¶ Personal Branding in Publishing
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Yeah , so yeah , I like that audio for concept right now .
You know we'll talk about it in the show too . Yeah , let's talk about it . Are we recording ? Okay , we have Peter Lopez . You are a two time publisher of the year winner here in Brevard , but you've also published a thousand plus books .
You're a ghost writer , an audiobook publishing genius , and you also , you know , you're a mint maker , your founder of Mint Maker and a no Excuses podcast . So , you are a brand of your own .
You know , I think when it comes to branding right , the person has to be the face before they introduce their product . So I've always been very . You know , I have an awesome partner , Mimi , and she runs pretty much we've started a public fire , but she likes to be in the background and operate everything . So I'm like the front person .
So when you think about Eli Musk , you think about Tesla . When you look at Steve Jobs , you think about Apple and when you look at Bill Gates , you think about Microsoft . So if you're looking to establish a brand , people still buy from people , People still trust people . So that is very important .
When I'm talking to local celebrities artists , you know , entrepreneurs your face has to be out there Of course .
So do you think you kind of dabble in like branding too ?
Yeah , I have to because , being in the book industry , right , we've I would say I managed to work for a major publisher over 10 years We've had I mean collectively we've done two , three thousand books . We always tell the author it's important that your face is out there to tell the story . Right , there are pen names .
There are authors that have pen names , which means they don't want to give their real identity that you can understand , so that we have to market it . But it's important for you to have that brand awareness of , like , my face has to be out there , I have to talk about it and then people familiarize themselves with you know absolutely .
The hard part is you know if you're a jerk . It comes out of your face . It comes out like social media will expose who you really are Like yeah , like I turn or no filter . Exactly , exactly . Yeah .
The funniest thing , jesse , about filters and some people like they look like Janet Jackson on social media and you meet them and like Tito Jackson , yeah like it's all good and nice when you're filtered out , but like it's the horror of seeing someone in person and then yeah .
I'm looking at you and being like yeah , what that was 20 years ago I , you took that picture . So it's another thing . Update , it's a constant update . So people feel like , well , I don't like the way I look , I don't like the way I feel . You know what , man ? And that doesn't matter .
If you , if you exude confidence , if you believe in yourself , that's the key , like the belief system , if you believe in yourself , you believe in your brand , that will come out .
I agree . Yeah , we're all in meat suits , but it just matters what's inside and and anybody can get past the visuals . Is there something interesting and important coming out of their mouth . Did you say meat suits ?
Meat suits . That's like the best . That is like . I've never heard that . You know like we .
We don't get to choose right , but we're all like spirit . I was not going to let that pass .
She said I love that , me too . Can I use that ? Is that like coined phrase ? No , okay , take meat suits , all right , you exclusively in the local bravado . I love it . Yes , yes .
I want to know how you got into publishing , because you don't really run into many publishers , especially here in Brevard . You don't If publishing .
listen to this right , and I always say this it's like uh , 89% of people want to write books . New York Times wrote a report . If you follow me , it's like I'm 89% of people want to write a book . 89 . 1% actually publishes . People say everybody's publishing . I'm like , please shut up . Nobody there's . You know seven , eight million people in the world .
Only two , three million books have been published . What ?
is that .
Like point 1% .
Well , nobody really knows how to do it so
¶ The Journey of a Published Author
. I was hoping you would shed some light on that subject .
I'm going to give you the secret sauce . Guys , have you listening right now ? Grab a pen , grab a paper . I give my stuff away and I'm going to tell you why . Okay , one , how I got into the , the , the publishing , and then , two , I'll tell you why I give it away .
Okay .
I have been part of the technology sector for a lot of years . Like I , was one of the first um um companies to introduce DVD technology Jesse , we're talking about that earlier . It's called digital versatile disc and my uh chairman at the time who became a mentor the uh Sprague family , but his name was Nolan Bush now . Have you heard of Nolan Bush now ?
No , I haven't . Have you heard of Chuck E Cheese Of course have you heard of Atari .
Oh yeah , my parents used to work for Atari . Get out of here , yeah .
Nolan Bush now is the creative Atari and then he birthed Chuck E Cheese to have , you know , people playing the thing . So Nolan Bush knows the king of Pong , the most iconic map Were you out in California . Cupertino , san Jose . Yeah , yeah , I was . I was supposed to be that 9 11 plane , but that's a whole other book .
So I was I mean , I would travel a lot and I got into technology doing DVD and and we couldn't . We had a great at that time , a great CEO , but a poor CFO . And that's when everybody was going public . Jesse's like we , we , we , that's the dot com era . Yeah , like a 90 .
Oh , yeah , like like 90 , that early nineties , yeah , you know , I would , you know I . The story would go we all drove in with Hondas and came back with Ferrari and then left with you know , datsuns , like it was . You know , we , we took a company from like $3 a share to $49 and it dropped out of you know three pennies . But that was technology .
So we launched that . And then there was an employee that worked with with , with Nolan Bush . Now , every rebellious employee had his own rules . His name was Steve Jobs .
Oh , Steve .
Jobs worked with with Nolan Bush now . He worked with Atari , and , and he branched off and he created another technology and part of the knowledge that we worked with was called small self merchandising object . What is that ? You take a . We would take a video game and chop it up into pieces .
So instead of selling you a $99 video game , we'll sell it to you in increments , and that is what we call iTunes today . So you know , I could have been a trillionaire , but the cards are different .
So it was a technology and then , from technology , I started working for you know , different financial things software and I ended up moving to Florida and a company . I worked a lot of years in the radio industry .
Oh yeah .
