Chandler Bolt [00:00:03] Hey, Chandler Bolt here and joining me today is Michael Lachance. Michael is an artist and author from a small town in Ontario, Canada. For the past five years, he’s been a key. Tim Te. I can’t even talk today. For the past five years, he’s been a key team member at self-publishing dot com. Really just a huge part of what we do at self-publishing dot com. He’s been one of the earliest employees and just a huge building block. And so he helps authors succeed and leads our author success team. Maybe if you’re listening is podcasting you’ve worked with him or the authors accessing. We’ve probably had a conversation with him or with his team. If you’re working with us and in fact, he specifically over the years has had over 2801 on one calls and coaching conversations with authors. All right. He’s also an author himself and he wrote a book called Land Your Dream Job. So join the 2% who make it past resume screening. It’s a land your dream job. Right? And so what I want to talk about here in this episode today is a couple of things that obviously talk about Michael’s experience as an author. Lessons learned, all that good stuff. But then also Michael’s experience on the frontlines in the trenches with authors right over to over 2801 on one calls that we can at least just track. Who knows how many more there is? And so what are those commonalities that if you’re listening to this, whether you’re working with us or not, there’s just will be some nuggets in there. On challenges people face what people you know are most successful authors, what do they have in common are least successful authors. So we’ve got a lot to get to. So dive straight into it. Michael. Great to have you here.
Michael Lachance [00:01:44] Thank you so much. I’m super, super, super excited about this opportunity and can’t wait to have this conversation.
Chandler Bolt [00:01:50] It’s been a long time coming. So first off, why books? And I guess a two part why did you decide to write the book that you wrote and then why did you decide to work it? Come join us and work at self-publishing.
Michael Lachance [00:02:03] Yeah, great question. So it’s kind of funny. Like I grew up in the like before Internet age, right? So, you know, there wasn’t like Internet at home or like sitting and scrolling on your phone all the time. So my mom and my stepdad, we had two rules at home. It’s either you go outside and play, and if you’re staying inside, you’re not going to sit inside and watch TV or anything like that. If you’re going to stay inside, are going to read a book or you’re going to go like do some arts, you know, page, whatever. And so a lot of the time I would choose a book. And then so from a very young age, it was like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, And I just got like into and immersed in these like fiction worlds. And I just loved how authors could, like, capture an idea and experience a concept in just like literally just like a piece of paper. And I thought that was just a really cool idea of like stamping an experience that you could then share with like a whole bunch of people. So why, why writing a book? One of the things that I really appreciate about what you share with authors is, you know, a book is really a $15 mentor. It’s really like the greatest minds sharing their greatest ideas or lessons learned. So it’s just a fascinating way that you can learn from the best minds in the world at a very cheap kind of kind of rate. And so all of this really inspired me from a young age to want to write a book. And that was really cool. Somebody I really respect brought me down to San Diego back in late 2016, and I saw you speak for the first time on stage with Hal Elrod, and there was an activity there and it was like, start your mind map. And so I started doing my mind map. And I think at that point I was still in like the fiction realm. So I started writing about like my dog Stella at the time and just like, but, but it just kind of like started a bit of a snowball in terms of like, oh, I actually have like a lot to write on this. This is actually a lot of fun. I really enjoy this. And so, yeah, I kept, I kept track of self-publishing school, now self-publishing dot com ever since and an opportunity came up, I jumped on it and it was like the greatest decision I ever made. I was working in automotive, the automotive industry. I don’t really like anything about anything automotive, but I was like a huge book nerd. So I was like, okay, this is a really cool opportunity. These people are like teaching people how to write and publish books like this is this is my jam. I really want to work for these people. And so, yeah, that’s how I first got connected with you and the team. So to answer your second question though, like why this book? So in university, I worked in career services for a couple of years and so I was having these conversations about like, how do I apply to a job? How do I explain my value from the degree that I’m going to school for? How does this relate to like a hiring manager? How do I design a cover letter? And I literally worked with like hundreds of people every single week, every single month over the course of years. And they were asking like the same question again and again and again and again. So I just I realized, like after university, I still had this abundance of knowledge and experience answering those very specific type of questions. So when it came to, you know, thinking of an idea to write my book on, it was like, well, I know it’s. On about this. I could easily write a book about this. There’s a thousand questions that I’ve answered on this before. So it was like a pretty, I think, easy decision for me to choose what my book was going to be about just because I felt so confident and knowledgeable about it.
