Nick Hutchinson, of Book Thinkers, embodies transformative leadership through a voracious appetite for reading. Initially indifferent to books, a pivotal internship ignited Nick's passion, leading him to devour 50-100 books annually, significantly shaping his leadership and business acumen. He emphasizes that reading isn't just for knowledge acquisition but a strategic tool for personal and professional growth, highlighting the profound impact of books on his success and the cultivation of a top-tier marketing agency.

Nick's journey from a non-reader to a leadership figure underscores the potent blend of continuous learning, actionable insights, and the pivotal role of reading in developing influential leaders. His narrative is a testament to how books can sculpt the mindset, strategies, and the very essence of impactful leadership.

Want to learn more about Nick's work? Check out their website at https://bookthinkers.com.

Connect with Nick on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/bookthinkers/.

Key Points with Time Stamps:

• (00:01:15-00:04:21) Introduction to Nick Hutchinson and Book Thinkers: Transition from a non-reader to a leader in marketing, emphasizing reading's impact on leadership.
• (00:05:05-00:07:30) The Impact of Reading on Personal Development: The influence of books on Nick's career growth, with mentions of key books and authors.
• (00:08:25-00:11:26) Reading Habits and Their Influence: Nick’s approach to reading, balancing quantity with quality, and the importance of applying what's learned.
• (00:11:51-00:14:24) Role of Books in Professional Success: How continuous learning through reading contributed to Nick's success and the development of Book Thinkers.
• (00:27:58-00:31:22) Final Thoughts on Leadership and Reading: Emphasizing the lasting value of reading for effective leadership and personal achievement.

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 of 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 the show.

00;00;51;10 - 00;01;15;27
Craig Andrews
Today I want to welcome Nick Hutchinson. Nick is the CEO of Book Thinkers. he runs a top 2% podcast called The Book Thinkers. Life Changing Books. And he's the author of rise of the reader. So we're going to ask him one leaders and legacies to bring some leadership, not rise to the leader, but rise to the reader.

00;01;15;27 - 00;01;48;12
Craig Andrews
I have a feeling they are connected. When you read well, you lead well. And so Book Thinkers is a thriving seven figure marketing agency bridging authors and readers and and just over seven years, Nick has cultivated a platform reaching over 1 million people monthly every month. And, he's featured artists like are authors like Grant Cardone, Lewis Howes and, Patrick.

00;01;48;12 - 00;01;59;16
Craig Andrews
Bet David, you know, he's had amazing, amazing people on this platform. And today he's joining us on Leaders and Legacies. Welcome, Nick.

00;01;59;19 - 00;02;03;21
Nick Hitchison
I'm excited to be here, Craig. Can I ask you the first question today?

00;02;03;24 - 00;02;06;19
Craig Andrews
All right. Sure.

00;02;06;21 - 00;02;22;19
Nick Hitchison
So we're recording this at the beginning ish of 2024. And I love to ask people when I get when I get a chance to, chat with them, like, what was the best book you read in 2023? Does anything come to mind?

00;02;22;21 - 00;02;49;02
Craig Andrews
Yes, I was, I was I, I wrote two books in 2023. And when I'm writing I'm very, very selective about what I read because it impacts how you write. And I read at the advice of a mentor. I read travels with Charlie by John Steinbeck, and he put together some of the most amazing sentence structures I've read ever.

00;02;49;04 - 00;03;10;19
Craig Andrews
And it was just it was wonderful. As a matter of fact, when, at the end of 2022, when I was starting on the first book, I was stuck and I told, a fellow by the name of Roy Williams those that know I'm know him well and, he's had, you know, three best, you know, bestsellers.

00;03;10;22 - 00;03;32;08
Craig Andrews
And one was best business book of the year. And I told him where I was stuck, and he said, Craig, you need to read travels with Charlie. And I did, and the next I downloaded it on my Kindle. The next morning, I was flying out, and I got about 20 minutes into the book and I put it down and I started writing it because it just filled my mind with words.

00;03;32;11 - 00;03;37;19
Nick Hitchison
Oh, wow, that's a pretty cool story. I have not read that book, but I'll have to add it to my list.

00;03;37;22 - 00;03;45;07
Craig Andrews
Yeah. So you obviously are passionate about books. what what originated that passion?

