Aurora Winter joins Craig Andrews to explore how leaders can use books to amplify authority, build trust, and accelerate business growth. As the founder of Same Page Publishing, Aurora reveals her spoken author method—a system that turns interviews into books, saving time and maximizing impact. She shares how one hour of recorded content generated $250,000 in new business, proving that books aren't just products—they're strategic lead magnets.

Aurora dispels the myth that people must be avid readers to benefit from publishing. Instead, she positions books as trust builders and authority badges, especially effective for high-ticket offers and speaking gigs. She and Craig dive deep into common pitfalls—like launching without a plan or failing to tailor content for a specific reader. Aurora stresses the importance of vulnerability, personal storytelling, and knowing your ideal audience.

This episode is a blueprint for leaders who want to scale their message without spending years writing a manuscript. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or just getting started, Aurora’s insights offer a compelling case for using your story as your strongest leadership tool.

Want to learn more about Aurora Winter's work? Check out her website at https://www.aurorawinter.com.

Connect with Aurora Winter on LinkedIn at https://linkedin.com/in/AuroraWinter.

Key Points with Time Stamps

• 00:01:12 – Aurora’s done-for-you thought leadership program explained

• 00:02:04 – How a one-hour interview generated $250K in 90 days

• 00:05:13 – Why a free book can outperform paid offers

• 00:06:03 – Common mistakes authors make before launch

• 00:07:27 – The “spoken author method” and its benefits

• 00:09:26 – The importance of Amazon’s 30-day honeymoon window

• 00:10:52 – Books as lead magnets and entry points into premium offers

• 00:13:19 – Why collaboration creates deeper content than ghostwriting

• 00:16:17 – How writing a book clarifies your thinking

• 00:21:51 – Why editing for one person beats writing for the masses

• 00:26:22 – The link between vulnerability and trust in marketing

• 00:28:08 – Avoiding the “expert-only” trap in storytelling

• 00:29:13 – Framing your book around the problem you solve

• 00:30:48 – Books as timeless seeds that grow your influence

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;30;20
Craig Andrews
I was in a coma for six weeks while the doctors told my wife I was going to die. When I woke up, she told me the most fantastic story. My team kept running the business without me. Freelancers reached out to my team and said, we will do whatever it takes. As long as Craig's in the hospital. I consider that the greatest accomplishment in my career.

00;00;30;23 - 00;00;51;10
Craig Andrews
My name is Craig Andrews and this is the Leaders and Legacies podcast where we talk to leaders creating an impact beyond themselves. At the end of today's interview, I'll tell you how you can be the next leader featured on this show.

00;00;51;10 - 00;01;00;20
Craig Andrews
Today I will welcome Aurora Winter. She is the founder of Same Day Publishing and the author of Turn Words into Wealth.

00;01;00;20 - 00;01;12;17
Craig Andrews
She has done for you thought leadership program. That makes writing a book as easy as having a conversation. She also does media training, coaching and consulting,

00;01;12;17 - 00;01;29;02
Craig Andrews
to help leaders achieve their full potential. And one of the things she mentioned, just kind of, by the way, Aurora published a book of a one hour interview that generated a quarter million dollars in new business.

00;01;29;04 - 00;01;37;14
Craig Andrews
And especially now, I don't know anybody that would find that anything other than appealing. So, Aurora, welcome.

00;01;37;17 - 00;01;48;14
Aurora Winter
It's great to be on the show. Thanks to you for having me, Craig. And I look forward to helping your listeners turn their words into wealth. And we can certainly talk about how to create a short book that makes a big difference.

00;01;48;17 - 00;01;53;19
Craig Andrews
Well, I gotta admit, that's that's like an insane ROI.

00;01;53;19 - 00;02;04;16
Craig Andrews
Now, I'm assuming there was a little bit of work that, you know, it was the interview was an hour and there was probably a little bit more work, but that just. That's insane. Tell me a little bit more about that one hour interview generates.

00;02;04;20 - 00;02;14;27
Aurora Winter
Well, the key is you have to have content so that you can choreograph the interview and make sure that it delivers the right content. But I wanted to test and see if I could,

00;02;14;27 - 00;02;24;12
Aurora Winter
pivot my business. At the time, I was training coaches and I was known as a coach trainer, and the a friend of mine was the director of coaching for Tony Robbins.

00;02;24;15 - 00;02;54;17
Aurora Winter
And I'd been interviewed, you know, on Tony Robbins about coaching. I said, hey, would you mind interviewing me about marketing and messaging? He's like, absolutely. I know you've launched several seven figure businesses and that I know you as an entrepreneur, not just a coach trainer. So I gave him the questions and I had the answers ready, and I like the interview was about an hour or so and transcribed it, turned it into a short book, which later became published as the Book Marketing Fast Track, which you can actually get for free.

