On Good Authority: Publishing the Book that Will Build Your Business

It’s truly a crime that there’s no TV series about Jill Ishkanian.

The lone female tabloid reporter in a sea of men, Ishkanian has been raided by the FBI, exonerated Meghan Markle and been late to a lunch date with me because she thought she saw Kevin Costner driving. And those are just three of dozens of fascinating facts!

Yet, despite the fact that she’s been technically employed as a writer for decades and knows she has a hell of a story to tell, she’s been stalled on writing her book. Why is that? And how can we—yes, the collective we—help her? It’s all in this episode.

Ben Mezrich has sold over 10 million copies of his books.

And, by the way, that’s not even the impressive part. The impressive part is that he sells EVERY SINGLE ONE OF HIS BOOKS as a movie or TV show; in fact, if Hollywood isn’t interested in the treatment, he doesn’t even write the book.

Mezrich has gotten into this position because of a chance encounter with some MIT students, which led to his writing Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, which led to Kevin Spacey snapping up the film rights before the book was even out, which led to the book spending over 60 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.

Then there was his book, The Accidental Billionaires, which David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin jumped on as Mezrich was writing the book and which, of course turned into the multi award-nominated movie The Social Network. (Mezrich is the only non-fiction author to have two adaptations open at #1 at the box office.)

He’s written numerous other books, including Bitcoin Billionaires and The Antisocial Network and is also a consulting producer on Billions. Oh, and his most recent book, The Midnight Ride, has an NFT component that already has over 3500 owners.

So how does this happen? How does a former struggling novelist become Hollywood’s go to guy pursued by designers who want to dress him for his book tours? And what is the secret to finding the sort of story that makes Hollywood salivate? It’s all in this episode.

GET MORE INFO ON THE POD AND OTHER STUFF BY GOING TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM

Kay Allison is a former Senior Vice President at a global ad agency who increased her income by six, met and married a man she’s still crazy about 21 years later, helped Fortune 200 companies generate two billion in new revenue, adopted a child and invented four successful businesses since going alcohol free over two decades ago.

In short, she's learned how to live a JUICY AF life. And now she's written a book it.

While we talk a bit in this episode about being AF and her program for women who want to go AF, mostly we focused on how she went from behind-the-scenes power woman to forward-facing voice of freedom from alcohol.

And Allison did it all by giving first. This means that when she locates a podcast she wants to be on, she listens to episodes in the car while sending herself voice notes about how she thinks she could provide something as a guest. She also sends bookers handwritten notes, makes personal videos and, in short, thinks of how she can be of service. As you can imagine, her success rate for getting booked is quite high.

In this episode, she breaks down the giving-first mentality, including a not-to-be-missed method for getting people to actually open your book and not just let it sit on the shelf.

Enjoy this delightful strategy...and delightful woman.

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Ashlea Hearn is not only a 1st Lieutenant in the Army Reserves but also the author of Genesis Mortalis, Book 1 of the Take It Trilogy.

We met when she reached out to me about the upcoming release of that book. But here's what's relevant: by that point, I had noticed this lovely person named Ashlea Hearn reviewing me wherever she could—different books, this podcast, on Google...everywhere.

But here's what I really noticed: she wasn't just slapping a review up there in order to "do the right thing" but crafting thoughtful, in-depth analysis that showed she really had taken in and appreciated the work. (Her review of Party Girl still comes up as "Most Relevant," which is Amazon speak for "the most thoughtful one.")

Because of all this, not only was I delighted to speak to her about her book but when she declared me her "mentor," I happily took on the role. And it's been nothing but rewarding as I've watched her jump into life and authorhood with enthusiasm and gumption. Then, like the amazing mentee she is, she flew out for a book party I had for one of my clients and made so many friends that when I showed up for breakfast the next morning to meet some, she was there!

So that's our back story. Here's her back story.

She started writing as a little girl because it was a fascinating escape from what she considered to be a mundane life of a girl from the Midwest.

At an early age, she fell in love with the suaveness of James Bond, the action of Mission: Impossible, the gore and badassery of Kill Bill: Volume 1 and the relatable female characters of Totally Spies!—all of which influenced the Take It book series.

Listen in on this chat between a mentee and a thoroughly delighted mentor!

FOR MORE INFO ABOUT THE PODCAST AND OTHER STUFF, GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM!