’s going to be your high-ticket offer, four figures or more. That’s really where the money’s at. When you write the book, you align with what you’re selling on the back end of that book and let your readers know exactly that you made this book and this high-ticket offer for them.
What I find a lot, too, is that people will come in and say, “I had my lead magnet and my landing page, but it was for something else.” They’re often put off, saying, “We have to create something here to build the list for the book that’s in alignment with the book and the next steps.” A lot of times, they throw their hands up and say, “I didn’t know this was going to be this much work.”
It’s one of those things where messaging, working with a book coach, sets the tone for the platform as well because that coach knows where you’re going, and you know where you’re going. First of all, how do you help them discern what their brand is? Many people think a brand is just colors and a logo, but it’s so much more.
It’s everything. There are a lot of things I could say about your question, but I would first start with the end in mind and reverse-engineer your book. What is the one high-ticket offer that you would want to be your signature offer, whether that’s one-on-one, a program, or something else? What is the absolute showstopper in your offer lineup? Align that with your book and vice versa.
The other thing I would say is to work with a professional who is business-oriented in how they help their clients. You could work with a different book editor who specializes in business books, but if their specialty is only in the words, they might not have as comprehensive a view of your brand and what you’re trying to achieve.
To your point about what a brand is, it’s much more than font choices, colors, and a logo. It should be instantly recognizable. You’re trying to build a household name, not just visually. A lot of it is found in the copy and in how you show up online or in person, depending on how you reach your followers, audience, clients, and customers. It’s holistic and all-encompassing.
A brand is so much more than font choices, colors, and a logo. It should be instantly recognizable like you're trying to build a household name. Share on XPeople expect you to be in alignment when they meet you with what you’re putting out online. I’ve mentioned this before. Many years ago, I had a high-end prostitute as a client. I never met her, but I had this idea about how skanky she would be. I met her in person, and she was lovely. Her online presence was a little raunchy, so I was surprised when I met her and found her elegant and beautiful. We discussed how to improve her online appearance. You need to be the person people expect when they meet you in person.
I love that analogy. That’s wonderful.
The Importance Of Deadlines In Book Coaching
When it comes to building that brand book, I know you’ve mentioned that deadlines are important. Coaches are really good at setting deadlines. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard someone say, “I’m writing a book.” I’ll ask them, “Where are you at with the book?” They’re like, “Chapter one.” I ask, “When did you start it?” They say, “Five years ago.” They’re continually rewriting chapter one and never finishing it. Tell me why deadlines are so important to keep people moving.
Exactly. If you never finish your book, you can’t publish it. I don’t want to throw shade on the coaches out there who don’t impose deadlines. There are some manufactured deadlines. It’s like, “You have to pay my invoice by X date.” That’s like a soft deadline in a way for writers. I’m friends with many of these coaches online. That’s fine for them if they want to work like that.
I get that people have other things going on in their lives. You might be caring for someone. You might be in school going back for a degree. You have your own business. You have your family or whatever. I understand that. If you have decided to become an entrepreneur, for example, and you’re growing a business, that’s a trade-off that you make. If you decide to write a book, that’s a trade-off that you make. I wonder how much time you’re wasting without a hard deadline driving you to complete the book. The longer it takes you to do that, the longer it’s going to take you to see those high-ticket sales come in on the backend.
One thing I would add is that a few years ago, I embarked on an experiment. I interviewed 25 people in my audience who took me up on this. I asked them, “How long do you think it would take you to write a book?” They hadn’t written their brand book yet. The results were fascinating. I had a couple of people say 30 days to write it, which I was like, “That’s too fast. You’re scaring me.” Other people said five years. I had a whole bunch of responses in between.
I don’t have a whole lot of nuance in explaining those answers of why people felt like they could do it in 30 days and why others felt like it would take them five years, but I’m guessing it had something to do with what else they had on their plate and their level of decision, “I’m going to do this thing. This is going to be the Olympic games of writing my brand book.” It’s that kind of energy versus, “I’ll go with the flow. We’ll see. I’ll get it done. I’ll find little pockets of time.”