00;03;45;09 - 00;04;03;04
Nick Hitchison
Well, what might surprise anybody that could see my background today? I've got, like, a thousand books behind me is that I was not much of a reader growing up, so I was more of the athlete stereotype. Not really much of the academic. I mean, you couldn't pay me to do my homework or read a book when I was in middle school or high school or even early college.

00;04;03;06 - 00;04;21;14
Nick Hitchison
but all of that changed for me when I took an internship going into my senior year at, a local software company. It was a sales internship, and my boss at the time, Kyle, I think he recognized some unfulfilled potential. That's probably a nice way to put it. And I was a little rough around the edges, a little arrogant.

00;04;21;17 - 00;04;45;29
Nick Hitchison
And, he recognized that I was commuting about an hour each way to this internship five days a week that summer. So spending ten hours a week in the car, at least commuting to and from work. And he actually introduced me to the world of podcasting. So he introduced me to some business podcasts where host of an interview with series of guests and the guests would talk about what they did to become successful.

00;04;46;01 - 00;05;05;23
Nick Hitchison
And very quickly, like within a couple of weeks, I was realizing that so many of these people were giving at least some credit for their success to the books that they were reading, and I heard the same titles over and over and over again. It seemed like everybody was part of the same club, and because I didn't want to read, I didn't have access to that information.

00;05;05;26 - 00;05;36;00
Nick Hitchison
So I just realized, like, what a silly thing. Reading isn't cool. I don't want to read. And so I went to my local Barnes and Noble one day. I grabbed about ten books and the rest is history. I've been reading and implementing personal development, nonfiction, business style, books ever since, between 50 and 100 a year. So I'm a really big fan of what these books can do for people, because I feel like I'm living my dream life, and I feel like other people can do if they just had the right attitude around reading.

00;05;36;02 - 00;05;38;11
Craig Andrews
How many books are your do you think you read.

00;05;38;14 - 00;05;51;10
Nick Hitchison
Somewhere between 50 and 100. You know, it's closer to a 100 a year right now. So over the last ten years or so, I've read at least 500 individual books. Sometimes I'll read the same book five, six, seven, eight times.

00;05;51;12 - 00;05;55;15
Craig Andrews
Now let me check my math. There's how many weeks in the year?

00;05;55;17 - 00;05;57;05
Nick Hitchison
52.

00;05;57;08 - 00;06;06;13
Craig Andrews
So you're reading 1 to 2 books every week? Yes. That is just an incredible appetite.

00;06;06;16 - 00;06;11;21
Nick Hitchison
Yes, I have an insatiable curiosity, if we want to put it that way.

00;06;11;24 - 00;06;19;21
Craig Andrews
Yeah. And, well, let me ask you, what was the most interesting book you read in 2023?

00;06;19;23 - 00;06;31;15
Nick Hitchison
So I did read about 100 books in 2023. I think my favorite was Be Useful by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Did you have a chance to go through that book?

00;06;31;17 - 00;06;34;12
Craig Andrews
I've not. What stood out to you about.

00;06;34;14 - 00;07;02;01
Nick Hitchison
Arnold's an interesting person in in my own language, he has the highest dream to reality ratio out of almost anybody I've ever seen. You know, grows up in rural Austria and house with no running water. English is not his first language and he ends up becoming the most successful bodybuilder of all time. He then goes on to become a very successful business person out earning his bodybuilding money.

00;07;02;04 - 00;07;30;06
Nick Hitchison
He then gets into Hollywood and becomes an actor, getting paid $10 million a movie, even though nobody can understand what he's saying. And then he goes on to run California as the governor, you know, one of the largest standalone economies in the world. And that trajectory was fueled by a strategy which is essentially a very powerful form of visualization and in usefulness, like visualizing something and then going after it, taking action every single day.

00;07;30;06 - 00;07;53;04
Nick Hitchison
And I just I find stories like that really motivating somebody who comes from literally nothing and has all these things stacked against him and ends up achieving in different disciplines, you know, a lot of success. And obviously he's had his failures too. And, maybe I wouldn't say that I'm aligned with everything he stands for politically, but what a powerful story.

00;07;53;07 - 00;07;59;05
Nick Hitchison
And so I just really enjoy kind of the strategy and the action and the usefulness of that book.

00;07;59;07 - 00;08;25;01
Craig Andrews
Yeah. That's interesting. And. So how did you go? I mean, part where I'm trying to figure out is you went from not reading at all to reading 1 or 2 books a week. Yes. And let me ask this. When you say you read 1 to 2 books a week, are you speed reading? Are you scanning or slowly digesting.

