The Future of Publishing with TedX Speaker & 10x Best Selling Author Melanie Johnson on Episode #0404

[00:00]
EA interviews episode 404 inspiration, transformation success stories and the imperfect action round seven days a week, join Mario for Genie for today’s expert authority effect interview. And I got

Mario Fachini [00:14]
some exciting news for you. Have you ever thought about publishing a book? Have you ever thought about doing a summer webinar, maybe a charity auction, I am so excited to bring the lovely Melanie Johnson back, you may remember her from episode two of the show. I have her right over here. She’s smiling and everything, but she really needs no introduction. And I’m going to bring her up right after we thank our sponsor, every business needs a book, including yours. And that’s why I’m launching my new book to help you regardless of where you think your current writing abilities are visit EA publishing method book.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Once again, that’s EA publishing method book.com. Here she is, ladies and gentlemen, Melanie Johnson. Melanie, how are you feeling today?

[01:10]
I’m feeling awesome. How are you? Mario?

Mario Fachini [01:13]
I am great. And I’m excited to have you back. It’s been a minute, but I know you got some big stuff going on with the future of publishing Summit. And I want you to just dive right into that what it’s about. Why should we even care? Because Is there a future in publishing?

Melanie Johnson [01:27]
Well, first of all, you’re on the summit. So that’s the biggest reason one of the biggest reasons you should care. Yeah, and rubbing shoulders with Mark Cuban because Mark Cuban is on the summit. He’s one of the few top dogs that talks about the future of publishing and how it’s going to change with all of the new technology. And, of course, you should still publish a book, you just published a book that came out recently. So a book is something that’s been around for hundreds of years. And I don’t think it’s going to go anywhere. But the technology changes, you know, publishing was disrupted when Amazon came on the scene. And now we have new technology, which most people don’t even know like 5% of the people know what an NF t is, which is a non fungible token, and how that’s going to rock the publishing world. So we’re launching a book coming up with a non fungible token that will be on the blockchain. And that is changing the whole nature and scope of publishing and what it’s going to look like. So if you put it in your mind of like, when the internet first came out, and you’re like, what’s a website? Why do I need a website? Hmm? So it’s kind of the same, like an NF T, why do I need an NF? T. So it’s kind of the same thing. We’re diving deep into that topic. But we’re also diving deep into new and great ways to write a book, new technologies of how to publish your book, how are ways to market your book, one of the questions we have all the time we publish books just like you do, and after it’s like, but the writing they think is hard. But then they get to the marketing and promoting like, oh my gosh, that’s even harder. That’s harder than what I thought writing the book was. So we really dive deep into marketing. And what I love about this is a lot of it is book centric, but a lot of it applies to anybody in business, almost 100% of what we teach you can use for your business or your book. So I really think it opens it up to almost anyone in any business, you’re going to learn something that you can apply to your business, as well as if you’re an author.

Mario Fachini [03:28]
So you’re talking about NF T’s and the blockchain and in this digital world, but what are your thoughts on actually having something you can pick up in your hands? Are these old fashioned books still tangible? Are they still? Do they have a point to them? They’re obviously tangible. What’s the word I’m looking for? Are they still relevant?

Melanie Johnson [03:49]
Relevant? Yeah, relevant? Yeah, I would say yes. Um, you know, everybody likes different formats. My kids who you think, Oh, they’re probably just gonna be audio, Nathan, and JJ, who we have game night with Mario at least several times a year. So you know, you would think they would just be audio book, maybe e reader, but justice especially loves that physical book in his hand, the book itself will not go away. And the NFT really is not with the physical. We’re working with some companies that are developing an e reader to go with the NFT. Like you would have Kindle. But honestly, the physical book will never go away. And if you’re publishing a book, our philosophy is you should really have all formats and the new format will be with an NF t. So I really think you still need that audiobook hardback book, paperback book ebook, because everybody likes to consume content in different ways. Just like some people even with today I see my kids they never watch live TV ever, ever, ever, ever, ever. Maybe. Alright, the Super Bowl that was it? Otherwise never, ever, ever. They consume theirs through YouTube. And then when they get the news, they get the news through their Instagram feeds. So everybody has something different that they like, they like to watch. So like I’m consuming my news generally through Hulu now, but then I also go into my news feed. So I like to get things different ways. So I think you should always have all the different formats and use technology to its nth degree if you can.

