Self-Publish Your Book Today

Speaker 1: [Music] hi I'm Melanie bar welcome to the she builted experience with Melanie you're here because you want to experience the life and business that you crave join me as I talk to women who have successfully built it a career and business that they love we dive into the topic of how they built it and talk about everything from Having the courage to make career leaps to the details of how to lead effectively create successful teams Implement strategies for growth and Infuse Tech innovation magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy so let's dive in jut ramachandran is a best-selling author book publisher tedex speaker and is an international author success coach who helps coaches trainers speakers and experts build a super profitable author funnel thank you so much for joining us today please tell us about your early career experiences and what led you to become a bestselling

Speaker 2: author and Coach sure Melanie first of all thank you so much for having me on your show I started my career soon after I graduated from uh my B school I had specialized in retail management so my first five years was in the retail industry in India I used to work for hypermarkets supermarkets and then I moved on to more luxurious Brands fashion brands so that's how my career was in the retail space where it was all about sales numbers and and hitting your targets every single day I had to actually do the tough job of lifting carton boxes merchandising the products on the shelves so that's how it started and as I progressed in my career I moved from a small department manager to a store manager and then an area manager where I was handling a cluster of stores so that was my early career before I decided to quit my job and start my own

Speaker 1: business isn't it so great when we learn from the ground up because you learned so much about all the different areas of business and I'm sure that that plays into what you do

Speaker 2: today absolutely and what I really loved about that job was the decision makers of the company uh are actually dependent on us to give them the ground reality the market feedback so that was one part of the job that I really used to enjoy

Speaker 1: can you tell us a little bit about what you do now and what give you the courage to make your leap into what you do today

Speaker 2: sure Melanie right now I'm the founder and CEO of happy self-publishing we help service-based entrepreneurs to package their expertise into a book and we coach them to use the book to grow their business so that's what my publishing agency does right now so the transition from an employee to what I'm doing currently took about four five years where I actually quit my job and I started a bunch of different businesses tried my hands at different things some worked some didn't and finally after becoming a mom I wanted to run an online business that can give me more flexibility in terms of time and location I was Finding different opportunities to start an online business and I happen to come across

Speaker 1: publishing books so I learned from a lot of people who are doing this very well in countries like the US and Canada and that gave me the confidence to start a Kindle publishing business where I would just publish books every week written by other ghost writers and I would make money as royalties I would publish it under different pen names that's how I started it but after that business started giving me sufficient revenue on a monthly basis I shut down all my other businesses and started to focus on this and also write my first book Job escape plan after that book came out Melanie a lot of people started interviewing me it went on to become a bestseller and as a result of that I realized that there were so many people out there who had the expertise in the knowledge and they wanted to write a book but they did not know how to do it and how to go ahead and publish it and that gave me the idea to start happy self-publishing so right now I'm the founder and CEO of happy self-publishing and we help service-based entrepreneurs to package their expertise into a best-selling book and we coach them to use the book to grow their business it's so great because there's so many people out there that have specific knowledge and I'm sure that they need help to get that

Speaker 2: knowledge out to the world that's right

Speaker 1: and especially when somebody is a busy entrepreneur they already have so many things happening in their lives in their business and This Book Project always takes a backseat and that really hurts me because I know what a transformation a book can bring to one's life and their business so I'm really happy and I feel grateful that we've helped more than 500 authors in the last five years across 35

Speaker 2: different countries wow so it's been a blessing that's so great and you're a

Speaker 1: bestselling author yourself yes I have just written one book because soon after my book Job Escape Plan became a bestseller I started happy self publishing and got busy helping other authors so my book is all about how a person who is stuck in the wrong job and is unhappy can start a home-based business grow it to a level where their business income is more than their day job income and then comfortably quit their job so that's what job Escape Plan

Speaker 2: is all about do you have a couple authors that you've helped that you can share with us and how can an author choose their perfect topic for their