00;08;25;03 - 00;08;49;01
Nick Hitchison
Somewhere in the middle? so I'll give some more context as to how I got why I became addicted, so fast. Because you're right. Normally change happens over a slow, gradual period of time. I was hooked, like from day one. So going back to where I was between my junior and senior year in college, I was a lazy business student, right?

00;08;49;01 - 00;09;14;26
Nick Hitchison
Like I was barely getting by. I was having a lot of fun in the gym and in the dining hall and like out on weekends and not really in the classroom very much. but I started to take business a little bit more seriously. I think going into my senior year, by taking this internship now as a business student who wasn't in class a lot or paying a lot of attention, I was pretty insecure around the subject of money.

00;09;14;28 - 00;09;33;14
Nick Hitchison
So like, you could probably picture, you know, the kids at the front of the class raising their hand, teacher's pet in all the investment clubs, the sales clubs, the entrepreneurship competitions. And like I'm around those people a lot. But every time the subject of like, who are you going to work for after school and how much money you're going to make?

00;09;33;14 - 00;10;00;22
Nick Hitchison
And like all these complex investing terms, I'd shy away from those conversations. So in my first summer of reading, I decided to boost my financial literacy, like overcome a problem, to really try to understand how money works. And I went back to school my senior year and I was like, leading those conversations. I was like the most well-educated in the room a lot of the times, and I just thought, wow, like, that was pretty easy.

00;10;00;24 - 00;10;21;00
Nick Hitchison
I mean, for $20 in a few hours of my time, I could solve a problem. I could understand an area of the world that I didn't previously understand, and that felt really good. And I was just like, what other areas of my life can I start reading about what other insecurity can I overcome? What problems can I solve, what skills can I build?

00;10;21;02 - 00;10;44;04
Nick Hitchison
And so right around the time that I graduated, I went full time with that same software company, and I started reading every book that I could on sales and marketing, communication, persuasion, negotiation, applying them to my role. And I started to fly up the small corporate ladder. It was a smaller business, but I started to experience a lot of financial success right out of school.

00;10;44;04 - 00;11;05;20
Nick Hitchison
And it was because of these books. And so it's just like, again, like, what other areas of my life could I apply this to? Could I become healthier? Can I become happier, you know, could I have better relationships? And it was like, whoa, there's a book out there to solve almost any problem. So that was kind of the first, like, how did I jump right in and why did I become so addicted to it?

00;11;05;20 - 00;11;26;14
Nick Hitchison
It just felt really good. And like I went from very average to above average pretty fast, purely because of the books. The other thing you asked about the speed is that there are I've tried a lot of different strategies for speed reading, but what I've found is that they sort of suck the fun out of reading. Like, that's one way that I would put it.

00;11;26;16 - 00;11;51;14
Nick Hitchison
You know, it makes the process of reading less enjoyable. So I actually prefer more of, what I would call like a slower and steady pace. And that keeps it sustainable. Like I enjoy the process. So maybe it's not as efficient, but I'll continue to read without getting burned out. You know, by going slow and steady. So that's why I don't mess around too much with the speed reading stuff.

00;11;51;17 - 00;12;17;28
Craig Andrews
You know, I, I, I've never I'm a slow reader. I'm a very slow reader. But for me it's really about digesting it. And when I was reading Steinbeck, you know, when he wrote some things, there were some things that were that I went back and I reread them again and again and again, because just the way he laid out the ideas were so incredibly moving and thoughtful.

00;12;17;28 - 00;12;22;17
Craig Andrews
I was like, how did this man put these words together?

00;12;22;19 - 00;12;47;00
Nick Hitchison
Yeah, I love that. I'm just like you. I'm all about. I mean, I live in this world of personal development and business style books. So books that are meant to be read and implemented to create behavior change. And I think what you're highlighting is incredibly important. You I, I have this funny graphic in my book, rise of the reader, where I say no books plus no implementation equals no change.

00;12;47;02 - 00;13;10;27
Nick Hitchison
Books plus no implementation still equals no change. So it's only books plus the implementation piece, right? That reflection in the implementation of information that creates behavior change. So if you want to improve your life you really have to focus and optimize for taking action. There's a great Napoleon Hill quote too that says action is the real measure of intelligence.