Chandler Bolt [00:05:16] So a bunch of lessons to unpack there. I mean, first, the concept of the book is a $15 mentor. Talk about that all the time. I think you’re a great example of a voracious reader, and as I’ve seen, you learn and grow over the years, you take what books do you recommend? How can I get better in this? Okay. Where’s the books with that? And so you live that. But then also, I think a lesson for people, if you’re watching this, listening to this, what are the things that you just keep getting asked about that you’re like, oh, I can just I could just write this. Right? And so that ultimately is what, you know, led to land your dream job. And obviously you’ve hired gosh, you’ve probably be done dozens, if not hundreds of interviews for people wanting to work at self-publishing dot com and now hired a bunch of people. And so it’s kind of lessons from the in the trenches within your job too. And so I think there’s just like I’m sure there’s a lot of different avatars of people that will relate to that and hopefully that says, Oh, that’s interesting. There’s this thing that I’m doing that I didn’t even think about that I could write a book about, right? And so I guess so that’s that’s why a book that’s myself publishing dot com and working here, all that good stuff. How do you do it so specifically for land your dream job? How do you successfully write and publish that book and what was the toughest part?
Michael Lachance [00:06:26] Yeah, so really it really started with putting together a mind map. And really a mind map is just like a brain dump of all the different things that come to your mind when you think about your book. So I’ve done literally hundreds, if not over a thousand welcome calls with authors as they’re getting started at self-publishing dot com. So like one of the main things that we talk about in preparation for an author is coach coaching. Clarity Call is who is your target audience and what problem are you helping them solve? Right. So those are like two fundamental questions as you’re getting ready to write your rough draft and create your outline, all that other stuff, it’s just really crystallizing those to those two ideas. So I really wanted to make sure that with, with, with my book I was answering and solving those two things and. Sorry, can you remind me what was the second half of your question?
Chandler Bolt [00:07:12] Yeah. So what was the toughest part of going through the writing and marketing process?
Michael Lachance [00:07:17] I knew I was getting there, so like the hardest part was like identifying who that, who was. Because like when I first started brain dumping and just like, getting all the ideas onto the page, there’s like a thousand different degrees and, and like, educational paths that people I was working with were going on. And so, you know, I had a real difficult time trying to narrow win on like, who is my ideal target audience? Is it like, is it teachers? Is it, you know, in automotive? Is it, you know, people working at a restaurant? Is it high school kids, university, college kids? And so one of the hardest things that I had to really narrow in on was like, who truly is my target audience? And, you know, just making sure that I was communicating the information and content in a way that was for that very specific target target audience. Like one of the one of the things I did in, in the first revision because I actually relaunched my book is I went super wide with my first book and wasn’t getting like tangible enough action steps for my target audience and the first vision version. And so I really I really took a moment to kind of think through like. Who am I really speaking for? Like, who can I give the most value to? And really making sure that I was capitalizing on that and not trying to answer every single question that any jobseekers ever had before. Because the book Ultimate like this applies to any book that you’re writing. It’s like your book is not for everyone, it should not be for everyone. There’s a very specific avatar that you should be writing to when you’re writing a book, right? And so I feel like sometimes, you know, talking with a lot of authors on their welcome call as well, you know, I’ll hear that and they’ll say, you know, I’m writing this book for everybody. It’s for, you know, anybody aged 15 to 75 in every industry that they work at, you know, And it’s like, okay, get that. Who who can you really serve, though? And really trying to like dig into into that target audience. So that’s that’s just like to getting started.
