Before The Bestseller

Latest Episodes:

BTB22: Tyler Wagner on How Authors Hit the WSJ Bestsellers List Apr 05, 2022

Show notes

Tyler Wagner is the founder of Authors Unite where they’ve helped hundreds of authors become WSJ bestsellers.
After learning how to self publish back in the early days of Amazon publishing - he’s build an empire helping others do the same.
I wanted to know what it takes to become a WSJ bestselling author so I brought on Tyler to talk about their exact system for doing so.
He's also a crazy cool entrepreneur going from 3K a month to 8-figures and so I wanted to talk to him about his entrepreneurial journey.

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BTB21: Unhackable | Kary Oberbrunner Mar 30, 2022

Show notes

You’re sitting down either at a dinner or in a presentation with your boss and you feel a buzz in your pocket. You reach down to grab your phone to see what notification has popped up and realize there’s no notification.
You just experienced a ghost buzz. We’re so used to our phones buzzing all the time that we’re actually now feeling buzzes when we’re not even getting a text.
This is just one of the many ways you’re being hacked in the modern world.
I’m not some conspiracy theorist who thinks there’s someone out to get us all - I think it’s just a side effect of the modern world. The sad thing is - if you continue to get distracted every hour of every day - you’ll fail to engage in meaningful work. And if you fail to hit your goals week, after week, you’ll end up with a life of regret - and I’m not joking.
I’ve spent months in this vicious cycle.
But luckily all you have to do is build a few systems around your work and time - it’s that easy. I’ve done this through tools like newsfeed eradicator, turning all notifications off on my phone except calls and texts, and even setting my phone to black and white to make it less addicting.

Kary Oberbrunner wrote Unhackable to solve this problem (and just listening to his voice is so incredibly soothing). He's also a USA today and WSJ bestselling author of over 7 books - one of which - Unhackable has been praised by the likes of Benjamin Hardy and Dan Sullivan for giving you your life back.

It’s a powerful message I believe can help you have less regret at the end of your life.

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BTB20: How Mike Cohen sold 10,000+ copies of Nuerofeedback 101 Mar 21, 2022

Show notes

In this episode we have our second interview with Mike Cohen about how he actually sold 10,000 copies of Neurofeedback 101.
According to publishers weekly, the average book in America sells about 500 copies, multiply that by 20 and you’ll get the number of copies the Neurofeedback has sold.
For those of you interested in writing a book - here’s how you write and market something that sells more than 500 copies.
Neurofeedback 101 on Amazon

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BTB19: Neurofeedback 101 | Mike Cohen Mar 18, 2022

Show notes

Welcome back to Before the Bestseller.

Moving forward I’m going to release two episodes for each author, the what - meaning we talk about the content of the book and the how - how the author actually became not just an author but a bestselling author.

Listeners who just want to hear from their favorite authors can listen to the what and those who want to listen to the how can listen to those and if you’re like me, and love both sides, then every episode is for you.

We’ll also have guests on time to time who aren’t authors but are deeply rooted within the industry - we’ll label these episodes, the who.

With that being said, here’s our first What episode with bestselling author, 10,000+ copies sold, Dr. Michael Cohen, on to talk about his book, Neurofeedback 101. For those of you who are like, "that sounds familiar", neurofeedback was mentioned in the top selling book, the body keeps the score (another book we’ve highlighted in a previous episode with Bessel van der Kolk M.D.). It’s a growing field of medicine which can provide for a more natural alternative for things like Adderall, Xanax and a lot of other pharmaceutical drugs. This is personal for me as I’ve had a lot of friends minds get screwed up from being overprescribed medicines when healthier alternatives exist without all the nasty side effects. I’m not a doctor and this isn’t the right solution for everyone but I think it’s worth having a listen and figuring out for yourself whether it could be right for you or someone you know.

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BTB18: The Body Keeps The Score | Bessel van der Kolk M.D. Jan 19, 2022

Show notes

My guest today is the 8th bestselling author in the world at the time of this recording.
His name is Bessel van der Kolk M.D. and his book is The Body Keeps the Score.
Odds are that you may have heard of this book.
Originally released in September of 2014 - that’s over 7 years ago.
Each year the book sells more and more and has become a global sensation, gaining fandom in eastern and western societies.
The Book, The Body Keeps The Score is a defining moment for healing trauma in our society and explores the science behind the movement away from prescriptions used to cover up symptoms, to truly resolving the trauma which plagues us.
The funny thing is that the book was never meant for such a wide audience. Bessel wrote it to move the study of trauma forward within his field but it accidentally found its way into the hands of people like you and I, who are using it to see and understand trauma in a new light.
A special thanks to Licia Sky who was behind the scenes in making this episode possible.
For those of you listening on the day this airs, the book club launches this Friday on the 21st, for those of you interested.
You can join here: https://traumaresearchfoundation.org/lp/trf-book-club/

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BTB17: Book of Failures | Amy Lyle Nov 29, 2021

Show notes

Amy Lyle is the bestselling author of The Book of Failures and We’re All a Mess, It's Okay. Her story is completely unique from anyone else's we’ve had on the show, from how she marketed her books, to the reasons for writing them.

Her book launch cost as much as a wedding, where she had over 300 people physically show up. She also isn’t afraid of getting down and dirty with optimizing the backend of her book and nailed it with her keywords & ads to keep the book selling well beyond the launch.