Speaker 1: first book we've helped authors from different Industries but the couple of uh people who come to my mind immediately one is Dr Manfred he is from Spain he used to work in an IT company as an employee but after he wrote his book on health and fitness which is what his passion is now he has a business around his Fitness brand he has apps and supplements and everything for his readers who found him through his book so that's something that I love it's it's somewhat similar to job escape plan because he used his book to quit his the other recent client who really touched my heart is this woman in India she lost her husband in a tragic accident her world completely changed after that but then she found a method where she could quickly come out of that grief and use that energy to serve others and she wanted to teach this to the world because all of us will lose our loved ones at some point of time so she decided to write a book about her experience and publish it on the day of the first death anniversary of her husband and when she came to us we helped her through the process we had these strict deadlines to follow but we made it and when she invited me for her launch event that's when I realized about the wonderful Legacy her husband left behind and how this book is going to be a tribute to that so such stories

Speaker 2: really you know warm my heart that's so wonderful can you tell us how an author chooses their topic how can they settle on the perfect topic for them so this

Speaker 1: all starts with choosing the purpose for the book before the topic because everybody has a different reason as I just mentioned a couple of examples every author has a different reason to write the book so their purpose their why should be super clear we mostly work with business owners and they end up writing a self-help book or a business book to serve their target audience who are their target clients for their business in future so if that is your reason then it has to be a topic that should serve your business I call this the topic selection Matrix so what you need to do is uh on the right write on top write down the multiple topic ideas you have try to limit it to three ideas you first make the list of the different ideas that you have which you're not sure of which one is the best one for your book so make a list of those ideas and then rank these ideas based on five parameters and you're going to give each topic a rank from one to five on each of these parameters so on the left hand side you make the list of these five parameters the first one is your expertise rank the level of expertise you have on each of these topics the second one is the uniqueness of this idea because you want your book to be different and not one of the thousands of books out there so based on the uniqueness of the idea give a ranking for these topics and then comes the effort that you need to put in to write that book one topic can just flow easily to you and another topic could be really difficult and you may get stuck So based on what you think would be easier you give it a higher score what takes more effort you give it a lesser score and then the fourth parameter is the profit Prof ability how close is this book to your business will people read the book and immediately sign up for your coaching So based on the profitability mark these three or four topic ideas uh based on that and then finally comes your alignment you need to feel aligned to the topic it needs to be an alignment with your vision and your company's Vision because once you become an author for a very long time people are going to be talking about this and asking you questions on this so you should be in alignment so give a rank based on alignment on all these topics and then just add up the scores the topic that gets the highest score should be the topic for your next book because it will not just be a profitable one but it'll be something that you can be really proud of thank you so much for walking us through that and it's such a smart way of thinking and of putting a strategy towards it because you're right your book is going to live with you for a very long time and you should do what you wake up every day thinking and that brings you Joy right so the writing process is fun and enjoyable you're not struggling through trying to do something that's not 100% bringing you Joy exactly yeah what's the point of you know going through a lot of trouble if you're not enjoying the process how has your early career experiences influenced you as a business leader in leading your company and how does that experience help your clients your leadership style and assist you in managing your business

Speaker 2: today uh one thing I really picked up as a skill from my early career in the retail industry was staff recruitment that was one thing that I was really good at because in my store I used to get people who are not really meant for the job from the human resource department they would select and give me and I would tell them don't bother I would do the recruitment for my stores myself because I really understand the kind of people we need and I kind of developed on that skill while I was working and then my first business was into staff recruitment I started a recruitment agency and that experience also helped me a lot because one thing that I'm really proud of in my business other than my clients are my team members and every single one of them were handpicked by me and now we have a very good recruitment process as well and I think that has really helped me become a better entrepreneur I keep working on that skill because I feel it's not me but my team who is running the business so that's really a very

Speaker 1: important skill it's so true and if your team is working cohesively your clients see that and feel that and it makes work more enjoyable exactly yeah can you tell us about about a particular life or business experience that is memorable

