Most people don’t realize I didn’t actually write either of my first two books.
I didn’t actually write them.
Now, before I explain what I mean when I say that…
I want to be 100% clear:
The insights and ideas in each of those books DID come straight from my brain.
The frameworks DID come from concepts that I developed.
And the stories DID come from moments in my life.
But the actual words that were written?
The words on the page did NOT come from me directly (at least not exactly).*
*Two notable exceptions being: In Ask, the long letter I wrote to my mom, reprinted in Chapter 7, and in Choose, the short letter I wrote to my sons, reprinted in the Epilogue.
Instead, in each book…
I worked with a team of writers (and editors) to bring those books to life.
And the words actually written were largely an interpretation of the spoken words that came from my mouth, over a series of conversations…
It was a choice I made at the time to ensure the books actually got finished during what was a frenetic, “Empire-Building” season in my business…
But the decision also came at the hidden cost of releasing work that wasn’t quite truly an authentic expression of my personal perspective and unique voice…
In fact, there’s a funny (and strange) story tied to all this (which I’ve only ever shared with a few people), that even to this day still makes me laugh…
1 | The Strange Story of "Mr. Small" & How It's Led to the "BIG Decision" I Made This Week.
When I received the first chapter back from the original ghostwriter that I hired (and later fired) for Ask, the writing read like a Sex in the City novel.
I’m not even joking.
It legit read like full-on fashionista fan fiction…
Imagine:
Carrie Bradshaw typing away in her Manhattan apartment telling the story of the so-called “Mr. Small” and how the The ASK Method was developed.
It was as much of a train wreck as it sounds.
Maybe even worse.
(And by the way, in case you’re wondering, No, I do not have any Manolo Blahnik’s secretly stashed away in my closet – or out in the barn…)
To this day, I have no idea where that ghostwriter came up with that premise and style from our hours and hours of conversation together…
But the experience left a lasting impression on me…
And with this next book that I’m working on right now…
It’s helped me make the decision this week to do things differently:
Because this time, for the first time ever…
I’ve decided to write this next entire book myself.
(Just like this newsletter you’re reading right now.)
No ghostwriter.
No AI.
Warts. Pimples. Frizzy hair.
Real. Raw.
Imperfections and all.
And I’m covering brand new material on a totally different subject…
And I want to get this next book right.
Because I want this next book to speak the unvarnished truth.
So when my kids read it one day, they’ll know they’re reading real words written by their dad.
Not a paraphrased approximation neutered of all its potency.
AND at the same time…
(If I’m to be totally vulnerable…)
This is new (and somewhat uncharted) territory for me…
And I’m a little bit scared because I’ve never done it like this before.
AND because I don’t want to completely screw it up…
I’m gonna be asking for your help on a few things.
Fair enough??
Because ultimately, the whole reason why I’m writing this book in the first place…
Is because I think it could be powerful – perhaps profoundly so – for a lot of people.
Perhaps even you.
At least that’s my hope and mission.
And today, I’ve got something small but specific I’d like to get your feedback…
(Which I’ll circle back to a little bit later.)
But first, let’s begin with the subject of this week’s issue:
“The Life-Changing Magic of Strategic Obsession”
Or to put it another way….
2 | How to Get Better At Anything (Along With Who I'm Obsessively Studying Right Now).
Let me explain…
If you’ve been following my work for any period of time, you know that one of the mantras I obsessively live by is to “Become Your Mentor’s #1 Student”.
It’s one of the few “universal moves” I’ve found that you can repeatedly use to up-level and improve any area of your life – everything from becoming a better marketer to becoming a better parent.
- Identify a voice you resonate with.
- Study everything they teach.
- Become their #1 student.
Three simple steps.
And when it comes to becoming a better writer and more successful author…
While I’ve been recently re-reading everything from Bird by Bird by Ann Lamonte, The Book You Were Born to Write by Kelly Notaras (in which Ask ironically gets a shoutout), and pretty much everything written by Steven Pressfield…
There is one voice I’ve been studying more obsessively than anyone else over the last few weeks, and his name is one that I’m guessing most people reading this right now have never heard of.
Charlie Hoehn.
AKA this guy here (see below).
Who is Charlie Hoehn, exactly?
Well, he just so happens to be arguably the #1 expert in the world on the topic of…
3 | How to Sell A Million Copies of Your Non-Fiction Book (& The Principles You Can Still Use Even if You Never Get Close...)
So get this…
Did you know:
There are over 500,000 books published every year. And fewer than 20 sell over a million copies in their lifetime?
(It’s true.)
