How Caroline Generated $17,000 with Her Book in One Month

 

In this episode Dr. Angela sits down with Caroline Greene to explore how she wrote her book in three days, started a movement and made $17,000 in one month.

 

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Podcast: Download (27:35, 37.8MB )

 

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In this episode you will learn:

 

• 04:38 How does coaching help me meet my goals?
• 08:00 How to write what people want to hear.
• 10:18 How do I describe what I do?
• 11:42 Is word of mouth enough to make my business grow?
• 14:19 Why is giving good service not enough to be successful?
• 17:00 How can my book grow my business?
• 18:45 Who do I write my book for?
• 21:45 Should my book topic be broad to reach more people?
• 24:00 Does my book need to be perfect to make a difference?

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Full Episode Transcript:

A: Hey, got a great episode for you today. I am excited for you to hear from Caroline green on how she generated seven to thousand dollars from her book in month one, How awesome would that be for you? month one she had just become a coach. Maybe you have as well. In this episode I’ll sit down with Caroline and explore how she wrote her book in three days, and how she started a movement that made $17,000 in one month. Enjoy.

A: Well, Hey, everybody, welcome to the author castle. I’m Angela Lauria, founder of the author, incubator and creator of the difference process for writing a book that matters. And this is Caroline Greene, somebody who has written a book that matters. I am so excited that you are here to join us today for our first ever live webinar broadcasting right from the author castle in McLean, Virginia, which is so exciting. And today’s webinar is really about operationalizing what it means to make a difference like we throw that Word around that phrase around like, I want to make a difference. I want to help people, I want to change the world. But very rarely do we take the time to like, drill down and explore what it actually means to make a difference. We have these visions of other people, Oprah is making a difference. But for you in your life, where you are, what would it mean to make the biggest difference you could possibly make in the next, let’s say 90 days. So I asked Caroline to be here because we actually didn’t meet that long ago. We met for the first time in July in Portland. And Caroline came to one of our three days to done book writing intensives and over those three days, she wrote a book with us and publish it about six weeks later. So it’s only what are we in November now it’s only been five months, about five months since this journey began. And Caroline has made a tremendous difference. She has some empirical evidence so that she knows it. And I know it. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves, oh, this is what it actually is to make a difference. And what’s more than that, and what I’m so excited about, and I hope you will stay tuned to the end of this to really hear about that is Carolyn has really started a movement with her message. It’s more than just one book, but we’ll get to that later. Um, if you’re listening to this, I want you to put yourself in in Caroline’s shoes, I want you to really see how possible this could be for you. So to do that, let’s go back. And why don’t you just tell people a little bit more about you where we’re at back in back in the summer before we met and what was going on in your business and tell people about your background a little bit as well.

C: So thanks for having me. Um, so I’m actually lawyer by training I did in VIP Back life coach training swearing that I would never become a life coach and that I would never work with bonds. Yeah. So if you’re resisting cave early, as Martha says, keep early, so I came out of cushioning, not knowing what I was going to do. And I went through a number of iterations, fairly quickly of a quick start. So what that means I launched, I launched a number of different versions of my coaching business. And I had clients. I was not making any money, but I was at least you know, I had people that I was serving. And then I sort of about not

that long ago, a couple of months before I got in touch with you got struck over the head in a coaching session with my other guru Susan Hyatt. And realize that a huge part of my struggle was in what being what I call a martyr mom. So in putting yourself last and not taking care of yourself, and and really trying to control everything in your family’s life in order to pretend that you have control over your life. And then when I hit that I had this great idea. I was like, Oh, I’m gonna read this book, and then I reached out to you and, and I never forget what you said. You said, I know that’s the book you think you’re gonna write, it’s not gonna be the book you’re actually gonna write, at which point I was like, I don’t I don’t understand, like, he said, but we can pretend we can forget.

And I of course, was like, This is not like, I’m giving you money. So then, and then I tried to ask you how much it was, like,

A: Whoa, like, I don’t know. I don’t know if I’m gonna let you write this.