00;02;54;19 - 00;02;55;09
Aurora Winter
And,

00;02;55;09 - 00;03;16;23
Aurora Winter
and what it did is that I offered the book to the people in my community. I had a list at that time of 12,000, so not a huge list. I added value, which is something you know all about. Craig. So I added value with, you know, five videos about marketing, messaging, publishing and then said, hey, if you'd like more, you can sign up for a Business Breakthrough column.

00;03;16;25 - 00;03;19;22
Aurora Winter
And then from that call sold,

00;03;19;22 - 00;03;44;15
Aurora Winter
various things, including my high end offer for, you know, completely done with you, VIP book publishing. And so it generated $250,000 in 90 days, not from book sales, but from being a lead magnet. And more importantly, it also gave me confidence that I could pivot my business towards helping people with their messaging and marketing and book publishing.

00;03;44;17 - 00;03;58;14
Craig Andrews
So help me connections here. So first off, let me just affirm this. I don't think anybody's arguing against authorship being a way of creating authority. As a matter of fact, I think you say that author is the root word of authority.

00;03;58;16 - 00;03;59;13
Aurora Winter
All right.

00;03;59;15 - 00;04;20;14
Craig Andrews
So nobody's arguing against that. Here's the place where my brain, you know, kind of short circuits is I. I look at what it takes to get on my reading list. You know, people offer me books often, and it's, you know, it's hard to get on my reading list. I'm very, very selective for some specific reasons.

00;04;20;14 - 00;04;22;00
Craig Andrews
But then I also think about,

00;04;22;00 - 00;04;25;07
Craig Andrews
so many people don't want to read books.

00;04;25;08 - 00;04;35;07
Craig Andrews
I mean, even when I'm published my books, you know, number one question I got was, do you have an audiobook? I was like, no, these books were meant to be read. It's a little bit nicer, but,

00;04;35;07 - 00;04;45;20
Craig Andrews
and so help me connect the dots because generally people, you know, there's a small group of people that are just incredible readers, but most of society doesn't do that much reading.

00;04;45;22 - 00;04;51;27
Craig Andrews
How does having a book that somebody probably won't read turn into revenue?

00;04;52;00 - 00;05;13;04
Aurora Winter
Well, not all people read true, which is why I've got a YouTube channel. So I do, you know, podcasts. A lot of people like video where they like audio. So it's great to meet people where they are. But you also talk about the value of a small sale that then triggers a relationship that then triggers a bigger sale.

00;05;13;04 - 00;05;28;24
Aurora Winter
So in the case of marketing Fast Track, the book was free, but people paid $4.77 for shipping and handling. So it was an incremental indication of yes, I'm interested. Now I give it away for free just because I can't be bothered. But

00;05;28;24 - 00;05;36;10
Aurora Winter
give the e-book away for free. But that little incremental sale and then adding more value with videos created,

00;05;36;21 - 00;05;44;24
Aurora Winter
people putting their hand up to say, hey, I'd like more help, or I'd like VIP coaching with you to create my message, to create my book.

00;05;44;28 - 00;05;58;24
Aurora Winter
80% of people want to write books, but the the truth is, and you'll have to say what your experience was. Craig, the on average first time author, spent three and a half years writing a book, which is way too long. And then,

00;05;58;24 - 00;06;03;13
Aurora Winter
in my experience, they usually drop the ball right at the finish line. They don't test the title.

00;06;03;13 - 00;06;21;00
Aurora Winter
They don't test a subtitle. They don't have a call to action. They don't think of the book as the appetizer and that there's more to be had. They don't invite people into their world. They don't drop stories that illustrate their points, but that also show that they're a coach, a consultant, an expert, or whatever it is that they do.

00;06;21;03 - 00;06;45;01
Aurora Winter
So the book doesn't become part of a connection opportunity. But yes, you're right. Not everybody reads books. But seeing as I help people publish books, people who are aspiring authors or people like yourself who already have books but want more help writing the next book or getting the current book, having more reviews, having more awards? Those people tend to read books.

00;06;45;04 - 00;06;47;06
Aurora Winter
But here's the thing. This this,

00;06;47;06 - 00;06;58;21
Aurora Winter
book turn words into wealth like it's a much longer book than marketing fast track that I mentioned. This is like a substantial, you know, book to 50,000 workbook.

00;06;58;21 - 00;07;07;07
Aurora Winter
And I have so many people, yellow highlighted and right in the margins because I'm not holding back. You can read two words into wealth and then go ahead.

00;07;07;07 - 00;07;27;02
Aurora Winter
You've got seven different blueprints for making seven figures with your book. But my ideal client is already, you know, got a very successful business. And I'm like, could you just help me with this, Aurora? And so what I do is I interview them and then we turn those interviews into the book. So I call it the spoken author method.

