[Interview] Nancy Erickson about writing your own book

Hello and welcome to Podiatry practice Mastery. My name is Don felt. Oh and I have Nancy Erickson here and Nancy. We're going to be talking a little bit to you about your passion with helping people getting their ideas on in books. So welcome, great. Thank you so much. I'm really happy to be here. Yeah, you're welcome. So Nancy. I can see from behind you. Look at all those books. So tell me that's just one wall. So tell me a little bit about your backstory kind of how you got into it.

Helping people write books is, you're interested in writing, is it marketing? Kind of which what's your interest? Well, I'm passionate about books, but I got into this kind of sideways. My actual original career was in high tech. I was a systems engineer for IBM and then I work for Oracle Corporation and I mean, serious high tech jobs, you know, and so on sales team selling to Fortune 100 companies and making a lot of money. I mean that's a Good income, but

I really didn't like it at all. It's just a lot of pressure, just ridiculous, quotas and all sorts of things. But like, most people, I had a pivotal moment in my life and that was when my father was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor. And so we knew that he would only live about 7 months and it was pretty textbook.

So during that time, I quit my job, I quit doing everything that I had been doing and I went to back and forth to Florida where my parents It's were living to be with them, you know, to help manage things and until he passed away. And then I came home and I was like, okay, now what am I going to do? You know, I quit my job, you know, I had my kids really young and my kids were already out of college at that point and so I thought, you know, I always loved to write, I really love that.

I had things published when I was younger. I thought I'm just going to learn more about the craft, you're right. So I went back to school and got a master's degree in masters of Fine Arts in writing and was then asked to join the faculty at the University to teach writing. So at the same time that I joined the faculty to teach, I also started Stonebrook publishing which is a nonfiction publishing house and so and that was about 14 years ago and so it was pretty cool.

The things that happen course I enjoy A teaching. But in the publishing side, I had a couple of really what I considered to be big hits right off. And the first was we published a book by a holocaust Survivor who had gone to school with Anne Frank. And so the book was amazing. And we ended up doing the book release at their school in Amsterdam. And so it was so amazing and then I got a call from another

set of authors. Who were looking to be published and we publish their book as well and we got back cover endorsements for that book from to pretty high-profile people, Sir Paul McCartney and Cindy Crawford. And so I thought, oh my gosh, I I must know what I'm doing, you know, this is going really well, this is really fun but at the same time we were getting manuscripts from writers who had a seed of what we were looking for in our material of armor.

Material is intended to do, one of three things, either change lives, save lives, or transform society. And so it would have a seat of that in there, but it was so poorly written that we couldn't do anything with it. We couldn't edit our way out of it. So I had, I guess it was kind of a spiritual God moment when I was in my office one day and I all of a sudden, just felt this Rush of heard felt something that just sits. Stop. You know.

Take a step back and teach people how to write creative nonfiction. High-impact non-fiction books. And so it was kind of cool because I could combine my knowledge from teaching at the University with publishing.

So what I did is I did take a step back and I wrote a step-by-step process that takes authors to from their original July Dia. All you have to have is an idea to get started all the way through to the end, where the book is published and distributed worldwide on Amazon Barnes & Noble, you know, libraries, Etc. So it was sideways, you know, as all came from that pivotal

moment. When you know, we had the the issue with my dad and since then, you know, we published, you know, hundreds of books and, you know, have award-winning. It's where an award-winning Publishing House. So, I'm really proud of it, but I'm mostly proud of the authors that we work with. Because what they are is, they're they're normally, they're professionals their doctors attorneys Business Leaders and, you know, nobody quits their job to write a book. I hope not anyway.

And they're using their book material to augment their business practice and that, that might be what would appeal. Eel to podiatrist at that are in your circle, that what a wonderful, you know, story Nancy of kind of. And I think just what you did there is what I appreciate about good written books and it's that format of kind of telling the background story and that leaving as a podiatrist.

You know, we can talk about plantar, fasciitis, everything else but what they really like what my patients really like is my background story, kind of how I got into it. What's the story behind it? Why am I passionate Finn is what I what area Podiatry. I'm passionate about. And why that is because they like the emotions. They like the stories. That's so true.