C: And I’m like, I mean, I’m like, not to show off. But like, I went to Yale, and I graduated from UVA, but like, I’ve done a lot of things. And I was like, you’re gonna not take my money to write a book. Like, I don’t even understand what’s happening here.

A: Yeah, so that was also a carrot I’m talking about here is that we have a pretty intense trial by fire the people that we work with. I need to be convinced that they’re more interested in making a difference, changing people’s lives. And really sharing their gifts instead of just displaying them. So a lot of people want to write a book really want to trophy they want to like a book that proves their awesome I guess to themselves and I don’t know, maybe their husband. And so yeah, so you were in the gauntlet and why is he if you really wanted to help people and

C: I’m so grateful for that because part of what part of what this this whole process has been about for me it’s been about really finding my own true voice and, and really how I’m called to serve people instead of how I think I’m called to serve. And and one of the biggest differences for me to this process is in your insistence that that we we stopped talking at people and that we start talking with people and serving people and the difference there is one that intellectually I knew, but I was convinced like Oh, so martyr moms like the perfect example because that’s obviously if you know my book is called matter how to find meaningful work. for you and your family, the yo bar mom was like one part of one chapter and and I was like usually like you obviously don’t understand that you must not have been a martyr mom. Right. And and one of the most profound things that you said to me and it was heart wrenching, it was like three weeks before I was coming and I, I just I really thought that my life was gonna fall apart was that the even the concept of optimum only speaks to people who are no longer martinos they already get it, they already get it. So you were like, if you want to write a book, this is what she said to me if you want to go write a book for people who have already been through this process, and like help them sort of tweak what it means for them. They’re like, Fine, go do that. And you were supportive of that. But you made it very clear that if I wanted to help people, then I had to actually use language and solve a problem that they were actually having. And that didn’t come until we actually got to three days to that so I melted down before I got to do this to done but I had no idea what and the next version of the book was something totally overcoming overwhelm or something equally unhelpful.

A: Yeah, I mean, this is one of the this is one of the things that happens is we want to help people and we’re on the other side of something. So we’ve gone through some, you know, some Hellen back experience, we’ve gone through a terrible divorce or a difficult adoption process or, you know, we kayaked the, you know, the Potomac from end to end, whatever our thing is, and then we want to give advice at the end. Yeah, but nobody wants the advice at the end, because they don’t have those questions. They’re not stuck there. So I talked about this. If you’re familiar at all with a horse, you’ve never done what you do that but yeah, but but there’s this moment where you have a join up with a horse and it’s not you telling the horse to do it and the horse agreeing it’s like a mutual moment. And finding that mutual moment is it’s the, it’s the key to making a difference. And like, here’s the kind of awesome side benefit when you do that. You When you come from that true place of service, making money is sort of the natural consequence. Yeah. And when you come from it from telling people, this is what you should be doing. You got to work on a lot harder to make money still happen, but people are not willing to pay as much because they don’t really get it. And you have to really convince them and it sort of feels salesy and achy and it’s just such a different process. Yeah. So before you wrote the book, you had you done some branding work. You’ve done a cup.

C: Oh, yes, I had done my Yeah, I did my website before I came against your best advice. Any of you are in one of Angela’s programs. Do not do your website until after you’ve written your book. I love my website is very pretty, but it it’s actually branded. It did a brilliant job of branding. who I was before I read the book. Hmm. It’s just I’m not that person anymore.

A: So that I mean, though this process is so transformative, both in terms of my message in In serving people that it just doesn’t suit before you wrote the book, if somebody said to you like, at a cocktail party or I don’t know, like, one of your mom’s friends, like, if somebody said to you, what do you do? How would you have described what you do?

C: Yeah, I probably would have stuttered a little bit. You know, I was still in that place that even though I knew what, what value is bringing to the table on a deep level, I wasn’t really even able to articulate it. So I probably would have family coach I would say I was I’m a life coach who works with overwhelmed moms or something like that. And I’m sure I have some like eight versions of this written down in a journal somewhere. I practiced at some point. Like I actually had some elevator speech, but I couldn’t even really mean the truth is that I couldn’t even say it with confidence because they didn’t. This is actually so here’s, here’s my, I hired to do video for the webpage. That the for the for the book, okay. And the guy came and he was like, comes great. He was totally great, totally professional. And and he was excited. What do you do? And I was just like, I needed like three hours of film in order to put together like a two minute clip. And we just talked to around what I like around and around and around. And at the end of the day, like I couldn’t, I mean, I said the right words again, whatever my elevator speech was, but that sense of Oh, this is what I do, was just totally lacking.