Mario Fachini [05:26]
So with NF T’s, I’m very excited to learn more about that myself, you know, if it makes sense for me, for my clients, and you know, moving forward in the future, it’s very fascinating. But what about, you know, Facebook ads, Amazon ads, how about live streaming?

Melanie Johnson [05:46]
Oh, well, you gotta love the live streaming. I mean, I’ll start with that first. So and you’re a big live streamer, and big podcaster. We have a podcast as well. And one of the main things I love about that is you can repurpose it in so many different ways, right? And when people see you in person, it’s not just words, they’re getting a feel of your personality, your values, who you are, they feel like they know you, they almost feel like they had a conversation with you. So when they’re ready to do business with you, they don’t have as many questions. They’re really comfortable and feel like, Hey, I already know you. I’ve already heard about you. I already know what your pitch is, and what your product and services. So I love that. And then the second thing I love is that repurposing so you can take this interview, and you can chop it up into a variety of different things. It can live as a podcast, you can make clips of it and put it on YouTube, you can make tic TOCs out of it, you can make Instagram really out of it. Yeah. So it could still think of all the different places it can be. And we’re just spending our time here, maybe for half hour creating this and you think, well, it’s just a podcast. Oh, and by the way, we wrote a book called podcast authorized, which is how to turn your podcast into a book and your book into a podcast. So you know, there are some that, yeah, so then you can go ahead and have a book from your podcast as well. So that’s what I love about all of that. Don’t just stop there. So if you have a book, turn your book into a podcast or talking about it, start doing live streams about each chapter and interview guests on the topics that you’ve written about.

Mario Fachini [07:20]
So we’re going to go in two different directions at the same time. And hopefully, it’s the same

Melanie Johnson [07:25]
reason that doesn’t surprise me like Mario,

Mario Fachini [07:28]
because I want to make sure that people know who’s really going to be here, because I’m excited because there’s a lot of heavy hitters here. And at the same time, my question for you is, you know, we’re talking about repurposing the podcast and the book and all these different things. You know, one of the things I’ve said for years, is take one of the chapters and speak about it on a live stream every day, you know, leading up to the launch, hey, a week before, if you have a seven chapter book, and you’re launching seven days from now, maybe just maybe talk about chapter one, one day, chapter to the next, so on and so forth. Yep. But I love the marketing. I love the promotion. And honestly, it’s surreal to say now, I love the writing. But what if someone’s going this sounds great. You guys are rock stars. But I hate writing. I don’t know if I’ll ever meet I like I don’t mind marketing and the promotion. But how do I get there? You know, how do I help? How do you help them get the book done? And what do you suggest for someone’s at that starting point going? Where do I even start? What do I even write about?

Melanie Johnson [08:36]
You know, we have a lot of authors that come to us with that they’re confused that we call it the you know, the book hamster wheel, the content hamster wheel, they’re just rolling us should it be about my life should be about my business should it be about, you know, the experience that I had when I was a kid should you know, they just and then it just keeps rolling around and they never ever get the book done. So what we do, we call it a VIP content day. And we spend the whole day with you and we craft the book, but it’s finding out you know, your why, who your target market is who your target person is speak to that one person, we’ve had people write a book, just to the president of a company to get a job there. You know, come up with that person that you’re really speaking to that you’re trying to help with your book, or you want to tell your story. So it’s coming up with that structure, and and then telling those stories. And you and I both love because I’m not a writer per se, my son was not, don’t tell him you’re not a writer. You wrote books, your best selling author, and I go but I’m like Mario, I would rather speak my book. I would rather speak it have someone interview me or do transcribe things and then turn it into the book. But I think you have to have clarity on who you’re speaking to. And the purpose of the book, what you want the outcome to be for you your business and the person that’s going to read it

Mario Fachini [09:59]
100% It doesn’t matter if you know you have a ghostwriter. You are a ghostwriter. You love writing you hate writing, you know exactly who you’re talking about, or whatever. If you don’t, you know, one of the things I say, is, start with the end in mind. What do you want the person to get out of the book? If the I’m writing the book for you, by the time you’re on page 200? Where do I want you to be versus where you started. And then you just bridge the gap from there. I mean, you can write about anything. I think everyone has three to five areas of expertise, whether it’s in their business or not. That’s a whole other story. But it’s like, there’s a lot of stuff I can write about. But I started with one. And I went from there.