00;07;27;05 - 00;07;34;12
Aurora Winter
So that's fun because most experts, but half my clients are dyslexic or have some kind of thing like that. We're talk live.

00;07;34;12 - 00;07;36;23
Craig Andrews
Entrepreneurs or dyslexic. Yeah.

00;07;36;26 - 00;08;04;01
Aurora Winter
They're either dyslexic or they're just swamped. But most people can talk about their expertise, their passion, their stories with ease. So I create a structure for doing that. Maybe there's ten chapters in the book. So there's we do ten like one hour podcast, like episodes, and that eventually gets turned into the book. But here's the cool thing. They also get audios and videos so that we have 32nd clips, one minute clips to,

00;08;04;01 - 00;08;08;06
Aurora Winter
share their message, share their passion even before the book comes out.

00;08;08;09 - 00;08;18;14
Craig Andrews
So let me back up a little bit and just affirm one thing that you said. You said a lot of people fumble it on the ten yard line. Yeah. And and that would be me.

00;08;18;14 - 00;08;19;25
Craig Andrews
So the,

00;08;19;25 - 00;08;22;13
Craig Andrews
one mistake I made,

00;08;22;13 - 00;08;27;29
Craig Andrews
is I decided to publish two books at once. And,

00;08;27;29 - 00;08;40;19
Craig Andrews
and the first book I wrote mostly over Christmas of 2022, and the second book I wrote during the summer of 23.

00;08;40;21 - 00;08;41;11
Craig Andrews
And,

00;08;41;11 - 00;08;55;11
Craig Andrews
and then put both of those through publishing, and I, I grossly underestimated the amount of work. And when it came to launch, I was exhausted. And, and I just,

00;08;55;11 - 00;09;02;24
Craig Andrews
even as a marketer, I, you know, I somewhere in the back of my head, I knew, hey, this is going to take a lot of work to market these books.

00;09;02;26 - 00;09;07;13
Craig Andrews
Yeah. And I ended up doing a horrible job with both of them.

00;09;07;15 - 00;09;14;07
Aurora Winter
Well, I'm glad to help you with that. If you'd like. Oh, I think a book is, like any product there.

00;09;14;07 - 00;09;26;18
Aurora Winter
And most people put so much energy into the book that they fall into that fallacy of, well, if I build if they build it, they will come. But like any product, if people don't know about it, you know, how are they going to find it?

00;09;26;18 - 00;09;45;29
Aurora Winter
And then you get this honeymoon period on Amazon the first 90 days. Maybe it's really more in the first 30 days. Amazon loves a new book, so they're like, oh, we have a new book. So if there is traffic and activity and reviews and purchases or burrows in that first honeymoon period, Amazon will start showing the book to others.

00;09;45;29 - 00;10;05;26
Aurora Winter
But if there isn't, then they're like, oh, nobody cares about this book and it gets lost and it's hard harder to find. So it's important, like with any product launch to, you know, pay attention to the birth of the baby and help it along the way. But it's nice to have, you know, somebody like myself, like, I've written ten books myself.

00;10;05;26 - 00;10;18;26
Aurora Winter
I'm a ghostwriter. I've watched lots of books. So I have a process. I have a system, I have a checklist. This has to be done 90 days before the book comes out. This has to be done 60 days before, this is 30 days before. And,

00;10;18;26 - 00;10;25;10
Aurora Winter
and it's a system, you know, when you're doing something for the time, it's a lot easier than the first time.

00;10;25;10 - 00;10;52;07
Aurora Winter
And everybody makes rookie mistakes doing anything for the first time. But what I love about books is, unlike most products, a book can be a doorway into your world, a book can be an appetizer or an invitation for somebody to come get to know you, play with you, invest in you. Follow what you're doing in your business, become a client, hire you a speaker, whatever the case may be.

00;10;52;09 - 00;11;13;01
Aurora Winter
So books are products, but books are most powerfully used in my view, as lead magnets. So, for example, the highest paid profession that I'm aware of is being a speaker. I mean, speakers can make 100,000 and 300,000 per talk. Yeah. And, and,

00;11;13;01 - 00;11;18;16
Aurora Winter
you have to have a book that's the it's like I have to be a doctor.

00;11;18;16 - 00;11;30;14
Aurora Winter
You have to have an MD to be a chiropractor. You've got to do that to be a dentist. And so a book is like your your entry requirement to play a bigger game.

00;11;30;16 - 00;11;33;24
Craig Andrews
So let's yeah, let me jump in here and

00;11;33;24 - 00;11;41;22
Craig Andrews
because I think there are a lot of people out there that have thought about doing a book. They'd like to do a book.