00;13;10;29 - 00;13;19;07
Nick Hitchison
So I don't think it's just reading a book that makes you intelligent. I think it's taking action that makes you intelligent.

00;13;19;10 - 00;13;27;20
Craig Andrews
No, I think that's a really wise statement. I really like that. What do you think about audiobooks?

00;13;27;22 - 00;13;51;20
Nick Hitchison
Sometimes I get myself in trouble, Craig, when I answer this question and, I listen. I still listen to about 20 audiobooks a year because I do spend quite a bit of time in the car and doing chores and things like that. But here, here's the fact 80% of the inputs to our brain, 80% are visual. So by default, if you're only listening to something, I think you're at a disadvantage.

00;13;51;20 - 00;14;24;03
Nick Hitchison
As far as storing and organizing and creating an emotional connection to what you've read or listen to. In this case, and you're probably multitasking. You're in the car, you're doing chores, you're at the gym, you're doing busywork, and you're listening to a book and you're not leveraging the visual input. So you're just like, it's hard. I think, to change your life with an audiobook a lot harder than it would be if you were mono tasking and focusing on one thing right in front of you, which is a good physical paper book or a Kindle.

00;14;24;06 - 00;14;26;20
Nick Hitchison
Like, it sounds like you like to read the Kindle.

00;14;26;22 - 00;14;56;25
Craig Andrews
I do, because I have dozens of books, you know, with me, anywhere I go. Yeah. you know, and I'm fine with audiobooks. I don't retain anything. It's I wouldn't even feel right in saying when somebody says, hey, did you read this book? If I'd listened to it on audiobook, I don't feel like I retain it. you know, with rare exceptions, I'm, you know, I'm interviewing somebody on the podcast, next week.

00;14;56;25 - 00;15;20;04
Craig Andrews
A nationally known name. I don't want to say it, yet, but nationally, no name. who started two businesses. And I did listen to his audiobook, just so I could take some notes, but I wasn't doing other things. I was largely listening to that and just kind of taking notes to to get ready for the podcast.

00;15;20;06 - 00;15;51;03
Craig Andrews
But here's me, I, you know, I pulled out, travels with Charlie. I want you to hear a sentence just to hear some of the most amazing words you've ever heard put together. And the context is, this was 1960. desegregation was happening in the United States. And John Steinbeck was driving through the South, and he was, and, you know, for those listening, he uses some words that were common back then, not common now.

00;15;51;03 - 00;16;38;08
Craig Andrews
Some people, they weren't offensive then. They were meant intended for good. So if I say one of those words, be patient. But he's talking about people, these ladies that were trying to keep, some, you know, some African-American children out, out of school. And he says, behind these small dark mites where the Lord's laws, majesty and the laws power to enforce both the scales and the sauce, both the scales and the sword were allied with the infants, while against them were 300 years of fear, anger and terror of change in a changing world.

00;16;38;10 - 00;16;40;15
Craig Andrews
That's not something I want to read quickly.

00;16;40;17 - 00;16;48;20
Nick Hitchison
Right? Yeah. You need to pause and think about it and slow down and reread it. I, I totally get what you're saying.

00;16;48;22 - 00;17;13;22
Craig Andrews
Yeah. So there are people listening and I hope they haven't tuned out yet, but they're listening and they're like, there is no version of reality that has me reading two books a week. I don't get this guy. I don't get Nick. I don't relate to him. I think I may tune out, why should they not tune out?

00;17;13;22 - 00;17;15;09
Craig Andrews
And what would you say to them?

00;17;15;11 - 00;17;41;23
Nick Hitchison
Well, I'd say number one, I don't recommend that people read two books a week or even a book a week. I think that, you know, I've I've designed a reality that fits what fulfills me uniquely. I've built, an agency, you know, that I also work at where I'm able to read as a job. Right. So I know it's not realistic, especially for the busy parent or the entrepreneur who's time pressured or whatever the case is.

00;17;41;25 - 00;18;00;06
Nick Hitchison
But I do think there is space to fit books into your schedule sometimes. Craig, I'll jokingly ask somebody that tells me they don't have time to read. I'll say, if I paid you $10,000 to read a book by the end of the month, do you think you could do it? And they're like, oh yeah, yeah, I could read five.