Melanie Johnson [10:42]
And I always say, you know, start with the money book, right? Start with the book that’s going to propel you in credibility, propel you in the marketplace, help your business grow. And then you can have those other choices of you know, you want to write the book of poems, right? Don’t write the book of poems. First, write the book about your expertise and your niche first and give yourself credibility. And you can still tell your story within that by layering those stories in we always tell our authors, you layer those stories in, because that’s how people connect with you and get to know with you within your expertise.

Mario Fachini [11:16]
Yeah, there’s so many great ways you can finish but if you don’t get started, I mean, what’s the point? Yeah. So if you’re listening, which you are, because there’s no other option, I mean, at some point, you have the audio on, check out EA interviews, comm forward slash future of publishing. And you can take a look at the list I’m looking at here. And we have people like Mark Cuban Loral Langemeier Mike Kane next, Anita Henderson, Phil Palooka. Me. George Shepherd, Melanie Sarah McDermott, Venus Ramos. Amira Alvarez Jen Foster, Candace Davis, Mike pitcher, pitcher, sorry, Ed rush. Andrea glass showtec Taking some water, Regina Wamba Bernice Bennett, James factor, Andy Felco. Nathan Johnson, Derek doper, Carrie Ray Barnum, Brian Judd, Alex Strathdee, Jackie Lapin, and April Cox. My next Yeah, do you do have quite the lineup and congrats on pulling everyone together? Because I know this is no small feat. I mean, it’s incredible. It’s just absolutely incredible what you’ve done. And some of these people I heard I was actually very excited because there’s people on here I heard of, and I, you know, had followed for a few months or whatever, like Alex, and I was looking through. And I’m like, Well, this is sweet, obviously Mark Cuban. I was watching Shark Tank last night. I mean, you have so many great people on here. But how do you? Why did you want to curate everyone? And over such great niches I would say within the discipline because Amazon ads like with Alex talking about in NF T’s with Mark and Nathan. And you know, live streaming with Andy. And you know, I touch on the podcasting side of it. Why podcast is important. For authors, I mean, tell me your thoughts about it. Tell me some behind the scenes about how this all came to be and why did you pick who you picked?

Melanie Johnson [13:31]
Well, you know, it was back in April, I was listening to Gary Vee, and he was talking about that he was going to do an NF T and I’m like, What the heck’s an NF t. So I started educating myself about it and telling my son Nathan, about, hey, you should listen and look about NF T’s like mom and ft, whatever. And then all of a sudden, he says, hey, people are making money with this. And next thing I know, he’s watching NF T’s and doing really well by doing it. But what it made me aware of is that we’re at a precipice of a new horizon. And everyone’s business is going to change, which means the publishing business is going to change. So I really felt that this was the perfect time to educate our audience and expand our audience to know what’s going on in the marketplace. Like literally, I spoke today at a group, there’s probably 50 people there. And I said, Does anybody here know what an NF T is? And literally two people raised their hand. So it’s so new, but again, I take you back. Back years ago, if I said, Does anyone know what the internet is? Internet? What’s the internet, maybe two people would have raised their hand. So it’s the time to really get started. And I wanted to be on top of this, but I wanted to do it as a gift to our audience and to all the people we invited to speak to their audience. And people were chosen for specific reasons like Mark Cuban, and everyone that I listened to that was talking about NF T’s in web 3.0 He was the only one that was talking about how it was going to change the publishing industry, and how it was going to change books and textbooks. So I was like, oh, man, I want to be able to have him have a conversation with him. And he was so gracious that he just we emailed over there. And he immediately said, Yes, set this up, which I was shocked, like, wow, you know, asking, you shall receive type of thing. And you know, people like you, Mario, that are super experts in the green room that we had you were sharing new technology with me on the podcast side already. So I mean, you’re and that’s just from when we interviewed on our summit. So that’s just like a month ago, and also you have something else that’s new, the the marketplace is moving. So fast, technology is moving exponentially, so so fast, it’s hard to keep up. So I wanted to have a gift of experts of people in their field that could at least give our group and everybody’s group that was in there a head start and not feel like you’re drowning, but you feel like you’re on top of it, and you have the vocabulary for everything. And then you can start to pick and choose what you need to execute for your business. And for your book of all these tools that we’re giving you.

