Book Tour Profits & Speaking Engagements With Erica Ormsby

Today I’m talking to one of my clients, Erica Ormsby. 

Erica is actually doing a nationwide book tour/speaking tour, which isn’t something that I typically suggest; however, she’s doing it in a really unique and creative way. 

I’d like to add that she’s also being paid and actually selling tickets to her book signings so she’s also making money, which I think is brilliant. 

At these events, she’s offering more of her services and pitching a very high priced ticket offer, which she can do because she has a celebrity status in her space. 

It’s possible to achieve celebrity status in your space, regardless of what industry you’re in. 

I was talking to a good friend of mine the other day who’s pretty high up in his insurance company and he asked me how he can use his book and what it would look like.

I told him about one of our clients who came on a few months ago and joined our full done for you program. This client does insurance for franchise laws, which is a very narrow nice within the insurance industry. 

My friend asked how this client used his book if he’s in such a narrow niche. 

I told him that because this client wrote a book for a very specific universe of potential clients, he’s talking to maybe 10,000 – 15,000 big to medium-sized franchises. 

If this client speaks directly to their challenges, fears, and frustrations and offers them a high ticket product/service, he can potentially make a lot of money with even just a few of those potential clients. 

Every single client he gets is worth potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue and income because of the way he can help them. 

People often think their book needs to be really broad so it can reach a giant audience.

They’re missing the point. 

The idea of writing a book is to grow your status and speak to your ideal client. The more narrow and niche you can get, the better because if you can be a celebrity in a small space, the money, impact, and income are going to flow to you. 

This is called the hierarchy of desire. 

As you go up the hierarchy within your industry, the more desirable you become. 

You go from generalist to specialist, to expert, to thought leader, to celebrity. 

As you go up this pyramid the amount of income you make and the amount of impact you can make on others grows exponentially. 

Someone at the generalist level may be a life coach. 

I don’t mean any disrespect or hate if that’s what you do, but if you’re a life coach in the public eye, you’re a generalist.

If you’re a business consultant, you’re also a generalist. 

Personally, I don’t want just a business consultant. I really need specialists to help me In my business. Even more than that, I want someone that is certified or has a few initials after their name. 

When someone operates their business as a generalist, their business may feel more like a hunt for clients. It can be difficult for them to really grow their income when they’re probably spending most of their time trying to prove themselves and establish trust with their potential clients. 

When you’re an expert or celebrity in your field, that doesn’t happen anymore. People trust you a lot faster. 

[socialpug_tweet tweet=”We call that going from hunting for clients to being hunted by your clients, which happens because of your book.  @BSPbooks” display_tweet=”We call that going from hunting for clients to being hunted by your clients, which happens because of your book.  @BSPbooks” style=”2″]

We call that going from hunting for clients to being hunted by your clients, which happens because of your book. 

However, the reality is everything really changes when you’re viewed as an expert thought leader or celebrity in your industry.

Many people have come to me in frustration saying they’ve already written a book and it didn’t give them those results. 

My first question to them is always: what have you done with that book? 

More often than not they haven’t marketed that book. 

How did my book, Publish, Promote, Profit, become the number one business book on Kindle? Did I just click the publish button, cross my fingers, and hope for the best? 

Of course not. 

I marketed it. I did a press release, paid advertising, massive social media sharing, I asked buyers to leave reviews on Amazon, I asked people to say nice things, I asked friends for help, I asked friends like Russell Brunson and Kevin Harrington to give me a video endorsement holding up my book, and the list goes on. 

The road to becoming an authority figure in your space doesn’t end when you publish your book, that’s just the beginning. 

So without further ado, let’s get into the interview with Erica. 

ROB: Thank you for being here with us today. 

So I would love for you to share how you reached, essentially a celebrity status in your marketplace. How has your status grown? What are you doing with it? 

ERICA: This has been a truly remarkable experience. I know I tell you all the time Rob, but I am truly truly grateful for you and your team because it has really been a life-changing thing for me. 

Prior to the book, I’ve been an entrepreneur for almost two decades and I would say I was successful for about one decade. 

The learning curve was heavy. 

I’ve done quite a few things over the years from owning brick and mortar companies, I was in the wellness space for years, I’ve created online programs, I’ve done speaking, etc. 

