Light Hustler: Making Your Mess Into Your Message

Peter Shankman is many things, among them a five-time best selling author, entrepreneur and corporate in-person and virtual keynote speaker who focuses on customer service. But in this episode I got him speaking about something so many of you ask me about: HARO, or Help a Reporter Out...the website he started (and sold to Cision many years ago) that helps so many authors get featured in mainstream media.In this conversation, which happened in rapid fire while he was in the throws of salmonella, Peter shared with me how he started HARO accidentally, the best way to get a journalist's attention and why someone stealing a Yoo Hoo truck ended up being the best PR Yoo Hoo could get, among many other topics.WANT MORE INFO ABOUT THE PODCAST AND OTHER THINGS? GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM

Rich Goldstein is a patent attorney, speaker, host of the Innovations and Breakthroughs podcast and, most relevantly for this show, the author of the bestselling book The ABA Consumer Guide to Obtaining a Patent, which was published by the American Bar Association.He's someone who understands through and through what a book can do for someone's business and in this episode, we got into all that as well as how writing a book changed Rich's career, why he sends a copy of the book to anyone who requests it and how writing a book could, theoretically, make an entrepreneur a cool five million.FOR MORE ABOUT THE PODCAST AND OTHER THINGS, GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM

This may be the most useful podcast I've ever released. That's because it's with a guy who's an expert on something EVERY author wants: getting people to recommend your book.His name is Rob Fitzpatrick and he's a former programmer who dropped out of grad school to go to YCombinator with his first startup.It's that background—along with his nearly decade and a half of experience as an entrepreneur—that helps make sense of the fact that he's the guy who's seemingly cracked the code on how to write a book that everyone will recommend.He breaks down his process in his latest book, Write Useful Books, and we also get into our decidedly unique story of how we met (in short, he quoted my interview with Chris Voss in Write Useful Books and I didn't see that he credited me and I fired off an email and anyway, listen to the episode and you'll hear what happened next).But that's far less interesting than the methods he describes in this conversation—including how to find beta readers, what to ask them and how to use the

I literally don't have the words to describe the experience of recording this episode but suffice it to say that it was the most fun interview I've ever done.Back story: Zara Barrie and I knew each other online (I find her incredibly glam and we're mutual fans of one another to the point that I recommended her book, Girl Stop Passing Out in Your Makeup, on KATU). She told me that she and her podcast co-host slash work wife Dayna Troisi were going to be in LA (they're NYC ladies, natch). We decided to do a podcast swap, they rented a studio and the rest is history. If history involved me becoming obsessed with these two hilarious and brilliant lesbians who, in addition to co-hosting their podcast GirlZ Interrupted, also, between them, regularly write articles that go viral, are university professors (one of them, anyway), produce an audio series (the other of them) and do so many other things that it would be impossible to summarize.We recorded this right after they recorded their interview with me so were alr

Paul Angone had an extremely unusual journey to success as an author.First, he tried to sell a book. For eight years. Nary a bite.Then a blog post he dashed off went viral. Very viral. From there, he was able to sell a book based on that blog post to a publisher. The problem was that he had to finish it in a month.Well that book and the next have sold over 100,000 copies and launched a massive speaking career.But that's not even why I wanted to have him on the podcast. I wanted him on the pod so I could Interview him about the process of turning his book into a course.Listen in on this mega inspiring conversation about how courses and books work symbiotically—and how your reality may end up being even bigger than your dreams...how you may even end up selling over 100,000 copies of your book.FOR MORE ABOUT THE PODCAST AND OTHER STUFF, GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM.

Jesse J. Anderson's journey to bookdom is unlike any other guest I've had on the show. For one, he's not launching a book to help build his business. Also, that book—Refocus: A Practical Guide to Adult ADHD—hasn't launched yet. In fact, he hasn't even finished writing it. Why, then, you may ask, would I have him on the show? Well, Jesse has also built up an impressive Twitter following by releasing Twitter threads of book chapters—a topic we dive into in detail. When he's not writing books in public, Jesse is a designer and developer who has made it his mission to help others better understand what ADHD really is.FOR MORE ABOUT THE PODCAST AND OTHER STUFF, GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM.

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

Alex Strathdee is no ordinary writer.That's because he's as much an entrepreneur as he is a writer.How do we know this? Because when he wrote his book, Experience Over Degrees, and it didn't transform the world—or even his life—he didn't just shelve the book and the experience like most people.Instead, he asked: how can I get more people to see this?What followed was a targeted campaign to colleges and then a targeted campaign to businesses to pay for that first campaign. It's an ingenious approach and he breaks it all down in this episode.Now he helps other authors make an impact with his company, Advanced Amazon Ads and he even has a free gift for YOU where he breaks down his strategies. Get that free gift here.IF YOU WANT MORE INFO ABOUT THE PODCAST AND OTHER STUFF, GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM.