Chandler Bolt [00:09:08] So narrow the avatar that you’re writing to obviously that’s something that you’ve coached people up on as they’re coming into the program and working through the process. And something you, you walked out yourself. One thing we talk about and this is in my book, page 58, is the four pillars of a bestselling book, right Person, Pain, Promise, Price. And so obviously, Michael, what you were just speaking to is that the first P in the four piece of a bestselling book is the person and getting very specific on one person that, you know, that is that person and then writing the book to that person. And so I love that you said narrow the avatar. Don’t try to write to everyone. I think it’s, you know, probably one of the biggest mistakes that we see authors make in the Riches are in the niches. So you’re going to think this is too small of an audience. And but I mean, it’s it’s if if you feel that way it’s probably because you’ve gotten specific and that’s what’s Michael for you what’s what’s been the biggest thing that sold the most books over the years?
Michael Lachance [00:10:09] Yeah, that’s a really great question. Honestly, I went, so I was kind of like, Stop doing this and there’s a reason why. But the biggest thing was going through Amazon ads and creating like ads. So when I first was launching my book, I went like super, super, super wide. That was one of the things my coaches taught me. Lisa And she and she told me, Just go super wide with your keywords. So what I mean by that is when you’re first setting up Amazon ads on Amazon for your book, you can select I don’t know if there’s actually a limit or not, but you can select the number of keywords that you want to use to help readers find your specific book. And so what I’ve seen done a lot of times is, is authors will start with maybe like 40, 50 words, and they think that’s a lot of words to start off as they’re getting started with their Amazon ads. And so my codes kind of reset that, you know, vision or expectations. She said, you know, don’t do 50 words for your Amazon ad. Start with like 600, right? Like like, you know, get hundreds of keywords because you just you don’t know what’s going to work, what’s not. So I went forward with that. I did a whole bunch of research in an Excel was like just an obnoxious amount of keywords. And then so the real like action, the real thing that you want to do with that is run your ads for, you know, the super wide ads set. Let the data run, right? Like let people click, not click on your keywords so you get some really good data. So I let that run for a couple of weeks and then you want to go back and kind of analyze two things. It’s like it’s really simple as an idea. It’s harder to execute, I think, but it’s like what keywords are delivering results and what keywords are not. So it’s like this constant focus of like optimizing and doubling down on on the words that are working and then just like cutting, trimming the fat of what’s not. So I went through this process a couple of different times, then, you know, run my ad set, get a whole bunch of data, remove 50%, you know, maybe boost up the the bid for different keywords or just like find different ways to like include different variations of that keyword. And so just really trying to like find those those niche kind of keywords and and just went through that process like probably three or four different times.
Chandler Bolt [00:12:18] Hmm. That’s good. I like that. Well, that’s cool. Thanks for sharing personal experience with your book. I want to dive into some of the calls. And just like lessons learned from having a bunch of calls in the trenches with our authors, I guess before I do that, knowing what you know now, strictly based on your personal experience, what would be your advice from the Michael from years ago or the advice from the other Michaels who are thinking about writing their first book?
Michael Lachance [00:12:44] Writing the first book, I think honestly, like. That’s a really good question. I think, honestly, it’s finding accountability and community. Writing a book, it’s such a lonely activity. It can be write like it’s the activity that you’re doing when it’s dark out in the morning while the rest of the world is sleeping. It’s you looking at a blank page. It’s yeah, it’s it’s an activity that, like you and you alone are moving forward 99% of the time, unless you’re, like, coauthoring a book or something. But my biggest piece of advice is like, connect with like minded people who are also going through that experience together because you just you don’t know what you’re going to learn from other people who are also going through the process. But I think the even bigger piece there is this is now not an individual kind of effort that you’re doing alone in the dark. This is a a community of people who are all working and striving towards the same goal and objectives. So I think like, yeah, for me, before self-publishing school, if I wanted to write a book before I even knew this company existed, I would most definitely. Whether that’s an accountability partner, whether it’s signing up to our program just to be like literally immersed in thousands of people who are also writing and publishing a book. It’s find that group of people who will support you, who will guide you, who will, you know, kind of like a personal trainer does give you that extra boost when when you really need it, when you feel like giving up, you don’t feel like you can do that extra rep. And that’s where really like the community can really help drive results, get you to write and ultimately publish your book.
