Hello, and welcome to another episode of the How to Scale of Business podcast. My name is Hector Sania Stab, and I am your host for today. And we are here with Seima Geary, and we're gonna talk about how and maybe why writing a book can benefit your business. So Seima, welcome to to today's show.

Thank you, Hector. I'm so happy to be here.

So talk to us a little bit about the background and experience and, and by the way, we, you just mentioned before we hit the record button that a few weeks ago you published a book that had some great success and was an international bestseller on Amazon. So congratulations on that. And so it's it's so awesome that you are kind of walking your walk, but give us the, the background and, and kind of how you got into helping people write. You know, grow and build their business with books or, you know, by authoring a book.

Great. Thank. Yes, thank you. Yeah. Our power of You book had power of you. Courage to Thrive in Uncertain Times was released on March 21st and it became number one international bestselling author that was an anthology where I brought forth 16 co-authors to participate in that book. My background, you know, I've been an entrepreneur all my life. Serial entrepreneur, I guess you could say that. My first business was running a project management consulting and training company with my husband. We had over 250 employees. It was international and we trained and mentored over a hundred thousand leaders doing that. In 2013, my mom became sick with lung cancer, so I dropped everything to come and take care of her. And during that time I was looking to explore something else. I was. Although I was a c o O of our company, I felt like I was, you know, behind the scenes and it was, I was supporting my, with my husband's dream and I felt it was time to do something else. So as I was exploring what I wanted to do I. I, I decided, I started sharing my recovery story of being bedridden with three types of autoimmune issues and how the doctors had told me that was gonna be my life forever. And I decided not to take that, their prognosis and found a way to heal myself. So when I. Started sharing that with other women. They were saying, sma, this is something amazing. It's not an ordinary thing you've done. You should help other women in similar situations. So I started with wellness coaching after we lost our business, our project management business. We got into a big contract with a really big company and they pulled out at the last minute and we lost everything overnight. So I started with wellness coaching and that led me to write my. Book with Dr. John Gray from Men Are From Mars, women are from Venus Series, and other two New York Times bestselling authors and. I was surprised at the response I got from my story all this time after I was thinking my story didn't matter. It, it didn't really count for anything. And when I saw the impact that it made, I was totally blown away of how my, me sharing my story and my journey could help someone else feel like they can do the same thing they can in a similar situation do the same. And from there I was inspired to help people write their stories, particularly women, women entrepreneurs who have had some kind of a transformational life experience and have now dedicated their life to. Serving others so they can potentially save some years of less pain and hardship in their life by being an example and teaching them how to do that too. So that, that's how actually it started. It was never in my, you know, in my bigger plan that one day I want to write a book or one day I would be leading others to share their journey. It's something that. I started saying yes to after I read the book from Shonda Rhimes, a year of Yes. I started saying yes to things that scared me and it led me to this. So I really feel Hector that this is a spiritual journey for me. It's like a spiritual practice where the titles and the covers, they come to me in my meditation and then, You know, when I share the, the title, then people want to be part of that book. So it's totally unexpected. When you start listening to your intuition and your instincts, it leads you to where you need to be.

Yeah, there is this process, it seems of going within to kind of almost pull, pull out. Right. And I heard a, a quote that I. Some, some, some religious text, and I don't remember which one it was, but it essentially said that what you don't bring, you know what, what you keep within you will, will destroy you. And, and what you bring forth from within you will, will save you. And, and that same thing that you know there. Of the, the artist who never pursued their dreams, right? Or the, the person who never went after, you know, whatever they wanted, or, or in this case never got their, their ideas out into, you know, into a book or into someplace where people can, you know, can, can enjoy it or experience it. And so, What do you think is the biggest thing that can help someone get over that hurdle? I, I, I think for me, I've been telling myself that I'm gonna write a book for, you know, a decade. And, and I'm still telling myself that, and I can't tell you how many manuscripts have been started and, and stopped and, and thrown away and not good enough and, and the whole thing. So how does, how does someone start to overcome that kind of sense of limitation? Or, or, or wh where should they start?

