In this episode, AJ and Mike break down sponsorships for authors. Grab a pen and notebook, because this week is chock-full of how tos and details for any author, from nonfiction to memoir to fiction, to learn how to utilize the power of a sponsor to fund the book, the publication, the launch, and even ongoing programs, podcasts, and more. They hold nothing back!
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Exactly What to Say, by Phil Jones
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Episode 111: “All About Sponsorships”
Mike Michalowicz:
Welcome back to the Don't Write That book podcast where you can learn how to write your bestseller and own your authorship. Follow along with us as we give you an insider's view of the book industry. Now, here are your hosts. Myself, Mike Michalowicz and AJ Harper
Mike Michalowicz:
AJ Harper:
Mike Michalowicz:
Do you mind saying it again? 'cause now I'm recording.
AJ Harper:
Go
Mike Michalowicz:
I got feedback from my sister who occasionally,
AJ Harper:
oh shoot, I gotta email her back.
Mike Michalowicz:
Oh, okay. Um, write it down. I, so she kindly listens to our show and she listened to the episode of us reading the, the letter from my mother, the marketing piece.
AJ Harper:
What did your sister say?
Mike Michalowicz: So it, it was hysterical. I started laughing. So she was at the gym on a step machine, you know, like one of these public gyms working out and she's listening to it. And you and I start laughing and it's this infectious laugh,
AJ Harper:
Well,
Mike Michalowicz:
And so she's like, this is all like, how she would, so my sister starts laughing and she says she's laughing so hard, she's crying and people are like looking at her like, she's like sobbing, but she's laughing and can't explain it. Kind of that wheezy voice where someone's like, are you okay? She's like, I'm fine
AJ Harper:
Mike Michalowicz:
It was 100?
AJ Harper:
It was our, was our 100
Mike Michalowicz:
A masterpiece episode?
AJ Harper:
Well, I don't know about that, but you will get a kick. You'll get a kick. You need a little laugh. Tune in. Because
Mike Michalowicz:
Every like five or 10 minutes as we're doing an episode, we're like, do we have any listeners left?
AJ Harper:
It's been, oh, it's a multi request. It's a, it's, it's been an, and it's been on the list for a long time. We just kept pushing it back 'cause we had other things we wanted to talk about.
Mike Michalowicz:
I think it's one of the most overlooked, monetization and community building. It does both uh, methods for all authors. I dare say fiction even has a bigger opportunity. And I'll tell you what my quasi quasi logic is about that. I'm joined in studio with AJ Harper. She's an author of one of the most important books in the authorship space of all times called Write a Must Read. Listen, I I suspect you have a copy by now. 'cause I I bark this from the mountaintop all the time. But your friend, do they have it? Buy a copy for them. ,
AJ Harper:
Aw Thanks.
Mike Michalowicz:
Uh, and I'm, well, here's what I'm impressed about is your energy, um, is infectious. And when we start rolling, like you start, your energy starts ramping, it gets me going. And I know you do this for all your authors because I hear the exact same thing.
AJ Harper:
Oh, that's so nice. I do try.
Mike Michalowicz:
And it's so important because there's times you're downtrodden and like want to give up as an author.
AJ Harper:
Oh yeah.
Mike Michalowicz:
And you need someone that's championing you on, but not placating you authentically. And you have that energy. Yeah.
AJ Harper:
But you do the same. I mean, I gotta just throw that. Um, we're doing our admire moment on the po Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, which incidentally, uh, plenty of people have told me, please don't stop. I wonder doing that. I wonder
Mike Michalowicz:
Why I like it.
AJ Harper:
I do too. But I don't know. I don't know. Maybe it's just that the per I think people like our, um, comradery our.
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah, I think so.
AJ Harper:
Our long, long-term friendship. Yeah. But, um, you're the same. You'll give people so much energy. I've seen you dead on your feet. I've seen you where you were traveling. Traveling, then you spoke all day. You know, uh, you haven't had a break. You maybe got a lunch and someone comes up to you and wants to share something really important. And I can tell from maybe not other people can tell, but I can tell when you are. I need to go. I need to get to my room. And when I get there, don't talk to me. Nothing's like, that's it. I'm down.
Mike Michalowicz:
You're doing the head waggle. Yeah.
AJ Harper:
Yeah. But I can tell, I can see it in you and you just, you from some deep reserve. Pull it out for that person.
Mike Michalowicz:
Thank you.
AJ Harper:
Yeah. You always will.
Mike Michalowicz:
There. Uh, I had a very, a moment very specific to that. Um, I spoke at Keller Williams on Friday of last week or two week. I can't, can't Remember.
AJ Harper:
You don't know. Stop trying to figure out where.