In today’s media and marketing age, there are so many people in every industry who are trying to provide value for potential clients/customers. This has made it challenging to set yourself apart. 

I definitely considered myself an expert in my space before I wrote my book, but no matter how much expertise someone has, it’s hard to position oneself as an authority figure online when so many people are trying to as well. 

That’s what the book has done for me. It has completely served as a catalyst and an asset for me so I can move forward with a ton of momentum, because of the media and PR I’ve been doing as well. 

I always felt like I should write a book, but I didn’t know how to even go about writing it let alone getting it out and sharing it with people. With the help of Best Seller Publishing, my book launch has done more for me than I ever could have dreamed. 

ROB: Can you talk a bit about some of the speaking opportunities that have come your way? 

ERICA: Let’s start with the tour. 

Not everyone needs to do a book tour. People should just do what they feel compelled to do, and I really felt compelled to do a tour. 

I’m doing what I call a “hybrid book tour” because I love to hold seminars and workshops. 

I’m starting in L.A. We’re going to three different venues, then there’s on in San Diego, Denver, Boston, Seattle, and New York.

The workshops are based on the content that’s inside my book, I’m just expanding and going more in-depth so it’s actionable and hands-on. 

I’m giving each person who buys a ticket two copies of my books, I do a book signing and some of those traditional aspects of a book tour while building it around these transformational workshops. 

I think a lot of authors would be able to do similar things with their books. 

So getting back to your question, I have gotten a ton of speaking opportunities from my book. 

Soon I get to go to Silicon Valley where I’ll be speaking at LinkedIn in their corporate office and they’ll be live streaming it to the rest of their staff. What’s so fun about that is they’re a global company!

LinkedIn reached out because they first wanted to interview me to see if it would be a good fit for me to speak to their company. 

I was so excited but I had to tell them that I actually didn’t have a LinkedIn profile, but I would absolutely create one. I was nervous to tell them that, but I didn’t want them to get off the phone with me and then see that I didn’t have a profile, so I put it out on the table.

ROB: I love that. It’s so amazing what a book can do. Your book gave you the kind of status and credibility that LinkedIn would call and say they’re interested in you coming to their offices to give one of your transformational talks about your book and oh by the way, doesn’t matter that you don’t have a profile. 

I think many people would assume you got that speaking gig because you’re a big LinkedIn influencer or you know a bunch of LinkedIn influencers, but that’s totally not the case. 

It’s because of your status. Sometimes it’s just having the status that gets you in front of the right people so you can present your message. 

ERICA: Exactly. It’s not like I was killing it on LinkedIn and they noticed. They saw me elsewhere, because of my book. 

I’ve also gotten some great speaking opportunities at Universities. One of them wanted to buy 500 books right off the gate, in addition to paying me a great sum of money to come and speak as a presenter. 

I was so excited because I was going to be paid to do and share what I love. I would totally be doing all of this for free because I enjoy it so much and to be getting paid for it is just such a wonderful bonus. 

ROB: Can you tell us more about the university gig? How did they find you? 

ERICA: Initially they found me from my book. I believe they found me online and reached out regarding the possibility of me coming in so they could talk to me. 

The school that bought those 500 books, bought them for their leadership program who I’m also going to be speaking to. I’ll also be speaking to their journalism program. 

I believe the headcount for each of those events will be around 300. 

A podcast recently reached out to me that has 200,000 listeners a month in 68 different countries which is so exciting. 

If it were humanly possible, I would love to talk to every single person in real life, but that’s just not an option. So there’s something so wonderful about having a book that you can hand to someone and know that you can serve them through that book. 

It’s really been a weight off my shoulders because I know I’m doing it right. I can help so many more people now that I have a book. 

ROB: Yeah I love that. 

I’d like to talk a bit about reactive marketing and proactive marketing. 

For those who might not know, reactive marketing is the magic that comes from your book. For example, the University reaching out to you because they found your book. 

The problem for most authors is that’s all they expect. Reactive marketing is a great bonus to publishing a book, but we really want to focus on proactive marketing. 

Two weeks after my own book was published, someone called our office after reading it in 3 days and joined our program for $30,000. That’s reactive marketing. 