Well well, making the decision that, you know, this is something that you really wanna do is, is the first step. And once you know that this is the path that you wanna go on, getting a accountability, accountability partner someone like me, like a book writing mentor or a publisher, is really the key to help you stay on track and help you stay accountable to making sure that you are working. Your goal and because what we do, what I do with my clients is we understand, you know, what is the purpose that you want to write the book? What, what is the intent of the book? You would really wanna start with the end in mind, and why is it important for you to get this out? and we start from there. And then when you get that commitment to your, to your burning, why, that's when you'll be able to move forward with, you know, doing the work and putting in the time to get it done. And there's so many different ways of writing now Hector, that you don't have to be sitting chained to your desk. To write your book. Now there's, there's a lot of different options where. That can support you in getting it done. And then you have to decide, you know, not many people think that you have to be a good writer to be an author, and that's not the case. The difference between a writer and an author is an author is the one who has the idea, who has the, the concept of what they want to write, what and the reason that they want to write it. A writer is someone. Specifically does the writing, and they have the passion for that, and they're really good with that. So you can always hire someone to help you do the actual writing, or if you wanna do the actual writing yourself, then of course you're gonna have editors. Who are going to be reading your book from content review to proofreading, so you don't have to be that great of a writer yourself, cuz you have plenty of support system to help you make sure it's an amazing book.

You know, that's a really good point that I, I never in my head, I think that there was always this imposter syndrome that said, Hector, you're. You're not a good writer. That's what they, that's what I told myself in my head. I'm, you're not a good writer. How can you be an author? But what you're saying is that they're actually, those, those two things are separate.

Yes. They're two

separation, I think there's a little bit of liberation for, for people.

Yeah, I don't know. If your community knows about Lisa Nichols, she's a transformational coach and speaker. She never got a really, a really good grades in school. I think the highest she said she ever got was a c plus, and she did the happy dance with that. She has seven bestselling books now and her English teacher and her speech teacher said, you should never write and you should never speak, and those are the two things that she's doing that's earning her millions. Don't listen to the people that have told you in the past what you can and cannot do. Because the only one that can determine that is you. And there's so much support. Writing a book is not a solo sport. It is a team effort. And you get to create a an amazing, wonderful manuscript that can help thousands to millions of.

Yeah. When we get back from break, I wanna talk about what is the, what's the blueprint or, or the game plan or the steps or the recipe or, you know, kind of from a. Yeah, I'd love for people to, to maybe understand what that journey looks like or the different parts of the process. And so we're gonna get into that right when we get back from break. Hey y'all, thanks for tuning in today. Today's episode is brought to you by Amplify Media and we are a podcast production company. Well, lemme take that back. We like to think of ourselves as a group of genius makers, and so if you have a passion, a purpose, a mission, a message, something that you wanna get out to the world but don't have the time or the tech skills to be able to do it, we can help. Go to amplify media.com. That's amp, L A f yed.com. You can also check the show notes for all the details. And we'll see if we can help you. Okay, Samma. So let's talk about the process for writing a book. Cuz I think, and, and perhaps I'm just projecting my own challenges onto other people, but I think a lot of people make it out to be a bigger process than it is. Or they overcomplicated or they, they, they, they build up all these things in their head. When, when, from. In talking to people who kind of do what you do and help people kind of get through this process, you know, they, it's much simpler than a lot of us maybe think, or at least there's ways to do that. So, so how, how can someone think about that process? Or how do you help someone to digest what that process looks or feels or is going? You know, how did they wrap their heads around what that's gonna be?

