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Welcome to The Health & Wellness Practitioners Podcast! Dr. Danielle and other guest experts talk about everything from getting your practice started, developing your clinical skills, growing your practice YOUR way, and dealing with the real stuff life burnout and work/life balance. Whether you’ve been practicing for decades or just started your journey, you’ll find something here for you!
DR. DANIELLE: Welcome, I am here today with a new guest. Her name is Leah Kent. We're going to talk about how to grow your practice by writing a book. And if you know anything about my experience, my goal, my aspiration to write a book, this is kind of an ironic conversation. Here we go. So Leah, if you'll share a bit about who you are, let's get started there.
MEET LEAH KENT
LEAH: Ah, thank you so much. This is awesome to be here. So yes, I am a writer, myself and a book coach and a book designer. So really I have gone through the process myself and with clients from having an idea to creating that manuscript, getting it edited, designing it, and then self-publishing on all the platforms. So like my books are available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble and eBooks and it's a wild ride and it's really satisfying and exciting.
So I came to this work as a lifelong writer and also lifelong entrepreneur and my first experience in the world of online business, you know, like your listeners are, you know, you have this in person business. And honestly going way back, I was teaching children how to cook. Like in another lifetime I had a business teaching people how to cook and then I was doing online courses and pretty quickly I realized there wasn't that big of a difference between my online course materials and just writing a non-fiction book.
And so once I made that connection and once I published my first book, I just was like, oh my gosh, this is it. And I'm so passionate about other people getting to experience that for themselves in their businesses and their lives, because it's really extraordinary to put your work out into the world and then it just like lives out there and it has a life of its own. So that's why I just love this work.
DR. DANIELLE: Yes. Well, that is an interesting journey as you shared, you realize that your online course content wasn't that much different than a book. It's really hit me over the last couple of weeks how much content I have created over the last seven years of running an online business and all the different iterations of it. There's so, and like, I forget that there are things like whole courses that we no longer sell I'm like, oh my gosh, this is actually really good. So there is like so much information and so much that I've already put together. I'm curious to hear from you, how did you go from creating your course content to realizing that it could actually become a book as well?
KNOWING IF YOUR CONTENT IS BOOK-READY
LEAH: Yeah, that's such a great question. So part of it is being a reader, right? Like, so most writers are readers and I'm a die hard passionate reader of nonfiction books mm-hmm. So I really had my eyes and ears open for how other people were putting their work into the world and how they were embodying their work and putting it into these, you know, books. And we were just chatting about it's often not just this one book. Like if you think about somebody that you admire or look up to or follow who has written books as part of their way of sharing their work, they might be writing lots of books over the course of 10 years.
So one, I don't know if you'll know, like SAR, she writes these really colorful handwritten books, and she wrote like 12 books in 12 years or something bananas like that. And her fans love her and they buy every single one of her books. Another self-help author that I would love to follow is Martha Beck. She's like one of the original life coaches and she's on Oprah and an Oprah magazine and Martha's books are all somewhat similar, honestly. Like it's the same concept. But through different lenses, I have every single one of her books on my shelf.
And so once I saw how other people were doing this and I, it just started to click like, oh, it's just, it's taking your content, it's taking what you have to say and you just keep putting it out there. And really, you know, this is something I say often you are going to repeat yourself and your readers want that. They want to hear from you the same thing over and over again. It actually builds trust. You know, it's, it's kind of strange if I was like talking about, you know, popcorn recipes today and hurt felt meditation the next day, they want to hear me talk about intuitive writing, put your work in the world share your message, amplify your business over and over and over again. So that's what I'm doing. So maybe that answers the question. I was just really watching what other people did. And I was like, I can do this too.
DR. DANIELLE: Yes. So just yesterday, one of my students said to me something about how I say a phrase in my courses over and over at the end of every lesson or throughout all the lessons, I say certain phrases, there's about five or six of them. And she said that she really appreciated the consistent reminder about this one particular phrase. And I was like, oh, thank you for that. Because I often feel like such a jerk saying these same things over and over again. But I also understand as an educator, that repetition is a huge part of not just the hearing or the reading of the knowledge or information, but the integration and the implementation of it. And to make this relevant to, you know, those of us that work in hands on practices or with, even with clients virtually they often hear us tell them things, but just because they hear us tell them things once or twice or three times, doesn't mean that they're going to act on the information that we've given them.