I can’t do that when I’m writing for myself, so what I love doing with my clients is establishing very clear mini-transformations within a larger one and then establishing a deadline. What you can’t do with me if you hire me one-on-one is you can’t reapply and work with me for another three months after. If we establish we’re working for six months, that’s six months. If you don’t finish it, you’re on your own after that. That might sound harsh for some people but it’s motivating, and I find that I get results from my clients because of it.
What’s interesting about that is I’ve noticed since 2020 that many of the book coaches that I work with are not doing what you’re doing, but they’re changing their fee structure. It’s X amount a month. If you are not performing, you’re wasting money. If you’re a good entrepreneur, that’s going to have an impact on you because we’re all looking at ROI.
That’s good on those people, those coaches who are charging that way. They’re protecting themselves. That’s looking after their businesses as service providers. It’s not looking out for the client, though. That’s where I have a problem with it. Other people might think differently and I feel like there’s room at the table for different points of view on that, but personally, it doesn’t sit right with me to work that way. I want to make sure that the client is getting a result when they work with me.
It’s all good however they choose to do it because different people are going to want to be motivated in different ways. I do like that as well. When it comes to prioritizing your marketing assets with this, do people work with you on that? Do you do any marketing at all?
It’s very high level. I’ll send them to you for that. You’re all over in my group program.
Creating Content From Courses And Transcripts
A lot of times, you’re doing the messaging. I want to get your feedback on this because you talked about reverse engineering. In almost every non-fiction book that I do or that I write, I create the course, record it, and give it first because then I have transcripts to work from. How do you feel about that? I feel for me, number one, it helps me to get my thoughts in order and it’s easier to edit from transcripts than it is to sit down and write from scratch. That’s the first thing.
The second thing is as a writer, I know my limitations. I’m a storyteller and a really bad writer. It helps my editors as well because then I can give them the work product and say, “Fix it. Fix me.” What are your thoughts about that? I feel like it takes care of the monetization first and then works back into it. You may feel differently because you may hate the courses.
Absolutely not. I can’t speak from personal experience because I wrote a brand book myself, but it was for a completely different business and brand that I’ve let go of. I don’t have a brand book for this one. I’ve been meaning to do it, but I’m like everybody else. I should hire a book coach to help me write it. When I developed my course, I put in a lot of work upfront. It’s based on how I’ve already helped my one-on-one clients. I wanted to make it into a framework that said, “This is a system. It’s going to help you if you fall into this category A, B, or C.” I live-launched it and built it out in a co-creation type of way.
You asked me more about your book and then about sending it to your editor. That’s very smart to start with the end in mind. You know your business best. You’re in this business, so you know that your brand book is going to be automatically aligned. I know that ghostwriters also work from transcripts as well. As an editor, I find it extremely difficult to edit transcripts. I find it extremely difficult. I’m much better at writing.
That’s interesting. I write from the transcripts. I will go in and put my personal stories and things like that. The reason I do it that way is because then I’m getting feedback along the way. If my students come in as they always do and say, “You hosed us. There’s so much information here,” then I know where to cut and where not to cut.
Even with a brand book too, I feel like there’s an audience out there that about 90% of them will try a few things and then they’ll give up. There’s going to be that group that’s successful and very small, and then another group that’s going to hire you because they gave up. That’s where that comes from too. People are always afraid. Do you experience where they’re afraid to give it all because they think that nobody will hire them?
Nobody will hire them?
Yeah. I run across it a lot where people will say, “I don’t want to put all my secrets in my brand book.”
They don’t want to give away the farm in the book.
I don’t think they understand that most people won’t execute. How many times have you read a self-help book and you haven’t executed it?
Don’t Be Afraid To Give Away The Farm
I see where you’re going with this. It happens every single time with every single client I’ve worked with and probably every brand book I’ve ever read for fun. Please don’t ever be afraid to give away the farm with your book. In fact, give away the farm with your book. Be really generous because a book is a long-form piece of content. It’s meant to be very nurturing, especially if you’re doing an audiobook and your future clients and customers have you in their ears. It’s even more intimate and nurturing.