This all kept her book #1 in the huge amazon category of humor and entertainment for over a year.

She marries traditional book marketing and modern digital marketing so well and so I found her to be an incredible resource for fellow authors.

We also talk about how she gets speaking engagements, TV appearances, and some mistakes she made that you can avoid.

She’s also a stand up comic which makes for a very fun episode.

Amy’s book

Amy’s website

Amy’s Podcast: In the Burbs

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BTB16: The 21 Day Miracle | Ed Rush Nov 22, 2021

Show notes

Ed Rush is a 5 X bestselling author who knows what it’s like to have a book in the top 20 books on all of Amazon. His books have sold 10s of thousands of copies and he’s the master of converting readers into followers.

But he’s not just an author

Ed flew in his combat career as a decorated F-18 pilot, which included over 50 combat missions and 2 tours to Iraq. While in the Marines, Ed served as the one of the country’s leading instructors on aerial dog fighting and recently worked as a key player in the development of the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

He says he’s done all this despite possessing a below average intelligence and, which whether or not that’s true, everything he talks about is so actionable and accessible.

With His book, The 21 Day Miracle, he knows what it takes to make Amazon happy from backend keywords to product optimization. He woke up to hundreds of organic sales from Amazon promoting his book and if I hand’t seen the sales with my own eyes I probably wouldn’t believe it so I had to ask him how he pulled that off.

Ed is an implementer and has such a unique approach to getting things done. We talk about how he changes anything in 21 days. From fasting for 21 days to how he wrote the 21 day Miracle (in 21 days) its my absolute pleasure to talk with Ed Rush.
Ed's Website: https://edrush.com/
The 21 Day Miracle for 99¢

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BTB15: The First 90 Days | Michael D. Watkins Nov 15, 2021

Show notes

Today's guest wrote The First 90 Days, which since its release in November of 2003, has sold over 1.5 million copies. Mention The First 90 Days to anyone in a leadership, management, or HR role and they'll nod while saying, “I’ve read it and annotated it with highlights, writing in the margins, and my copies filled with sticky notes.”
It was on the Business Week's best-seller list for 15 months.
The author, Michael Watkins, went from teaching Corporate Diplomacy at HBS to confounding a leadership development company, Genesis Advisers, where he's worked with hundreds of leaders, including those at many Fortune 200 organizations to help accelerate leadership transitions within their organization.
Look on Amazon today and the book is consistently labeled a bestseller in some of the top Amazon categories, has almost 5,000 reviews, and even just a few days ago, was ranked in the top 700 books. The book's been selling for over a decade and continues to do just that.
The First 90 Days has also been translated into 29+ languages, named top 100 best business books of all time by 800-CEO-Read, named the "onboarding bible" by The Economist, and was listed among Amazon’s Top Business Books to Read in a Lifetime.
I'm excited to chat with Michael about how he was able to craft, not just a timely message that resonated with so many people, but one that’s lived on for going on two decades.
Connect with Michael here
Get on the Genesis Advisors Newsletter here
Join IMD's The First 90 Days Program here

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BTB14: Dave Chesson on becoming the "Kindlepreneur" Nov 08, 2021

Show notes

Today’s guest needs no introduction but I’ll give you one anyway.

Here's the hint: He’s Mr. Kindlepreneur. Not just by his own naming but by Amazon - which actually calls him that themselves.

While overseas in the military, he started building websites. One of his sites, Kindlepreneur, eventually took off with hundreds of thousands of visitors each month.

After hearing about the struggles of authors and reflecting on his own experiences, he built publisher rocket - a tool used by almost every self-published author and major publisher out there.

If fact, I speak from experience, Publisher Rocket is integral to my own business.

Dave and I talk about how he built what he did, his advice for authors in marketing a book in today’s world, and even going from solo-preneur to leading a whole team.

Along the way we also talk about his latest innovation, Atticus, which is an all-in-one writing and book formatting software.

Here’s Dave Chesson of Kindlepreneur.

Kindlepreneur: https://kindlepreneur.com/
Publisher Rocket: https://alexstrathdee--rocket.thrivecart.com/publisher-rocket/
Atticus: https://www.atticus.io/
FREE Amazon Ads Course: https://www.advancedamazonads.com/

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BTB13: The Perfect Day Formula | Craig Ballantyne Oct 26, 2021

Show notes

Craig Ballantyne has written five books, including “The Perfect Day Formula: How to Own the Day and Control Your Life,” which has sold over 25,000 copies and has over 400 reviews on Amazon. His book, Unstoppable, is a WSJ bestselling book. His videos have been watched over 7 million times on YouTube.
He’s built five 7-figure businesses in five different industries, including a $5.5 million/year Turbulence Training business.
I wanted to ask him how he wrote books that still sell today, despite being launched years ago along with asking him about how he does so much with the same time we all have. He’s got some amazing systems that I’ve even started to apply to my own life.
Get more of him on Instagram @RealCraigBallantyne
Get his app on Winningstreak.io using code VXFLG2
Get his books for free: https://www.craigballantyne.com/books/
FREE Amazon Ads Course: www.advancedamazonads.com

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Get the popular weekly book marketing 3-2-1 and get access to our Free Amazon Ads course when you subscribe to our newsletter here: https://getshelflife.com/category/newsletter/

Head to our new website for more content and updates.: www.getshelflife.com

If you're interested in connecting further or have any questions, feel free to email me at Alex@getshelflife.com

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