00;11;41;22 - 00;11;59;08
Craig Andrews
I mean, for me, I wanted to write a book for years and years, and I finally just got my act together, you know, and, you know, and and wrote two books in about a eight months time span and just passed.

00;11;59;11 - 00;12;00;17
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Well,

00;12;00;17 - 00;12;04;08
Craig Andrews
and, interest in both subjects, it made it easy.

00;12;04;08 - 00;12;10;07
Craig Andrews
But that also makes me different because, you know, there's a lot of people love entrepreneurs that,

00;12;10;07 - 00;12;15;28
Craig Andrews
don't necessarily enjoy writing. And, and so they need somebody to help them,

00;12;15;28 - 00;12;16;27
Craig Andrews
write that,

00;12;16;27 - 00;12;21;14
Craig Andrews
I'm a little I think I'm different than probably a lot of the people that you work with that

00;12;21;14 - 00;12;25;28
Craig Andrews
I want to say some very specific things in some very specific ways.

00;12;26;01 - 00;12;27;00
Craig Andrews
And,

00;12;27;00 - 00;12;31;06
Craig Andrews
and so it's hard for me to achieve that via ghostwriting.

00;12;31;06 - 00;12;33;11
Craig Andrews
Plus, I just enjoyed the process.

00;12;33;11 - 00;12;39;08
Craig Andrews
But let's let's break it down to.

00;12;39;11 - 00;13;13;09
Aurora Winter
First, let's, let's take a pause on ghostwriting. So I don't necessarily do ghostwriting. What I find is that most people benefit from having somebody listen deeply to whatever idea they're passionate about. And if if I work alone and just type it on the page, it'll be good. But if somebody who cares who's invested in my success and the story asks meaningful questions like you're asking right now, it can deepen the content.

00;13;13;12 - 00;13;19;10
Aurora Winter
So, ghostwriter, there's one thing I sort of wouldn't call myself always a ghostwriter. More like a,

00;13;19;10 - 00;13;25;01
Aurora Winter
coach or a mentor who who is committed to success and helps you pull out the deepest,

00;13;25;01 - 00;13;35;21
Aurora Winter
challenges you like. We need another story here. Or what's a quote or what do you really think? Like, I was working with one of my clients yesterday and I'm, like, asking some challenging questions is like, that's a great question.

00;13;35;21 - 00;13;59;26
Aurora Winter
I have to think about that. So we're going to talk about that next week. Anyway, I interrupted you, but I did want to, highlight that most people don't understand that the best books are usually written with a team like Winston Churchill. He won a Pulitzer Prize for writing for literature, but he had a team. He had secretaries, he had researchers.

00;13;59;26 - 00;14;11;09
Aurora Winter
Most of his books are actually transcribed from him speaking. And there's something magical about people speaking as opposed to typing. It accesses a different part of your brain.

00;14;11;12 - 00;14;21;23
Craig Andrews
Yeah. So that. No, that's that's interesting. I would say that where where I saw the, the team aspect in my writing was when we got to,

00;14;21;23 - 00;14;33;11
Craig Andrews
editing and the editor, you know, did some absolute magic, I mean, little things. So, I mean, let me pull up one thing here.

00;14;33;11 - 00;14;37;21
Craig Andrews
And it was, it was a small addition, but it was a big addition.

00;14;37;23 - 00;14;42;28
Craig Andrews
So the introduction to make sales magical reads,

00;14;42;28 - 00;14;57;24
Craig Andrews
I have a confession. I'm horrible at sales. I've taken the training, tried the techniques, and failed repeatedly. If you're a brilliant salesperson who can sell ice to Eskimos, then this book isn't for you. This book is for the rest of us who suck at sales and still need to,

00;14;57;24 - 00;14;59;22
Craig Andrews
sell to put food on the table.

00;14;59;24 - 00;15;09;00
Craig Andrews
And so he only added, I think, three words to that entire paragraph. It was the first three words. It was, I have a confession. And he's.

00;15;09;00 - 00;15;10;04
Aurora Winter
Asking.

00;15;10;06 - 00;15;17;03
Craig Andrews
Yeah, yeah, I mean, Brian, he said, Craig, you're coming in too hard. You need to you need to prepare,

00;15;17;03 - 00;15;28;24
Craig Andrews
the reader, you know, you just hit them with something really big. When we had these three words at the front and it was truly. I mean, it absolutely made that paragraph without a doubt. Absolutely.

00;15;28;24 - 00;15;29;14
Aurora Winter
Yeah.

00;15;29;16 - 00;15;30;09
Craig Andrews
Yeah.

00;15;30;11 - 00;15;43;22
Aurora Winter
So he understood the neuroscience of communication and how people perceive messages. One of the books I helped a client with is called confessions of an Accidental Lawyer. And that word confessions. It makes me lean in.