Chandler Bolt [00:14:13] Hmm, that’s good. That’s really good. And side note, before we talk about the are the lessons learned from all these girls, because I’ve always thought that you should do a sequel or maybe not always thought I was asking about this recently to do a sequel for your book that skipped the resumé. Get the Job about nontraditional ways to stand out in the hiring process, and how to get how to get you know, you’ve got the one that’s like, all right, here’s how to make your resume better and to get past screening and all that stuff. But then there’s that, as you’ve seen and we’ve seen, you know, just hiring a bunch of people over the years, there’s a lot of things outside of the resume that help you stand out and actually get the job. Absolutely. So, yeah, I don’t know. There’s hope for you in this.
Michael Lachance [00:14:55] This is part of that, like just being in the community.
Chandler Bolt [00:14:57] You know.
Michael Lachance [00:14:59] This going to be another asset that I just have. So who knows?
Chandler Bolt [00:15:03] Yeah. Well, so let’s talk about what I’m going to write down that title real quick. Just I don’t for forget it. But so you’ve talked you’ve done over 2101 of mine calls with authors sometimes at the I guess two main places. One is at the beginning of the journey and what we call like a welcome call or orientation call. So you’re one of you and you’re in now, really, your team is one of the first people that someone’s talks to as soon as they’ve signed up and they’re ready to get rolling in the process. Right. And so there’s those welcome calls that you’re seeing a lot of people at that beginning journey, which is I think is a unique moment in time itself. It’s like right after you just committed and you’ve paid and it’s like, oh my gosh, am I really doing this? So there’s that phase. But then you’ve also had a bunch of one on one conversations with people checking in. I guess oftentimes when they just need that knowledge of. Right. They’ve been sitting on this rough draft for a while and they haven’t finished and we want to get them reengage, get them back in of of with milestones. And so we want to call this like a milestone check in call or something. So how can we help you take the next step. So two very different parts of the journey and probably everywhere in between. But I guess just zooming out globally of those calls, what do you feel like is the number one or maybe the top one or two challenges that you see our authors face throughout the process of getting their book done in published successfully?
Michael Lachance [00:16:25] Yeah, that’s a really good question. The one that comes to mind immediately and this is why we introduced the milestone. Second calls to begin with writing a book. We use this analogy quite a bit. Writing a book is a lot like running a marathon, but like running a marathon is really about a whole bunch of little, little, little, little steps along the way. So the biggest, biggest, biggest thing by far is authors coming in with very high expectations about what they can achieve in the next, you know, day, week, month, year, which is great. Like, I don’t want to discourage big dreams and and big goals. Like, that’s not what I’m trying to say here, but it’s the the belief that, you know, there’s no feet in between the mile. Right. So so the goal and objective here it’s like what is a actionable, specific measurable goal that you can achieve like between today and tomorrow or between today and 9:00 PM. So what is that thing that you know that you can get done? So rather than thinking about this as like, I need to write 30,000 words by the end of May, right now, what is a goal that I can achieve today that I can do? So I’m going to, you know, achieve a big result for myself. I’m very clear about what my goal is. So I’m not not looking at 30,000 words anymore. I might be looking at 500. And I think there’s a lot of. Just momentum that is built from from taking actions and setting goals like that. So it’s not you know, it’s that little, little, little step like this book isn’t going to be written, you know, in seconds. This is going to take some work. Right. And oftentimes what I’ve noticed is, you know, the biggest point when authors start to get like kind of stuck or slowed up in the process is when they’re not getting those little wins, right, Like when they’re not hitting their daily writing goal. So I think one of the biggest things here and I just give this is like encouragement to anybody listening is set for yourself a goal that you can achieve. That was the other word I wanted to use earlier, achievable goal that you can that you can do today. Right. And focus on achieving that. So try and bucket and just like break down your big goals into smaller chunks Really focus in and dive in on those and then build up the wins over the course of days, weeks, months to, to knock out your rough draft or publish your book.
