Most people have something to say, but there’s something magical about writing a book. In this business society where perception is reality, it elevates how people view you. On today’s show, Ken Courtright talks about the book that he and his wife, Kerri Courtright, recently released called Rally. He talks about the process of writing the book and why they were inspired to write it.
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Listen to the podcast here:
Rally To Grow Part 3
I’m going to jump right in and talk about the book, Rally. We were able to get it into 28 different places, including Barnes & Noble. Someone texted me, “You might want to go buy The Wall Street Journal.” We ran out and bought it. We’re not number one Wall Street Journal bestseller, but we did get to number three. It does not look like we’re going to get to number one, but it was cool to see your name in lights after 2.5 years of writing and a year of editing. I can’t wait until Kerri sees it. I’m pretty excited about it.
I want to talk a little bit about the book, what previous books have done for us and why you might, in your own business, decide to go out and write a book. You have to have something to write about, but most of us have something to say. I definitely have done an episode on this before, but not quite like I’m going to cover it now. There’s something magical about writing a book. It elevates how people view you in it’s so vain. In this business society, perception is reality. When you have a book, and I mean a real book, even though we hit the number three on the nonfiction eBooks because the Kindle sales were crazy apparently. It’s a pretty thick book. It’s 309 pages. It’s very heavy. I’m not a big fan of the little thin books. It took a while. We did it right.
I’m going to cover this from a couple of different angles. For those of you that have been thinking about it, the first book I ever wrote had 160 pages. It’s not the greatest piece of work I’ve ever done but it still sells every day. That book catapulted our company. I was a whistleblower for a lot of marketing companies. I shared the story of our first 200 websites that we had grown, some of the mistakes we made, some of the tragedies we bumped into. I think people appreciated the transparency of what was in that book. It was pretty good. This is book number 3 or 4. I did a couple of partnership books with Brian Tracy. I got to say I’m pretty proud of putting a number three Wall Street Journal bestseller in my email signature. I do feel good about that because I know businesspeople judge the next company they’re going to work with, the next partnership they’re going to enter into, in part how like a bank looks at a loan application.
The book that you're about to write or could write might impact a lot more people than you think. Click To TweetThey don’t look at the business idea. They look at who is managing this enterprise. Do they have previous success? Can I count on them? When you have a book and I mean a real book that people can go to Barnes & Noble or Amazon and have it shipped to their house and it’s a physical book. They can read it. They go, “Apparently this person knows what they’re talking about. Other people trust them.” We had some great people do the back and front cover with the endorsements. It worked out really well. Why do a book? Unfortunately, we live in a very cynical society and it does raise your credibility substantially. Why am I writing books? I did not write the book for the email signature. I can promise you that. That was a bit of a surprise. I wrote the book for two reasons. I know the book adds value to people. I had one person do a review.
I’m going to call out Dr. Travis Zigler. Kerri and I’ve tied to Travis’s organization for some time now, EyeLoveCares.org. I’m pretty sure they got back from Jamaica and they go annually. They basically take donations throughout the year and then once a year they fly down and do a lot of eye surgeries, eye therapies, deliver medicines and they fix people. They help people. They give people the ability to see and see longer. It’s a heartwarming operation. If you don’t know where to put your money, try that one. Travis sent me an awesome book review. It was so motivating. It went something like, “Ken, I want you to know, before I read every chapter, I tried to find the supplemental podcast. I’d hear the podcast first, then I read your book with a highlighter.” It was awesome. I cannot say how much I appreciate Travis and Jenna Zigler for what they do. This is definitely a shameless plug for their eye care organization. They’re amazing human beings.
Back to the book, why would Travis want to do a book? Why would anybody reading this want to stop their life and suck it up every weekend for a year-plus and write something meaningful? How about this one? It adds value to people. I cannot tell you how many reviews we had of people saying something like, “I couldn’t wait to get to the next chapter. I couldn’t wait to implement these ideas.” One of the people that reviewed the book immediately said he has heard every one of the 440 podcasts. I know there’s a lot of people that have had done that, but that is some serious effort. I know they wouldn’t be doing it if it didn’t add some value to them. Think about the people that need to hear your story, need to know the business lessons you’ve learned, that you’ve lived through, because you’re still around. You’re still going. I got a funny feeling that the book that you’re about to write or could write might impact a lot more people than you think. It’s going to add value. Somebody asked me, “Why do you think the book was a success?” I think it’s a pretty good book. Rally: 19 Growth Techniques You’ve Never Heard Of, I thought that was a catchy title. I can’t take claim for that. Kerri came up with that.
There are some good nuggets in there. Somebody said, “What’s next?” The book is nothing more than very detailed transcriptions of the podcasts with enhancements. Quite a lot of enhancements. If I mentioned something in a podcast, in the book, I would take a screenshot, show the tools we used and go deep so that everybody reading the book can apply that literally immediately. What’s next? We do have the same editor right now looking at the next 20 to 40 podcasts. That would be a book for startups. It’s getting out of gate. There is another book already in the works only for mature companies, 100-plus people, just high-level strategy stuff. You want to be very careful when you’re consulting to mesh techniques that a 1 to 30-person shop can use compared to a 100 to 2,000. They are totally different techniques. I don’t want to go too long on this one. This is just a shout out for everybody that read the book. I appreciate it. For those of you that went out and bought the book, it means the world to Kerri and me. It was a 2.5-year venture. We could not have bought The Wall Street Journal if it wasn’t for everybody that ran out and bought the book. Thanks so much. You are awesome.
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