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah. Doesn't, doesn't matter. But I did. I spoke
AJ Harper:
Yeah.
Mike Michalowicz:
And this is so flattering, but it's also a tip to event coordinators as if you have a speaker up there that may get a meet and greet, have a plan for that. Um, like a outside of the room because some of these events have speakers back to back. So I do my keynote and I just, in my head, I'm like, I'm gonna bring everything I got. 'cause the last event I was, meh. I didn't, I didn't bring my pure
energy. So I'm like, this group is getting the best of me ever. Well, right after I come off stage, people come running over like, I wanna shake your hands. I wanna tell you my story. That's the biggest thing.
Mike Michalowicz:
They wanna tell their story about finance. Right. Right. The next speakers are now on stage. They had to bring escorts to get me and this group of people that's kind of huddled around me outside of the space. So it's very disruptive for the space. So that's just a tip to event coordinators, is I saw Jesse Cole speak. My God, I've never seen so many people run to, to meet and greet. Yeah. You, you have to. And they did have a space ready for him. Um, this one person just starts bawling. And she's like, I need this so badly. She goes like, you don't know how bad it is.
AJ Harper:
Was it Profit First or money happened
Mike Michalowicz:
Profit First. Mm-hmm
AJ Harper:
Do. You do.
Mike Michalowicz:
So I'm like, for that person. So I said, I said, may I hug you? 'cause you, you clearly need a hug. And she said, please. And she's now, she's crying
AJ Harper:
On me. And now you're CO-crier. So what happened? So
Mike Michalowicz:
I'm freaking crying now.
AJ Harper:
And now you're both crying and they're lying and you're hugging.
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah. And there's a line of people.
AJ Harper:
And now the people in the line are backing away and they don't wanna talk to you anymore.
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah. And then when they left, I gave her 10 bucks, said Thanks. They, they fell for it.
AJ Harper:
Oh. But you do you I think, I think we both, I guess the, I guess the lesson here is we both will, uh, give to people.
Mike Michalowicz:
That's, I think that's our job We're giving.
AJ Harper:
It's our job, but it's also our great privilege.
Mike Michalowicz:
Yes. It it is. Total privilege. Yeah. I promise to share a quick marketing story. This is a tie over from last week's episode. So I had a call with an indie bookstore group, don't recall the name of the organization. And the problem they said is that people come, consumers come into their stores or retail stores, look through the books, browse. We'll spend an hour there and then they'll go on Amazon and buy it. And they said, I can't compete with Amazon. I said, well, why are you competing with Amazon? They said, because we sell books. I'm like, I don't think you sell books. I think you sell education empowerment community and stuff like that. So let's repackage this. So here was my proposal. After my download with them, I said, as an author, it'd be my privilege to provide a custom video for you specific to my book. Specific to your bookstore. Mm.
AJ Harper:
Oh my God.
Mike Michalowicz:
So I said, I'll do a 30-minute training that I'll record Oh, on The Money Habit, and I'll do a two minute introduction about your bookstore and why I'm privileged that someone's buying from you. But this is bonus material. Now what I want, here's my ask is at your bookstore, you have
my book featured and it sells for the retail price. Right. Or even more. And it says, includes exclusive training video from the author for our community on how to leverage the money habit
AJ Harper:
Stop.
Mike Michalowicz:
And these bookstores, like, you would do that. I'm like, you would do that? They're like, yeah. I'm like, yeah. And now you're no longer competing with Amazon. That's how you It's called packaging.
AJ Harper:
Oh, Mike, was it IndieBound?
Mike Michalowicz:
No, it was not IndieBound. Oh, okay.
AJ Harper:
That's hot. That is so good.
Mike Michalowicz:
Thank you. It's a win-win. And I said, they said, you're probably the only author would do it. I'm like, are you kidding
AJ Harper:
Me? No. Authors would do it. They just are, they don't know how to ask these questions. They feel like, and
Mike Michalowicz:
Retailers don't know how to ask.
AJ Harper:
Right. And re retail. And they, they feel like the retail is just this giant mystery. Yeah. You know, here's
Mike Michalowicz:
The mistake that authors are doing with retail stores, because I've worked with some, now there's one, uh, down in Sandy Hook, New Jersey called Little Point Bookstore. And I walked in and the retailer said, all these authors coming, they say, you should be featuring my book and, and put it on your shelves. And she's like,
AJ Harper:
So yeah, and if you, if you're traditionally published or you have trade distribution, you, you wouldn't be able to do that consignment thing. But you can definitely go in and provide some value to them. For sure. Also, if you wanna provide some education in person, in the community, I think that's another.