I had never talked to him, but because of the book, he was ready to purchase from us. 

That’s awesome, but we don’t want that to be our only method because that doesn’t happen very often. It’s important to get onto radio, TV, etc. to talk to potential clients. 

ERICA: Absolutely. 

I made a list of about 200 people or influencers in the same space who I thought would be interested in me/my book. I sent them an email telling them how their work has inspired or helped me and I made sure to be really honest and sincere. 

I also asked if I could send them a copy of my book. Now, I only did this to people who I thought were really great. 

This isn’t a new technique. Some people say to make a list of 100 people and every week send out five books and five letters to influencers or associations in your space that you connect with. 

If you do that consistently every week, just five books (which can be printed for $2 – $3), you could reach some of the influencers in your industry and potentially make millions of dollars. 

ROB: So let’s do some math. 

If you have the opportunity to sell 500 books and it costs you $3 to print a book, and you sell it for $20, you’re making $17 per book sale. 

That’s $8,500 in addition to the income you make from speaking events and things like that. AND, that’s 500 more people you’ve touched, impacted, and may possibly now pass your book on. 

It’s not hard to make a decent return on investment with a book if one’s messaging is clear. 

ERICA: I would love to talk about how long it took me to get clear on my book. 

I’ve met so many people who want to write a book or have been thinking about writing a book for years and I think we all get plagued with that. 

 I definitely did. 

I don’t speak for everyone, but I know that I kept that thought with me because I really wanted to write a book. I kept putting it off because I was afraid that if I didn’t write it perfectly, I wouldn’t be able to add to it down the road if I found there was something else I wanted to add. 

I just kept procrastinating. 

Being on the other side of it now, I really want to emphasize that there is no better time than right now. 

So I just made myself. I went for it and I wrote it. 

When the book finally came out, I felt so liberated. 

I totally understand how easy it is to get stuck on writing a book for years and years because there are so many things to tweak and change, but we’re all here for a reason. 

If your reason is to share something useful or important with others and you can do so with a book, it’s time to write it. 

Rob, you are a catalyst for so many people to be able to do that and I’m really grateful you were able to help me. 

ROB: Thanks Erica, I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to work with you. 

People may be surprised to hear this, but part of the reason I created Best Seller Publishing was simply because I knew that if this service was around when I was writing my first book, Life After Debt, it would have saved me so much time and it would have made me so much money. 

It took me 18 months to get that book done because I wasted time and money on a ghostwriter, which is probably my million dollar mistake. 

The first year after I published that book, which was 2009, I did a million dollars in income. 

I remember thinking that for a business owner, coach, consultant, or anyone who has the expertise and wanted to advance their career, they needed to be at a higher status. 

They needed a celebrity status which a book, when done right, will give them. 

Erica, you shared a bit about a learning curve you’ve experienced on your book tour, can you share some of those details? 

ERICA:  So my tour is a transformational seminar. It’s a half-day and guests walk away with two complies of the books ($20/each) for the price of their ticket ($40). 

In Denver, we already have 147 tickets sold as of a few days ago which is almost $6,000. 

What a lot of people don’t understand is that live events are one of the most amazing ways to help people know, like and trust you. They allow space for people to connect with you in person and they decide pretty quickly. 

My events are focused on helping people transform their thinking and their mind into a more powerful and resilient human being. I teach them how to harness the hidden power of their emotions, tap into their unlimited strength, and turn their ideas into gold. 

It’s the craziest thing for me to watch people transform and realize that they can achieve/be who they want. It’s really incredible. 

I also have a professional program that’s geared around helping people step into their lives professionally or if they already have a profession, I help them dig deeper. 

ROB: That’s awesome. 

I so appreciate you, Erica. I’m so grateful to have you on. Thank you for taking some time to share this with everybody. I love what you’re doing and I’m so inspired by it. 

People get in their head and they find all the excuses and all the reasons not to take action, but what they’re really saying is they don’t have time to make a bigger impact and they don’t have time to make more money. 

But you took action and I’m so honored to have worked with you and I’m glad we get to continue working with you through our PR department. 

ERICA: Thank you, Rob. I feel the same way. This was so great. 

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