Mario Fachini [16:10]
Well, I’m super excited about it, not just to be a speaker, but I always have loved learning from people. There’s times when I’ve gone to events, and I am the speaker, generally that’s the case. But there’s times when I go, I just goes an attendee because I’m like, I want to learn this, I don’t want to hear myself again, because I’ve been saying the same stuff for over a decade, longer than that, depending on what I’m talking about. And I always love sharing, and I always love making it exciting. But I know some speakers who have this, like, I’m the speaker, like bow to me attitude. And I’m kind of like, I don’t really know anything more than I knew. You know, I always like learning because it’s like, okay, I learned everything I could last year, well, it’s a new, it’s a new year, things change. Like, if you’re not on the cutting edge of that. It’s like I always want to be in a room of people learning, not just, you know, look at me on stage or whatever. So I’m so glad you pulled together who you did, because I’m excited to learn from them as much as I’m very excited to share with your audience because I love doing it. And I know, I have a lot of good stuff to say but you know, I’m you pulled together a great lineup, kudos on that. And I’m also excited to tell everyone that you know, I think it will fit into their budget, why don’t you tell us why you’re making it. So beyond accessible, and what that price point actually is to get started in, attend live.

Melanie Johnson [17:34]
Yeah, it’s a we wanted everyone to be able to have it with no barrier. So it’s $0, it costs nothing, it’s absolutely free. You can listen to all 27 speakers. But you know, hey, I get it that not everybody has time, it’s February 24 through the 28th. They’re like, you know, I got a lot of stuff going on. And maybe you want to pick and choose just the speakers you want to listen to. But we made it super affordable. If you want to get the recordings, then you can listen to it anytime you want. And you can share it with your team members with other people, it gives you plenty of time to take notes on things. So it’s only $97. If you sign up for the VIP. Plus, I just want to say in the VIP area, there’s about $50,000 worth of free stuff in there. So not only do you get the 97 the all the for $97 You get all of the recordings that you can listen to anytime you get about $50,000 worth of information and bonuses free stuff in there. I think that’s a good ROI, don’t you Mario?

Mario Fachini [18:37]
I think with uh, I know of one thing that’s going to be in there at least and I know that is at least worth a couple 10s of 1000s and a couple of years of time, because that’s how long it took me to curate it. Yeah. But yeah, I think I think that’s a great ROI. And thank you for making that accessible for everyone. Because I, I I don’t take any of this lightly, because I remember when I had $5 and I spent four on highlighters in $1 on a used book on Amazon. And it’s like the stuff you can learn from books and other people. I mean, look at Nathan, you said you and him last year were like, what’s this and look at them now. Yeah, once you I give a little glimpse of you know, he’s a speaker. Why don’t we talk about that his success story?

Melanie Johnson [19:33]
Yeah, and you know, it’s funny you say he’s a speaker and I don’t know that he would say that he’s a speaker.

Mario Fachini [19:39]
He’s what he’s with at the summit. You can learn from him. That’s marketing NF T’s to make them massively profitable.