Mike Michalowicz:
Totally.
AJ Harper:
And by the way, all of these bookstores have Instagrams. They have Facebooks. And you don't think you realize you could be creating content for their Instagram and for their Facebook that they could then use and push out, which is then double for you. So if you did that offer, for example, then you created graphics they could use.
Mike Michalowicz:
That's juicy.
AJ Harper:
So they don't actually have to freaking do it. And you know, the other thing is, I've been hearing, so, um, my two favorite indie bookstores are Honest Dog books in Bayfield, Wisconsin and
Mike Michalowicz:
Perfect.
AJ Harper:
And that is where I buy all my books, depending on the season, where I'm living at the time. So I've switched to Big Red right now 'cause I'm back in New York. But, um, honest Dog has a pod. They got a podcast. Oh, I love it. Go look and see. Go. Are you, do you know anything about your bookstore? Do you know the owner? Do you know what they have going on? Big Red Loves to do education, loves to do training, loves to do all that stuff. Um, go figure. Go get the relationship going. They might even have their own podcast you could get on.
Mike Michalowicz:
Oh, I love that. You know, we, maybe we wanna do a future episode about how to partner with indie bookstores. That might be,
AJ Harper:
I, I don't even think you and I are doing all the things we can.
Mike Michalowicz:
No, we're not. We're not. But it's something I'm exploring. And since the Money Habit, this goes back to a point you made a long time ago with a soul and long-term focus on the money habit now for the next year or two before.
AJ Harper:
Yes, please.
Mike Michalowicz:
Now it's focus on these things. Yes. It is opening space to do things in
AJ Harper:
The, because imagine now, if you, if we were in writing season, which is what we would be in
Mike Michalowicz:
Right now, writing season would start. Yeah.
AJ Harper:
We would have already had a retreat.
Mike Michalowicz:
That's right. 'cause this, 'cause this book is written. And I'm like, okay, the next book.
AJ Harper:
But now how does that feel like you're going,
Mike Michalowicz:
It feels different. It feels odd. I know that. And it feels like that's so good. It feels good.
AJ Harper:
Look at all these ideas you're coming
Mike Michalowicz:
Up with. Exactly. Exactly.
AJ Harper:
You wouldn't have had the mental space for it. That's correct. Then you would've thought, oh, that's on autopilot. Now I just have to deliver on all these things. We already put in the strategy. My team is implementing my launch plan. Yeah. Now I'm focused on the future. Yeah. And that's not good.
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah, you're a hundred percent right. Yeah. She gave me, she pointed at me. She gave me the finger
AJ Harper:
I really, and I shook my finger.
Mike Michalowicz:
Oh, you shook your pointy finger back. But I, I wish we were doing this on YouTube. Oh,
AJ Harper:
Sponsorships.
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah. I, I believe, as I was sharing earlier, that this is the most overlooked opportunity for financial gain, but community building. And I think authors that consider sponsorships don't look at either of those elements. So let me just share some of my maybe personal stories.
AJ Harper:
Yeah. I wanna, um, 'cause I'm curious about what... You are the person who clued me into sponsorships way back when, 17 years ago. And I'm just wondering, why did you even think to do that in the first place?
Mike Michalowicz:
Well, you, you know, someone approaches me, or in that case did, and I was like, oh, I never thought about that.
AJ Harper:
Oh, So you didn't go get it, it came to you.
Mike Michalowicz:
Correct, correct. Oh, I, it was kind called Nextiva came.
AJ Harper:
I know, I know it was Nextiva, but I guess I thought you pitched them.
Mike Michalowicz:
Nope. Became one of the most important sponsors. So it was one article they, you know, who they reached out to Barry Moltz.
AJ Harper:
Uhhuh
Mike Michalowicz:
Who's retired now Yeah. From the industry. And they said, we're looking for three authors. We thought, uh, you could write some articles back to last week's episode. (Oh.) On small business. Because we serve a small business community. What this, what NIV a wanted and many sponsors seem to want, is to use the author as exposure to a new additional audience. That's one. Two, a credibility builder. Because some of the larger organizations, just by the nature of being large, don't have credibility with small businesses because there's a disconnect. So the big business says you need us and the small businesses, you don't get us. But the author becomes the conduit, the trust factor. Oh. So Nextiva said, well, we're this big business and we're trying to sell back then was phone systems to small business. We want someone that can speak to small business and can be this conduit. And so Barry's like, oh, I can get some other authors for you. So he reached out to me and, uh, Riva Laski. Oh yeah. Who former editor for I think Entrepreneur Magazine. And, um, I got, uh, I think a $50 writing article for us. And that over the years became hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue. Me, I was about to say half a million dollars of revenue, perhaps. That much of in
AJ Harper:
Sponsorship revenue.