00;18;00;08 - 00;18;18;25
Nick Hitchison
And so they fallen into my trap, because what they've admitted is that they could read. They are just choosing not to write. They don't value reading as much as they value some of the other things that are currently in their schedule. Now, if you paid them to read, okay, now it ascends in the value hierarchy and they're reading all the time.

00;18;18;27 - 00;18;44;06
Nick Hitchison
So I think that what we need to do is set a realistic goal, something like 15 minutes a day and in 15 minutes, if you can read, let's say about ten pages, and you do that five days a week, that's 50 pages a week. That's a book every single month. Maybe by replacing a little bit of social media or a little bit of Netflix with reading a good book, not the whole activity.

00;18;44;08 - 00;19;04;08
Nick Hitchison
And if if somebody is listening or watching today and they need proof, pull open your phone and look at your screen time and tell me you don't have 15 minutes somewhere that you can subtract from the time you're spending on social media or binge watching TV and replace that with a great book. So again, 15 minutes, five days a week equals a book every single month.

00;19;04;11 - 00;19;28;19
Nick Hitchison
That's more than what most people read. Write a book every single month. And so I don't think it has to be two a week. I think it could be one a month, and that's still amazing. You could solve 12 problems over the next 12 months or build 12 new skills, or satisfy 12 curiosities, or learn about 12 amazing people simply by replacing a little bit of social media or a little bit of Netflix with a great book.

00;19;28;22 - 00;19;50;24
Craig Andrews
I, I try to read every night as I'm going to bed and write every morning when I get up, and I find that to be a really neat pairing because ultimately, I hope you agree with this. One of the biggest predictors of success is your ability to communicate.

00;19;50;27 - 00;19;51;29
Nick Hitchison
Oh yeah.

00;19;52;01 - 00;20;14;28
Craig Andrews
And so if you if you fill the mind as you're going to sleep with communications from others and you let that kind of settle in and saturate the mind in your dreams, and then you get up the next morning and write something and you don't have to write, you know, war and peace. Just write something, communicate a thought.

00;20;15;01 - 00;20;27;16
Craig Andrews
And if you do that every day, like you said, it's you will read more books, you'll implement more ideas, and you'll also become a better communicator.

00;20;27;18 - 00;20;52;13
Nick Hitchison
Yeah, I think it was in Julia Cameron's book The Artist's Way, where she introduces the concept of morning pages, where you just write on a yellow legal pad with a pen and paper for three pages, and she she, I think she gives the example in that book of somebody stretching before they exercise. And I think the same thing can happen with writing.

00;20;52;13 - 00;21;07;13
Nick Hitchison
It's like, you know, if you want to just get it out first thing in the morning, write three pages, doesn't matter what it's about. Just kind of get the pen moving, kind of get your mind working, warm up a little bit, and then you'll be ready to hit the day. But I like that idea of reading before you go to bed.

00;21;07;15 - 00;21;30;10
Nick Hitchison
There's a concept called subconscious priming where you read a little bit, you give yourself a problem to solve, and then you go to sleep and your brain doesn't shut off while you're asleep. It's still fully active. Hence the dreaming and everything else that we don't remember. But you wake up in the morning and your brain will have worked that problem a thousand different ways and boom, you wake up with that.

00;21;30;12 - 00;21;46;04
Nick Hitchison
Like here found the solution. So I think it's cool to be a little bit more intentional before you fall asleep about what you put in your brain. Not divisive negative news, but a positive book. Somebody else's greatest life lessons. I think that's a a great way to do it.

00;21;46;06 - 00;22;01;10
Craig Andrews
Yeah, I love that. One of the things you said that really struck me interesting. but before we started hitting record, you said you've tried to live your life as a movie. What's that mean?

00;22;01;13 - 00;22;25;19
Nick Hitchison
Yeah. So sharing with you that when I was in my early 20s, I either read somewhere or heard somewhere, somebody say, hey, pretend. Everywhere you go, there's a movie crew or a TV crew following you around with cameras, and there's an audience behind the camera watching everything that you do. Now, if you live a boring, sedentary life, they're going to flip the channel and turn away and you sort of lose that life energy.

00;22;25;21 - 00;22;45;27
Nick Hitchison
But if you live a bold life, if you're constantly entertaining, if you're constantly living a bold life, then they'll stay tuned. And in fact, more and more people will pay attention. And in my 20s, I traveled to 25 different countries, sometimes for up to a few months at a time. I worked with some of the most amazing people on the planet.