Melanie Johnson [19:48]
Well, the other thing he’s been a teacher slash speaker, he’s been doing things with Tai Lopez we’re Tai Lopez has had him on his little I guess you say like webinars like Tai will pop up and say Hey, I brought all these you know, crypto whales or NF T whales to teach you about this and one of them is Nathan. So I think it’s so funny because when Nathan Nathan’s 21, and when he was a senior in high school, I took him to a live event at Tai Lopez’s house. And Tai Lopez grabbed him and said, Hey, this kid’s going places they haven’t on video. And now he’s actually on the inside, telling them how to market their NFT project that’s coming up and just kind of blows my mind. So yeah, I just told the story today. I call it the Mercedes story, because Nathan started doing Instagram marketing. And he would sell ads on different Instagrams and do social media and chatting for people where you would charge him a service. And he’s gotten very, very good at it. And then I mentioned the NFT thing. And then he was like, Mom, well, when he was making some money with that, he rented a Mercedes. And he thought it’d be fun for a day to run Mercedes AMG and the guy he rented it from. He told me did this social media stuff, because I know a couple guys that do this social media stuff. So I connected them. And you know, they followed each other no big deal. Then down the road, Nathan wanted to buy a Mercedes. And I was kind of one of my weak points in life. I will just say I was kind of run down and emotionally run down and physically run down. I had come back from taking care of my mother. And so the idea was that he was going to make money with the Mercedes. And he was going to run it on Turo, which is kind of like Airbnb for cars. So we ended up getting the car. And I say we at the time, but then it turned into just be him. And he went to go put it on Turo. And they told him he couldn’t put it on because it had a pending recall. So here, his whole marketing strategy of how he was going to make the payment went up in smoke. So what he did and Nathan fashion, he just blew it up all over his Instagrams, and said, Hey, I’m starting this luxury car rental company, and I have a Tesla. I have this Mercedes. And so one of his former teachers rented the Mercedes. And he took another student out to lunch and other student named Griffin said, Hey, Mr. Ball, I really love your car, because, well, it’s actually not mine. He goes, it’s my other student, Nathan Johnson. And he told him what he did. He says, you know, he does internet marketing does a lot of stuff on Instagram, Baba wanting us, oh, man, I need I need to meet him because I want to launch an NF t. So they did this project. It was, you know, I would say, mildly successful. Not super successful, but it did. All right. And Nathan, of course, posted it all over his social media and Instagram. And the two guys that he was introduced to because he rented the Mercedes saw it. And they said, Hey, we want to do an NFT project. So we brought Griffin along with them. They all got together launched this NFT project called goat society. And they sold it out in five minutes for $3.2 million. And then from there, Mark Cuban’s company this was not even tied to Mark Cuban being in our summit. Nathan had DM Mark Cuban’s company that does NF T’s to help them Market Goat society. And they said no. So Nathan mentioned, DM them afterwards and said, Hey, I just want to let you know, I did it all myself. And this is what happened. And so now guess what? He’s working for them as the CMO for all their NFT projects. He’s currently launching an NF T for Kellogg’s for Coachella. He did more for Miss Universe. So he’s just went from he was the thing about mom, when he launched the first one, and they made $3.2 million. He said, Just think about it. He goes, like three months ago, I never even heard of an NF t. So I want to tell people, the lesson of that is to that, you know, my son was in college, and he’s wondering, What am I going to do when I get out of college, the job that he’s doing now didn’t exist a year ago, nobody was doing it. So think about all the jobs that may happen. You know, when your kids get out of college, or even next year, if you’re in a business, how your business may change, and new jobs are going to come available, they talk about the jobs that are being lost because of AI automation. But there’s going to be all these new jobs that are going to be created, but you need new skills for those. So part of the purpose of the summit is to teach you what’s coming out and maybe pick up on the skills you may need to learn to be in this next wave of technology.