I even helped buy and sell radio stations . You remember , back then it was like . Am and then you flip up into FM and then you flip up into satellite .
So flipping radio stations were very big back then yeah , yeah , it was huge Like and so that company had a , a , a publishing company , and I was like , man , I've been wanting to publish a book for a long time and without listening to me , okay , nico and Jesse , I have the worst grandma . I got ADD , I can't spell to save my life .
But I didn't look at my limitations Right and I was like , started working in this company the first year , the first year .
They just transferred you over .
Yep , Yep . There's like hey , just try it .
I mean you have .
It's all about relationships , right . Like sales is a transfer of emotions .
Yeah .
And if you , if you believe someone ? So writing a book is about , you know , pushing your dreams across . So I'm good at that . I tell people , I'll throw you off the cliff . You can learn how to fly .
How are you so good at that ? Like you say you come , like I saw that you say you come from poverty . I , I grew up in the South Bronx . You did , I grew up in the South Bronx .
So I grew up in , like I told them about the ghetto , south Bronx , right Like I what ? We was standing in the line in the line for free cheese . You know , um , you know , uh , st Anne's Brook Avenue yeah , shout out to my man , larry Law and pistol Pete . So it's like like we was .
It was , it was gang life , but my dad was a minister , very strict , very , very like you better go to church , you know .
Do you think that's where you got like your ?
yeah , yeah definitely got that discipline , but you still had to fight . You still had to hustle Like Jesse . It was like someone hits you , you don't hit back , you in trouble , they'll punk you . So you grew up in that , in that , like that that state of fight or flight ? Yes , exactly , but I found out I had no flight and I know flight I mean .
So you gotta fight . So then people start respecting you and got like I'll come . I used to work at city bank and I'll be like two in the morning with a book bag in a suit going into like the projects , and nobody bothered me .
But that gave me that unstoppable mentality Like I'm not gonna go to Wall Street , I'm not gonna be bullied by nobody If I survive this . You know it's no way some executive is gonna tell me it can't be done .
Do you still keep in touch with some of the kids like that were kind of that you grew up with . Maybe I don't know , didn't have that mentality ?
I would say 80% of them are dead in jail . I grew up during the crack epidemic A lot of them . I saw girls that were beautiful . I mean , look like beauty pageants . You know that you were like in high school like wow , she's so beautiful and then , like three years later , they like withered away . So crack killed a lot of people .
Aids came in , killed a lot of friends and family , so it's literally like a genocide .
Yeah , I knew , escaped at all .
Escaped at all , you know , and I still . I'm still close to family , I still got friends , but it's not like it's a handful of people . And I remember I went back to the Bronx and a lot of people are still stuck in the past . The worst thing you can do is dwelling , and two things will keep you stuck dwelling in the past and then dwelling in the future .
Not knowing so , you gotta live in the present moment . I like looking at the future . staying in the past could keep you there , so I go there and I still see some people living in the past .
Do you think that's your number one problem for not like doing what you did , getting out of it ?
Yeah yeah , a lot of people . Well , they're product of their environment . A lot of times , of course Listen to me , man it's like I like the secret and I like you know you gotta think and grow rich and you gotta speak life . But there's some people in a certain environment , no matter what happens , they're gonna be stuck there .
So I think some of them are product of that and , no matter what happens , it's hard to get them out there .
So there's just a few of us like the last of the Mohicans that we could just crawl out of there , and my job is to try to get back there , and I'm actually doing a lot of books for the culture , a lot of books for the hip hop culture , a lot of books for people that have been marginalized and been treating a part .
The publishing industry is like the mafia it is a trillion , not a billion , a trillion dollar industry . If you add , like Marvel Universe , google , facebook they're all publishers . Publishing is the tip of the scale . The richest company in the world is a publishing company . You know it's Amazon .
Started selling books out of there , yeah , so if you understand publishing as an artist , as a brand even Jesse has what you're doing with the audio books if you understand that part of publishing , then you can own all your assets because eventually , everything on the internet is public domain . It's fair use .
Like , I can write a book right now on Jay-Z , I can write a book on Warren Buffett I don't need their permission Because now I cannot write what they're saying today , but being that it was published before , so it's important for you to own your publishing assets so no one pirates your stuff .
Okay , all right , but , like you said , 80% of the public wants to write a book . We all have that dream . How does that come to realization ? How much does it cost ? Because I know you said you know to make money you have to give some of your money up front .
So there's three ways of publishing right , and it's funny , I think , the perception people still call like well , do I get an advance ? I'm like no . You think you could , but it's okay . So the 89% people want to write books . 1% does right . It's hard to publish a book . People think it's easy .
A lot of people go the self-publishing route and then God bless them . It's easy , it's free , but you kind of go into some mistakes and I'll tell you what that is .
¶ Traditional, Hybrid, and Self-Publishing Methods
The first part of publishing is what we call traditional publishing , the hybrid . I mean , that's the tradition . It was the Penguin , the Harper Collins . You know the Mafia , you know the anti-crisis . No , they're a good company . I love them , they're awesome . But they're very important . They maneuver and own .
They're the ones that give you a 360 deal and it's like a slave contract . They will own all your assets . They will give you an upfront . They will give you like a little upfront , you know one of my friends . They own Imperperatuity , your image and likeness your name .
You think it's funny like people think , like they're like no , no , you're not that important . Maybe Trump , obama , oprah , you know , those people will get an exclusive admin distribution deal . Sure but not in the US there's like point , point point zero , one of those people that gets some of that . Everybody else has to give up pretty much a 360 deal .