Well, you know, in my opinion, Hector, the process is quite simple, but it is time taking and time consuming. There are people that out there that says that you can get your book done in 30, 60, 90 days or even less than that. And it's possible, but it doesn't need to be you know, first. So you need to start with the end in mind. What is the purpose and goal of your book? What do you wanna do with it? Because that's gonna define. Second is that you need to know who your reader is. Who are you writing this for? So sometimes people say, you know, it's, it's, I'm writing for myself 20 years ago. I'm writing for you know, my grandchildren. I'm writing for teenagers so they don't have to go through all the trouble that I had gone through, you know, from bullying to being you know, to racism. There's so many different things. So, who is your reader and what do you want to get get, get them to understand and what kind of actions do you want them to take? So, most of my on as I said earlier, my audience is entrepreneurs. So they are using, looking at their books to build a credibility position themselves as the authority in their field. So you want to talk about what your expertise is and how you're helping people. If you're coming from that, From that point of view, Unless you're a really famous person, no one really wants to hear your memoir. Right? And even if you're a famous person, you, you only read the memoirs of people that you really know, like, and know. And like a book for people, like my Audience Entrepreneurs is a good way to build your no, like and trust factor so that people can get to know you. See how you work and work with you in a more deeper way. So that's an example of the purpose of why one would want to write a book. If they're an entrepreneur, then there are people who want to write the book because they want to leave a legacy. So again, you want to write in a, in a way, which I call high impactful books, is that. You wanna keep in mind what's in it for the reader and, and tell your story in a way that they can take steps in their own life to make a change and have a transformation.

Hmm. So. If that, those are the buckets and someone has just kind of made the decision that they want to start, is there, is there a few, a few prescriptive steps? Is there a, a first step or, you know, what, what does that, what, what are

Yeah. So the first step is again Hector having the end in mind what you wanna achieve with your book, that you want to have in mind, who the reader is. You want to definitely create a outline that will be your guiding light to write, to write your book. So the other thing is you want to have at least 10 chapters, because that's a good size book. It's not too big, it's not too small, and you want to. So you want, you, you don't have to write in order. Many people think that you have to write chapter one. Then chapter two, then chapter three, writing is not linear. So you can write in a way what, how, how you get inspired for like this in a. Like today, you know, whatever inspires you today, you can write on that. So having that outline ahead of time and having that flow really helps you save time and then helps you write in any order and you can still be on target and definitely having a target date. Of when you want to have your first draft done is really, really important. And to have some non-negotiables that you're going to set a specific time to write you're going to, you know, have a specific day. Choose a time where you feel that you're most creative and have less distractions so we can be totally free to let your imagination run wild and think, and then have focus.

Do you have any favorite examples of. Maybe either you or people you've worked with who have gotten creative about how they've written their book. I mean, I think that there's the, once again, this might be my projection, but there's the idea that that, you know, the Sylvester Stallone type idea where I think, you know, sele Veer wrote, you know, the legend is he wrote Rocky and like. 48 hours and, you know, he, it was, it was a, a masterpiece that, that, you know, was an overnight kind of thing. Have there been some creative ways that you've seen people getting it done, whether it's waking up early or seeing up late, or, you know, utilizing. I go, I, I don't, I don't know, but, but I'm just kind of curious if there's any outside the box ways that people are, are getting this done when they've perhaps got, you know, a business to run families to, you know, be with, and then all these other responsibilities and then, you know, they kind of want to add a book or writing a book or authoring a book at least on top of that.

Yeah, planning ahead. Definitely. So you know, what I do is I like to go to the ocean. I need to be near water, and I'll have my notebook or my iPad, and then I just Allow myself to observe and allow my mind to run wild. I keep thinking, you know, about my topic, about my title, and I imagine my audience, a target audience that I'm talk, that I'm writing too, and I'm, I imagine I'm having like a one-on-one conversation with them and that's how I, you know, I take notes and jot it down. So, so some people, you know, defending some of my authors, They do well doing it in the last hour. So maybe a couple of days before the deadline, they'll just hunker down and just write everything at that time. A couple days before the deadline. Some people like to, you know, take a weekend off. So if they have kids and so they can plan ahead either the partner or the family member or a babysitter. You know, they just give themselves that dedicated time where they're away. Have a glass of wine, have a glass of tea, and just turn on the music in the background and just write. So it, it, you really need to know what inspires you, what time of day works best for you. Like for me, I can only do my creative thing at at night. The house is quiet, the kids are in their room, all the work is done. So now I know that about myself. I don't even attempt to do anything earlier. I know that from one to four, no matter how hard I try to work, I just can't do the work. So I do other stuff. I go for a walk, I do other things, but being in nature really helps a lot of my clients to get their ideas, inspiration, take notes while they're out. They might even just record what comes to them in that moment on their. That's been a cool trick that a lot of my clients have been using, and then they get it transcribed.