Mike Koenigs is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, co-host of Capability Amplifier podcast with Strategic Coach founder Dan Sullivan and 13-time bestselling author, Mike is regular contributor to Entrepreneur and Forbes. He's interviewed, consulted and advised celebrity clients, billionaires and bestselling authors including Tony Robbins, Paula Abdul, Richard Dreyfuss, Dave Asprey, JJ Virgin, presidential candidate Tim Ryan, John Assaraf, Brian Tracy and XPrize founder Peter Diamandis, among many others.He's also ALL love. I met him a few years ago and he was so kind and welcoming and usually wearing red shoes. But that is NOT why I asked him to come on the podcast. I asked him to come on because he is a master at taking advantage of business opportunities and I knew he'd be able to talk about how he's done that with books.And BOY has he done it. Bet you didn't know you could generate millions from a book. In this episode, he explains how.FOR MORE ABOUT THE PODCAST AND OTHER STUFF, GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORI

Tawny Lara is a self-proclaimed natural born promoter.She's also a delightful person known as The Sober Sexpert, co-host of the Recovery Rocks podcast and author of the book, Dry Humping: a Guide to Dating, Relating, and Hooking Up Without Booze.This was recorded months before the book's release because I wanted to get a sense of what she was doing at this stage of her launch...turns out, a lot. In this episode, we talk about the ways she's incentivizing pre-orders, why she got a shirt made of her Publishers Marketplace book announcement and how outsourcing can help with a book launch.Tips galore in here...as well as some good motivation to start the launch work early!FOR MORE ABOUT THE PODCAST AND OTHER COOL THINGS, GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM

John Corcoran may be my new favorite human. A former White House speechwriter and attorney who worked in Hollywood, he now runs Rise25, which helps businesses get more clients, referral partners and strategic partners through their done-for-you podcast service.In the brief time we've known each other, he's introduced me to countless people, advised me on my business and given me ideas that have sent my head spinning, in all the right ways. This man is a fount of wisdom!And Corcoran isn't just an expert in podcasts—he's an expert in getting podcasts to further your career.He's been in the podcasting game over a decade and his show, Smart Business Revolution, is a must for anyone building a business (and if you're an author, I do hope you're building a business that your book can support).In this episode, he explains how you can promote your book on podcasts, when you should be reaching out and why having your own podcast is the best promotional tool of all.FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE PODCAST AND OTHER STUFF BY GOI

Joel Stein wrote a weekly column for Time magazine for 20 years, was a columnist for Entertainment Weekly and the Los Angeles Times and is the author of the books Man Made: A Stupid Quest for Masculinity and In Defense of Elitism: Why I’m Better Than You and You’re Better Than Someone Who Didn’t Buy This Book. He's also such a funny person that he manages to come across as incredibly likable both while penning a book defending elitism and while dis-inviting me to his book launch party (true story; listen to his defense in this episode and let me know if you think it means you think I should forgive him).In this episode, we talk about how to ask friends to recommend you to a show as a guest, why to never rely on a publicist and ways to make an audiobook much better, among many other topics.FOR MORE ABOUT THE PODCAST AND OTHER STUFF, GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM.

Jess Lahey can talk about so many things so brilliantly that interviewing her felt a bit like walking through an outlet mall: so many choices and they all look so good!But really, here's what you need to know: She's a former New York Times columnist and current Atlantic contributor, podcaster and New York Times bestselling author of The Gift of Failure whose new book, The Addiction Inoculation, is the one that the world has been clamoring for. It addresses the question on pretty much every parent's mind at one time or another: how do I prevent my kid from becoming an addict?Lahey addresses this issue from her own perspective (as a sober woman from an alcoholic family who's taught high schoolers in recovery) but with a reporter's brilliance (coupled with scientific and medical knowledge, with some help, she acknowledges, from her in-house researcher, her husband Dr. Tim Lahey). In short, she's the perfect person to have penned this book and she couldn't have penned it at a more perfect time.She's also, it turn

Jennifer Keishin Armstrong is the New York Times bestselling author of Seinfeldia: How the Show About Nothing Changed Everything; a history of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted; and Sex and the City and Us: How Four Single Women Changed the Way We Think, Live, and Love. She spent a decade on staff at Entertainment Weekly and has since written for many publications, including BBC Culture, The New York Times Book Review, Vice, New York magazine, and Billboard.She's also an old pal from my NYC days; in fact, we used to host Readings & Rubdowns events where people would listen to writers read from their latest books while getting massaged.In the ensuing years, Jennifer has become a huge author and in this episode she breaks down, step-by-step, what makes for a successful launch.FOR MORE INFO, GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM

Jay Abraham is the world's highest-paid marketing consultant, a proven business leader and top executive coach in the United States.As Founder and CEO of The Abraham Group, Inc., Jay has spent his entire career solving complex problems and fixing underperforming businesses. He has significantly increased the bottom lines of over 10,000 clients in more than 1,000 industries and over 7,200 sub-industries worldwide. This is a man who is paid $30,000 for a day of business consulting. And I was lucky enough to not only get him to agree to come on this podcast to talk about applying lessons from other industries to a book launch but I was also able to get invaluable advice from him a few years ago that radically transformed my business (we talk about that at the very end of the episode; you definitely want to hear it).In this episode, he doles out some of his top gems—including what to write at the beginning of every business book, how to involve influencers in your writing process, why to read the Amazon reviews o

Jane Friedman is an icon in the publishing space. With over two decades of experience in the business, she is truly considered the world's leading expert on traditional publishing, self publishing and where the twain shall meet. She's the curator of The Hot Sheet, a biweekly paid newsletter, oversees a wildly popular blog and is also the author of The Business of Being a Writer.In this episode, we discussed how important it is to know what you want your book to do for you, how to get bookstores interested in hosting you, the biggest changes in the publishing industry over the past year and so much more. FOR MORE ABOUT THE PODCAST AND OTHER STUFF, GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM.

Do you really need me to tell you who Jeff Garlin is? Well, the simple way to handle that is to tell you that he stars on arguably the most adored show of all time (Curb Your Enthusiasm).But he does so much more than just come to you via your SmartTV. He's also a standup (um, obv), photographer and author. In this episode, he explains what happens when you sell a book to a big publisher but then it doesn't sell the number of copies anyone had hoped (and also has an odd name change somewhere between the hardcover and paperback).This episode also has LOTS of digressions into random topics both because Jeff Garlin could be renamed Digression Garlin and also because we're pals who digress a lot. Listen and digress with us... WANT MORE INFO ABOUT THE PODCAST AND OTHER STUFF? GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM.

Ed Kressy is not your average human.He's much sweeter than your average human and his sweetness emanates from him.He also has a much crazier story than your average addict with a crazy story...and this is coming from someone who's heard every crazy addiction story over the past two decades.The short version: he went into a meth-induced psychosis for 14 years that left him convinced he was involved in 9/11. The longer version is in his memoir, My Addiction & Recovery: Just Because You're Done With Drugs Doesn't Mean Drugs Are Done With You, which you can get here.He is one of the most exquisitely talented writers I've come across in a long time—something I found, and tell him in this episode, surprising. I've read almost every book out there about addiction and recovery and few are as brilliantly crafted as this. Please get this book. Not only will you be exposed to some of the best writing around but all proceeds are being donated to prisons.And that relationship with prisons, for those here for the marke

Derek Murphy is a USA Today bestselling author with a PhD in Literature, who’s been featured in CNN, writes fantasy and sometimes lives in castles. When not trolling obscure bookshops, he prefers to be sipping espresso, surrounded by kittens and pursuing research on what it means to be a successful creative.Now the word unique is overused but this is one unique guy. Looking at the amazing array of material he puts out there is to enter into a tireless brain of myriad interests—including educating aspiring writers, designing covers, penning paranormal fiction and hosting writing retreats in castles.In this episode, we talked about creative ways to get Amazon to recommend your book (write a blog post that recommends other books like yours and then include a link to that blog in your email auto-responder), the importance of obeying Amazon's ever-changing rules and how to actually make money from book sales.WANT MORE INFO ABOUT THE POD AND OTHER STUFF? GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM.

Originally from Dublin Ireland, David Nihill is the founder of FunnyBizz Conference, bestselling author of Do You Talk Funny?, winner of San Francisco International Comedy Competition, runner up in the Moth’s largest US Grandslam storytelling competition and the first-ever Irishman to have a special on Dry Bar Comedy. His work has been featured in Inc, The Huffington Post, Forbes, Fast Company, Lifehacker, The Irish Times, TED, The Irish Independent, Today FM, and on TV3.He and I met through friends a few years ago and I was immediately impressed not only with his barely indecipherable accent but also with how much knowledge he possessed about marketing, books and how to make them successful. This impression was only solidified when, a few days later, he sent me an email packed with all the strategies he'd used to make his book so successful that he was able to then sell it to a major publisher.In this episode, we go through all those ideas and more. If you listened to the episode, you know that I promised I