If you say they don't , I call them a liar . Don Robinson from Invogue we talked about doing her book at one point like she lost all her assets , right . Dave Chappelle at one point didn't even own Dave Chappelle . So it's like I love this world of like no publishing owns everything . So that deal . You have to give up a 360 deal .
You mean everything like a brand . Oh , my God , I had a my's vote . She's like one of the most iconic YouTubers and podcasts . Max Maxwell was like one of the biggest developers . He's doing some killer stuff at Dubai to do speed at his wife . She's got three million followers and it was like the publisher wanted to even own some of her TikToks and all that .
Publishers would do that . You need to do these . Many TikToks about her . She needs yeah , so you're working for them when you already have a brand Right . So they'll do that . They'll own everything and you'll get , if you're lucky , a six to 8% royalty deal .
Ryan Holiday has sold tens of millions of books , ryan Holiday , and he has said in his podcast he's finally recouped the $250,000 that he got from his publisher 10 years ago .
He don't Okay , but how are you doing it ?
Because I grew up in the South Bronx and I'm not scared of those guys . I've gotten ceaseless . This is that is from them , so that that deal happens . It's not if someone's going to give you an advance , they're going to own your assets . The second one , where I've become very important in the field , is called hybrid publishing .
Hybrid publishing is not self publishing , is we create some type of joint venture partnership . Sometimes I'll take 30% of your rights , 30% of your royalties , you get 70% , and then I can shop . I can shop you foreign rights .
We have great relationships with awesome managers , awesome people that can get you in front of celebrities , get you in front of podcasts , get you in front of Netflix . Now you got to have a good story . You just can't be some guy off the street , but there are some great writers out there , so you find that talent . We create some type of partnership .
I'll put some money in it , you'll put some money in it and we'll create some type of hybrid publishing where it's not looks self , it's not . You know we create , so it's like a deal .
it's like a partnership , A partnership deal . And what does that look like ? Give me like a ballpark figure of if someone's really serious about writing their story and you agree with it you think it's there . You know , you think it's gonna work .
The most important part , the biggest expense in doing those deals , is editing . Right , Like Stephen King , right ? Maybe the best writer we had since Ernest Hemingway . I'm not into his books , but he's the best conversational writer that's ever lived . Right , he will write a story and put you in the story right .
So I mean , if you wanna know about editing and writing , Stephen King's book on writing is the best . I don't really care for Stephen King's movies , but I'm more of a CS Lewis guy , or you know .
But the cost of editing that trumps the cost of printing , that costs the Trump of everything .
So , you have to pay a lot of money for editing . You cannot just edit your book once . Don't trust your own editing . Don't trust your sister that has a master's . Don't trust your friend that's a professor . Editing is a gift .
Okay , People , you know , when you give it to people that are smarter than you and they're perfect , they're just gonna correct you for grammar , punctuation , capitalization .
Yeah .
There's a flow to write . So a lot of times you're telling the story and you don't understand it . So these ghost writers , these developmental editors , will put you in that story , make you sound real and make it flow . You're also a ghost writer . Yes , are you an editor too ? I well , lord help me If I edit your book .
It would look like they'd be like three , three comments per person . So publishing and editing and ghost writing are three different things . You dabble in two of them .
Ghost writing is helping develop your story , developing your arc , developing what is your brand , coming up with story lines .
Oh really .
Yeah , yeah . So it's like , a lot of times , ghost writers ghost writers do two things Okay , A real ghost writer is not even . You don't even see their names in the book . Yeah right , Some ghost writers get a percentage but their names are not on the book . But they definitely do the writing . They do a lot of the writing , Okay .
Or they have a team of writers Okay , team of writers . Yeah so it's like , okay , tell me about the book because I can't write , but I could . I could definitely develop your story . Yeah if I talk to you , we have a one-hour meeting . I'm like this is what your story is . This is how to come out .
You know how to extract Information and then the the person tells some the writers and the writers write it out exactly then the writers .
So you want to go from your story right , getting your story written so that say it's got to be developed right . So developmental editing is super important . After that , 95% of books need a line editing . Substantive , like awkward word sentences , active passive words you know what you , which is that we know which is the most misused word what was really ?
Was it past tense or was it present state of mind ? So I don't know how to write that . Well , yeah , so when I say was , was I there or was I there now ? Was I there yesterday ? And a lot of times when we write that , it becomes very awkward . So , and it's funny , like I talk , I Talk like I know these things .
I just been doing these for 10 years , but what I do is I connect you with an expert . Guys , true wisdom is knowing your limitations . There's like 1.0 , point point one , people that make money writing .
But yeah , yeah , there's . I've actually gone the self-publishing route . I helped my daughter publish like a cookbook and we wrote it through like chat GPT , so I just wanted to get a sort of awareness of how it works . Yeah , do you want to talk about ?
Yes , there's . There's a war going on with the robots tell me .
I know I don't , I mean I don't know . I know what I hear , but I'm like how bad can this get ?
so let's so you go from editing . I would say a good hybrid contract . Yeah should be about . It should be between 20 and 40 thousand okay you know Scribe media when they did the deal with with David Goggins . You've scribe media is very similar to us . Okay they've gone through ups and downs , like everybody .
But they kind of gave a deal and they shared on the royalties and there was some upfront cost . But David Goggins owns everything . David Goggins is gonna get 250,000 dollars from a major publisher . They would have owned everything .
Yeah , so .
Millions of promise . So he's a great and we talked about him . Okay , so you get that . You get it published hybrid . The third one is self-publishing . Guys , who cares , get your book done . You're part of the one percent . Right , you got a book done for your daughter , you know . Awesome , that is .