That is exactly true. And that you know, it's interesting because when I'm working with professional people particularly doctors they tend to want to give the their clinical front. No, not their personal story but and I think that used to work and maybe in the 90s, you know,

early 2000s, it I work anymore. People are craving connection whether it's with their, their doctor, or their, you know, anybody that certainly, if they're reading a book, they want to know the person behind the book. And so, we spend a lot of time, crafting, your personal story so that you ingratiate yourself with your readers and, you know, you can't, I mean, you can't even do this in teaching

anymore. Nobody At the front of the room and tells you what to do or what you should do, that big should word, you know, is kind of out of Vogue right now, but you invite people to come along with you to learn what you've learned and particularly, when you're in a field of medicine, there are a lot of things that people need to your feet are really important and when when your feet start hurting you're in trouble, you know, it affects everything in your life and

there's so many things that are associated with Good Foot Care. Care that we don't think about because we just cover them up and go walk somewhere, right? Yeah. And but when you in, you have to, you know, invite the readers into your world a little bit so that they can learn from you. Otherwise, they don't trust you. Yeah, you know. I think what you're saying is you know it seems like this can be used for book writing but let's just kind of look back

pull back a little bit. Like if people are doing newsletters, people are doing Blog post people are doing like this whole idea of like telling a little get to know me story or sharing get to know me pictures and then maybe going into something about ingrown toenails, but what people really like is the story partial, that's what I've read some different books about storytelling and things and and I love listening to stories and people and you sharing your

stories. So what how do people do you have any good tips of? Let's let's say people want, let's say they're not ready. Nancy to use you. Let's say they want to do it on their own. What are some tips of gathering stories organizing? Writing things like that. Great question because stories of the most important thing, the only reason people are going to remember, anything is through Stark storytelling. And so, like you said before, you have to engage the emotions

and stuff. So I have a little formula, I have, if I could share with you about how to tell your own story, okay? And I did this when I told you, what happened with me and the formula is three-part, it's like what it used to be like, Remember, I told you, I work for Oracle and for IBM and I made a lot of money but I was happy. Okay, the what happened part is that pivotal moment?

My dad was diagnosed with a terminal, brain tumor and I quit my job and went to help my folks, and then kind of the what it's, but there's many parts to the what happened, right? So your pivotal moment isn't necessarily moment, it's kind of like turning the Titanic, you know, you got to go, you know, until you're going in a different direction. Ian and for me, what was that part of that pivotal moment?

Was, I went back to school, I got a master's degree, I started teaching at the University, I started a Publishing House, started publishing books. And then the final part of that third, part of that formula is what it's like. Now now I'm able to coach and guide Everyday People to write, high-impact non-fiction books, that really do change lives and save lives. And Transform Society.

So that formula for telling your own story, is really something worth thinking about because it's just like what you just said. People want to know that the backstory but they also want to know where you are now to know that you're the authority, that they can rely upon in order to get the services that they are seeking. That's that's wonderful. So when you do this with people, do you do it? I know some people like Of you

people and to get it this way. So a lot of us work better with interviews or do you have the actual doctors right? Entry of us you can do it on your own or you can do it with you, right? So probably the on here. Yeah, it's kind of its, there's a couple of ways to do it. The first way that I work with people is one on one and it, let me just say if we're not ghostwriters, we're not writing your book. You're writing it. I want to tell you why? Because let's talk about ghost

writing for a minute. Ghostwriting is somebody who interviewed you. They have set questions. And they gather the information for the interview and then they write the book. Now, you'll see many famous people use ghost writers and it'll say by Laura Bush with somebody that whiff person wrote the book.

Okay. The problem with that is they can only go as deep as the questions are and they're not necessarily Gathering the essence of the person and their knowledge because they haven't invested. They'll spend a lot of time in the interviews but they still aren't Digging where? They're only digging where their questions lead them. So in our process what we do is we it's a step-by-step process. We start off with this series of

foundational questions. That's really helps you to crystallize your message and it's things like, you know, why are you even doing this you know which motivation who's your audience, specifically? How's the audience going to be changed as a result of taking in? Your material. And there's 12 of these

questions. What we end up doing, is taking your answers to those and Distilling them down into a purpose statement for the book that says, the purpose of this book is to do this particular thing for this specific audience period and then your job becomes to deliver the audience to the purpose of the book. So you can't put everything, you know. And one book you have to Target it to your audience into that purpose.