Mike Michalowicz:
Specifically dollars sponsor revenue or in kind sponsorships. Meaning they would buy books or they would, um, they would pay for
AJ Harper:
That's not in kind
Mike Michalowicz:
Pay for me. Pay an event for me to speak. Yeah.
AJ Harper:
I mean, that's not in kind
Mike Michalowicz:
What would be in kind then,
AJ Harper:
Uh, doing some sort of service or something that you would normally do. Like if you, uh, like giving you phones.
Mike Michalowicz:
Oh, okay. Yeah. And, and they did, by the way. Okay.
AJ Harper:
Mike Michalowicz:
So, and even today we don't use phones much anymore 'cause of Zoom. But, uh, the phones here in this, this office here next diva are all next diva profits professionals and the author office. So we have about 20 phones, free phone use for life, um, and all the equipment
AJ Harper:
From a $50 article. And then you built,
Mike Michalowicz:
that's how it started.
AJ Harper:
You built the relationship. See, I always thought you went out and got them because you're entrepreneurial minded and you're always looking for something like that. But okay, so the, but it did spark you thinking, oh, so they want that. What else?
Mike Michalowicz:
Right? Yeah. And you know, certain things I did that other folks don't typically do is got on a plane and flew out there. I happened to be in Scottsdale, Arizona one day, if, you know, I said, Hey, can I come out there and meet with you guys? I I travel through your area often. I didn't even know what your area was
AJ Harper:
Mike Michalowicz:
And I'm like, what part of Utah is that because
AJ Harper:
But based on the $50 article.
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah. Well pretty soon in after that, because they, they what part
AJ Harper:
Of Utah? I just got it.
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah, you got it. Yeah.
AJ Harper:
For sure. Especially these days.
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah. Someone went out there, built a rapport, went out with Janni, Maje, is his name. Tomas, who's the, or Thomas. He actually goes by, but spelled Tomas, who's the founder. Spent time with them. Then I said, Hey, um, your sales team. I can do some sales training. I used Get Different, but the predecessor to it. Right, right. Um, and I did a speech for them, for their team for free and Thomas. And, you know, were there. Like, this is amazing. Thank you. You've you've serviced so deeply. And then they did something for me. And it's back and forth, back and forth.
AJ Harper:
Yeah. It's huge. Yeah. Oh, that's so interesting. So then when then did you decide, I'm going to go get a sponsor, so let me get another sponsor?
Mike Michalowicz:
Well, right from then on, I said, whenever a sponsor presents itself, I'm going to go for it.
AJ Harper:
No, but I mean, when did you go find a sponsor?
Mike Michalowicz:
Just, just cold called on one effectively. Well,
AJ Harper:
I don't know. Like, 'cause it, are you saying everything was inbound? 'cause I've been telling my students go, oh no, they're not.
Mike Michalowicz:
Go get them. No, they're definitely not inbound. Oh, here's what I did, is I went to remember, you remember that board in the cookie factory office on the wall?
AJ Harper:
The one that was made from a shower?
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah. Jeremy, Jeremy Smith, who worked for us at the time.
Mike Michalowicz:
And then I said, okay, I'll call. And so I went out to FreshBooks, which I think was in Canada. I met with the CEO. We did a gig together. And what I do is call these people and say, Hey, my customers are using your technology. I would love to come out on my dime and just learn more about you. So that I can appropriately recommend you. And now you have a rapport with this person and you say, oh, how many customers do you have? Well, my readers, you know, my first book, by that time I had 20,000 readers, maybe 20,000 books sold. I said, what? 20,000 readers? Like, oh, that's amazing. Who are they? Oh, they're the community you serve. Oh, we should try some of these together. Let's do a trial run. And there's a lot of these trial sponsorships. I got a most recent sp this is a 2020 early 2025 sponsorship from Intuit one.
Mike Michalowicz:
Oh no, it was two, two virtual presentations, 30 minutes each. $70,000 because of the community. Now Intuit, the very first one was I think a, a $75 article. These relationships for me, start off small. You build the relationships, you find the opportunities of how you're serving community and it can grow and it can grow. The, they hired two people to speak at that. I don't know what the other speaker got for a fee, but that's what I got was 70,000. The other speaker was Damon John from Shark Tank. I got a call a week after we were both done. They said, you brought way more traffic than Daymond John. Well, Daymond John's way more famous. But we have a community that we'll market to because I know the benefit of that relationship is the ongoing relationship. Right. Right. So we marketed the heck out of it to a tune of two to three times the amplitude.