LEAH: Oh, absolutely.
DR. DANIELLE: And so it just makes sense then, like your books are consistent reminders of about the same overall topics that they're actually really aspiring to change or achieve or accomplish or be right in their lives. And I think that that's really cool to reframe it that way because it gives you permission to not have to come up with brand new things to say, and in future writings, it's like, you're still talking about the same things.
LEAH: That's right. That's right. Yeah. You don't, you know, some of the things that I say are like, you don't have to reinvent the wheel and also your book can be that voice and be that reminder either in between sessions or if they haven't worked with you in person yet. So you're, your book is a way for you to have your voice exist out in the world.
And for those frequent reminders, just having a book, you know, one of the things that I talk about is like really getting clear on what, what we mean by a book. Because there's a mindset issue around that that I would love to chat with. You know, everyone about we'll do a little reflection like, so just I'll say you have these things that you say all the time and you basically, those are things that your clients can trust you to remind them of. Right? So the book builds trust. It reinforces what you believe in what your sort of core message is your unique way of doing what you do. Right? So that's the role that the book can play and just a packaging of like your 50 top like sayings or 50 top reminders, like that would be a book. And that's what weaves into one of the things that holds so many people back from doing this is that you have an idea in your head that it's going to take a lot longer or be much harder than it has to be.
DR. DANIELLE: Yes, absolutely. I mean, it was 2019 when I decided I was finally going to actively work on writing a book. That book is nowhere near done cause I keep getting to a place where I feel like, oh, I come up with all kinds of reasons, you know, to stay stuck and not making forward progress. Because clearly I'm a prolific content creator. That's not the problem. Right? It's not that I don't have things to say. I have plenty of things to say, that's almost a problem. It's like, how do I make all of this make sense? How do I know lke what's the, what's the intended outcome of this book and what, what do I really want it to do? Or how do I wanted to help people? And so I get lost in that and then I just don't do the writing. Well then there's no book.
LEAH: Yes. Okay. So may I share one paradigm shifting statement with you and everyone?
DR. DANIELLE: Absolutely.
LEAH: And here it is - you already wrote a book. Right? So this is what, one of the things that I'm known for is to show people where the book already exists. You know, and the clients that I am so fortunate to work with, who write books, when we really dig into this and we really like, look at what they've already created and I'm like, oh look, I found it. There's your book, right? Like if you show me what you've written, I can find the book for you almost always and they're like, wait, that counts that's allowed? I'm like, yes, it's allowed.
I have many examples like under my sleeve of, or up my sleeve, I think is the right expression. Of people who have actually just, you know, harvested their blog, content, harvested their social media posts, they've put it all together into a book and people buy it and they love it. So when you think about who it's for, and you think about the role that it has to play this idea that it's embodying your work and it's amplifying your message, it's reinforcing what you're already doing, it actually takes a ton of pressure off to the off of the book writing process, because you're not trying to like generate something out of thin air. That is missing the point, the kind of book that we're talking about, which is a nonfiction book that's connected to your work and to your practice, it does already exist. It's just a matter of, you know, sort of figuring out where that lives and how to stitch it together.
COMPILING SCATTERED THOUGHTS
DR. DANIELLE: A lot of people in our community, you know, they work with their clients and their patients one at a time and they are not necessarily creating content. They're not recording videos. They're not maybe not even posting on social media consistently. And yet they have methodologies in their brains because they've been doing this for enough years that they have certain things that they say to their patients and clients. How do they kind of bridge that gap from like, I've got all this stuff that I constantly say to people to, oh, now I'm going to put it in a book. How do I do that?
LEAH: Oh yeah. So I actually specifically find that a combination of any marketing copy that's on your website, client intake forms, and harvesting any client notes that you might keep - and obviously we're not talking about privacy violations - we're just saying pulling out the trends or reflecting back on like what the stories are. Obviously in the work that I do, I'm always mindful about, you know, how you disclose the stories and there's lots of ways to get around the privacy issue. You're just talking about generalizations.