Yeah , I don't know . See , for the next , it almost feels like , since everybody can do it , though it's no longer special , like unless you do have that penguin , or yeah , like I don't think people really know , I don't know and . I'm glad you're here educating when you go that route .
You know it's always good to like have someone give you some advice how to do it , but you got it out , who cares ? Okay right , who like it's like ? You got a prop that I'm proud of . You Look for your daughter . You know how cool that is . I know my mom did a book together , so self-publishing is a route .
But you're not gonna see the return . No can you guarantee the return , or Maybe not guarantee , but can you be confident that ?
if someone yeah Like you won't make the deal unless you're confident that this book will two things happen when you write a book One , you have to invest a lot of money to make a lot of money back . Yep , okay , marketing Branding is important . Marketing does not equate to sales . It equates to expertise and exposure .
But there's like funnels and ways of going around Amazon . Because Amazon is 80 5% of the buying habits , so people gonna buy your book on Amazon . The problem is , yeah , amazon won't give you nobody's email , nobody's phone . So let's say , a thousand people buy your book on Amazon Great , you might make two dollars .
Yeah , yeah .
Cool your best seller , but you own no data . I rather , a hundred people buy my book directly from me . Yeah then a thousand people buy the book on Amazon .
Right , why ? Cuz I don't . Yeah , I'll know the date , yeah data is gold .
Yeah so if I have a hundred emails of their name , their phone number , that's what they all want my month . My shout out to my monthly millionaire guys Like it's $16 , like an email's a dollar , a phone is A five dollars and addresses ten dollars . Wow , that's , that's the return you get .
Yeah , so let's say you blasting emails , I'm gonna be at a book signing , I'm giving away this . You have that data . Guys Work on your email list like like it's the old people still do that I hear this all the time , but we're so bad at it , yeah so , so that that becomes so .
Self-publishing is another route that you can take and , and a lot of times it you know , nico , I'll tell them we're not the company for you out . Yeah , I have never . I'm not that important , I'm not that type of guy like . I feel like you , you , you , you good to people , you bless people . I'll come back to you .
So I'm like do this right , but do it this way , don't go that way and I'm gonna self-publish , do this , and then you give him advice . But you know , you know what I've learned , jesse , this is the coolest part . It's DIY to D I FM . I tell everybody how to do it . You know what they tell me .
Now you need to do it for me , because I People say they don't got money . Oh no , no , no , no , no . You got money . You just don't got money to invest in your dreams because , dreams cost a lot of money . You know you got money to go on a $5,000 out of vacation . You got money to buy Starbucks every day .
If I got a cup and you add that was that 2,500 . So they got . They got money until they have to invest . So I tell them invest this way and do that . So I think it gets real for people . They get scared . The best investment you can make is in yourself . Yeah , that's it . That's the biggest ROI you'll get .
Yeah , if you make an investment in yourself , it's the best ROI you get . People are like investing on other people Every time . Now , like I use my own brand . I'm not spending money on Gucci or Nike . I buy my own t-shirts with my own name on it . I'm the brand right . So when you see me Like what's that ?
And it's like I'll be the billboard , I'm not gonna advertise , it's funny like people got these , these fendi bags and all that , but it don't matter .
Like it's nothing like having your own brand , right , right and and where we live in a world where , like now , you , you almost have to brand yourself . If you're gonna put yourself out there , you can't do it so frivolously .
I mean , of course , you can , but like if you're taking the time out to , whether it's educate people or give them a freaking makeup tutorial . Yeah you have to show up .
Right , you have to show up .
I like that , I like that .
Yeah , so you guys want to talk about AI .
Yes , let's talk about that Any questions about AI , so go ahead . Well , I was like I know you did the NFT stuff yeah .
NFTs . We went to podcasts like two years ago . I'll talk about that .
I feel like it went this and then , and then it stopped .
¶ Understanding NFTs, AI, and Publishing
NFT , let me , let me , let me explain this . Everybody started hanging out with the gorillas and monkeys and apes . Yeah , yeah it's like a circus and I think that was what confused people paying like what is it ?
a million dollars for a monkey , yeah , that I can screenshot and also hang up on my wall , like I think people didn't really that .
Well , that's the concept .
Yeah , people didn't understand owning something digitally .
Yeah , and it's still important . Nfts and if you understand the back end software Value to it , it's still going to be a game changer . I said something on one of my my , my , my , my um Posts it once . Once people understand NFT and AI it'll be the best integration , because NFTs is a digital form of authenticity .
It's like a stamp that says it's you okay and it's and it's there forever .
But I think people like me have trouble valuing that . Yeah , like , what's the value in a , in a , in a digital fingerprint , right ?
Okay . So let's good question . Let's say , some of your daughter's Cookbook , right ? Yeah ? Somebody says , hey , I want to buy a recipe . Right , how would they buy a recipe ? They have to like , try to contact you . They can't buy it from your book , you know , do you ? Do you have a QR code ?
Right , that NFT , you can literally like Figure it out that they could buy it and there's a subscription base and they'll get , like , the recipe in their house . They might even get the plate , but why , not just buy the book . Be oh no , you could buy the book , but within the book you can sell Seven , eight different variations of the book .
So think about this when you buy one book , you get one royalty . If you create an NFT I can't be up to about NFTs , but it's important . It's a software . If you buy one , if you create an NFT , it's about the software , not NFTs . That it is . It could be perpetual .
So one you could have one book that'll give you seven , eight different type of royalties , because every time that book is sold to somebody else you get a cut of that . So the thing with AI right now , so NFTs , right .