And so, once we have that purpose statement, then we create a book map which is a visual representation of everything that's going to be in your book. And the book math is constructed your, we construct your chapters in problem solution sets. What's the problem?

Your audience is likely to have and then back to Our stories through a very story driven methodology, you present your Solutions. That's that, that's awesome, that's it. So to take it further and this is all part of this, this process. That's a, you know, proprietary process when your book is finished. You have, you can take that material and repurpose it across multiple, venues? Some of them even revenue-producing, you can because you have their each container.

So chapter is a container of information blog, First, they could be a podcast. They can be a, exactly, exactly seminars, workshops video training anything. Because you have the material all there and so awesome. When people we talked about, your book is being a great, great Foundation of for your business so that you can concentrate on the problems that you like to treat. I mean, I think that I don't think everybody likes to do everything in Podiatry. I mean, I saw that Skytree show

about the that one. It has these terrible problems with these gross feet. I couldn't stop. I mean I couldn't watch anymore because it was so hard to watch but I don't think I mean I know doctors and other Specialties there's certain things I really like to do. So let's Elevate those things so that you can attract patients to you for the Specialties that you really excel in.

I love that Nancy, how you can. So repurposing your content then as and I think even just the whole process of we don't think enough or analyze enough why we do what we do and what we really like to do. So pick out two or three of those things that you really like, not not talking about what you don't like. Because what you talk about is what you attract. Now I'm going to I'm going to talk about the elephant in the room. I think our patients and people in general are very lazy and we

don't read or very few okay. People that I know very You reading books, they prefer Tick-Tock they prefer a little short videos. They prefer you know all these other things in this day and age. I'm sure there are other reasons to have a book. They might get your book. They might download your free PDF and not even read it, but there's a benefits you having a

book talk a little bit to that? Well, okay, first, I'm going to you're bringing up a question that you didn't ask and that, that's kind of like it has to do with attention span. Okay. So how long should your book be people always have to, how have you survived? Book be and I have a standard answer and it's this not one word longer than it needs to be because we have short attention

spans. And I need, I will teach you to write in a concise manner that is targeted into the point, nobody wants fluff and all that stuff. So your chapters can be short and concise and targeted and still accomplish your message. Now you think that people aren't going to want to read the book but when their feet are hurting and when they have neuropathy and their feet are burning, Rain or whatever. Is it anything? What they're gonna do anything to figure out how to get relief?

And so often doctors will use their book as a you know, they'll give it away to their patients you know and they'll or prospective patients or if they're trying to attract, you know, Partners or even, you know, maybe referral Partners in the industry. You know, other like primary care, doctors or things like that. Exactly. And so, your book should do three things for you, it should establish you as an expert in

your field. It should increase your credibility and it should help you attract a following, but it will only do those things if it's well-written. And I want to talk a little bit about that because that is so key. And so people often give me their self published. And they're really proud of. Look, I wrote a book and it's amazing that they wrote a book, but when I open it, I often think, oh, my gosh, don't give

this to anybody else. I mean, it's like the fonts huge because I tried to make it longer. Or they did wasn't edited and it's grammar errors, and it's just not, well done. And so, we really when we are clients that we work for and we're like, okay, look, we're an award-winning Publishing House. Your book is Is going to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with anything else out there on the

market that's good. And you'll be published, you know, professionally published through by a publishing house but it doesn't need that. You don't need to bulk it up and try to make it longer than it is just get to the point. Establish your credibility by sharing something of yourself and telling stories and showing your expertise through the work that you present in your book. That's awesome.

And I think you, you alluded to some of the other ways of using your book because one thing is getting the book published and just for those that are listening, it's more going to be. I think, probably, I don't think we're going to be like an Amazon bestseller New York Times bestseller, but it's more for our circle of influence, in kind of writing our book. Is that correct Nancy? Yeah most of the time. That's right. I mean most people you know podiatrists are local right.