But whatever it is that you've been keeping, tracking and recording about who you are, what, you know, works, the process that you walk clients through, it's kind of a matter of just harvesting wherever that might live for you. And only you will know, it might also be in your journal, like maybe it's in your morning journal. I don't know but I'm sure there's a place that you've been doing it.
And then if you don't happen to have anything at all written down, then I would still say that you go through the book outlining process. And this is like, this is my next course, because I've taught this as a workshop about putting your process into a sequence and then just filling out the outline of that methodology in a really natural unselfconscious way. Like you're not trying to be fancy. You just need to write down what you do or what you walk people through. And then you add in some, you know, again, either anonymous or composite stories of how that worked for people or your own personal experience if it's relevant and then maybe you give some experiential exercises and that structure right there can quickly turn into a book.
DR. DANIELLE: That makes sense. Actually, I was kind of processing as you were talking and describing that I realize what I've been trying to do is like write this book and have all the right things to say. Right? And then also balancing how do I do, how do I say all the right things in a book and then also still sell my course, right? And where is the line between that?
But what I just realized was I can use other people's stories, right? And we can all do that because all of us have so many success stories and we don't necessarily see the value in them as things to share with other people, especially for those of us that are required to follow, you know, HIPAA and protect people's privacy about their healthcare, we don't see the potential sometimes for sharing those stories because we have to keep them close to the chest. So it's an interesting perspective shift.
LEAH: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, if you think about books that you've read, you see this all the time of a disclaimer that says these are fictitious cases, right? Or what I usually see is either you change the names and the details such that it would be almost impossible to discern who you were talking about. Even if somebody was trying to figure it out. Or you take three clients with overlapping or similar stories and you sort of smush them together into a pretend avatar. And those are the devices that work most easily for most practitioners who need to honor that kind of privacy when they're talking about how their work works for real people.
REVENUE-GENERATING WRITING
DR. DANIELLE: Yes. One of the things that you and I talked a bit about before we started recording was that, you know, when you work in a service based industry period, like when you work with clients or patients, one at a time, you can very quickly find that your revenue is capped when your schedule is full, you can increase your fees, but you can also out-price yourself at some point, right? And then people start to get kind of disheartened. They feel like they're stuck. And maybe eventually they start to look for other ways to build more income that are like, they don't often say passive streams of income, which is kind of a misnomer, but maybe leveraged income streams would be a better way to say it. So what are your thoughts? And what's been your experience with writing a book if you want it to be a revenue generating stream.
LEAH: Yep. So there's a couple different things. Yes. We could talk about this all day. So the first thing is, if you write on a narrow enough topic within your body of work if you can find that one narrow topic, you have a better chance of your book sort of finding its way into people's hands more organically without having to go down a whole road of like running ads, and then it stops being passive and it starts to be a whole project, right?
So a book design client of mine wrote on a highly niche topic and she sells, I just saw her and it was like, oh no, she's selling like a book a day. And I think she's probably making, it's a very small amount of money. Let's just say it is summer between $5 and $10 of royalties on each book. But still, if she's doing like 30 books a month at $5, like that's a little bit of a cushion, but what it's really doing is driving people to your other offers.
So where most authors are making the quote unquote big money is that it's leading, connecting to their email list where they're then selling other offers like online workshops or retreats or online courses. And then the other thing that I think is important to consider is how it could make a difference in your ability to land speaking engagements. Right? So if you want to pitch yourself as an expert in a group or at a conference having a book attached to your whole sort of presentation can be a real credibility lift. It gives an event organizer something to kind of like grab onto, they can read it. You can even send the copy out to say, Hey, this is like who I am and what I do.
So part of it is the whole, like the overall lift that can happen in your business. When you have a book or a series of books added. It can sort of, you can make money from it directly. Although for most people that's not really what it's about. It's increasing their revenue streams everywhere else.
DR. DANIELLE: I talked with a chiropractor in New York, just a few weeks ago about her practice and things were kind of slowing down in her practice over the last couple of years. And she was concerned and she wants to see more in person clients, but also kind of doesn't and she wrote this book and the book really showcases her expertise and how she is very different from really any other chiropractor - I know thousands of chiropractors and I've never met anyone that does work, like what she does.