Speaker 2: that you carry with you today there is a life experience which helped me align my business values I have this distant relative of mine she's kind of like my grandmother she's my mom's aunt and a few years ago she met me at a relatives wedding and she told me that hey jna I heard that you're into book publishing can you help me I said of course Grandma let me know how can I help you and she said her only passion all her life has been cooking and she has compiled all her favorite recipes in a notebook and she wanted me to publish it I said of course let's do it and within a few months we had the book published and she distributed it for free to all our relatives I put it up on Amazon for others to buy and it was a great experience but a couple of months later I got this sad news that she passed away when I went to her attend her

Speaker 1: funil one thing that I realized was yes she is gone from the physical world but what will remain with us as her memory is going to be her book because it's not just me but my children and their children could benefit from her book because we all loved her cooking so much so I realized at that minute when I was at her place that a book is not just a way to grow business but it's also your legacy and that made me realized the meaning the real meaning behind the work that we do so I think that's one experience that I would never forget that is such a beautiful story and what a great memory for your family

Speaker 2: and to live on for her absolutely what

Speaker 1: do you like the most about what you do now my role in my company one thing that I'm really enjoying is my weekly team training so every Wednesday is our training day where the entire team comes together and they get trained on one topic it's either me or another expert from the outside who comes and trains my team and I feel that has transformed the team's culture because everybody looks forward to the Wednesday trainings because it's not just about working and bringing in the money but it's also about self-development the other part of my business that I really love is the interviews that I have with my authors that's amazing because they come back to us and they tell all the great stories about how opportunities opened up for them once they became an author and that is something that I go back and share with my team because they realize the impact of their job when they watch

Speaker 2: those interviews that has to feel so amazing and how wonderful is it to do what's going to bring them joy every day

Speaker 1: because we've all worked in careers and positions that haven't brought us joy I'm sure they're so appreciative when

Speaker 2: they are able to do that exactly what is your strategy for management for staying on task to accomplish what you said out

Speaker 1: to do as well as motivating your team I think I'm always a work in progress compared to what I was a few years ago I didn't know a thing about entrepreneurship they teach all these great stuff in B schools that doesn't really apply when it comes to running your own business it may be okay for getting a job in a corporate company but not for business so I'm learning every single day and trying to get better but one thing that has helped me in my management style right now is having that constant connection with my team having an online business initially I used to think it's all about the freedom everybody's working from their homes so mine was always an online business the publishing business long before covid hit us we were still online so back then I used to just give complete freedom to my team members so they would report whenever they wanted to so it was very very flexible however when it comes to delivering things on time and things like that we were struggling so right now we have our daily huddles which is just a 15minute touch point that every department has with their manager and then I have a weekly one-on-one sessions with people who are reporting directly to me these are normal things in an in an office but in an online business business I thought this was not needed but right now we have better communication because of multiple touch points and short meetings that we have just to stay accountable and just to make sure everybody's having fun that's

Speaker 2: so smart because it also builds relationships the more you talk to people and the more you're in connection I'm sure the stronger your team becomes

Speaker 1: exactly yes yes absolutely before I used to shy away from showing my face on Zoom calls we would only do audio meetings and then I said I don't care how my hair looks it doesn't really matter my team is more important we need to look at each other and speak so those were some changes I brought in just last year and it has been really

Speaker 2: beneficial what gave you the courage to launch your business to say I'm going to

Speaker 1: do this I'll go back to the time when I quit my job because more than the courage it was the boredom of my last job and the bad Rao I had with my boss that pushed me to leave my job but I had the option of finding another job or starting my business business but somehow probably all these motivational books and the self-help books the concepts I learned in Rich Dad Poor Dad told me that you know being a business owner is going to be beneficial in the long term so I just decided that let me give this a try but to specifically answer your question of what gave me the courage I had six months of savings that would take care of my lifestyle had I not had those savings I would have really been scared to start something and I also had a discussion with my husband and he said said it's okay even if you struggle Beyond 6 months I'm there to support you that really helped that having that conversation with him and telling him that I really want to start a business and then we both decided to go for it that really helped me but luckily within two months cash flow started coming in the business and I never had to think of taking up a job