Now, the reason why I’ve been studying Charlie Hoehn’s work so obsessively, is because he is the guy quietly behind a disproportionate number of the 20x million-copy sellers each year, every year – and has been for nearly the last two decades…
In fact, he has been involved with some of the biggest non-fiction book launches in recent memory – like David Goggin‘s memoir Can’t Hurt Me, which has sold over 5 Million+ Copies…
As well as more recent book launches from several friends of mine, like Million Dollar Weekend, by Noah Kagan, and Main Street Millionaire, by Codie Sanchez (set to release next month)…
He’s also played a role in some of the biggest category defining books (and book launches) that I’ve been closely studying, including Atomic Habits by James Clear (15 Million+ Copies Sold). and The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck, by Mark Manson (10 Million+ Copies Sold).
I was first introduced to Charlie’s work awhile back from Tucker Max, a friend of mine who also happens to be a 3x NYT bestselling memoirist, and someone who has worked with Charlie for years…
(If you know Tucker, then you know he has strongly-held opinions about pretty much everything and everyone in his life, good or bad, and he’s not shy about letting you know about it. Charlie is one the few people I’ve ever heard Tucker offer such effusive praise…)
So I started paying close attention to Charlie’s work.
But, to be perfectly honest…
Things didn’t really *click* for me until just this past week, when I had the opportunity to attend a private book-writing workshop hosted by a friend of mine, Jayson Gaignard for his MMT Community featuring Charlie, titled: “How to Sell A Million Copies of Your Non-Fiction Book.”
And it was on this session (which you see here below) where I had an epiphany…
4 | The Trick to Figuring Out What Actually Matters.
Whenever I’m looking to rapidly up-level my knowledge or skill in an area, a question I always like to quickly get to the bottom of is this:
What’s the seemingly small thing that’s actually a really big thing in disguise? What should I be obsessing over? What is it that actually matters?
Like for example…
On the journey of starting our family farm, when it came to site selection a few years ago, working with my permaculture mentor, Ben Falk, author of The Resilient Farm and Homestead (pictured with me below), I learned about the importance of hydrology and obsessing over being “Top of Watershed”.
Being “Top of Watershed” means owning the highest point of land where water naturally collects and begins its journey downhill into rivers, lakes, and streams, so no property owner “above you” can pollute, disrupt, or steal the water supply flowing onto your site…
Literally owning the mountain.
And this makes sense, right?
But the problem is, it happens to be really hard to find a site that’s both “top of watershed” (owning the top of the mountain) and which also has “State Ag” soil (the highest quality, most fertile soil in your state, best suited for agriculture) which is most typically found closer to floodplains, flatlands, and river valleys.
Finding a contiguous parcel that’s simultaneously both “Top of Watershed” and which has “State Ag Soil” (along with checking off all your other property boxes) is something you need to obsess over to have any chance of finding it.
It’s a seemingly small thing, that’s actually a really big thing in disguise.
And it turns out…
If you want to “Sell A Million Copies of Your Book” (or even a few thousand), there are a few “seemingly small but actually big” things you need to obsess over to give yourself a fighting chance.
Including…
5 | Three (Non-Obvious) Insights I've Picked Up Studying Charlie's Work Over the Last Several Weeks...
Now, in terms of selling a bunch of copies of your non-fiction book…
When it comes to figuring out what to obsess over, there are a few obvious things that you’d expect to be mission-critical:
Like, your book cover.
(Turns out people judge them.)
And of course, your book title.
(Turns out you should test the hell out of it.)
Stories and segues are also important.
And there are a few tests you can use to help assess your chances for million-copy commercial success, like:
- Test #1: Are You The Personal Embodiment of Your Book?
- Test #7: Is Your Book Both Timely & Timeless?
- Test #9: Is Buying & Gifting Your Book a Total No-Brainer?
(By the way, if you’re paying close attention right now then you’ve probably picked up on the fact that each of these tests not only apply to books – but also to any product of yours that you hope to be a perennial bestseller…)
These tests are pulled from a comprehensive free resource Charlie put together years ago called 12 Tests to Maximize Your Potential to Sell A Million Copies. It’s a super-detailed list representing the key factors that most impact your ability to sell a metric ton copies of your book (or not).
Heads up: These 12 tests actually break down to a much longer list of 108 questions to examine in detail. And fair warning: It’s a lot.
BUT, it turns out…
When you actually sit down and analyze this comprehensive list of 108 questions (read: Upload the list and stick it into ChatGPT) there are only handful of important (but not immediately obvious) insights that emerge, that give us clues into what we should be obsessing over:
Insight #1: Emotional Connection through Shared Pain.
(i.e. In your book, you must create a deep sense of personal identity and community belonging with your reader.)
Insight #2: Category Redefining Positioning.
(i.e. Through your book, you must create a new category or strategically reframe one or more big existing problems.)
Insight #3: Operate in Decades Not in Years.