Mike Michalowicz:
So guess who called a week later Right. Into it. So we wanna do something else with you. Right. Right. So that's how these come about. They, for me, they start slow. Write down all of your customers anything. They use coffee. I don't care. Write it all down. Best sponsor ever. Bald baldy, bald, like b bald, balding, head baldy. So there's this product you can sprinkle on your head,
Mike Michalowicz:
And you can see on the sides the videos of yourself. And I, you know, I like to ma uh, gesticulate on stage, like big action motion. And I'm doing this movie and they just, drone thing goes over my head and I'm looking at the screen and I'm like, who's the bald guy with me
AJ Harper:
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah. Can we be your sponsor? I'm like, yeah, yeah. You can be my sponsor. So I, you know, income's a so that, I guess that was an in-kind sponsorship. I got tons of supplies. If anyone needs bfi, I got it Brown. It's got be.
AJ Harper:
But, but I think that hair color, I think that when I bring up sponsorships, I tell, I, I teach it to my students. I say, go get sponsors. And I think the concept of it is so, so foreign to them and they don't understand what would a sponsor get out of sponsoring a book and what does a sponsorship of a book look like? And so I'm hoping that we can, you know, like 'cause and, and that's why I was wondering what do people say when you reach out and say, do you wanna sponsor my book? But it sounds like you aren't, are you doing, you did do it for The Money Habit.
Mike Michalowicz:
I did do it. Oh yeah. I definitely did it for The Money Habit. So, and
AJ Harper:
You did it in a different way this time. Oh, and it's right in front
Mike Michalowicz:
Of me and it's right in front of you.
AJ Harper:
I got the book in my hand.
Mike Michalowicz:
Oh. I did it in a real different way. You got founders. Do you wanna go into all the tactical stuff? You can just fire my way. Yeah, yeah. And
AJ Harper:
I can answer. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So hang on. I gotta
Mike Michalowicz:
Get to, lemme start with the why people would wanna sponsor your book. Yeah. Say you only have a book, but I want our listeners to know you're far more than your book. You are also a personality behind the book. The personality I think, drives the most value. A book offers a lot of value, but the personality of the author you offer to a sponsor's community is immediate trust because you're an authoritative figure on the subject. So you're an Im immediate trust factor. The second thing is you offer community. Uh, the third thing is you offer differentiation. Keller Williams, Gary Keller. If Keller Williams called me when Profit First came out and said, can we sponsor that? And I said, yeah, but why are you interested? He's like, we wanna be the only real estate agency that's associated with Profit First because then we can attract realtors that, that want to be profitable. And no one else can offer that. So you offer this ability to be exclusive. I think that's the three big benefits. Community trust, exclusivity. Hmm. Make sense?
AJ Harper:
Yeah.
Mike Michalowicz:
Okay. Alright. Far away. What are your que Let's give the tactical stuff.
AJ Harper:
So what, what, okay. So how do, how do, how does it benefit the author? What are the different ways? So I'm assuming one of it is, some of it is money.
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah. So what do you get? Yeah, absolutely. Is you get money. Um, don't, there's a saying, pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. Something like that. Don't I hear some authors go way too big too fast. When I was talking to my sister Lee, who's my speaking agent, she says there's speaker people haven't spoke before and they're like, "I want $10,000 to speak. Oh, I heard Mike gets $50,000 to speak. I, I I deserve 50,000. I'm better speaking than him," and they probably are better than me. But you, you don't have an a rep reputation that's been established. You don't have a large community. And so you're shooting yourself in, in the foot. My sponsorships, inevitably we start with a trial run. Even today, even a small, actually just got a new sponsor called Kick, who is amazing. So you gotta check them out. It's a competitor to QuickBooks, but they've AI ified it.
Mike Michalowicz:
It is so much more advanced than you've ever seen. Um, but you gotta get a trial. So we're doing a trial period with them to make sure it works. The other thing is, I took this from Shaquille O'Neal. He was, he was speaking at an event, maybe I shared this before,
AJ Harper:
I don't know.
Mike Michalowicz:
Okay. Someone said, why you've never been on the cover of Wheaties? And they said, you're such a famous player, why weren't you on Wheaties? And he says, 'cause I don't eat Wheaties. He goes, I eat Fruit Loops. And he goes, I'll sp Fruit Loops is a sponsor. 'cause that's the stuff I eat. And I'm, this guy is a freaking genius. He, he only wants to be affiliated with the brands that he actually consumes. I'm like, that's the definition of integrity. Thanks Shaq. So with Kick the trial run is, I want your software at no cost to me.
Mike Michalowicz:
So it's in kind. For a three month period, but I'm cutting my entire company over to it. And it may be an arduous task, but I cannot speak about Kick until I'm using it.