Chandler Bolt [00:18:40] Hmm. That’s great. And I think a really great point because, you know, big goals are great, but not if they become a crippling force weighing down on you. Right? They’re if they’re an inspirational beacon in front of you. Awesome. But I think you’re totally right, because I’ve obviously seen this with a bunch of our authors, too, is is when you have this crazy goal and then you fall short, then you start beating yourself up, You feel like I’m not making any progress. Then you take a week or two off, then it feels like, okay, it’s this this wheel that I’ve got to get pushed and moving again. And so often it’s if we can just get an author, say, Hey, what’s the minimum? Like the smallest thing that you can commit to every single day over the next week? Okay. Is that 50 words a day? Great. Write 50 words a day and just do that. But start to build those mini habits and you’ll start feeling a sense of accomplishment. And then now it feels like a totally different process that you’re going through. So I love that advice. I want to zoom in on maybe the the reverse season.
Michael Lachance [00:19:41] Yeah, just real quick. So Alison is awesome. So she’s doing she’s writing a lot of her welcome calls. I know she’s fantastic. And she shared this this thing at a at a recent offsite. And sometimes authors are really struggling like, you know, is 500 words too little like what what should that actionable goby. And so she just said can you write three words today, like just as simple as that. Can you write three words today? Well, yeah, of course I can write three words. But those are like the kind of like small wins that really help build up momentum and just like compounding interest, if you will, in the long term, kind of like vision and goal of your book. So no goal is too small if it’s achievable and moving you in the right direction.
Chandler Bolt [00:20:23] That’s good. So let’s zoom in on the welcome call and the starting point. Obviously, I don’t even know how many hundreds, if not over a thousand of those that you’ve done over time. So that’s yeah, I guess it’s a starting line for a lot of our authors. What do you what do you see on those calls? What kind of emotions are you seeing and what are the biggest challenges that you see people facing in that moment that keeps them from getting started?
Michael Lachance [00:20:48] MM Yeah, kind of alluding back to my, my earlier ideas that I shared there, but it’s almost like you’ve got two groups of people, Almost one group of people are just like crazy excited to finally be doing the thing that they’ve been thinking of doing for months, for years, for decades. I’ve talked to some authors who have like been wanting to write and publish their book for like 25 years. And and they’re just so excited that they finally made that commitment to like, I’m going to do this thing now. And so when they get into the welcome call, it’s like, this is the biggest step that I’ve just made toward the success of my book. This is this is huge. So that’s one group of people, and then the other group is more of like that deer in headlights look where it’s like, okay, I just did this make this decision. This is a very big goal. This is, you know, Mt. Everest is way up there. The peaks really high. How am I going to get there? And then so, you know, my my biggest piece of advice at that point is, again, just like, what is the one little goal that we can focus on today? There’s really two things. What is the small little goal that I can focus on today to move forward? But then but then too, it’s it’s kind of like the same thing, but it’s like, what things can I remove from my thought process that is getting in the way of me taking action. So rather than again, rather than looking at the full mountain, it’s like we don’t need to think about book marketing. We don’t need to think about book cover, we don’t need to think about ads. We don’t even think about Amazon. You know, what are the things that we can cut out because we just want to focus on. Like right now, your one goal is the is the mind map. That is the milestone. Until the milestone is done, you’re not going to move to your outline. And so you’re done, your outline, you’re not going to move to a rough draft. So I think, yeah, it’s really clarifying what that what that next milestone is, what the next goal is. And then just giving like permission, if you will, to cut out the rest because a lot of people come in, got all these questions about every single part of the writing process. And so sometimes it’s a little bit like what I want to do so much like, you know, I. Have all these questions. I’m really excited to actually launch my book, but it’s like to totally get that and it’s amazing. I’m really excited for you. What’s the one thing that’s going to get us closer then that happens? Like the rest of it is going to happen?
