How Shaunna Created a 6-Figure Business from Her Book

In this episode Shaunna Menard shares how she used her book to leave her lucrative medical career, help thousands of people heal and make way more money doing what she loves. Learn How Shaunna Created a 6-Figure Business.

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In this episode you will learn:

• 02:00 Can I leave my job and create an income doing what I love?
• 04:00 How can I get help to write a book that makes a difference?
• 09:00 Is investing in help to write my book worth it?
• 12:35 How does being an author give me credibility?
• 16:00 If writing one book helps my business, will writing another book help even more?

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Full Episode Transcript:

Hi, I’m Dr. Shawna Menard, author of free to heal nine steps to a successful soul satisfying health coaching practice. And I teach health coaches how to make six figures with their health coaching practice. I remember the first time I actually considered wanting to write a book, I was 10 years old. And I was in my kitchen and the neighbor boy Joe came over. I don’t even remember I was thinking about this the other day, I only remember him coming over to our house once. But he came over, he’s in our kitchen and he said, he’s going to be an author when he grows up, and he is going to write a book. And I’m like, whoo, that sounds cool. I want to write a book. That sounds fantastic. And he planted a seed. And then as life turned out, I ended up becoming a medical doctor and put those dreams on hold. And, but that had always been like a childhood desirous to write a book. The reason I decided to write a book was it was time. So originally, when I was 14, my grandmother died of cancer. So that launched a desire within me to help people live their longest, healthiest, happiest lives. So I went to medical school became a doctor. That sounds pretty logical. But 25 years as a medical doctor, and I realized people had way more power to affect their own health, then they realized, so I went to nutrition school, and I also became a health coach. And so here, I was balancing these two things, I was working full time as a radiologist at a tertiary care center, and being the mom of four boys, and this crazy busy life. And then in addition, I decided to fly to New York and study nutrition on the weekends. It was insane and crazy. But as I became a health coach as well, and they started health coaching people, in my own living room, amazing things happened. People got off all their medication, I didn’t take them off, the doctors took them off, but I was able to truly influence people’s health. And through nutrition, distressing, getting their real desires out there. And it was magical what happened in that little sunroom along the river. And but then I was faced with the challenge, because as I was health coaching, I was literally every moment I was spending with them, I was literally hemorrhaging money. So I was sitting in this amazing dream home that my radiology career had afforded. But as I took time off to health coach, I was left with this thing. How do I leave my lucrative medical career and still make a difference, healing without sacrificing my family, my health or my relationships. And so that was a long, bumpy road. So it took me about 10 years to actually figure that out, cost me well over 100,000 of trial and error, an error. And it was, it was the hard way, it was definitely the hard way. But eventually, I did figure it out. And I was able to be successful as a health coach and launch a practice. And then fast forward to last year. And I was the emcee of an event in nutrition at in Miami, Deepak Chopra was the keynote. And I was teaching some sessions, but I had an opportunity now to talk to thousands of health coaches. And what I realized was, these people were amazing. They had, they were just like me, they had conquered something in their own life, they had got their mom off rheumatoid arthritis, medicine, whatever it was, and they wanted more than anything to heal. And almost none of them were doing it. They were wanting to help coach wanting to do that. And they weren’t. And so I’m like, I know what that feels like. That was me. And so that’s when I’m like, I gotta get my message out there, I have to help these health coaches, do the work that they were meant to do make that soul satisfying difference that they were meant to do, because I had figured that out. And so that’s why I decided to package up like the formula, the nine steps and break it down for them, getting rid of all of the weeds that don’t work and putting in only the necessary steps that will get them to their dream and to be able to bring this out so I’m like I had to get that.