00;15;43;24 - 00;15;45;16
Craig Andrews
Yeah, yeah.

00;15;45;18 - 00;15;46;10
Aurora Winter
Yeah.

00;15;46;12 - 00;15;50;01
Craig Andrews
So. Well, so let me come back up.

00;15;50;01 - 00;15;57;12
Craig Andrews
Yeah. For those who are listening that they know book helps build authority.

00;15;57;12 - 00;16;04;03
Craig Andrews
They're probably wrestling with a couple questions. One, the same body care what I have to say?

00;16;04;03 - 00;16;11;01
Craig Andrews
The second is this seems overwhelming. I don't even know where to start. And,

00;16;11;01 - 00;16;13;27
Craig Andrews
third is, how am I going to find the way?

00;16;14;00 - 00;16;16;28
Craig Andrews
So how would you answer those questions?

00;16;17;00 - 00;16;43;03
Aurora Winter
Well, there's three excellent questions there. So let's unpack them. Craig. The first one, I think there's a question before the first one, which is I feel that one of the values of writing a book that most people aren't aware of until they get into the process, is that it encourages you or forces you to get really clear on what you think.

00;16;43;05 - 00;17;08;11
Aurora Winter
And it also is a wonderful opportunity to review your life and pick out pieces of history and go, okay, that's mud. Oh, there's a bit of silver there. Oh, there's a bit of gold there. And as you wash it off, you claim the pieces of gold in your life and the silver and you get a chance to, you know, let the mud fall away.

00;17;08;17 - 00;17;24;29
Aurora Winter
This actually, even before anybody else reads the book, changes you in a wonderful and meaningful way. For example, your story about being so close to death and being karma and that experience like it makes you,

00;17;24;29 - 00;17;38;26
Aurora Winter
more compelling thought leader. But you had to get clear on how we were going to share that story. So I think the first value is before worrying about our other people don't to care what I have to say.

00;17;38;28 - 00;18;06;26
Aurora Winter
What do you have to say? But discover what you have to say and discover. Are you passionate about that? Do you feel like you learned something that you'd like to tell your your own self ten years ago, 20 years ago? And as you connect with what is it that you really want to say and it becomes more clear and more crystal, then it's easier to go, oh well, I would like to share this with other people.

00;18;06;26 - 00;18;18;12
Aurora Winter
This was valuable for me. Once I discovered it and claimed it. And then yes, we're all going to have imposter syndrome. Welcome to being a human being.

00;18;18;15 - 00;18;32;07
Craig Andrews
And and let me and let me touch on that because the way it manifests for me is when I look at something like this is obvious. Anybody looking at this problem is going to see this.

00;18;32;07 - 00;18;32;18
Craig Andrews
And

00;18;32;18 - 00;18;44;17
Craig Andrews
but I think part of that is reality is no, you see it because you're the expert. It confounds everyone else. They don't see the bits coming together the way you do.

00;18;44;19 - 00;18;47;10
Aurora Winter
Exactly right. Well, I posted a video

00;18;47;10 - 00;19;03;13
Aurora Winter
from Robin's newest book, the Let Them Theory On on my YouTube channel, which is called Strategic Basics. And I want to confess, I almost didn't read Let Them because I'm like, I get it already. That's stoic philosophy. This is not new.

00;19;03;13 - 00;19;05;17
Aurora Winter
But everybody was talking about the let them theory by a

00;19;05;17 - 00;19;05;21
Aurora Winter
lot.

00;19;05;24 - 00;19;26;23
Aurora Winter
And so I'm like, okay, I'm going to read it. And it was so valuable. Not because the idea is new, but because the idea is valuable and timeless. And she added her own stories. She made a lot of confessions and all of her stories. She's kind of the villain. Somebody else is the hero. She's confessing all the times she tripped up.

00;19;26;27 - 00;19;50;19
Aurora Winter
And then what she learned that we can also learn. And she also added a lot of research. She updated, you know, stoic philosophy to 2024 research because the book came out December 2024 and it has sold, I think, over 3 million copies already. So it's really touched people. So there's an example. And yet we all have to struggle with this.

00;19;50;21 - 00;20;21;19
Aurora Winter
Is this valuable for others? What is valuable is the depth of thought, not the newness of thought. So if you have a thought that somebody else has said, you're probably on to a good thought because nobody's ever thought of it ever before, either you're talking about I or maybe you're out to lunch, but if you have a thought or a story or something you're passionate about sharing with people and you're like, yeah, it's kind of been said.

00;20;21;19 - 00;20;44;27
Aurora Winter
Jesus said that. Rumi said that. Marcus Aurelius said that. Ryan Holiday said that. What? Why do you care about that? What happened in your life to make that meaningful is there, you know, a child with special needs, a parent with Alzheimer's, your own brush with death that's making that alive in you. So it's alive in you for some reason personal to you.