AJ Harper:
Sure.
Mike Michalowicz:
So you can get, in the beginning, you gotta set up a trial run. So there's more than money. There is in kind sponsorships, utilization of their technology software, but the other part is exposure to their community. These sponsors come in and if they provide services to products for your community, that's why they want you. But also that means they have already some of your community that you don't have access to. So you can gain access to new people.
AJ Harper:
But so, okay. So you're getting money. So when you say start small, then you know, gimme a sense of how much money are we talking about for Kick? This? So, okay, back up. Back up. You, you can use this cash to help produce the book if you're self-publishing. Or you could use it for your hybrid fees if you're doing hybrid. But you, you use it for to help you fund the marketing.
Mike Michalowicz:
Yep. Or, or it could just be just general income. Right. So our staff. Oh,
AJ Harper:
So just general income.
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah. We make enough from sponsors that it, it's a substantial part of our organization's operation.
AJ Harper:
Okay. But let's just talk about for the average author who's wanting to fund the book in some fashion.
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah. It can be a funding source. So we, we can go through tactical strategies. Yeah.
AJ Harper:
But how, how, when you say be, you know, don't shoot for the moon right outta the gate. Give us some sense of what do you think's a reasonable for for sponsoring a book.
Mike Michalowicz:
Something that's in kind is usually the lowest hanging fruit for the sponsor. So try to do something in kind in the beginning.
AJ Harper:
So something you might need,
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah. Something you might need or your community might need. And you can give it to some of your community. Uh, you can announce to your community, Hey, I just built this relationship with Joe's Coffee down the street. They're giving five gift cards away, um, to our community. If you go to Joe's Coffee now Joe has a measurement. Oh, does this actually draw community in? So they can measure it, but you've given something of value to your community and you have a little trial run.
AJ Harper:
Could you align it with say a as a bonus book offer? Sure. Could you use it credit, could you get sponsor in kind sponsorships for your bonuses?
Mike Michalowicz:
Totally. For anything. For anything. That's great. Great.
AJ Harper:
That would be so smart. Right?
Mike Michalowicz:
That's smart. Yeah. That's totally smart. So,
AJ Harper:
So
Mike Michalowicz:
Indie bookstores, you could do an in-kind sponsorship, you listen, I could donate to them and say, listen, I'll donate three to four books or five books. You know, the printing costs are very minimal. If you're going through a hybrid or self pub, you're talking like five bucks a book. So
I'll give you $25 of physical books. Here's what I want you doing in kind, I want you put it on an end cap and I'll do an announcement to my community that we're gonna do a flash mob to your store and rush your store on Tuesday at noon. The first 10 people that show up, or the first five people that show up are getting a free copy of my book if they buy some other book at your store. And you can just, just try these little trial runs. Yeah. And if it works, then you start talking about the formal stuff. People go to the big stuff and the formal stuff way too fast.
AJ Harper:
Mm.
Mike Michalowicz:
Just do something where there's some kind of win-win and some measurable component.
AJ Harper:
And then that can actually grow as we've now learned from what you're saying.
Mike Michalowicz:
Oh, it can take off. So, um,
AJ Harper:
But it's also cache.
Mike Michalowicz:
Cache. What do you mean?
AJ Harper:
If you have a, if you have a sponsor that is well respected by your community, then the fact that they sponsored you.
Mike Michalowicz:
Oh, okay. Yeah. Great reputation Yeah.
AJ Harper:
Gives you cachet.
Mike Michalowicz:
Correct. Um, you can use it. Yeah. And Right, right. So what you mean by cache also is it can build your reputation for being a great sponsor. Um, so there's another, um, technology out there called Gusto. It's a payroll system,
AJ Harper:
I use it.
Mike Michalowicz:
Oh, it's great. Well, Gusto now is in our universe or our solar system because of our relationship with Kik. And Kik. A current sponsor came in because of my established relationship with Relay, who's been an extraordinary sponsor.
AJ Harper:
Right. So that's okay. But I was thinking also just so cache among sponsors so that they see, oh, other sponsors are down with this person. Let me check him out. Yep. But I'm also just talking about with your readers. So if your readers respect, say Relay is one of yours, et cetera, then Oh, relay is sponsoring this guy. Okay. So if you, if you like that brand
Mike Michalowicz:
Exactly.
AJ Harper:
So then you're aligned with a brand that your readers like that's a good thing.
