David Wood | Inner Firewalking

About David Wood

For 20 years David has helped entrepreneurs around the globe to grow their results, by growing themselves. A former consulting actuary to Fortune 50 companies in New York, David quit corporate life to pursue his inner journey, which now deeply influences his work. A digital nomad, David is currently dancing salsa, paragliding, and coaching his rock star entrepreneur clients from Colombia. His specialty is doubling your productivity and profits, while halving your stress. If you become a highly authentic and inspirational leader in the process, well….that can’t be helped.

What Seth Godin told me…

I was torn.

A big publisher wanted to change my title from “Get Paid For Who You Are”…

to….

“What You Already Know Will Make You Rich”, or “Turn Your Talent Into Cash”

I was getting close to caving, when I was fortunate to have a phone call with Seth Godin (who really surprised me with his generosity – but I digress). Here’s my paraphrasing of what happened:

SETH: “Don’t change your title. It’s a good title that people will be more likely to want to pass from one to another”.

DAVID: “Well, why don’t I just test the titles and see which title gets the most clicks?”

SETH: “You can’t test a title that way. What sells books is not the impulse to click, or the impulse to pick it up from the book shelf. It’s what the first 100 people who read it say to their 500 friends”.

Wow – this reinforced my intuition that with “Get Paid For Who You Are” we have a soulful title; one that strikes a chord on different levels. One that a reader may want to tell a friend about.

So on the basis of that conversation (no pressure Seth 🙂 I stuck to my guns and turned down the publishing deal so I can publish the book I want to publish.

Thanks Seth, for helping me clearly see what I’d intuitively felt.

David

Amazing happenings of the SANG conference

I’m so blown away by what’s happening at this conference founded by Larry Bennet, Stephen Pierce and Chet Holmes; I’m going to try and write down some of it:
– met Bryan Tracey, Les Brown, Jay Abraham
– 15 minutes 1 on 1 with Jay Abraham, and he offered to do a JV
– some great moments with Jack, including sitting next to him saying “I’ll sit by you with my green jacket and make you look sharper”, and he responded: “By association or comparison?” Sharp dude, sharp.
– had some chances to contribute to my colleagues/friends with introductions, advice etc.
– added 750,000 JV email addresses to my book promotional campaign just today, and UNSOLICITED! They generously offered.
– getting to know David Lakhani a little (the guy speaks straight and is not afraid to polarize) and might speak on his stage in January.
– Max has offered to connect me with Deepak Chopra for possible book endorsement.
– John-Leslie Brown is such a lovely man, and is going to connect me with Les.
– loads of referrals to experts/vendors perfect for what I need
– some potential JV’s it’s too early to share about
– free access to thousands of dollars with of training (e.g. for my first telemarketer)
– some killer advice (including a radio promo to promote the book)
– filmed for a documentary being made by Mike Koenigs
– Arielle Ford offered to help me put a team together to publicize the book
– Alex Mandossian, who I have a lot of respect for, as offered to strategize the book launch with me
– connected with the Chief Marketing Officer of Kodak! Cool guy. He’s interested in a possible sponsorship deal.
– may be speaking at an event in January with John Carlton and Stan Dahl.
– discussing possible CPA network deal with Tom Bell
– time with really cool people I like! (e.g. Matt Morris, Jim Bunch, David Frey, Michael Lovitch, Brendon Burchard, Vishen Lakiani, Mari Smith, Bill Harrison, Stephen Pierce, Christine Comaford, Michael Drew, Dan O’Day, Bill Barrett, John Lynch, Lisa Carbonara, Ryan Lee, Liora Mendelhoff, Eric Lofholm, Joshua Long, Mark Victor Hansen, John Assaraf, Gary Ryan Blair, Len Schwartz)

On the side, had a conference call with a publisher today and we’re aligned on the book. Editorial stuff right now, and will look at contract next week (And I’m still unattached). A friend has introduced me to PBS who want more info about a potential special. Plus I’m in love. It’s really quite the ride!

My two major take homes from this conference:

1) Build my email list. Dammit! Distribution is power. 200,000 is better than 70,000.
2) I want to move people when I speak – really open them up and have them take inspired action for their lives.

David

(reporting from LA)

Why I said “no” to a major publisher

In this economy, as a first time author, I was thrilled to get an offer from one of the top 6.

But last week, after much back and forth in negotiations, I politely thanked them and declined. (and haven’t heard a word back by the way).

Why?

It wasn’t the royalties.

And it wasn’t that the advance was under $10,000.

And it wasn’t personalities. I really liked my editor – he was enthusiastic about me, and the book’s message.

THE MAJOR DEAL BREAKERS
– they wanted to change the title from ‘Get Paid For Who You Are’ to ‘Turn Your Talents Into Cash’, or ‘What You Already Know Will Make You Rich’. And I just can’t do it. Maybe it would sell more books, but it’s a bit tacky to me, and I feel ‘Get Paid For Who You Are’ is more soulful. It speaks to the people I want to reach.

– they wouldn’t give me ‘cover consent’, meaning they would have final say on the cover, which made me nervous.

– they were only offering 25 promotional copies of the book. I asked to buy 1,000 promotional copies at close to cost, but they said I had to buy them at 50%.

– they wouldn’t commit in writing to the March publication date. I wanted rights to buy back the book and self publish if they delayed publication by more than 2 months, and it looked like too much red tape. I couldn’t risk this going on the shelf, for any reason.

THE MINOR THINGS
– it was taking up quite a bit of time to get them to specify in the contract I could create derivative products of the same title (e.g. video, ecourses, seminars) and trademark the title. They agreed verbally, but it just wasn’t making it into the contract.

– had to fight to get definition of ‘Out of Print’ changed, which dictates when rights would revert back to me. Eventually got it to be declared out of print if less then 500 physical copies sold per year.

– had to fight to get reversion of foreign rights if they didn’t exercise them within 3 years. (And they insisted on foreign rights).

– couldn’t get rights to sell the ebook from my website (although they would let me sell an audio version from my website and back of room which was cool)

So it was a great learning process, and I decided I’m too entrepreneurial, and have too strong a platform, to go with this particular publisher. It feels edgy for me to say no to a top publisher, as a first time author. But – I’m feeling good and excited about self publishing, and hopefully it will all make a great story to tell one day.

I hope this helps any new authors out there. A big publisher normally does almost no promotion. But I hear it can help with credibility when it comes to getting media attention. I’m also doubtful that getting the book into book stores will do anything for sales at all. Seems to me the promotion is what counts, not where the book is. If they want it, they can get it online.

David

Mentor Monthly #112: Your 10 Min Coaching DVD

1. Announcements/Offers

Join me in meeting Tim Ferriss

BizTechDay 2009 – The Most Powerful Entrepreneur and Small Business Conference.

When: October 22-23, 2009
Where: Hyatt Regency SFO

Join me and meet Tim Ferriss, author of 4-Hour Workweek, Craig Newmark – Founder of Craigslist.Org, Will Bunker, Founder of Match.com, Kevin Rose, Founder of Digg.com and 40+ amazing speakers

From building a strong brand on Google, Yelp, or Facebook to successfully raising funds; from building partnerships with Fortune 500 Companies to building your online community from zero to millions –

BizTechDay will cover all you need to know to ensure your business forges successfully ahead.

Save 30% if you register at www.biztechday.com/register/ Use the
code: “DavidWoodVIPs”

2. FEATURE: Your 10 Minute Coaching DVD

(Note: This article includes a link to a bonus audio online video clip. I am finishing up my book, so this article is proudly reprinted.)
It’s not always easy to connect with your passion as a coach. And most of us spend months, years and decades trying connect with who we really are – not only as people, but as coaches.

What are we truly passionate about? What do we love? What are we committed to? What is it about our coaching that is so valuable?

And….how can I communicate all this to my prospective clients in a powerful way – to build a relationship and get even more clients?

I’m going to share with you a wonderful experience I had this month – making my own 10 minute coaching video or DVD. And I’ll tell you how you can make your own 10 minute coaching video or DVD – inexpensively.

I highly recommend EVERYONE who is coaching, or considering coaching, follow at least the BASIC approach outlined below. What a great way for your web site visitors, and other prospective clients, to get to know you and build a relationship with you – while you sleep!

Before You Begin…

Before you start, I suggest you first watch my 10 minute DVD online to really get a feel for what’s possible. I love the result, and hope you enjoy it too:

http://www.life-coaching-resource.com/life-coach.htm#vid

The Basic Approach (Simple Audio)

Have a friend draw up a list of provocative questions. Separately compile your own list of questions, and the blend the two lists.
Have your friend interview you for 20 minutes and record it using a simple tape recorder.
It’s great to have your friend start with “I’m joined here in the virtual studio today by Bob Smith. This is a great opportunity to get to know Bob’s coaching style, and to pick up some powerful insights and tips for life.”
Just flow through from beginning to end, not trying to get it right. The idea is to bring out your passion! To help you realise who you really are through the questioning. Why you’re coaching, what you love, who you really want to help, your philosophy on life, on people….
When you’re done, consider some simple editing from one tape recorder to another.
Even bettter – record it into your computer using a free software package (e.g. dbpoweramp), and snip out the bits you don’t want to keep. The fastest and easiest way is to use a service which converts your phone call into streaming audio – just do a three way conference call with your interviewer. I suggest Instant Audio at:http://www.becomeacoach.com/instantaudio.htm
If you make a special request, they’ll let you download the file to your hard drive where you can use a free editing package (if you really want to put some effort into this) to edit the mp3 file. WavePad is free at http://www.nch.com.au/wavepad/

Then – you will have a 10 minute audio segment that you can mail (on tape) to prospective clients or the media, or convert into streaming media for your website.