Yeah. I think the, the flexibility that you're talking about or the need to, to make it flexible around how you work best, I think is so important because it's, it's not something that you, you can't force a, whatever the saying is, a round peg into a square hole. Right. And, and similarly, I think that you're not gonna force it into something. That doesn't work out or that's not gonna work out. Tim, is there anything, is there anything new? About writing a book. Right. Is there anything, when you look down the horizon or anything that you're excited about, you know, I'm just kind of curious or perhaps anything that we haven't really touched on today that you think is, is relevant? Today's conversation. I wanna leave this last little bit, you know, open for you to kind of take it wherever you feel we haven't gone yet today.

Yeah, we haven't even addressed that elephant in the room that everyone's talking about. The ai, right? AI everyone is

didn't know if you wanted to go there.

you can write your book with ai. You can. However you know, we've seen a lot of things in the news saying that the, the professors are catching whatever Chad p d is doing because it is Like, it's easy to catch it, so it means that it's not really human, right? It's, it's not in the way that someone else is going to understand. So you can use all these new tools, you can use AI to help you do the writing, but you need to make sure that you paraphrase it in a way to help you. Make it sound in, in, in your voice. That's something that you would say We all need help from some time to time. I definitely use these tools when I'm posting on social media, but then I take it and I make it sound like me in my voice. So that is really important right now. People are saying you use AI and can write a whole book in couple of hours, but you really wanna go through, add in your stories and add in your voice. So it sounds human, it sounds like you and you know, personalize it.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I'll, I'll share with you Sema for me chat. G p t has been great in the editing side of it because for me, I'm, I'm someone who, I can talk, but, but al but, but my grammar and, and I'm a, a run on sentencer and I'm a passive, you know, and all those sorts of things have been able to get cleaned up a lot quicker with something like chat G p t, but, but you bring a, a great point that it can, it can get you started, but you still need your own, your own element and your own, your own flavor

Yeah, use it as a tool, not as a replacement. Use it to help you accentuate and enhance what you are saying. But you know, because people can tell, they can tell the difference.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Seema, if people want to go and get connected with you, follow up with you maybe learn more about what you do, where can they go?

Yes. Among all the social media. Channels except for TikTok. I do have an account, but not much is there. But you can you can get in touch with me on LinkedIn. I'm there as CMA Geri, and my email CMA uplift.media. That's my email. And it's S E E M A at Uplift Media. I'm on Facebook as Seima Geary. I'm on Instagram as Seima Geary. So I would love to talk with you and help you see if book writing is the right, is the right mode for you to get your voice out. And if you do, I would love to give you a 30 minute book strategy session to see, you know, if this is the right way or how to get started.

Very cool. It was very gracious of you. We appreciate that and, and I would encourage you all to go and, and get connected with sema. I have one last question for you. In your opinion, what is your secret or what is the key to growing or scaling a business?

What is the key? Well, having a book is a great way to scale your business because people get to understand your voice and they get to understand how you're working. They get to understand your background so that no, like trust factors. Built, you build that credibility and positioning and you can reach many more people with your books. People would be more willing to purchase a low ticket item, like a book to get to know you better before they start investing in your bigger program. So it's a great way to really build up your backend services that you offer through.

Yeah. I love it. Well, I wanna thank you all for being here and sticking with us today. If you guys enjoyed today's episode, we would love a rating or review wherever you get your podcast. If you know someone who's in the midst of growing a business, scaling their business, or they're thinking about writing a book, send them this episode and go out and implement at least one thing that Sima mentioned. Execute on it and let us know how it goes. We'd love to hear about your successes and thanks as always for being a part of the how to Scale of Business Tribe. We'll see you on the next one later, y'all.