A: And what about sales? What, like, how much revenue were you doing? Sam’s been?

C:Probably the whole first half of this year. I made like $3,000 or something.

A: But were you charging per hour?

C: Like I was doing three packs and six pack sessions, and I had a six week coaching program. Okay, yeah. And how did you sell those? I sold them mostly by word of mouth to like current clients. I had a blog, and it was mostly word of mouth for girls.

A: So people would say You’d say like, Oh, you should work with my friend Michelle. And then you Yeah. Or I bump into them. So they were still like social circle friends. Like they were like someone I saw but didn’t know. And then we had a conversation at a cocktail party and they’re like, Oh, that sounds interesting. Okay, so it sounds interesting. Tell me more. How would you like? How would you like close this out? Like, tell me more? I’m totally overwhelmed. What would you say?

C: Yes. So I gave my like martyr mom spiel, which was that in order to show up at the way that you want in the world, you need to start taking care of yourself first. And they already want to coach you, and I know I fixed it. Yeah, but that’s the great thing is is that like, I got people who got that, right. And I was able to help them. But to everyone else, it was like, really, you know, two people who really needed my help. And my mom was also so judgy and like, you know, and it’s like, the thing that I understand now is every time I someone tells me to take care of myself, because little My own issues right? Like I still I eat too much I don’t exercise enough like, I can talk a good self care game, but we all have our hiccups in self care. And when I get one of those Facebook memes, it’s like, just take care of yourself first. Like, I want to, like punch them in the eye. It’s like, it’s not that we don’t know that. That’s not great. That’s actual crap. Yeah, like we like, on some level, whether we call it self care or not. We know we have to take care of ourselves. It’s like how Why do we take care of ourselves and and how can we find the internal motivation we give ourselves permission to devote time, energy and resources to doing what we know we should be doing? And that’s what that’s why it came out as matter. Okay, so you’d say to them, so you say you need more self care? And then they say you’re totally right. How do I do that?

C: Yeah. And I would say come teach my six week course.

A: and I’m totally in what do I do? Like mine? Is it? I want to do it? Yeah. Well, would you like give people a PayPal link? Are we gonna set up on acuity and stuff?

C: So I would send them an email and I would say like, here’s the link and pay for the program and I may or may not have a few people. Anybody again, okay, good. Yeah, I slashed my prices like nine times before the program failed. All that good. So I did all that. I did everything wrong.

A: Okay, so what did you eat book aside? Yeah. How did you imagine that martyr mom that mom over? Well, yeah. How did You imagine that growing up, did you think you were going to get more clients raise your rates, more referrals, like would you think was going?

C: I really thought that I sort of bought into the myth that if you serve Well, it’s not a myth. There’s a half truth. If you start with people that you’re with right now, well, that they will just organically give you referrals and that you don’t actually have to do anything to build a practice that like I really did have this vision of like, Oh, I’m just really good at this. And so and then people were gonna tell everybody evil Yeah, God, yeah. Like, she’s so good at this and then, and then it’s just gonna, you know, it’s just gonna go from there. So that was my, that was my, my. That was the plan. Yeah, that was the business plan.

A: So let’s talk about the book. The idea was I’m going to grow this business organically. This idea pops into your head.