00;20;44;27 - 00;20;48;25
Aurora Winter
And if you can shine a light on the specific stories

00;20;48;25 - 00;20;53;18
Aurora Winter
that are occurring in your life, rather than immediately going to a,

00;20;53;18 - 00;21;07;02
Aurora Winter
a broad message, it's the unique and the specific that makes stories land. And when you tell a unique, specific story, it can then reach a general audience. Paradoxically.

00;21;07;05 - 00;21;09;25
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Well, and I think that's,

00;21;09;25 - 00;21;18;25
Craig Andrews
I think you just hit on something that's really. I want to dwell on this for a second.

00;21;18;25 - 00;21;29;02
Craig Andrews
I feel like a lot of people feel like they need to write broadly. They need to picture a big room of people that they're writing to and figure out how to write. So they're writing to everybody in that room.

00;21;29;04 - 00;21;31;29
Craig Andrews
Is is that right? Is that good thinkers, that bad thing?

00;21;32;00 - 00;21;51;11
Aurora Winter
That's bad thinking. So exactly right. You want to find out first, what do you really think? Just one person. What do you think that my first published book. I'm an award winning screenwriter. So I have a background in film and television. So the best storytellers tell unique, specific stories and the best marketers are really marketing to one avatar.

00;21;51;11 - 00;21;54;26
Aurora Winter
And it's the same for a book. So my first published book,

00;21;54;26 - 00;22;15;24
Aurora Winter
it's called From Heartbreak to Happiness, and it was endorsed by Wayne Dyer. And it was My intimate diary of healing after my husband died suddenly in front of me when he was 33. And I edited it's actually pages from my diary, but I edited it for one hypothetical reader, which is I imagined that my best girlfriend husband just died yesterday.

00;22;15;24 - 00;22;40;22
Aurora Winter
I was going to die tomorrow, and the only gift I can give her was this diary of healing, and that helped me edit it. I'm a Leo. I'm vain. I wanted to airbrush all the snot coming out of my nose and mascara running down my face. Metaphorically. And I said like, no, this book won't be a gift. I'd rather somebody reads the book and goes, well, I'm doing better than her.

00;22;40;25 - 00;22;43;01
Aurora Winter
Then feel like I can't even grieve, right? I

00;22;43;01 - 00;23;02;10
Aurora Winter
might as well shoot myself now and get it over with. So when you're editing your book, I recommend you edit it for somebody that you really love and care about and just one other specific real person or specific hypothetical person. It could even be yourself. Ten years ago, 20 years ago.

00;23;02;13 - 00;23;09;24
Aurora Winter
But editing for the masses is a recipe for pablum and mediocrity.

00;23;09;27 - 00;23;32;15
Craig Andrews
Yeah, and I think a lot of people miss that, you know? And, you know, I'm a marketer and as you pointed out, the best marketers market to a single person. And so many times I have clients are like, well, our clients have this trait. And I'm like, no, no, no, no. I actually ask them to name a person and we build the avatar around this person.

00;23;32;17 - 00;23;53;12
Craig Andrews
Yeah. You know, as soon as they start talking about somebody else, I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, we're not talking about them. We're talking about the specific person we found from a marketing standpoint, there are some deep insights that I discover when I think deeply about that one person. And it turns out there's deep insights have,

00;23;53;12 - 00;23;55;27
Craig Andrews
speak to a lot more people than just that one.

00;23;55;27 - 00;24;03;12
Craig Andrews
But to find that deep insight, to speak powerfully, I have to think deeply about one person.

00;24;03;15 - 00;24;35;25
Aurora Winter
Exactly right. Otherwise, each chapter will be edited for a different reader, and then you. The thing doesn't hold together powerfully. It's like you need a bullseye in the middle of the target. But paradoxically, if you hit that bull's eye, it will like a rock and thrown into the lake, it will ripple out. Whereas if you try to have if you've got some rocks to throw and you try to throw them all over the lake, you know, you don't create the impact that you could.

00;24;35;28 - 00;24;40;27
Craig Andrews
Well, and something else, you said you were talking about that book that you wrote, the,

00;24;40;27 - 00;24;46;26
Craig Andrews
the as you were grieving your husband's death. There was,

00;24;46;26 - 00;25;02;21
Craig Andrews
in the book that my wife and I published, there's 25, 25 to 30% of the book is my wife's journal. When I was in my coma, she journaled on, Caring Bridge as a way of updating friends and family.

00;25;02;24 - 00;25;03;19
Aurora Winter
And.