Chandler Bolt [00:22:58] Yeah, that’s so fantastic. And for those who aren’t firmly familiar with this, and if you’re watching the YouTube video, turn to page 17 of the book. It’s in the book. It’s in our programs. It’s also if you just go to my book published and look on the Amazon page, you can see this image that I’m referencing. But the process is eight milestones. And so the process that Michael talked about, which I think is really important and we try to help people do what’s the next milestone, right? The mind map, the outline, rough draft. So the first for the more writing method. So my Matt outline rough draft editing. Right? And so how do you how do you finish the next milestone and then till you get there, nothing else matters. And so I love that almost the addition and subtraction that that you’re communicating on that first clause like, okay, what are we adding? What’s the habit that we can commit to? And then what are we subtracting? Which is we’re not going to think about it. We’re not going to watch videos on it, we’re not going to skip ahead to it. We’re only going to focus in the here and now. I think that’s a really great kind of focusing point for authors. You know, it’s almost like you’ve done this a thousand times. I really do.
Michael Lachance [00:24:04] I literally.
Chandler Bolt [00:24:05] Have.
Michael Lachance [00:24:05] Sometimes sometimes like the cutting out piece is like, hard for people to hear, right? Because like, yes, I’ve been like.
Chandler Bolt [00:24:11] Gosh, yes.
Michael Lachance [00:24:12] It’s like, but what do you mean? Like I came to you. You’re the expert. You should know the answers to all these things. And it’s like, trust me, I am the expert here and this is the expert path, if you take it from yourself.
Chandler Bolt [00:24:24] Yeah.
Michael Lachance [00:24:25] You know, And so, yeah, that’s truly what it comes down to you.
Chandler Bolt [00:24:28] Now I want to talk about kind of some commonalities in type of authors that we work with and on the successful side and on the unsuccessful side. So let’s start with our most successful authors. You’ve been here for years, so you’ve had kind of the blessing of not just saying, Hey, good luck, and then you don’t get to see it, but you actually get to see kind of full circle stories that you were on the first call with your circle. But what are some of the commonalities, maybe two or three that you see of our most successful authors?
Michael Lachance [00:24:58] Yeah, Yeah. I think the first one that comes to mind. And so you need to be coachable, right? Because like right off, right off the bat, you know, we’ve got a, a process that we’ve refined over years over thousands of authors that really works, right? So that’s number one too, is, is understanding what their outcome is, what their ideal goal is. Right. So and what I mean by that is, is, you know, the most successful people know exactly who they’re writing their book to, right? They know exactly what problem they’re helping solve. And then so that removes, honestly, a lot of the guesswork involved in terms of what should I include in my book, what should I not include in my book? How do I know when my rough draft is done? How do I not know when my rough draft is done right? And so, you know, obviously we help a lot. We help with the kind of like the thought process behind that with our with our coaching. Right. Is like really trying to narrow in on that that target audience and the problem that that we’re helping themselves. But that would be number two I think honestly those are the two most actually in author I’ll throw in a third one a very give first mentality. Okay. And so what I’ve noticed in the community with some of our most successful authors, like very tip forward the like the go giver people where it’s like it’s not only they’re not only here to to receive, but they’re also here to give. And there’s just such a power and community and value and reciprocity that comes from being like the go giver person inside of the group. And so you’ll notice those people, Carol Wylie is one that comes to mind immediately. Leslie Davis You know, they’re always trying to like give first inside of the community there to support her and, you know, always encouraging people. And and these are authors who have published like multiple books, right? They’d been there, they done that. And I think like, yeah, just by them getting more involved in being like, give first, it really just helps helps other authors, but it also really helps them because yeah, there’s that element of reciprocity.
Chandler Bolt [00:26:59] MM Yeah. Now what about our least successful authors? What are the common traits and things that either derail people or they just want to have success? Like what are the things that people listening to this or watching this can avoid if they want to have success with their book?
Michael Lachance [00:27:12] Yeah, I think. There is maybe one or one or two key traits. You know, it’s kind of the flip side of the first one being uncomfortable. And I know that that’s kind of like a kind of like a harsh word in my opinion. But I guess what I mean by that is like, you know, there’s I’ve worked with some authors who have came into our program and they’re incredibly set in terms of like what they want their cover to look like, what their book is going to be like, who they’re writing it to, You know, the axiom that people are going to take after their book.
Chandler Bolt [00:27:42] And.
Michael Lachance [00:27:44] You know, there’s almost like this disconnect between, like the content that you’re including in your book and who you’re writing to and kind of like the outcome that you’re hoping to get and receive by publishing the book. And, you know, we’re here for a really good purpose, and we’ve helped literally thousands of people through this process. So I think like the biggest thing that stands out is just like totally understanding. There’s there’s just going to be like a little bit of give and take and kind of like understanding where our expertise really comes in to help you maximize the impact that you want to have through our expertise. So I think that’s just a really big one and it’s just being like, you know, and it’s okay for authors to ask, well, why do you recommend that? Why should I not do this? Why should I do that? Right. Like, this is why you’re here is to learn. But I think, like, it’s that Ted Lasso quote. I knew I had to throw Ted Lasso in here somewhere. It’s actually a Walt Whitman quote. But be curious, not judgmental. Right. So it’s just learning to be a little bit more curious about the book publishing process and why we’re recommending certain things, because there’s a lot of reasons behind it. There’s a lot of experience and two decades worth of experience behind some of the things that we’re recommending. So I think that would honestly be the biggest one.
Chandler Bolt [00:28:52] That’s a good one. And it you know, we’ve seen this play out a lot where people come in and they’re like, Well, I want it this way. It’s like, well, why did you hire us? And we have seen this play out thousands of times. Obviously, we’ve published thousands and thousands and thousands of books. And so but I love the curious, not judgmental, because I think we have to make sure that we’re doing that on our side just as much as they do. Right. Because there’s definitely preferences that the author has, which is like, all right, we want to honor those preferences and also challenge them to make sure that they’re truly doing what’s going to set their book up for success. And and so I think that is that that nice and fun balance. And I love the TED Lasso. Season three is out there watching it. Yeah, I.
Michael Lachance [00:29:39] Know.
Chandler Bolt [00:29:40] I know it’s a big TED lesson plan as well. So final question or two and then we’ll wrap up knowing what you know now from your thousands of calls with authors, in your personal experience, what would be your parting piece of advice for people who are thinking about going on this journey? Or maybe they just joined in? They’re listening to this episode.
Michael Lachance [00:30:02] Yeah, Yeah, I think so. This, I think, applies to people who who haven’t yet signed up, who are interested, but also people who are currently going through the process is is. It’s give and take from both our side and the author’s side. But just really like, what’s your very next step? I always come back to this philosophy and it’s something that I’ve like not done well enough in the past, but it’s like the author, Here’s your very next step, like this is what you need to do next. And then also, if the author is kind of unsure what we’re going to be doing for them, it’s that like, okay, what is your very next step in terms of this relationship? Like like how how are you going to be supporting me in this process, too? So I think, you know, it’s just it’s so fundamentally important that we’ve got a plan of action in place, like whether you’ve talked to a member on our team that, you know, maybe didn’t sign up right away. What’s your very next step after you have that phone call with with somebody on our team, what is your next step? But clearly, this book was super important for you. You have a passion for it. You made a decision to have a phone call with us. So if you’re not going to sign up, what is your next step? Is it to dive into our content, get started on your mind map, etc.? And even for authors that are currently in the program, and this is something that I really try and do at the end of all of my calls is like, okay, here’s our very next step. Like, here’s the very next thing that we’re going to be doing after this phone call. And then so it’s like the fog of war is kind of like removed because you know that you’re moving toward a destination. You might not see the destination yet. It might be off. But like this is the very next step that’s going to help you get there. So I think that would be like no matter where you’re at in the process is what is your very next step?