C: Oh, there was no link between the book. No, yeah. No. Okay. So I have a Oh, because like, I really, I really feel like I had a message like this. was like, this was a huge discovery in my life. Like the idea that the idea that being a martyr wasn’t the way to love people was like, actually revolutionary to me. I had just, I just thought that service was to give and give and give and give and not to do anything for you. And certainly, I mean, I was in my professional life before I stayed home as a stay at home mom, the guy just was like, 100% in all in, like, I’m just going to do it. And I never stopped to ask basic questions about like, what I wanted, or who I was or what was important to me. So like this, now that I’m in a coaching world, right, where like, everyone’s having this conversation. This is like old news, but it was brand new to me both as a coach and also as a person, like, I felt called, like, I had an obligation to share this. Yeah, to share this message. So I was willing, I didn’t even think that I was going to recoup my investment in the book. I mean, I hoped that I would, but Like I was just I’m in because I felt like God has given me this gift of healing and like, I need to share this message with other people. Yeah. I didn’t expect any impact on my business directly.

A: Wow. Yeah. Okay, awesome. Well, we definitely change that. Um, so if you guys are thinking about a book, I would love it if you share over in the comments and questions on the side. Why right now? Do you think you want a book? Do you are you like Caroline, you’re thinking you just have a message. You want to get it out there? Do you see how it might fit into your business? We are going to talk about Caroline’s book writing and publishing process. And I want to hear from you guys. What do you want a book to do for you and hopefully open your eyes here to some things a book can do for you. Okay, so you show up in Portland cried a

C: lot and cried a lot. Try to rewrite my book.

A: Yeah. And tell tell me about the actual between the process of writing and publishing the book. Did you realize that you could use this book to make a difference? More specifically and in a few people’s lives who read the book and wanted to go deeper with you? Did you make that connection?

C: Okay, for better for worse, no, I have no I will. It was no I was still just like trying I was keeping up right with the processes the process he is such a refining fire in a brilliant way. And so I was honestly just focused on getting the book done and not when I favorite things.

A: One of my favorite things about your writing process in Portland is I asked everybody to, to write their book as a love letter to one person. And you had some struggles with that. But then you actually it was a little bit of a phone a friend moment it was

C: Yeah, I actually texted a friend. There may not be on This seminar was like, Hi, can I have a photo of you please? preferably alone. I know this sounds creepy. But I’m writing you a book because she was like, Oh, she’s an author. She’s like, Oh, that’s awesome. So I put her picture up. And every time I got distracted, I would just go back to that.

A: So when you were writing the book, were you actually thinking about ways that you could help her or ways that you could work things that she would be able to connect with that, like, how did having that picture?

C: So right, she was a prior client, so I knew that her Foundation was and I also knew, through the just when I got to Mutasa done, I understood that one of the larger question she was facing was, how do I find meaningful work? How do I how do I matter? How do I show up in a way, not just that I she sort of gotten the basics of self care down and was asking these bigger questions. And so by focusing her picture, I actually created, refined and create this process. In order to help her because she’s in the process she’s gone through yet. She’s actually idea went from this big generic, it’s overwhelmed moms martyr moms, yes, moms that put themselves last to moms who want to, if they’re going to take time away from their kids in their family, then it has to be worth it to have my find meaningful work. Yeah. And because I knew that once she once she got into framework, like she, she wants to go back to the workforce at some point, she happens busy mom. And so once she was like, Oh, I’m gonna go find work that matters, right? Then I could use that framework that she was motivated, she’s motivated to get a job. So once I knew that about her, then I could teach her all the same stuff that I was teaching and martyr mom, but in a language that she would not understand. But also, there’s a built in incentive, right?

Because self care is feels to so many moms to be so selfish. So if there’s not an external motivator, and we can try and tell them why selfish is awesome,

20:58
right and why self care? Isn’t selfish, selfish self care, I believe all of that oxygen over your nose and mouth first, which I thought was a revolutionary method. Um, yeah. So until we framed it in matter. I knew that I wrote it, loving her through that process and a language that she would feel like was worth it because it was getting her something that she and her family needed her family wants and needs her to go back to work at some point. So yeah, but to be compromised. So as we sort of turn the book into our still your message out about love care, but a solution to a problem. Um, a program sort of created itself.

A: Yeah, right. There was a recreated Yeah, I would say it was rebirth, same program, same program, but now had this the legs. Yeah. So when the book came out, did you find that everyone who read it and commented on it was Looking for meaningful work? Yeah. So yeah, talk about that, because a lot of people are afraid about picking this one specific problem, because they teach self care that applies to everyone. So I want to read a generic book about self care for women in transition. So that everyone, right, right. So you wrote something so specific. Did it resonate outside of people with that specific issue?