The Intermediate Approach (Basic Video)

I strongly encourage you to do this on video, rather than audio tape. You’ll get to see yourself answer important questions; and will find it quite a powerful experience.

Here’s the cheapest way to get a basic video you can use:

Much better than audio, is to borrow a digital video camera from a friend. Set it up on you, with good lighting. I suggest a medium shot showing just your shoulders up – so you really get to see your facial expressions. Test a couple of minutes first to make sure you’re loud enough, and that your picture is clear.
Now – follow the steps in ‘BASIC’ above, but with you on camera. Your friend will be sitting just to the left or right of the camera, and you’ll look at them rather than at the camera. In the finished product you’ll hear their voice asking the questions, but won’t ever see their face. This is about you.
Keep this one to 10 minutes only, and if you don’t like it, redo it. But don’t get too picky – it doesn’t have to be perfect – it just has to bring out the real you! If you make a mistake – laugh about it! I sugggest 10 minutes because getting into editing is more expensive. You’re after a good solid 10 minutes that you can use – untouched.
When you’re done, call around to the local camera stores (or even better, search for ‘dvd duplication services’ in the yellow pages), and find someone who’ll copy the tape onto DVD, AND give you a CD Rom with two windows media files (.wmv) or mp4 files.

Now you will have a DVD you can copy at home to lend to a prospective client, corporation or the media. And – you’ll have a CD Rom you can give to your web person so they can upload the appropriate files to your web server and have the video stream or for YouTube.

The Advanced Approach (Professional Video or DVD)

The BASIC approach above will give most coaches a wonderful experience, and a product they’ll be happy with. However, if you want to go even further and produce something you could use for auditioning for a TV appearance, for example, or for corporations – particularly when you don’t want to have to travel a long way just to find out you’re not what they are looking for – then consider a more advanced appropach.

You’re after a local production studio that can supply you with a camera person, equipment, editing suite, and editor.

My DVD cost me A$400 (US$300) for the master tape, and another A$200 to get it all onto a DVD in US and Australian format.

Advantages of the professional approach are:

You’ll have quality lighting and sound which lends more credibility to your services.
You can get a quality intro and outro including music at both ends, and even slow motion clips from your footage – showing you laughing and smiling.
You can edit out the interviewer’s questions. (Note: make sure if you’re going to do this, that you embed the questions back into your answer. e.g. ‘What has traveling done for your growth?” You reply with “You know – traveling has helped my coaching a lot….”
You can edit sections that didn’t quite work, and even re-arrange the answers so they fit more closely into a flowing story. This made a big difference to my final DVD.

* * *

Making my own Coaching DVD has been a wonderful experience.

It has helped me connect with Who I really am as a coach – to connect with my passion for coaching, and for living life! And – it’s given me something I can give to a TV producer considering me for a TV spot.

I highly recommmend you go through this process, and please let me know how you go! We’re happy to answer any questions you have.

Action:

1) Decide if you want to use audio, video or the professional approach.

2) Create your 10 min coaching video or audio.

3) Share your videos and audios at the blog. We’d love to see them.

Enjoy,

P.S. Got a comment on this article? Please add it to the BLOG

15 seconds with Richard Branson

I plan to write more about what happened, but for now, here are our mugs!

want to review a sneak advance chapter? (private R&D note)

McGraw Hill just made an offer on the book, and I have 4 weeks to write the second half!

I’ve created 6 volunteer slots for book reviewers: Would you like to review sneak advance
chapters?

Commitment is a min of 4 hours over the next 3-4 weeks. I send the draft, you read it and send back suggestions, comments, questions. You’ll help me fill in any blanks and ensure it hits home.

TO RESPOND:

please tell me (there’s a private field for your email address) what draws you to review the book how many hours you think you could devote over 3-4 weeks – in the field below.

And thanks for helping!

David
www.SolutionBox.com

P.S. What’s the book about? It’s 7 simple steps to sharing your message with the world via a successful online business. And it’s called ‘Get Paid For Who You Are’.

Posts by David Wood

About David Wood

What Seth Godin told me…

Amazing happenings of the SANG conference

Why I said “no” to a major publisher

Mentor Monthly #112: Your 10 Min Coaching DVD

1. Announcements/Offers

2. FEATURE: Your 10 Minute Coaching DVD

The Intermediate Approach (Basic Video)

The Advanced Approach (Professional Video or DVD)

Action:

15 seconds with Richard Branson

want to review a sneak advance chapter? (private R&D note)