Chandler Bolt [00:31:44] That’s great.
Michael Lachance [00:31:45] Yeah.
Chandler Bolt [00:31:46] That’s really great. And that’s something that Shaun and I similar. Not quite as succinct as that question, which I love, but talk about on the the group coaching call for the author advantage accelerator authors is we always start out with hey what’s your number one win or things in the last week that you’re proud of and then always in with hey what’s your number one goal for the next week? Hmm. So or what is success look like for the next week? What’s your number one goal? So kind of having that that that mentality or building that habit of All right celebrate the win get clear on the next step or the goal for the next week. Celebrate the win, get clear on the goal for the next week. And it’s the cadence that I think works really well for our authors in a cadence that works really well internally for our team and and all that good stuff. So last question, Michael, you’re you’re pulling double duty author Advantage life. You got some awards that you’re going to be announcing. Yeah. Some of our authors, which is really exciting. And then you’re also giving a talk So what are you speaking about and author advantage live and why should people get a ticket and show up?
Michael Lachance [00:32:47] Yeah, so I’m super excited. I’ve been to a couple of author advantage lives both in person and your virtual but this is an amazing experience. So yeah, the awards ceremony is amazing. So what we do there just real quick is, you know, we, we are helping tons of authors publish their books like every single week. And so one of the things that we’d like to do is to help authors promote themselves in their book to a wider audience as we do a cover contest. So best designed cover. So we do a bit of like voting internally. And then we also ask the community for a little bit of guidance and support. And and, you know, ultimately we leave it to attendees to vote on their favorite cover. Usually it’s between four or five different covers. So that is a really exciting thing. And then my other presentation, my other talk here is starting with the end in mind with your author brand, right? So kind of you said this earlier, but like, what is your definition of success? Like what does success look like? So it’s really starting with that like fundamental question before you start building the blueprint, the house, right? So it’s like whenever you’re building a house, you start with the blueprint. First, you’re defining what success looks like. So I think in this similar way, it’s like when you’re building an author brand, you’re starting with the end in mind and then you’re doing, you know, the steps, the very next steps to help you get closer to that, to that author brand. So it should be really, really amazing.
Chandler Bolt [00:34:02] And a lot to look forward to. You’re going to miss it if you don’t have a ticket and you don’t show up for other events. Live guys, we’d love to have you there if you haven’t heard about it. It’s our three day live virtual experience happening in June. Ticket prices are going up real soon, and hopefully you’re seeing this or hearing this before the event. So there’s still time to get a ticket. Go to author at Vintage live dot com and grab a ticket okay author vanish live dot com. There’s general admission there’s VIP pick the one that works best for you but no matter what you do get a ticket. Get in that room. It’s the power of getting in a room with people that are like minded, that have similar goals. It’s a virtual experience, so we’ve made it as easy as possible for you to attend. All you have to do is we’ve made the ticket super cheap and really affordable and all you have to do is get one and show up. So hopefully we’ll see you there. Author Vintage Live. Michael, last question. Where can people go to grab a copy of your book?
Michael Lachance [00:35:02] Yeah, let’s go. So two different ways. So if you go to Amazon.com or dots here because I’m Canadian Chateau Canada and land your dream job, this is the cover that you’re looking for right here. Alternatively, if you go to Facebook.com for its last land, your dream job, you’ll see a couple of different like posts and templates that I include in the book that you can start taking action on today.
Chandler Bolt [00:35:21] All right. And if you can’t, if you’re listening so you can’t see it, it’s a bull’s eye with an airplane. That’s your resume. All right. So the book is called Land Your Dream Job. Grab a copy. Grab a ticket for author events live and we’ll see you there. Thanks, Michael.
Michael Lachance [00:35:38] Thanks so much, Chandler.