People will go away from your book and they will implement the minimum. They’re going to find that it’s quite difficult to do it on their own, so then they’re going to look at other solutions on how to go deeper in that transformation with you. Maybe it’s a self-study course, which in itself is still DIY but it’s still in your offer suite. They might have taken the course and might have gotten results from it, but they might’ve loved it so much that they would like to upgrade to work with you one-on-one. The only difference there could be the level of support because they feel that closeness to you. Being generous is never going to ruin your business. I would never be afraid of that.
You brought up a really good point about reading your own book. If you have the voice for it, that’s a fabulous idea because being the audible reader and putting your voice in their head is beneficial. That’s the benefit of podcasting too or having a YouTube channel. Your voice is in somebody’s head and they’re expecting you to read that book. I interviewed Dorie Clark several years ago, and that was one of my questions. Her first book at her publisher had somebody else read it. For her second book, she read it, and it was so much more intimate. It was authoritative as well because it’s like, “She’s talking to me. She’s speaking directly to me.”
We all talk. Recording is another skill, but it’s a skill that you can learn how to do. There are service providers out there who will help you do that. You have to choose which way you want to go. Do you want to pay to hire a voice actor to read your book in not exactly the way you might have read it and not your voice at all to nurture your audience, or would you rather pay someone to help you learn the skill in order for you to do it yourself? There’s no right or wrong. You can tell what my preference is, but that’s me.
We work with an audiobook provider that gives you a producer so you can read your own book, which is really beneficial. I understand the skill you’re talking about because I tried to read my first book. I have so much appreciation for the breathwork that goes into being a voice actor.
I know. I have two young daughters. I trade with my husband every night who’s going to read a story to them. Sometimes, I find myself out of breath after reading children’s books. Some of them are in French, to be fair, and those are really hard, but we push through.
Did you know French already before you went to France in 2010?
Writing In Your Own Voice For Brand Books
I did. It was my major. This is a good analogy. I learned French throughout school. I started at 13, so I was in middle school, and then I made it my major in college. By the time I came to France for a study abroad semester, I already had a very good foundation for academic French and some conversational French as well, but my real-life French or on-the-streets French was not good at all. I once had, for example, a cavity when I was living here. I’m like, “How the heck do I call my dentist and say I have a cavity? I don’t know.” I’m going to be like, “You’re the professional. Look in my mouth. You can tell what’s wrong with it.”
It’s similar to writing because when we’re in school, we’re taught a certain way of writing. It’s academic, and then when we join the business world, it becomes corporate-sounding. That’s not at all what we’re doing with brand books. To your point earlier about editing from transcripts, it’s also smart to talk your book out if you’re struggling with writing it because it’s going to sound more like you and more conversational. That is what we want in a brand book because we’re not out to write a best-selling novel, for example, and we’re certainly not out to write a white paper, a textbook, or anything like that. It has to resonate with people. You have to be on their level.
I don’t like when people say, “Write like you speak,” because we use filler words and make mistakes all the time when we speak. From the point of view that humans evolved to first listen and then speak, so we had the oral tradition, that’s where storytelling comes from. That’s the greatest tool in our toolbox when we’re writing brand books. That’s where your writing voice should come from when you’re writing a brand book.
My editor will tell you I write exactly how I speak, which drives her crazy, but it’s what my audience expects from me. A long time ago, we had a marketing boo-boo that was so transformative in people showing up for webinars. My assistant sent out an email and there was a word in there with the wrong usage of it. What do you call the words that are pair and pair? I think they’re homonyms. We used the wrong one in there and I got all these emails back like, “You shouldn’t be a publisher. You can’t spell,” and on and on. It really ticked me off.