C: Yeah. So one of the first, one of the first feedbacks I got was, how many dads reading it? Yeah, yeah. And what I coach dads, I asked him coach dads. And I said, No, because that’s just I love I love working with women. So but, but there were other people. I have someone who’s one of my very first clients, actually after he was divorced and doesn’t have kids. So, you know, I think that the message resonated. And as you said, that surprise, you know, because I trusted you. I learned to trust you in the process. I didn’t trust her at the beginning. No, I learned to trust her. And at one point you said just give him something to kick off But give them something to push against. And so I and the way that you described it to us was they’ll you’ll get people who say, Oh, I know you do only moms, I know that you only do work stuff. But will you help me with xy and z? And so that’s Yeah, that’s what happened. Definitely. And so we are, oh, my questions disappeared. How we I was just gonna ask some audience questions, because there’s so many good ones right now. But one, there’s one coach, you saying? Her niche keeps changing? Yeah. Right. Ultimately, she’s teaching the same stuff. It’s like my values and my message is the same, but my niche keeps things changing. So how did you know that you are finally ready to write this book?

A: Well, there are two things on the one hand, you’re never ready. Yeah, that was.

C: I will say that I do feel like when I had my aha moment, I thought it was something else. I thought it was moms and self care. But there was that did have a sense of what type of suffering I was called to the like, well educated moms and I have gotten criticism from people saying well educated mamas is too narrow. It’s too elitist. It’s too, but like, those are my people. Those are my people. And so once I sort of knew who my people were, I didn’t know how I was going to phrase it. I didn’t know what the niche was, but I knew that the message was going to resonate with my people.

A: And so, um, by the way, you guys we haven’t even told you Caroline Greene’s book is called Matter. We sort of said it in conversation, but if you head over to Amazon, you can definitely pick up a copy of her amazing Yeah. And wait, what’s your website?

C: Is it carolinegreenecoaching.cm with a green with an extra e in the yes green with any. So um, yeah, I think that once I really felt like I had received a message I did. I did feel like I so it doesn’t,

A: I would, I would say to that coaches, if your message is staying the same, it doesn’t matter what your niche is. This process can help you refine your niche like that’s neither here nor there. I think I think finding the the healing that you are called to offer the world if you can answer that question, how am I called to heal? Even if it’s in a broad level, I think that the process can help you identify what that niche is. And it’s not like we never change. I mean, we’ve been in conversations about whether or not my niche is going to change a little bit on the edges here or there. I mean, I would say the question is, do you want to help people now? Do you want to generate revenue? I want to help people now because the idea that this one perfect, you know, The Great Gatsby is not we don’t have to wait for the Great Gatsby. Yeah. Like most of us are probably not going to win. You know, the Booker man, the Man Booker Prize.

C: So I thought that I was going to with my first book, I mean, so let me just talk to that for a little okay. I had this whole like, I want to be the next not only like, I don’t want to be the next is over because I want to be me, but like that, that Yeah, but I’m like is good and like I should be able to write this. I mean, look, I’m sharing with you right now. My life. Like deepest fear, like this is I’m not arrogant. This is like a confession. Okay, I actually had the thoughts. And so I had I, how could I possibly write a book and in three days that was going to be worthy of the Booker Prize. And I think that at the time, the process pushed me through to completion. And I really, again, I trusted you that it was better to have a book that was done than no book at all, in order to serve people. But I think what you’re talking about now really resonated with me even more so with my second book, because like, I only wrote this book four months ago, like, I can tell you a very convincing story. It’s why I have no business to be writing a new book, but also like, I have this other thing that like, I know can help people right now. And I know can upgrade now because people are buying it. And so why would I wait, what so that I can like tweak it a little bit or like run it by 10 more people or you know, however many that what is that number? How many people do you have to run a program for before you can write a book? I mean, my answer is that maybe one possible Zero if you feel like it can help people and who are you to keep it to yourself.