00;25;03;21 - 00;25;04;15
Craig Andrews
And,

00;25;04;15 - 00;25;13;01
Craig Andrews
the editors, I call it, the editors going in and fixing the grammar. I'm like, in punctuation. I'm like, no, no, that's part of the story. Yeah, exactly.

00;25;13;01 - 00;25;13;28
Aurora Winter
I agree.

00;25;14;00 - 00;25;27;13
Craig Andrews
There was one point where she called me it she said it slept all day long and that just showed the exhaustion. Yeah, she was experiencing. I'm like, that's part of the story. You can't take that away.

00;25;27;16 - 00;25;40;25
Aurora Winter
Yeah. And maybe it also speaks to perhaps she needed to distance herself from you at that second because she was so emotionally overwhelmed. And this is a danger with writing. If you don't have,

00;25;40;25 - 00;25;49;08
Aurora Winter
mentor or partner along the process, you can you can tell it by tidying it up too much and then thinking of running to write to everybody.

00;25;49;08 - 00;25;57;25
Aurora Winter
And and then you, you had something precious and alive and you killed it. Don't do that.

00;25;57;25 - 00;25;58;13
Aurora Winter
Well.

00;25;58;15 - 00;26;23;02
Craig Andrews
Well, I would say, you know. And so that's the way it played out in that book. But one of the other things I see people do, and I wrestle with us, with my clients, to the point where before I I'll, I'll take on a new client, I'll tell them and say, you need to understand, we're going to pull out some things about you that you wish the world didn't know, and we're going to put them on your website.

00;26;23;04 - 00;26;27;06
Aurora Winter
And that's a challenging conversation. How do those go?

00;26;27;08 - 00;26;27;28
Craig Andrews
Well,

00;26;27;28 - 00;26;49;27
Craig Andrews
they go a lot better when I do it on the front end rather than midstream. And and we tell them it's decisive. Exactly. But we tell them the only reason I'm doing that is because I want you to make a lot of money. For you to make a lot of money, you have to build trust and an essential ingredient in building trust is the revelation of a weakness, vulnerability, or flaw.

00;26;49;29 - 00;26;50;17
Aurora Winter
Yeah.

00;26;50;20 - 00;27;11;22
Craig Andrews
And if I would guess that if you write a book that just casts you in a perfect light, you know, we you you'd never made a mistake. You never did anything wrong. The reader is going to walk away, not as connected to you. Then if if you presented the real journey of I started doing this and boy, I screwed this up.

00;27;11;22 - 00;27;13;11
Craig Andrews
But here's what I learned from it.

00;27;13;13 - 00;27;19;24
Aurora Winter
Exactly. So Mel Robbins book the Let Them Theory, is a good example of that because she doesn't,

00;27;19;24 - 00;27;36;18
Aurora Winter
present herself as the expert. She interviewed experts, but she presents herself as the witness, as the flawed human being, making tragic mistakes and learning from them along the way. And as I, you know, coached people to be,

00;27;36;18 - 00;27;38;15
Aurora Winter
to be on radio, TV or podcast.

00;27;38;15 - 00;28;04;21
Aurora Winter
It's like media coaching. You can't like exactly what you just said, correct. You cannot only lean into the expert. If you can authentically share your journey, your trip ups, your flaws, your sacrifices, your doubts. People will fall in love with you. If you're just the expert, they either won't trust you or it'll be a bit off putting because it rings kind of,

00;28;04;21 - 00;28;08;25
Aurora Winter
tight to always need to come to that place.

00;28;08;28 - 00;28;11;16
Aurora Winter
You know, from that place, you know.

00;28;11;22 - 00;28;17;11
Craig Andrews
Well, so one thing I want to make sure we capture before we wrap up,

00;28;17;11 - 00;28;27;25
Craig Andrews
Back to this, this, you know, kind of speaking to one person, picture somebody you know, that somebody you've talked to,

00;28;27;25 - 00;28;37;08
Craig Andrews
a, you know, a business owner who's kind of sitting on the fence thinking they should write a book, but it's a little bit scared.

00;28;37;11 - 00;28;43;11
Craig Andrews
What would you tell them if they were to call you? What would be the next steps for them?

00;28;43;11 - 00;28;47;07
Craig Andrews
Why they should engage.

00;28;47;09 - 00;29;14;03
Aurora Winter
Well, I think there's nothing. I'm completely biased. I don't think there's anything more powerful to create authority than a book, because the root of the word authority is author. And so I would just challenge and invite that hypothetical vertical person who's thinking of writing a book, but who has a business to really get clear about. What problem do you solve?

00;29;14;05 - 00;29;35;27
Aurora Winter
And if we could write a book that was fun and easy to write because you're just getting interviewed about your area of passion expertise, if we could write a book that clearly has that in the title or subtitle, the problem that you solve and you put it up on Amazon or other places, you have reached the number three search most searched place Amazon.