And and just after I had that event, I came home and I was listening to a video, podcast and an ad came up for the Author Incubator. I absolutely remember the moment because usually when ads come up on YouTube video, I’m like, ah, skip ad skip ad, where can I skip, and my phone wasn’t near me, I was in the bathroom and I was getting ready. And I heard Angelo’s voice of the author, incubator, and something about that caught my attention. And I actually stopped what I was doing, I went over, and I watched the whole thing. And I’m like, author, incubator, I want to write a book. That’s how I can get my message out there. That’s how I can help these people. That’s how we can heal the world. So when I looked at the investment, I had to take a real hard look at that, because I have been for decades, the sole income provider for our family of six. So it really matters where our money is going. And I need to know that I’m going to get an ROI on this, I need to know that I’m going to get an actual return on my investment and that it’s not just going to be well, I feel a little better. That’s not going to be enough, I needed to know that this would make the difference, that would move my message out there, and that I would get a return back and that this would be the most cost effective decision that I could possibly make. And so I looked at the track record. And as I looked at it, all of these people wrote books. If they could do it, I probably could, too. And I awakened that dream that I had when I was a little girl to write a book. And I’m like, now’s the time, now’s the time. And actually, you know how people have certain numbers, that means something to them. So 51 is my number was my brother’s racing number in the early days. And so I was 51 when I joined the Author Incubator, so I was like, I should have picked this lower number, perhaps, in retrospect. But it was time and it was absolutely the best decision, the best investment I ever could have made pivotal, life changing. The one thing I knew, or I felt when I started this book, writing processes that I could just sense that I was going to be taken care of like that I was supported. And I absolutely was. And all I had to do was follow the steps I loved that I just had to do step one, step two, step three, and there were people in the team to support me every step of the way. It was fan tastic. And great feedback, they would let you know if you’re off into the weeds like oh, no, like, or if you’re like, I don’t know, is this is this what I’m supposed to be doing? Is this what they mean? And it was fantastic. It was still my voice, my voice. But there was tremendous support every step of the way. And I was most surprised at how easy it was. I had no idea. I could write a book in like nine weeks. No, in fact, it was less than that. Because I started the whole process. I had already booked a trip with my mom to go celebrate her birthday in Hawaii. And I thought, well, maybe I should wait. And I’m so glad I didn’t. I said no, no, you’ll be fine, you’ll have enough time. And when you hear people taking years and years to write a book doesn’t take that long. If you just follow the steps, and everybody wrote a book, everybody, every one of us in our little cohort, we all finished, we all had our books, magical. When I decided to make the investments in this program, so that I could get my book out there and published.

I figured if I make $100,000 in the year from this venture, that that would be a great return on my investment that would make it worthwhile. So that was my goal. And I reached that out within four months of completing my book before I’d actually launched it. So I had just written the manuscript and hadn’t even done a book launch it, and how to how to reach that goal. And then I launched my book, and within 30 days, this just blows my mind. Within 30 days of launching my book. I earned $70,000. Like how’s that even possible? And I remember. And the Author Incubator, Angela had talked about a quarter million book, there was a webinar I saw. And so once I reached my goal within, like four months, my year goal in four months, then I thought, well, let’s do 250,000. But I reached that, within three months, within three months of launching my book. And right now, I’m on track to half a million dollars, I can’t even believe that it is, beyond my wildest dreams. There’s like your worst case scenario. And there’s the best case scenario. And then there’s what actually happened. It’s fantastic. But more importantly, more importantly, is the difference that my awakened tailors, the people that are in my health professional Academy, as a result of my book, the people who have taken this book, and then ran with it. One of my favorite stories is one of my clients is Marcos, and he lives in Mexico City. And he, this is the first book he ever read. He’s never read another book, he got my book, he read it, he said, He’s texted me, if all books are like this, I’m going to start reading a lot more. And he joined our program. While he was creating his health coaching practice, he was able to earn 4500 US dollars himself, while he’s creating his program and serving his clients, his clients were so grateful. One of them gave him a three hour testimonial, he’s making a difference. And he’s been able to do radio interviews, cooking shows, TV interviews, it’s phenomenal. And he has taken the ball and ran with it. And it’s really spectacular. So the difference I’ve been able to make now is exponential through the people that I’ve been able to touch because my book, I knew all this stuff before, but I couldn’t get this message out there until I had a book now that I have a book. It’s easy, and people want more of that if people want to know this. It’s right here. So it’s been fantastic. beyond my wildest dreams, it is my book is about soul satisfying. This is so soul satisfying, it’s amazing.

The great thing is being an author gives an additional credibility. So as a doctor, as a medical doctor of 25 years, I had credibility in the hospital, in the university situation. But as a coach, as a holistic entrepreneur, as an entrepreneur, a book is, I think a book is an essential piece of your toolkit as an entrepreneur, because you need to have a way to capture what you do and put it out there so that the people who want to know what you do, can find you. So there’s a business card, which people will throw in the trash, they won’t throw out a book, they will keep that there. And the book has you name, it has what you do, it has your message. And if they want to know more, they will connect with you. And I think as a as an entrepreneur, it’s essential, that is what I’m going to be guiding all of my clients to go for, because it will just catapult your success. I’ve seen what it’s done for me. So I’m really excited. This experience was so amazing. I’m already on to my second book, I’ve already started to write the book. So this first book was all about how to create your signature program. And my next book is going to be how to make six figures with your signature program. And so right now I have a number of my clients who are on track to six figures. And as I’m coaching them through that I am gathering even more details of not only what worked for me, but then now what is reproducible and working for so many others. And so I’m capturing that in another book. And so I’m really excited to do this whole process again, with the Author Incubator, it’s just fantastic. I mean, it’s obvious. There’s no way I could have got a book, like actually published. I know myself, I actually probably could have written some things down. I don’t know about editing or publishing or, like how, how do they do this and it’s gonna be like it’s in bookstores like an actual like real bookstore like a bookstore, my books in a bookstore. Like, I could write some stuff down like an essay for English project I’m actually capable of that. I have no idea how they do this, but I’m so glad they do. And it’s, I mean, they just make it so simple. This you, they allow you to get out of your own way and make your magic happen. Fantastic.