So I just got her book this week and I sat down with it and I was like, wow, this is like, this really does show to me, even as a healthcare provider like how what she does is so unique and different. So when I talked with her, she said she wanted the book to be a very large revenue stream, but I could see this book being a, essentially a lead generator for her practice. Right?
So I just put that out there because I know that sometimes people think, you know, oh, I'm going to write a book and I'm just going to make money being an author. And I don't know that it's quite that easy. Obviously I've not yet published a freaking book. But observing the industry as a whole, you know, just through my lens, I think is an alignment with what you're saying, it's not necessarily a reasonable expectation to think that your book is going to make you a millionaire.
LEAH: I would agree with you. That's something that, you know, I always set that up at the very beginning of working on this with people is like, what is your actual motivation? And, you know, one thing that you made me think about is, well, there's two things, probably more, but start with two things.
One, I mentioned to you that writing in a series of books is often an approach that I highly recommend. And there's a financial reason for that too. If you think about, if you get a quick win from the book and you like it, and you resonate with that person's approach, and then you find out that they have like two more books, you're very likely to go get the next two books. So publishing three books, can put more money in your pocket than one book. And I mean three shorter books, because what people want from the book is to solve a problem and they want completion satisfaction. They want to feel like, oh, it did something for me. And if you are getting that, you know, a few dollars on each book, but now you multiply that times three so you've increased your revenue from your books by having more titles available, you're diversifying. And hopefully you're getting repeat customers from that.
So that's one thing I want to say is that writing and series can be that financial advantage. However, for people who are making a ton of money on books, they have like independent authors who are making a lot of money on their books, it's because they're running ads to their books. They're really putting a lot of time and effort into pushing that book out there. And so if you want to learn that approach, it's completely available.
But there's another way of doing this that's more soft and subtle, which is the process of writing the book and putting your expertise onto the page, always boosts your confidence. And for a lot of people, the sort of secret hidden reward of writing the book is all of a sudden, you're like, Hey, I totally know what I'm talking about. You might raise your rates. You might be more confident in certain scenarios. You might up the price on your course. You might teach a new workshop. There's something sort of a little bit magical there in terms of how you feel when you have finished the book and you've put your expertise out into the world. There's something that really happens internally that can shift something for you and make it easier for you to sort of draw opportunities, charge more, that kind of thing. So it shows up unexpectedly in the financial realm.
BEING MOTIVATED BY A BIGGER PURPOSE
DR. DANIELLE: Isn't it also scary to put your work out there and you know, what happens next, right? Like what if people don't like it? What if no one reads it? What if the sales are really low, then what? And how do we, how do we not let those potential outcomes stop us from even getting started?
LEAH: Oh my goodness. What a big question. But you know what, it's one of the most common questions, right? It's really the most common thing. The what if, right? So part of it is the sort of entrepreneurial journey of the fact that like, we have that question about every single thing that we, you know, put out into the world. What if nobody buys it? What if nobody likes me, what am I going to do about that negative feedback? So it's just another facet.
So however, you've been able to move through that in opening your practice, marketing, your current business, it's kind of the same conversation of, you know, you have to find a place within yourself that is motivated by a bigger purpose, right? So you have to get anchored into a purpose. That's going to carry you through that resistance. So in the case of me, I'll just use myself as an example, I believe so deeply in the importance of getting wise, you know, men and women's voices, heart centered, conscious people with expertise and healing abilities, and they know what it is to have a life of health and vitality and wellness. I think those voices need to be in the world so deeply. I want those voices to drown out the opposite voices. And that keeps me going, even if I'm like, oh, nobody's listening. And I might also use a phrase like nobody's listening yet. Right? I might also say like, I haven't gotten there yet, but I feel really anchored and motivated by that bigger purpose. And so that's what carries me through any resistance.
DR. DANIELLE: The purpose that you shared is very much the same for my own, everywhere that I go everywhere that any of us go, there are people who are unwell, unhealthy, they're sick. They, you know, whether it's mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically. And yet, so many people struggle to grow their health and wellness business. Right? It's not then because there's a shortage of potential patients or clients because they're everywhere.