00;22;46;03 - 00;23;08;27
Nick Hitchison
I took a lot of risks. I tried to be the boldest version of myself, a lot of adrenaline activities like jumping out of planes and bungee jumping and all that fun stuff because I wanted to liveaboard life. I wanted to feel alive as often as possible and constantly thinking of like a movie crew around me, thinking like, hey, Nick, what are you going to do next like that?

00;23;09;00 - 00;23;13;13
Nick Hitchison
You know, I definitely encouraged me to do a little bit more, I think, than I would have otherwise.

00;23;13;15 - 00;23;37;03
Craig Andrews
Yeah, that's well, that's a very interesting way to live. And it's, you know, there's an accountability built in. You know, there's there's an accountability. I've, you know, some business advice Jack Welch would give a Jack Welch was the CEO of GE. And in the last century he was highly regarded as one of the best years of the century.

00;23;37;06 - 00;24;05;14
Craig Andrews
And his divisional presidents would come to him with, questions. And each one of these was basically a CEO in themselves. When you look at what the amount of revenue they were running, and they would occasionally ask Jack Welch, hey, I'm thinking about doing this. What do you think? And Jack's response was a question back to him. He said, if you did that, and it was printed on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, would you be okay with that?

00;24;05;16 - 00;24;26;28
Craig Andrews
And some of them would drop their heads and and then walk away. But that's that's a form of accountability. What you're describing when you live your life as if you're in a movie, you have the accountability of the camera constantly looking at you, saying, okay, how do I what choice do I make here? If the rest of the world is watching, what choice do I make?

00;24;27;00 - 00;24;44;21
Nick Hitchison
Yeah, that's that's a fun way to think about it. And, you know, I grew up in, I grew up in a Catholic family attending church, and I always, I always thought of God watching over my shoulder as well. You know, they say, like, integrity is what you do when nobody's watching. And I think that was another form of accountability that was really useful for me.

00;24;44;23 - 00;25;09;07
Nick Hitchison
And the last thing I'll say on on this subject, which is another fun way to think about it, but this one gets people a little uncomfortable. So maybe, you know, don't squirm too much when you hear this one. but imagine after you pass away, you're forced to watch your life on repeat as if it was on TV over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

00;25;09;09 - 00;25;34;16
Nick Hitchison
Like that one really gets people like, I don't know if I'd want that, because a lot of people, again, they live under their potential. They watch a lot of TV, they scroll mindlessly on social media, they don't take action, and they end up living with a lot of regret as a result of that. And so that idea of like, I'd have to watch this over and over and over again, like, maybe I should go live my life with a little bit more intention.

00;25;34;16 - 00;25;52;23
Nick Hitchison
Maybe I should be a bolder version of myself today. Just see what it feels like. And, maybe that's the highlight on your rerun when you have to watch it over and over. But I love I love these things that inspire me to take more action and just live a bolder life that leads to less regret.

00;25;52;25 - 00;26;01;11
Craig Andrews
I like that. Let's take a couple minutes and talk about book thinkers. What? What is book thinkers? Was it do? Who does it help?

00;26;01;14 - 00;26;18;06
Nick Hitchison
So going back to that period in my life where I was reading and applying books and experiencing some success as a salesperson, my friends and family at the time, my coworkers, they didn't want to hear me talking about books all the time. So I turned to social media and I just started sharing the books I was reading on social media.

00;26;18;08 - 00;26;44;02
Nick Hitchison
Really with no intention other than connecting with like minded people, and I tried to monetize my audience a few times, unsuccessfully. But over time, as I built my audience on social sharing the books, I was reading, authors actually started to reach out and offer to pay me for book reviews, right? They have a book that they want to sell, and I have an audience of engaged nonfiction or personal development, business style book buyers.

00;26;44;04 - 00;27;07;22
Nick Hitchison
And so I started to play around with paid book reviews as a side hustle, and I found that I really enjoyed working with authors and helping them promote and market their books, because I genuinely cared about how much these books could could positively impact the people that read them. And over time, as I continued to experiment with things, all of a sudden it went from a little side hustle to a pretty serious business.

00;27;07;22 - 00;27;33;25
Nick Hitchison
In fact, even while I was still employed full time at that software company, I had full time employees at Book Thinkers operating and executing against a lot of the things that we were selling at the time. So then I made the jump. You know, fast forward until today, we've got ten people on our team. We're working with over 100 authors a year, and my marketing agency helps authors promote and market their books.