So I I'm still dabbling in that , but you know you have to pivot and we saw AI become like huge and I saw that from the from AI has been around a long time , jasper , people are getting to know that yeah , ai has been around for years , years right now , but Because of Eli Moss that found the chat GPT and then , of course , I think , sold his options to
Microsoft . Now Microsoft is owns chat GPT and then Bard owns Google . That's gonna be like like an Armageddon wall , like on data right . Yeah once Google Figures it out , everyone's in trouble , okay .
They haven't yet I thought they did come up with something .
They did , they came out with um oh bark . But it's , you know it's , it's it's chat . Gpt is so big right now .
It's yeah , it's the brand awareness right .
Yeah um , but this is the problem Amazon is undefeated . Right there are people that are creating AI generated books . So far , there has been tens of thousands of books that have been kicked out of Amazon .
Wait what ? Because they're GPT .
AI . It's called plagiarism . It's you're pulling from data that's already published . So every time , like Mimi , my partner , she uploads a book on Amazon . It says did you use AI to ?
do this , but then you can check off .
Yes , yes , and you , if you think you're smart , right , you think you're smart , you like ? No , I didn't , well , one , you're lying . Yeah you don't want to lie . Two they're going to find you out . Three they're going to kick you out .
Wait , I didn't know that you can't write a book with chat GPT and publish it on Amazon , because I mean , that's what we did for the cookbook .
You did , I did , but eventually there'll be a war and and they're going to start disbanding a lot . They've been doing it lately . Chat , I think chat GPT wrote a contract with Politico , because anything , anything that that you buy right from chat GPT , it's from a source that's already taken .
So that's that's copyright infringements , trademark infringement , plagiarism infringement .
But it's all . I mean . You could ask chat GPT to rewrite it in a more casual style , or you know , whatever it is , it's newly generated . I mean , that's just like saying that you're plagiarizing by looking at an encyclopedia , which is how we used to write reports , Exactly . Yeah , that's true .
People , people forgot about those days . There is a psychopath Britannica or something . So I'm not against chat GPT . I'm telling people you have to know how to use it right . Of course because if you're using chat GPT to publish books and I'll tell you they're all out there , people publishing books they're going to start being chopped down .
I've been in the publishing industry for many years . The Google is not going to support chat GPT books . Amazon is not going to support . Like there's going to be . Like there's going to be like . We're going to be the first to mark .
How are they going to be able to know ? Is it like written in the code , like how will they know ?
They're going to know . How will they know ? They're going to know . There's OK , we , I , I use chat GPT for research . Right , I'm writing a book , right , I'm , I'm , I'm talking to the ghost writer and I talk about this awesome .
His name is James , you know , when he was four years old , his father passed away and I'm like , first of all , what is it to be four years old ? So I asked chat GPT , how is it ? What are the emotions of a four year old ? How does a four year old act ? I've had I got three boys . Yeah , you , I totally forgot what they were for .
Right , you know what I mean ? I home so and it's like , oh , a four year old does this . He starts to understand his emotions , he starts to understand sound , and you want to incorporate that in the book , but we did not copy and paste that into the document .
No , you use that as a reason so research and a resource like encyclopedia Britannica .
Yeah , you know the lexicon or whatever you you use .
You're not taking the words . Verbatim is what you're saying .
You use the word verbatim Then is words have been used before and they've been published before . Chad GPT is only pooling data that's already been published . It is not creating new data . It's taking data that's already been written . So even music people that are using Chad GPT to mix music that that's been like .
A lot of those , those , those things are taken away . So I'm telling people use it for research . You publish a book with that GPT Cool , you're right , but there's , I don't , don't , don't get it wrong . No they're going to go against the big guys , right , the big publishers that are doing that there's . I mean we , we .
I mean , I don't think you could actually chat . Gpt is good for generating quick things , but but , like you said , you have to edit and re-edit , and re-edit . There's no way that it's going to spit out what you really . Yeah , oh , no , no , no , no , first round anyway .
There . There are like words that Chad GPT uses . Like it's funny , they'll find I . There's so many I could say and I don't want to sound like like I'm I understand AI , I have it on my phone and it's not just chat GPT , there's so many other AI softwares that are way better . There are AI softwares that humanize your voice .
But it's just what do you mean ? Humanize your voice ? They take your , they take what's written on chat , gpt , and they re-edit and say make it sound human , but it's . I tell people you have to say yes , and if you say no , so that means they will . So when you uploaded your book , did it save ? Was it AI generated , I think ?
I remember clicking that and I actually even credited the chat GPT bot . I even asked the chat GPT bot you know I'm going to credit you what do you want to be named ?
And he told me what was his name ? Anti Christ .
No , just get out the Terminator . No , I'm just kidding , right , I forget .
But I use chat GPT for research , like I use , like I use data like you know , newspaper , but I don't use it to publish because , people , you will never replicate the human voice to human experience . Oh yeah , no , no , no , no , no , no .
But with you . I mean , I got away with it because I was looking for recipes childlike recipes .
That was awesome . We put it on .
Canva and we made it look all kid . Like you know , I asked for her advice because she I wanted something for her .
That is no , I don't . That is awesome , Like I just wanted to play with all the elements . And the chat GPT , having this chat GPT rat with you has done a deal , with you doing the . No , I don't feel that way either . I'm just like oh my gosh yeah no , I didn't know but B .
I do remember checking the box .
Yeah .
But it makes sense . It makes sense because we could all get carried away with this . Ai thing outside of writing . What do you make of it ?
AI yeah Data . It gives me the best information quick .
Are you on the 4.0 ? Do you like pay for it ? Okay ?
It's better than it's better than Google search engine . It gives me so much more information it's eventually just going to pull . You know , the two biggest search engines in the world is Google and YouTube .
Yeah .