Mike Michalowicz:
We did an event down in Australia, so the timing is kinda awkward 'cause it was on East Coast time. So very early morning start in Australia. Funny little story. So they need to find a space for me to broadcast. I do a webinar with Gusto, kick and relay the three founders of these organizations that we're talking about AI and how it's affecting the community. Two over 2000 registrants for it. So it talks about community building. I invite my own community. I'm the moderator for this. Each of these companies invite their community
AJ Harper:
Mike Michalowicz:
I'm like, I got, I got a podcast. So I start pounding. Now I'm the un homed person, like let me in, I need to get in. Finally the manager comes over with security. They look and it's a prejudice. They look me up and down and say, okay, we think you're okay. The beard did not help, by the way, the bagel that was still hanging in, in the corner of my beard. And they let me in and I do this podcast. What was so interesting is it exposed me to this whole new community that I would've never did not, was not aware of me that was consuming their stuff. So sponsorships can start cascading sponsorships.
AJ Harper:
Hmm. Okay.
Mike Michalowicz:
That was a long story to get to this
AJ Harper:
It's okay.
Mike Michalowicz:
A long boring story.
AJ Harper:
I also think that sponsorships can help you get deals. I, you know, I have, I if you have secured sponsorships or there is a actual in writing commitment to purchase a certain number of books. That's right. That then means that the publisher is, knows that they're going to have a certain number of books sold that helps them make a decision if they're gonna publish you or not. Yeah. Um, so that, that can also be most useful.
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah. Do you wanna talk about strategies, uh, specifically to,
AJ Harper:
To do for,
Mike Michalowicz:
For sponsors?
AJ Harper:
Yeah. So, um, yeah, but I want, I wanna understand, what do you think are the sponsor benefits to the sponsor? What types of things can you offer them that's book related?
Mike Michalowicz:
Book related? Well, they can be featured in your book so they can highlight, we did this with Nextiva. Nextiva is in one of our books. They cut that piece out and said, as featured in, I can't remember book, I think it was all in, um, no, Get Different,
AJ Harper:
Um, clockwork?
Mike Michalowicz:
I'm... Clockwork. So as featured in Clockwork, they'll highlight that on their website. So it gives them further credibility. Uh, they'll use lines from that in their own content. Um,
AJ Harper:
But can I just say a caveat? Yeah. The story has to work.
Mike Michalowicz:
Oh yeah. It has
AJ Harper:
To work. You can't just have a featured story that reads like some sort of elaborate, um, brochure. Correct. It has to actually be of service to the readers.
Mike Michalowicz:
I I liken it to like a TV show where, you know, they're drinking and it's happens to be a Corona with the label facing the screen as the person drinks it there. That's a, that's a paid for sponsorship. They're in the scene, they're gonna be drinking that beer anyway. A beer anyway. But Corona paid to be there. So I think authors can ethically, if you're writing that story anyway, um, you can find a sponsor that also would be willing to compensate for you for that story you're writing anyway. They just become the featured story.
AJ Harper:
Yeah. So you would find, you would just have to make sure they understood that you, you know, you'd have to interview them to try and get at a story, which is what we did with Nextiva. Yeah. So if you can find a story that will be of service Yep. Then go ahead and
Mike Michalowicz:
Do it. Yep. Um, a thing we did with the Money Habit that I'm particularly excited about, we brought this back. We did this with Fix this next to to Great Effect. Oh yeah. Gotta tell you another thing we're doing. Um, we do a founding family. And so if you're offering a certification like we are, so you can get certified as a Money Habit mentor. You had the opportunity to, um, upfront pay a fee, which simply will get you books. So you'll get some of these people are getting a hundred bucks, 200 bucks and you'll be featured in the front of the book. And we did three levels. So at level one, I don't remember what the fees were, so don't quote me, but let's just pretend it was a thousand dollars. For a thousand dollars, your name will be in the front of the book for the first print run, which is 15,000 books.
AJ Harper:
Oh yeah, that's right. You separated it based on print runs.
Mike Michalowicz:
Print runs. And if you paid say $5,000 again, don't quote me, it was more than that. You'll be in every single printing. But you also get a copy of is I hope is in there. Is it in there?
AJ Harper:
Yeah. A note
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah. That's, I think, I dare say Ron Sharran was the creator of that. That was his suggestion. I think mhs, so
AJ Harper:
You've got, uh, some name that I recognize.
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah. So it's a list of the names. Now these people are all getting
AJ Harper:
15 people in here.
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah. 15 people. Yeah. And so, you know, that's a lot of money. If it was a thousand each and it was more than that. But if it was a thousand each, that's 15 grand. That's, that's substantial money. And I think the average, I don't quote me on this, I think it was $5,000, is that $75,000.
AJ Harper:
And so that, so some people will pay, they'll be in the first print run and then for those who did not, they'll be out and, and the next print run.