Mario Fachini [24:25]
And I’ll add and maybe refine what you already know. Because, yeah, good point, just because you know, something that you know, maybe it was applicable a decade ago, five years ago, heck six months ago, but I remember you know, I’ll also say not only is it good to NF T’s but he’s also good at cash flow the game but I remember in the summer when we were playing and in the fall, and it was just like even in those four months, it’s like you were talking about it and you know, it’s going well I was like hey congrats, you know, hope it continues you know, with all the best and then like few months later It’s just like, non stop, it’s going better. And you know, now it’s later in time few months later, it’s you know, and I just saw what he posted the other day as like, you know, good for him. He’s, he’s been doing so much behind the scenes that, you know, relatively, you could say happened overnight, but it’s been a year, and he’s been working his tail off the entire time. It’s not like it was one transaction. And that was it. I mean,

Melanie Johnson [25:27]
yeah. Like you think it’s, like, you know, that overnight success. So when Nathan was barely 13, he asked me to buy an Instagram account for him. And I didn’t know you could buy an Instagram account. It’s kind of maybe I shouldn’t be saying it. Anyways, he acquired we got an Instagram account,

Mario Fachini [25:43]
I think it’s safe to say, because there’s a lot of people who talk about buying up websites buying on Facebook pages, you know, what, like with writing, especially if there’s 15 blogs on writing, you can acquire that blog in their readership and put into your website.

Melanie Johnson [26:00]
Probably true. So anyway, so he was 13. And it was $5,000. So what am I like crazy mom, like, I’m a single mom, like $5,000 was huge. Don’t ask me why, but I did it. And he started to cash flow with it. And then, um, something happened and he got hacked. And we did we lost the account. And then he didn’t do it for a while. But then he went back and he was still monkeying around. He didn’t own an Instagram. He just had his own. And then he worked for somebody else placing ads for their Instagram. So he’s been doing this since he was 13. And now he’s 2021. So you think, Well, gosh, he’s been doing it for almost eight years, right? So it’s not an overnight success. He’s been doing this really for a long time. So think about whether you’re 30. And you’ve been doing something until you’re 38. And then all sudden, you hit it really big. You can’t say well, oh, that just happened tomorrow night. Yeah, so he’s definitely paid his dues. And I give him credit, because he works a lot. I mean, and these people, they don’t have normal business hours, at 10 o’clock at night, he’s on a meeting, you know, 6am He’s on a meeting. I’m like, Do you guys ever stop, like his birthday type? You don’t, you

Mario Fachini [27:07]
know, he already built up the team of people to it’s not just him and one other person. And you know that, that alone takes a lot. Because, you know, we both done that. And it’s like, you know, just keeping that together is an accomplishment, let’s say so, yeah, you know, I’m excited. We we don’t have time to go through every one. But I mean, the people we touched on in Mark Cuban says on Shark Tank, I think I listened to him last night. He’s like, it only takes that one time. You know, so one of my final thoughts would be whether you resonate with one person more or another person more, it doesn’t enjoy them all. Learn something from all. But even if there’s one you resonate with, it can be worth it. For that alone. There’s been many times I’ve gone to events, or attended trainings or whatever. And I’m like, if I hear from this one person, and get one, one thing, it’s all worth it. So check out the lineup, check out ea interviews.com forward slash future of publishing, you’ll see the lineup I got on one of the monitors here. Melanie, what are your last thoughts on it?

Melanie Johnson [28:16]
My last thoughts are stay relevant. Keep up with innovation. Mario does an amazing interview. It’s worth the price of admission just for him even though the mission is for free. So definitely, definitely go to the future of publishing. Check out the link that he’s put in here. And you’ll really be glad that you did. You’ll feel like you grew exponentially.

Mario Fachini [28:41]
Well, I am so glad we got to chat again. It’s great seeing you as always. And with that expert authority world. We’ll see you on the next one. Have a great day. God bless. We’re already the expert. But have you transformed your expertise into a tangible asset that will generate qualified leads while increasing profit for you? 24/7? And if so, how well are you promoting it? With my new book The expert authority effect publishing method, I take you through my process step by step. Visit EA publishing method book.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Visit EA publishing method book.com To get started now, once again, that’s EA publishing method book.com Hey, thanks for listening to today’s episode. I hope you got a lot out of it. I know I sure did. If you haven’t done so already, I invite you to subscribe to the show. And also be sure to check out EAA interviews.com For complete show notes, the full interview video experience links to the resources we mentioned in more. Have a blessed day and I’ll see you tomorrow.