Speaker 2: ever again isn't it so interesting how when you surround yourself with positive content it syns in and gives you the courage to do things you might not have been able to do

Speaker 1: before I totally agree Melanie because I don't know how it in the United States but in India most of the people are working for companies and factories and now it companies and the BPO companies that's how my friends my cousins and all the extended fames so the people I'm in touch with on a daily basis they are just happy with their routine life so if I have to do something different I can't draw inspiration from people I know it has to be through my mentors and coaches and attending seminars and reading books that I can Aspire for something bigger

Speaker 2: and go for it I'm so happy that you are now surrounded by all of your authors which I'm sure are bringing you daily inspiration right so true that's so true magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy what is one tip that you can leave with us today about how you find and live your joy this is such a great question Melanie for me to find Joy I first look at things which bother me things that I don't like to do things that do not give me joy joy and I try to eliminate that by looking at whether it's really important then I just make sure I don't do it at all or if it's important but I don't want to do it then I'll probably delegate it to somebody or Outsource it to someone else to do it so that I can focus on the fun part and 80% of my day is filled with the things that I love doing and it's okay to have 20% of the things that that is not so fun but I have to do it for example working out right like I can't source that to somebody else that's my body I have to do it but that's fine but at least I try to choose options which are more fun like Zumba or something like that rather than hitting the gym so I try to look at what doesn't interest me and try to eliminate it and replace it so that most of my day is filled with a lot of Joy

Speaker 1: that's so smart it takes courage to look at the things that don't bring us joy you know it's kind of easier to say I'm not going to focus on that I'm just going to think about the things that make me happy but you're so smart to say let's really look at those things that's not not making us happy and how can we change them and I completely understand with working out my day goes so much better if I get that 20 or 30 or 45 minutes in in the morning right and can you please tell us you have done a tedex

Speaker 2: talk sure so that's not a big secret I love talking about it so tedex was an item on my bucket list for many years finally a couple of years ago I said I'm going to make this happen I was waiting for somebody to discover me and invite me and that was just not happening so I decided to be proactive about it and I went to ted.com and started looking at all the upcoming tedex events around my city and I reached out to about 10 of those curators and told them three things one is that I am an expert in this subject and I would like to talk about this idea and I made sure that idea was relevant to what their event was about secondly I said that I'm a speaker and here are some of my videos that you can watch so I link them to my YouTube channel and thirdly I told them I'm an author and that seal the deal because they felt that okay she's probably an expert she's credible and three of them responded with a yes and I went on two of those stages that's so great so that's how the tedex thing

Speaker 1: happened thank you so much for joining us today can you please tell our listeners how and where they can find you and learn more about

Speaker 2: publishing sure Melanie this was such a fun conversation I loved all the questions so for those of you who are listening and if you want to publish a book and you're in the early stages you're still thinking about what to do next then please go ahead and uh join my Facebook group called happy authors tribe you can find it at happy self-publishing tocom tribe it will take you to our Facebook P group and that's where you can attend my live boot camp

Speaker 1: called author success boot camp so I'd like to invite you to be a part of that but if you already have a manuscript and you just want to take the next steps to get it published then please schedule a publishing call with one of my team members so go to happy self publishing.com and schedule a session with us if you are new to Sheil it we'd love for you to join us we offer Community memberships masterminds Innovative virtual events and meaningful connections to entrepreneurs and corporate leaders please also check out our she built it shop curated products from women-owned businesses who put their heart and soul into their beautiful and Innovative products we offer Sheil tip business Consulting and the Sheil tip blog thank you to everyone around the world who joined today thank you to my editor Rich stalino please download And subscribe wherever you get your podcast and until next time together let's let nothing stop us from experiencing the life that We crave [Music]