00;29;37;00 - 00;29;56;00
Aurora Winter
And you reach people around the world and you either give a gift to people who can't afford to work with you directly. You give them a gift of your insights. We've learned over decades. You start them in the right direction, which is what I've done with the book Turn Words into wealth. There's seven different ways to make seven figures in that book, and you can go ahead and implement them by yourself.

00;29;56;00 - 00;30;22;05
Aurora Winter
I'm not holding back in the book. You don't need to hold back. But the ideal person who's like, okay, I want more. I want to come to your event. I want one on one VIP coaching. In my case, that's when I work with people one on one or whatever the business is. That book can also be a powerful lead magnet to get you speaking, to invite clients to work with you, to be part of your marketing funnel, to be part of your legacy.

00;30;22;08 - 00;30;48;27
Aurora Winter
And besides, it's fun and kind of cool for you to look at your life so easy to get caught up in the busyness of running a business and making money and looking at all your key performance indicators, and to sort of forget that you matter. Your life matters, what you think matters, and to take a bit of time to distill that and make it clear, okay, one more thing, because I get I have to say this because I feel passionate about books.

00;30;48;29 - 00;31;09;17
Aurora Winter
I think like books are like seeds. And the cool thing with a seed is they can sit on the shelf for a long time, but then they can germinate when you add water and soil. I don't know how the seed of a book germinates is when somebody opens up the book and reads it. Like I have been mentored by so many people who are dead by Marcus Aurelius.

00;31;09;20 - 00;31;44;19
Aurora Winter
I've been mentored by C.S. Lewis. I've had so many things that I've learned from books, like books for $20 a year for free from the library, you can get the benefit of decades of the wisest people's insights. Like this morning I was listening to Ralph Waldo Emerson and just leaning into his thoughts about transcendental ism. I mean, books are such a wonderful gift to give the world, and what do we really have to give besides our own stories, our epiphanies, what we've learned, our our trip ups?

00;31;44;19 - 00;32;02;08
Aurora Winter
Hey, avoid that pothole. That's that's really all we have to offer human to human. And stories are the DNA of humanity. Stories are how we learn as humanity and we grow and evolve.

00;32;02;10 - 00;32;04;03
Craig Andrews
Well that's awesome.

00;32;04;03 - 00;32;07;13
Craig Andrews
Now, you said you have. There's a free book.

00;32;07;13 - 00;32;09;07
Aurora Winter
Yeah. Shifting to,

00;32;09;07 - 00;32;34;27
Aurora Winter
gift. This book turned words into wealth blueprint for your business, brand and book. It's available wherever books are sold. If you want the hardcover copy, go buy yourself a copy on Amazon or wherever. But you can also get the e-book for free on the website. Turn words into wealth.com. If you'd like help with publishing, you can check out what we're up to at same page publishing.com.

00;32;35;00 - 00;32;35;13
Aurora Winter
And

00;32;35;13 - 00;32;48;20
Aurora Winter
I also have a fantasy books written, a trilogy of young adult fantasy books and other books about mindset business. So I love books. I'm crazy about books. What can I say?

00;32;48;22 - 00;32;49;28
Craig Andrews
That's awesome. Aurora.

00;32;49;28 - 00;32;53;06
Craig Andrews
And I do hope people I do hope that there's a,

00;32;53;06 - 00;33;04;20
Craig Andrews
a business owner that's been thinking about. I hope they'll reach out to you and talk to you, because I do think they should be writing a book. Thank you for coming on, Leaders and Legacies. This has been awesome.

00;33;04;22 - 00;33;08;09
Aurora Winter
And has been awesome. Thank you. Craig.

00;33;08;09 - 00;33;35;03
Craig Andrews
This is Craig Andrews. I want to thank you for listening to the Leaders and Legacies podcast. We're looking for leaders to share how they're making the impact beyond themselves. If that's you, please go to Ally's for me.com/guest and sign up there. If you got something out of this interview, we would love you to share this

00;33;35;03 - 00;33;36;28
Craig Andrews
episode on social media.

00;33;37;00 - 00;34;00;12
Craig Andrews
Just do a quick screenshot with your phone and text it to a friend, or posted on the socials. If you know someone who would be a great guest. Tag them on social media and let them know about the show, including the hashtag leaders and legacies. I love seeing your posts and suggestions. We are regularly putting out new episodes and content to make sure you don't miss anything.

00;34;00;14 - 00;34;08;19
Craig Andrews
Please go ahead and subscribe. Your thumbs up. Ratings and reviews go a long way to help promote the show. It means a lot to me.

00;34;08;19 - 00;36;10;24
Craig Andrews
It means a lot to my team. If you want to know more, please go to Ally's for me.com. Or follow me on LinkedIn. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.