I woke up in the middle of the night and I sent out an email on my own, which shocked the heck out of my assistant at the time. I wrote, “The webinar is tomorrow. Here’s the deal. You can pick apart my grammar. You can pick apart my English. You can pick apart anything you want, but if you don’t build a platform, nobody’s going to read your book, so show up tomorrow or not.” I had the biggest audience I had ever had for a webinar that day. It was frustrating because they’re picking at these little things, but if nobody reads your book, it’s all for naught.
I used to be one of those people because I started out as a proofreader. Any little typo or error like that used to really bother me but now, it doesn’t at all. The goal is to build a know, like, and trust factor and to nurture your audience. Ultimately, the long-term goal is to sell your offers down the road. I’ve realized that honestly, the typos and mistakes don’t matter that much to a certain degree because your book can’t be riddled with them. Please hire a professional proofreader.
Maybe you’ll disagree. Let me know. If you have people in your audience who are picking apart either your marketing copy on social media or your brand book has a few typos in it and they’re honing in on that, focusing in on that, and complaining about that, they’re probably not your ideal client and customer in the end.
That is true. Especially with self-help books, I see this. My books are self-help for platform building. If they’re doing that, they’re avoiding the bigger issue and topic.
They’re missing the point, and it’s unfortunate for them.
With self-help books, if you’ve got a divorce book, you’re in big trouble if you’re picking apart the grammar and not doing the healing exercises. You’re missing the point there. You have a program coming up. Do you want to share it with us and where people can find it and grab a call with you or grab the program?
The Profitable Brand Book Program
Absolutely. I haven’t quite started the marketing for it yet. We’re on the ramp-up to that. It’s called the Profitable Brand Book program. The profitable part is important because I want people to sell their high-ticket offers at the end. This program is a self-study with some group support because I’m going to live to launch it. I’ll explain what that means in a second. It takes my clients through the writing of their brand book from start to finish.
Clients kept asking me for help during that stage. I wanted a way for myself to help as many people with that as possible. Since I got those people saying, “It will take me 30 days,” and other people saying, “It will take me 5 years,” I was like, “I want to crystallize my framework in a course where people can get to it when they can because that’s what they’re asking for.” If you work with me one-on-one, I’m going to hold you to a deadline, but if that’s not your thing, you can still choose to work with me in the program.
You will get some group support for the first twelve weeks that you join and then after that, you’re on your own, DIY-ing it. You self-study. You get five modules in there and it’s going to help you plan, brainstorm, and outline. I have templates for you, and then you write the book. It has a very high level of marketing help in there. It’s nothing like what you do. Please go to Juliet for that. She’s the best. If you want to get in on the program in September 2024 when the doors open for enrollment, it will be a really good time because after that, the price is going to increase, and you will still get lifetime access to the program. That means you can take a lifetime to write your book if you want.
Hopefully, you won’t. If this sounds interesting to them, and I know this is coming out before you open the doors, where do they go? Do you want them to get on your calendar? It sounds like you don’t have a site up yet.
If you want to join my email list, I’m going to give you a quick profit calculator with a little video explainer to show you exactly how you can get your brand book in alignment with your other offers in your business and then project the revenue that you can make. You’ll see that their riches are not in the copies of the book that you sell, but it’s about the offers that you’re selling after that to your readers on the backend.
The “riches” are not in the copies of the book that you sell, but it's about the offers that you're selling after that to your readers on the back end. Share on XPeople are going to find that you’re not going to get ROI or Return On Investment from the publishing package. You are going to get it on what you sell next. It is really important. I’m excited about that. Thank you so much for being on.
This was a blast. Thank you so much for our conversation. I feel really fired up, and it’s 10:30 PM my time. I’m not going to bed anytime soon.
You should go to sleep. Thank you.
Thanks.
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About Jessica Andersen
Jessica is an editor-turned-book-coach from the USA who moved to France one day in 2010 and never looked back. Since starting her business four years ago, she has worked with authors all over the world on dozens of books. As the founder of Brand Book Bootcamp, she serves entrepreneurs who want to replace their content marketing with a “Brand Book” which will position them as a go-to voice and attract ideal clients on autopilot.
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