(i.e. With your book, you must create a product where the book itself does the heavy marketing lift – strategically designed to drive a decade or more worth of distribution.)
After all, as Nassim Taleb has famously written:
“To write a book that will be read in twenty years, write one that would have been read twenty years ago.”
BUT here’s the thing.
There is one thing that Charlie talks about that is NOT on the list of 12 Tests & 108 questions.
It’s not anywhere to be found in that publicly-available article.
In fact, I was so surprised by this, that I had to do a Control + F to make sure I didn’t miss it.
And to be honest, it’s shocked me that it’s not even mentioned.
Because it’s something that Charlie talked about extensively on the private workshop earlier this week…
An insight that was so simple, yet so profound that when he shared it, it led to arguably the biggest epiphany I’ve had from anything I’ve learned from Charlie.
It didn’t have to do with title…
It didn’t have to do with cover…
Instead, it had to do with your table of contents…
6 | The TOC Epiphany
In many ways, a book is the perfect product.
The packaging is built into the product.
The marketing is built into the product.
A physical book claims physical real estate in a reader’s personal space.
An audiobook injects hours of your voice directly into a listener’s brain.
Like we talked about in an an earlier issue of this newsletter: Issue [#020] Going Analog: The Ultimate Zig? – The combination of a physical book + audiobook is a very strong move right now in this New Digital Era.
In short: A book IS the perfect product.
Except for one little problem:
As the author Morgan Housel has famously quipped:
“People don’t remember books; they remember sentences.”
And therein lies a clue.
The reason why James Clear has sold 15 million copies of Atomic Habits …
And why BJ Fogg has “only” sold a few hundred thousand copies of Tiny Habits (essentially the same book) has to do with the following:
James Clear’s “Strategic Obsession” with the seemingly small things that are actually really big things in disguise…
AND it turns out, one of those big things in disguise is your Table of Contents….
Because each line in your TOC is a sentence.
A sentence that is either remembered, or not…
A sentence that can drive intrigue or ambivalence…
A sentence that can leave people salivating at their mouth…
Desperately wanting to read the ensuing words on the page…
OR a sentence that’s forgettably forgotten…
The TOC is the window into your work…
The WIIFM for your reader…
And the TOC can be the life or death difference between success and failure of your book…
(Nevermind selling a million copies.)
In other words, your Table of Contents is one of the seemingly small things that’s actually one of the really big things in disguise…
7 | And This is Where I'd Like to Ask for Your Help...
Because with this new book I’m now weeks into writing, I’ve been obsessing over the TOC for nearly a month now and it’s making my eyes blur…
Every morning, when I wake up to write at 4:45 AM, over the last three weeks…
I’ve structured and restructured the TOC a dozen different times in a dozen different ways…
And I know that all this endless back and forth means it’s time to get some external feedback before going round and round in circles yet again.
Because after all: When you’re inside the bottle, you can’t read the label.
And here’s what I’m looking for help with here today:
I’m looking for 10 people (no more at this point) who are interested in giving their feedback on the table of contents for my next upcoming book.
Qualifications are as follows:
- You’ve followed my work for at least 3 years…
- You read at least 20 non-fiction books per year…
- You’re a native English speaker…
If this is you, and you’re feeling inspired and energized to spend 15-20 minutes within the next 48 hours to provide detailed, specific feedback about the TOC for my next upcoming book…
Here’s What to Do Next:
Please shoot me an email a short paragraph about WHY you’re interested in doing this (along with a little about your background as a reader/writer/editor/author/student etc…) and why you think you’d be a great FIT for this.
First, it’ll mean the absolute world to me; Second, I think it will be interesting and fun; and Third, it will ultimately help me better serve YOU with a book that you are absolutely stoked to read.
Make sense?
And just to be clear, I’m not sharing the current TOC any more widely than with a total of 10 readers right now because there’s a very good chance that the TOC will change – quite possibly significantly – based on this initial round of feedback.
So by jumping in on this, you’re going to have an opportunity to get a very early glimpse of this project in way that very few people will ever get to see…
(AND if you’re selected as one of the 10, you’ll of course have an opportunity to get early access to content from the book, before it’s released to the public…)
Along with all sorts of other neat little perks, like being mentioned in the book :-)
Cool cool??
Awesome!
So if you’re interested – do me a favor and get in touch with a short paragraph to let me know why you’d love to be part of this project :-)
Okay, I’ll leave you with that for today.
I look forward to hearing from you…
And in the meantime, remember:
The Life-Changing Magic of “Strategic Obsession” (for rapidly improving any area of your life or business) all comes down to three simple questions:
- What’s the seemingly small thing that’s actually a really big thing in disguise?
- What should you be obsessing over?
- What is it that actually matters?
Until next week,
Ryan :-)