Of course , they're owned by Alphabet . Alphabet owns both of them . Eventually , you know when you understand how data is used . As much as chat GPT wants and they're going they're using , is it Explorer ? Which is the other browser being , or I don't know which ? Their own browser ? Right , microsoft ? Whatever ? That's like 3% of people .
Everyone's still on Google , right ?
Yeah , chrome .
Yeah , it's like so . So Google is going to be like oh , you want our data , Well , you're not going to get it . Or they're going to talk like it's going to be something like you can't pull data from Google If you're using chat .
There's going to be but right now is chat GPT pulling from everything that is everything out there on your computer's Internet .
Period Yep .
Google and then Google . You know , they filter for their own good .
Yeah .
Right . If you pay them money , they will put your website on the top hits or whatever Exactly Right .
I mean , it's funny , like I did a thing about making sure you're verified on Google . Your business is verifying Google and that's helped us out . Like we've been last like 10 deals I think five are just local , organic people , like I don't know whether , like hey , you're here and we're a grand swell and they show up in the office .
Yeah .
It's because we're prevalent on Google making sure our reviews are right . We keep our data up Like Google is , like the new shopping mall , Like it's a new office right . Back then it's like oh , there's the mall , there's your store , oh there's there's the , I could go to your office . That's like them going to your office .
Yeah , so that's important .
So I think chat , gpt and AI , it's not going anywhere . If you learn how to use it right , you're going to do well . If you learn how to use it wrong , you're going to get in trouble . Yeah .
Yeah , of course . What is your affiliation with grounds ?
Well grounds . Well , it is one of the coolest incubators that I've ever seen . We're actually doing a lot more connections with them . We're just a publishing company .
Yeah .
They're a technology driver . Like a lot of great companies are coming out of there . Yeah , they're like a nonprofit .
So they help with , business them , and I investigated what exactly they do over there , so I have a good understanding . Are you , are you part of the grounds ? Well , I'm not part of them but ?
but we're meeting about trying to get their , their awareness out more . Yeah , Because that's what we do we give , we make brands , we give expertise to brands .
Right .
So so we're meeting with them , I think coming up Friday to make sure they're visible in Brevard , Like Brevard needs more groundswells , more incubators that are serious , that are invested , that are really helping local companies succeed . So they help you do everything .
Yeah , they do they . They're very big . Shout out to them . They have a lot of tools and the prototype lab there .
Like it's kind of amazing the way that there's like a hundred businesses there and it's such a great place to hang out at and speak to . I'm just are you going ?
in there and speaking .
Yeah , yeah , I've done a lot . A lot of events there .
Yeah .
And at the end of the day , let me tell you something Publishing books is the greatest technology ever invented . Like I don't care what books are the tip of the iceberg , and these people still need books to do everything . So that's where it's important
¶ Importance of Publishing Rights and Self-Publishing
for us to be there . And then also publishing right . So publishing rights are the most important rights in the world Publishing rights- you got to send the right contract . Not copyright , not trademark , not you know not not NDAs . The biggest , most important rights are publishing rights .
If you understand what publishing rights are and you as a person understand that , then you own every asset that belongs to you . So that's where companies need to do that . I even tell companies create your own publishing house and everything you publish , all your articles , all your research , is under your own publishing house .
It's like things they got to understand .
Yeah , because people think publishing , they just think books , yes , but you , you are , your publishing blogs , you're publishing .
YouTube . You're publishing data posts even interest . Everybody that's here now should just create a little publishing company together LLC , put it under there . Even your audiobook company , right , it's a publishing company and I'm an audiobook publisher . You know , I'm Nico the celebrity .
You know mom book you know , doing great things and I have my own publishing company . When you , when you went on Kindle , did you create your own publishing house or you went under Kindle ?
Um , I don't really know yeah .
Good advice in the future Anyone doing self publishing Create your own publishing house and don't just upload it on Kindle . Upload it through your publishing house .
I think people get overwhelmed you know , especially when you're like you've got to even me , like I've been telling my husband , we got to create an LLC to like umbrella what we do . But here we are .
It's crazy Like your son business is a hundred dollars , a hundred , yeah , to do an LLC . But people pay like , if you don't know , you pay more , right ? Yeah , I , I Can change that my own , all you in my car . But do I want to do that ? Do I want to go on YouTube and try to change the all you in my car ? No , I pay someone $50 to do it .
Yeah , yeah . So you got to pay the expert because if not , it'll cost you more .
Yes .
So some people will go on these legal zoom and pay $500 when you can literally just do it for 100 bucks . Get your LLC and get your EIN for free , but it's like no one knows no one , and you know . This is the thing people are selfish with data and information like I give it away and People eventually trust me and pay me for her .
Yeah . So I mean yeah , I would trust you .
Yeah , a good guide .
That's it . You know what you're doing . I Saw this guy on your feed who actually branded his book in a shoebox . Listen .
It's called , I think , free Sneaker book , comm Tommy .
Yeah .
Tommy is I gotta make sure I got the right link . Maybe we'll put it on the thing . Yeah he's giving away a free book . Yes , tommy , urban D is one of the most I've worked with a bunch of authors Okay , he's one of the most creative , innovative Authors I've ever worked with . We've done a lot of projects together . He's all about a book in the box .
He's all about the brand . So if you see the Emmy , if you put the link up , he did a book about sneaker culture , right and , and so he did a sneaker box .
Yeah , he put the shoe in the box , even got the little tissue .
It's , and so now when you buy the book , you actually buy the box . It's like a sneaker box . Then he also sells custom sneakers , so he'll still have maybe a dozen people by the free book under the thousand . Like you know , I want the sneaker . That's this . It's just . His branding is on a thousand .