00;27;33;25 - 00;27;58;01
Nick Hitchison
We do things like fly out with the cameras in the lighting and help them turn their books into short form video content for social media, we do podcast bookings, so placing authors on great shows to talk about their books. And we still have an audience of of, you know, today, hundreds of thousands of readers. So we still get paid to do book reviews and interview authors on our podcast and things like that.

00;27;58;03 - 00;28;03;20
Craig Andrews
What type of authors you have, Kurt Vonnegut or.

00;28;03;22 - 00;28;29;19
Nick Hitchison
it's a lot of, it's a lot of business. It's a lot of self-help, personal development style nonfiction. So a lot of the authors that we work with, you know, they lived an amazing life 20, 30, 40, 50 years studying one specific thing. Maybe it was leadership, maybe it was management, maybe it was some specific thing in health and nutrition, whatever it is.

00;28;29;21 - 00;28;51;10
Nick Hitchison
And then they spent years writing about it and they put the book out and they realized, oof, unless I have an audience, it's hard to sell a book. Now, sometimes that book connects back to some type of complimentary product or service, like coaching or consulting or speaking courses. Things like that. And so those are our kind of ideal clients, right?

00;28;51;12 - 00;29;07;00
Nick Hitchison
The book is a lead mechanism for something else, and a lot of times it's consulting or coaching or speaking. And so by helping them promote and market their books and build their online presence, we can help them build their businesses as well.

00;29;07;02 - 00;29;12;08
Craig Andrews
So who writes the book? Do do you have ghostwriters that work with them or do they write it themselves?

00;29;12;11 - 00;29;43;16
Nick Hitchison
We're just on the marketing side of things, so we work, I would say, with an even distribution of traditionally published authors that work with the big publishing houses, hybrid published authors, so they get sort of the professional treatment, but they keep their own IP. And now those are really done well. And then self-published authors, we work with a lot of self-published authors, maybe slightly more than the other two categories, because that author, you know, maybe they worked with the ghostwriter, maybe they worked with a self-publishing agency, maybe they just built the book themselves.

00;29;43;18 - 00;30;01;12
Nick Hitchison
and then they want to help. They really want to get that book out there as a lead mechanism. And one of the funny things that I've heard said recently is like, Amazon has a 100% open rate. So when you send somebody your book, it will get opened. And then we have this weird thing about books where we don't throw them away.

00;30;01;14 - 00;30;09;04
Nick Hitchison
So it's a business card that will sit in the peripheral vision of your ideal customer all the time. If you send them a copy, which is.

00;30;09;06 - 00;30;18;23
Craig Andrews
Yeah, that's smart and thought about that angle. But yeah, you're right. So what type of people should call you?

00;30;18;26 - 00;30;39;01
Nick Hitchison
Well, on the author side of things, if if again, you are an author of a nonfiction business type book and you need help getting more exposure for your book because it's a lead mechanism for one of those other things coaching, consulting, speaking, then yes, please reach out. You can go to Book thinkers.com. Check out some of our services.

00;30;39;01 - 00;31;01;11
Nick Hitchison
There's also a link to set up a call with us on our sales team, and we'll walk you through what we do. now for everybody else, the readers, I recommend checking us out on Instagram at Book Thinkers, that's our largest and most vibrant community. We post a new book recommendation every single day of the week. We also share our podcast interviews and a bunch of other cool content over there.

00;31;01;11 - 00;31;07;27
Nick Hitchison
So if you're looking to discover the next read that could change your life, that's where I would send you.

00;31;08;00 - 00;31;22;01
Craig Andrews
Nick, this has been such a fascinating discussion. I, I I'd love to go another hour, but, we gotta we gotta wrap up. But thank you for coming on. Leaders and Legacies. What powerful story you've shared.

00;31;22;03 - 00;31;27;02
Nick Hitchison
Thank you. Crack.

00;31;27;02 - 00;31;55;28
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 Alize for me.com/guest and sign up there. If you got something out of this interview, we would love you to share this episode on social media.

00;31;56;00 - 00;32;19;12
Craig Andrews
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00;32;19;14 - 00;34;29;28
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. It means a lot to my team. If you want to know more, please go to Alize for me.com. or follow me on LinkedIn. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.