So how do we bridge the gap? What are we missing? And that's sort of the same as what you were describing. It's the reason that I do, you know, it's the reason that I've offered marketing courses, even though people in our community don't like marketing, like, well, that's the problem. That's why we're not all as busy or, you know, you want to use different words. Like that's not, that's why not every single practitioner has a waitlist practice because we don't like the marketing, or we don't know how to do it, or we're afraid to put ourselves out there. And yet we're missing the opportunity to serve so many people when there's such an abundance of people that need our help. So, yeah, that's what keeps me going.
LEAH: Yeah. Well, you know, you also just made me think of something that is really important in what you're talking about in terms of like, there are all these people out there who could use our help. Right? But they don't all need our help at the same time. And so one of the things that's so cool about the book as a format for sharing your work is that it exists across time. So you write your book one time and now it exists. And the client who like, when they're ready, they find it and then they find you. And so it's a way to sort of like, put like a little flag in the ground out there that says, Hey, this is who I am and I'm available. And the number of introductions and books that are like, I trust that if you're reading this book, it's because you need it right now. I don't know if you've ever read that in an introduction
DR. DANIELLE: Probably all the time. Yeah.
LEAH: Right? So it's the same concept of like the timelessness of your work, it's perfect for a book because it can live out there sort of attracting people to you without you having to go out and sort of find them one on one. So that is where the book absolutely fits into the world of marketing. Right? It's another way for people to find you at the right place and the right time without you having to go out and do something. So it's part of the overall ecosystem of just showing up with what you have to say and what you have to share. So I really love that process too, that you write the book now, and three years from now, somebody is going to find me that way, or they're going to find you that way and it's going to lead them back to you. And I don't know, just that whole process just feels so easy compared to some of the other methods.
DR. DANIELLE: Yeah. I'm with you. Okay. So what would you want people to know if they're maybe sticking one toe into the water with the idea of writing a book, or maybe like they're kind of up to their knees, but they're not really sure if they like this water do I want to go deeper? Am I just going to kind of stand here and pretend like, yeah, I'm going to write a book, but they're not really going all in.
LEAH: Oh my gosh. That's such a great question. So I would say that my, my invitation question for anybody, who's like, I think I want to write a book, but I'm not sure. I would just say, ask yourself why you want to write the book and ask yourself why you don't want to write the book and just like spend some time really sitting with that, you know, what's the desire and how does that balance with the resistance, right. Cause I'm sure you're experiencing both.
And if you get to the point or if you're already at the point where the desire is much stronger than the resistance, then, then what I would say to you and this can help dissolve the resistance is what pressure are you? Are you putting on yourself about what this book has to be? And can you look at it and experience it as something much easier, lighter and immediate than you are imagining? And what I mean by immediate is if you can go back to what I said, you already wrote the book that this isn't a question of reaching out and taking on the big research project and interviewing a hundred experts. Like what is there that you have to share and have to say that already lives within you right now? Like, what are you writing from this present moment of where you are on your journey? And can you help somebody make even one small shift when you write that book?
So the other thing that tends to stop a lot of us up is that we have so much integrity. We want to help and change people so much that we tend to put pressure on ourselves that we have to write some sort of earth-shattering, mind-blowing book. Okay. Which is like, I always say, if it feels really hard to write, it will be really hard to read. So we are looking for a path that is much more aligned. It's much more about what is present right now. What could you write immediately? And what have you already written? Like you shared, you know, what already exists in your ecosystem, in your business that could turn into that book? So if you can get to that place to say, oh, this book could be easy, it's based on what I've already created, and my desire is stronger than my resistance, then you're ready.
DR. DANIELLE: Got it.
LEAH: Just that, it's just that.
DR. DANIELLE: Awesome. Okay. So if people would like to learn more about you and what you do, how you help people write books, where's the best place for them to go?
LEAH: The best place is probably my little online home, which is LeahKent.net. And I'm also on Instagram, @LeahKentCo. That's just my maiden name. Yeah, and I am so happy to hear what people are working on, what their ideas for books are. Anything that I can ever do to help make the process feel achievable and accessible is a hundred percent what I'm here for.
DR. DANIELLE: Awesome. Leah, thank you so much for everything that you shared today, it's been really fun to talk with you about this thing that I'm not doing, but I’m going to do it.
LEAH: Yes. So wonderful. Thanks for letting me be here. It's been such a joy.