Yeah you know I'm very good in books , but I've learned a lot from him , so we've done a lot of projects . That's why I give him a lot . I mean shout out to Urban D Tommy is an awesome dude .
So where are these authors at ? Are they here in Brevard , or are you catching them from all you know what ?
crazy . We just got inducted to the Hall of Fame in Brevard . Yes , three time . Three time now , three time , not what , I don't even know who nominated us , but we like to serve the community . Yeah we're finally like usually , our authors are all around the world , you know , maybe Tampa okay . Georgia , california . I was not .
I don't think I've published a Melbourne author , brevard author it , but the last few years we've been getting a lot of them .
And what do you look for it in an author ? Authenticity , I think a lot of people that are listening now , you know , might be asking themselves that question , you know .
And don't don't act too important . Okay , when I get an author Hello , please , guys . Okay , stop this , stop , stop . When I get an author that tells me you need to sign an NDA To read my book , my book is super important . I don't know when to steal it . I'm like , please . You did not write war and peace , you know .
You know there's that whatever you're gonna write has been written before . If you have a humble approach to your book , you want to tell your story to change lives . Yeah worth it . But when I get people saying , no , this book is and and don't steal my title , first of all , titles are a copy written .
Right , so if you have a title , I can use it , yeah .
I mean , my book is called excuses , excuses . The book was done 10 years ago and there's a hundred titles of excuses . Use it . So you know , when they act like super important , like that , I'm like man You're . If you're a diva now , you're gonna be worse deal with you . Just be humble . It's your story . You want to change lives .
If you want to write a book to impact lives , you write a book to build your brand . 25% of companies have seen a uptick in business because they wrote a book . Books established who you are . You could be smarter than the dumbest person next to you , but if he writes a book , he's the expert right .
Is that crazy ?
So a lot of that stuff . I try to tell people you know , write the book . Sometimes you don't make a lot of money with the book , but listen , maybe I've sold 10 , 15 , 20 thousand selling books but it opened up a hundred thousand dollars worth of speaking engagements and a birthday .
That's what books do , okay , they kind of build like like , if you want to get rich , just selling books , no people not wanting to buy the book , they want to buy the experience , they want to buy the story , they want to buy everything around right and a lot of people say , hey , write the book , establish your brand , show who your company is and now use
that book as the ultimate calling card , the ultimate .
Yeah , because once you do have the book , you will get the , the right , the speaking engagements and .
Very interesting , pretty , so yeah , so we've been getting a lot of local authors .
Do they come with you with a book or with an idea ?
I 90% of our authors come with an idea . Not it , not anything right about it . I mean , if we , if they like David Bernard , we're doing a book with him is called kidnapping Jesus about the shroud , it's pretty cool . It's like how they steal the Shroud whatever , it's pretty cool .
I can I don't even have pronounced the way , but and it's like a you know uh .
Then they do a DNA and we yeah , the one where they there's like radio . Yeah , yeah , of his body .
That's gonna be a great story that's coming .
He's a local Entrepreneur .
I think they own a turbine company . Nephi Moffitt , you know Like a well top football players for FSU Coach the Palm Bay heritage . His book came out .
Do you stick to just like motivational books , or do you do like ?
fiction . I would say 70% of my books are self-help , self-help .
Yeah , that's what people write .
Yeah , so , um , okay , self-help books , but we do fiction , nonfiction , children's books , religious books , political books . I don't choose preferences , I don't choose sides , I don't care , I publish your book .
How long does it take you to know whether or not you want to hook up with this client ?
Like the first five minutes . The first five it's I , I , just , I just that BS meter comes quick right , yeah , like oh god , because if they're listen , listen , listen , cheap is expensive . The authors I deal with that is like , oh no , that's too much . Or they , the ones that pay more , demand less .
The ones that pay less demand more , yep , yeah is that what weird like ?
And I treat you all the same , but it's like well , you give me this much and you call me every day and then the ones that give me a lot more I I gotta find them . So I think , if you invest and it's not about the money is just who you are and how much you're willing to invest in your brand .
Right , and if you believe in your formula , because it seems like you do have one . Yeah you've developed it ? How long have you been in this industry ?
Good Lord , over 12 plus years . Yeah to die on self . Be true , like now , with the focus of who you are . Like I tell people I'm Confident when I suit , when I see you on Instagram . Who are you ? Who's your brand ?
Yeah , all over the place , yeah not not you .
I'm saying people . It's like you follow me . You know I do publishing . That's it . I like to motivate . I like to be real . I'll speak on technology . Ai is becoming very huge , so I'm getting invited on a lot of , because there's gonna be a lot of books are gonna be disbanded .
Amazon sent out a press release like if your book is on AI , we're gonna start taking it down . That's what they you gotta say you did yeah . So there's gonna be a lot of . There's a lot of these goos like a do a book in ten minutes . If you could really write a book in ten minutes , then then it's probably not worth reading right before .
Yeah , yeah , yeah .
Let's see , do you have any advice ? I mean you , you're full of advice Beyond publishing . I mean , that's what the I'm full I .
You know I'm full of advice because I'm full of failures , you know , I think , I think failures are the best indicator . Wisdom and if you don't learn from your failures , you're bound to repeat them . So I think a lot of times people see they think they have this success , but there's a lot of mistakes .
You made a lot of bad decisions , but you built from them . So I think true wisdom comes from that , you know .
I like that , yeah , like do you ever let your mistakes haunt you a little bit though .
You know , do you beat yourself . I don't dwell , I'm super positive , but yeah , I'm a human .
Yeah .