I mean you don't care about someone in you know, estate. States over, you know, coming to you because they usually won't, you know, so you want to penetrate your local audience and you know, the other thing I want to talk about too is that the opportunities that your book can open for you as a professional are vast? For example, I mean, you know, there's a lot of Podiatry conferences and they're always needing speakers and those who have books are the ones who are

most preferred. Because if, you know, No. It's kind of getting a college degree, you know, maybe, you know, you went through the process to do something and to do it well and that's a, you know, it's an advantage over others who don't have that it builds credibility, right? Yeah. That's part of what I said, is help you to build your credibility. You know, as long as it's well done, you can Trash your

credibility in an instant. I mean it's you know, II think that's key because II, you know, I'm as entrepreneurs we're always looking for. What's the next best thing, right? And so there's a couple of things that came out. One was called designer with two r's and basically it's a, it's an app that you, you recorded, it takes. It can take an actual YouTube video transfer. Take the transcription make it into a book but it's not edited at all, you know?

It's like freeform and I've seen some people's books there. Freeform them talking transcribed into a book and it just it hurts to read it hurts. Yeah. Right. And the other question, why physical book versus pdf? Tell me, explain to me why physical book versus pdf download. Let's go back to the credibility point.

You were making a PDF is nothing, you know, I mean, seriously, my grandkids, I was telling you about earlier, my six-year-old can produce a PDF, they're doing that stuff in school now, you know, so it's nothing to attach a PDF and, you know, usually that's like a report or, you know, it's just not something and sometimes, people call things books that are Yep, five-page PDFs. You know that's that's not a book. Well, it's not a book.

It's they should be embarrassed to be using that word, you know, cuz it's like, it's like bait-and-switch kind of thing. You know. Not honest is what I think I'm trying to say. Yeah, you have a professionally published book Again, The credibility piece is immeasurable. Yeah, that's good.

And I'm gonna, if I can, before you send it to tell us any other final Tips. You have a tip for if someone that wants to learn to be a writer whether it be a blogger book, writer things like that I found.

There's it Steven pressfield, he talks about resistance to creating content, and I think sometimes, you know, sitting down is you Advocate like an hour every day or 30 minutes every day, just to kind of free flow writing or do you recommend just a whole day to write or go somewhere else? How do you what's the best habits? That, that is a great question. It's really pretty. Digital, I know another podiatrist dr.

Peter wish knee new, who advocates for these having a day for doing non practice stuff and he's done a couple of books with me. And so he's you know he uses that data right? Part of what we do when I'm working with clients is remember, I told you about that book map so you're going to have everything that you're going to put in your book on that mat. So you know what that Means that means no writer's block ever. Writer's block is you're just sitting there thinking, right? You know what?

You're going to do, you know what you're going to do and so we can we really guide our clients to do some time, blocking on their calendar block off time and what a lot of people have found is if they do it in an hour, a day that gets them into the Rhythm but then, Times they'll switch later and think well I just got into my material and then my hour was

up, you know. So they'll think, okay, I need two hours on an afternoon or something like that, but all you're doing is writing the things that are down your book nap. And so, then we polish it all up in another module where we edit it. And then of course, the final thing that st. Stands between you writing your book and US publishing, it is us doing a professional edit of your book so that it's more. Market ready? Okay. Getting rid of all my passive voice that I'm really good at.

Oh I can't believe you just said that that is exactly what we do. I know it's all kids because I was so history, I was a history major. Yeah. And the reason I chose history is because I wasn't very good at writing and I wanted to learn to write better and that and that's why I did history medicine and I went into medicine and it was my backup Gig. If I wouldn't even have that story there. Yeah, it would have gone into

the actually. I wanted to be a magician even before that, but That's a different story, but thank you Nancy. I think we've learned a lot. Any tips? Like, do you recommend? I think it's called Glam grammarly. Do you recommend anything? Everly is really good because it does help you with your grammar and gives you word suggestions and things like that. So I have grammarly installed on my computer and I'm always irritated when it Flags something because I think I should have known better.

The gravel is great and there's a free version of it. That people there is there is but you said one of the most important things Is learning to use active language, so I don't know. It's it's, you know, the more you write the better, you get. I think that's true. And if people want to learn more Nancy, I do you have any free downloads courses, anything like that? How can they learn more about you? Well, I have a book, I have a website.

It's the book professor.com, and if you're interested in kind of exploring something about writing your own book, I'd love to chat with, you can just email me at Nancy at the book, Professor.com great. Well, this is very fun. Thank you so much, pleasure meeting you. Yeah, you too, thank you so much.