You know but um , but it's gotten to you where you are . Don't take advice from people that haven't done it . It's funny like people want to give you advice . I got people while I give me advice on what I should do on my brand and but they don't do anything on their brand .
I'm like whoa , I can't get it , like , yeah , well , you need to do this , what are you like ? I like to take , not to be disrespectful . I like to take advice from up , not down . Yeah , that makes I like to take advice for people that know more than me . Right now , don't get it twisted . There are people that know less than you .
But to give you some word of wisdom at that moment , yeah , that you have to take like their children . I learned from right , but it's like when it comes . So I think just motivating people is like I .
I , I said it on my I wanted my the Larry Lawton shout out to Lila podcast , like my teacher told me , man , mr Bucci , and I love her man , you , you terrible at writing . You can't spell . I mean I , I say I got ADHD . I've never been a Like those , but I just know me . I'm like a . Let's go . You talked to me . I just forget . So I just .
But I've published books .
Yeah .
I didn't
¶ Support and Success in Business
know . Now my limitations , like , don't let anyone tell you can't be done , people will try . Let me tell you family members , we'll try . To the first . People , if you write a book , are gonna want to freeze your family .
You got no problem spending ten dollars at Starbucks buying a latte and a pastry , but you want me to give you a book for free to ten dollars . That cost me thousands of dollars . So , or like when I go to a friend's restaurant , I don't want your food for free , right ?
I'm gonna go to .
Carabas and pay them . Let me support you . So you know it's a problem with with with people . They don't support their own people a lot of times , and that's that's the problem , right , they want it for free . They want you know what , man ? I rather just focus on people . That that Most . It's funny .
Like most of my , my shine comes from people I don't know .
No , I don't know me . Yeah , it's crazy , so it's crazy , yeah , it's crazy . You know , with success you get the haters if they listen , man .
Betrayal happens , only happens people that know you .
Yeah .
I can't betray you , I don't know you right so it's like . But it's a best teacher , you know and it's good when they betray you early , because now you know who they are .
Right , but family members , I could stay it happens , fam .
I love my family . Yeah you know , and , and I'm loyal to my boys , you know , and , but you know , a family is Rough to you know , but it is what it is .
It is . You know what , you know what .
No , it's perfect . We've made mistakes . Yeah , I must have done some bad decisions . I must have hurt people , so it's a it's a typical vicious cycle .
Are you on your podcast regularly ?
my , I made the biggest mistake . You don't talk about mistakes my podcast hit top 50 , top 150 it . It is called the Peter Lopez no excuses podcast . I haven't done one in a while . I wanted to own my data at the time . Yeah , so I'm gonna . I have to relaunch . It became like my podcast was a 10-minute Rent on whatever I wanted to .
I like that increment of time and and I think that would work for you because , I don't know , you just have so many little nuggets of .
Even now , the podcast that I haven't revived is still like well , I feel like you're making content .
Anyway , whether you're sitting in front of a microphone or just at your office , you're , your page is full of good advice .
Yeah , my pivot now is to take all my Podcasts turning into YouTube shorts . I mean , I'm verified on YouTube and I haven't been honest , I'm gonna , I'm gonna pivot . You know , I , if you want to become an expert writer book and I'm an expert because I wrote a book on excuses but I still make excuses .
It's like , you know , my mind is like you got to get your podcast back up and but it's a lot like , it's a lot of energy and the thing is I don't want to be . I thought at one point I was just forcing it . Authenticity wasn't coming out like and if I don't do that , I don't want .
I'm not gonna do anything I'm not forced to do .
I know is an answer . No one is gonna tell me .
I'm learning that this year no , no , no no , I'm not doing it . You know cuz I know yet now ?
Yes , I should , and I have to for my brand because I noticed , the more visible I am , the more helps our company . Yeah so that's that's , that's that's it .
Crazy . I want to ask you one more thing . You know you've come across the best of the best in Brevard , I'm sure who would you nominate to come on this show ? I ?
There's a few . There's the lady Georgia . She's a Grammy winner . I mean Grammy nominee . She lost to Elmo . Get out of town she has like little Elmo thing , everyone kicks around great story . She wrote a composer story about her sister that passed away . When she plays that piano Tears and then David Bernard his book is coming out .
He's pretty cool guy , you know there's there's a , but like Niefi Moffitt is pretty cool . He wrote a book about parenting Called Niefi isms . Yes they're all from . From Mimi my business partner . She hates to be in the limelight . I tell her she's got to be more public like she's a strong , strong leader . Strong a businesswoman .
But it sounds like you guys have a good yeah , yeah , and Yang that's right . You need somebody like that behind you and she needs you in front of . It was so nice meeting you . Can you tell us where we can find you ?
you can find me . So XP Lopez Jr . There's a bunch of ones , but this one is , you'll see , the verify one . Yeah , it's my youth of Instagram and LinkedIn
¶ Establishing Brand With Local Celebrity
. I'm very big . If you want to really establish a brand , you . Linkedin is huge . I get most . I'm not on Facebook a lot , but Peter Lopez on LinkedIn and then Public five press calm or Peter Lopez junior calm . You'll find me through all those . Mean is send me an email today .
If you guys like anyone sends us an email that they heard me on the show , I'll send them a free like template on how to get their book done .
All right authors out there . We got somebody in town that could help us our local celebrity , peter Lopez . Thank you so much for being here and educating us Hope to have you back .
Yes , yes , we'll come back when the robots take over .
The world and we have to hide . Thank you so much . Thank you the pleasure , pleasure To be a sponsor or nominate a guest . Hit us up on Instagram at local underscore celebrity underscore bravard . Until next time , goodbye .