Mike Michalowicz:
Correct. So some paid just for one print run, some paid for, uh, up to a hundred thousand copies and some paid for a Lifetime. Now everyone will get a copy of the book. So, so you pay for this. You're also getting, as part of that sponsorship, 50 or a hundred books that you can then dole out.
And the idea is you hand it out and say, look, I'm featured in the book or just in public. When, when you're offering mentorship, you can say, yeah, I'm one of the founding family members. You also got early training and you get to give critical feedback saying, Hey, gimme tweaks 'cause you're founding family tweaks and changes to the book. So that was a really powerful sponsorship. We did that with Fix This Next to Great Effect.
AJ Harper:
And you got their URL in there. Yeah. And you say where they're located, which I like. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's good.
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah. So that's a really interesting sponsorship. And that's a way, you know, we didn't go to large corporations. These are individual small businesses, even freelancers who decided to do this. And we went to our email list. So that's a, that's a technique.
AJ Harper:
So what are some other benefits that you could give, uh, sponsors that would be worth their while?
Mike Michalowicz:
Um, so another thing sponsors can get is, uh, they can order the books in bulk. So they can get large quantity discounts. Uh, we facilitate that through Book Pal, which is a distributor. So we get it registered on the different ranking systems. Or if you're in a hybrid like we are, you could sell those directly if you're trying to monetize it, you know, I told you a book costs us $4 to print. And if we sold it for a discount, $15 we're net and 11 bucks. If we go through Book Pal or maybe making six bucks, it's
AJ Harper:
Really costing you four at the quantity. Are you sure?
Mike Michalowicz:
Probably less than that. I don't know.
AJ Harper:
Because that's how much it cost me.
Mike Michalowicz:
Oh, really?
AJ Harper:
And I didn't get your quantity.
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah, we're doing 15,000. I
AJ Harper:
Did 7,500.
Mike Michalowicz:
Okay. So maybe it's costing three.
AJ Harper:
Yeah.
Mike Michalowicz:
Um, you know, something interesting, Page Two did, another maybe way you can leverage this is the print house sent pictures of the book actually being printed.
AJ Harper:
Freisans.
Mike Michalowicz:
Did they do that with yours too?
AJ Harper:
I didn't ask, but
Mike Michalowicz:
I didn't ask either. They sent it over and said, here's your book being printed. That was pretty cool. I've never seen that before.
AJ Harper:
I know, I, I got the pictures too. I wanted to put them out, but then I was like, it's not for me to put these out.
Mike Michalowicz:
So here's something interesting, I'm just thinking of sponsors. They do this with car manufacturing. When a first run of cars comes out, people who pre-order that vehicle can send a photograph in and they'll, they'll show your car being manufactured and put your photograph on it and send you a picture.
AJ Harper:
Oh, cool.
Mike Michalowicz:
Well, you could do this with Sponsor and say, Hey, the first hundred books coming out, the print press were supported by.
AJ Harper:
Oh, what a neat idea.
Mike Michalowicz:
So yeah. And then you have their little logo on it and say,
AJ Harper:
That's good, too.
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah. So there's, there's a million ways to give them exposure
AJ Harper:
So they can get a discount. Could they get, you know, something special on the book?
Mike Michalowicz:
Yep. Dream First Bank is a sponsor. So I reach out to my historical sponsors and say, Hey, I have a new book or new opportunity. Is this something you wanna consider Relay? Who is an extraordinary bank? Go to bank like mike.com is is ideal for business finance. They don't do personal. So I need to find a personal finance bank. Or personal bank, right? Um, I reached out to a community and these, this is the best way to, a good way to find sponsors is to reach out to established communities, find the facilitator of it. So there is a regional bank group, uh, and through my network I found Roxanne who runs this group, and I reached out to Roxanne, said, do you know of any banks that might be interested? She goes, "oh yeah, dream first. Hands down. You gotta meet Chris Floyd." Call the president, speak with him within six months. Um, we have a deal why I'm using the bank. It is extraordinary. It's a small community bank, uh, in the Midwest. And, and they become a sponsor. So they're featured in the, on the back we have advertorial copy in the back of the book and it says, looking for a bank. And they're, I think in, in the book itself. But you'll see an ad with a QR code for Dream First Bank. So you can get their logo, their logos in there too.
AJ Harper:
Yeah. It says "Need a money habit friendly bank? This is the bank I personally use and have since partnered with Dream First Bank." And then it has a little bit about the bank, the logo of the bank, and a QR code, which I assume goes to what, like a, a page about Dream First, or it goes straight to Dream First
Mike Michalowicz:
Goes to Straight to Dream first with a tracking code. So they know, oh, this is solving, serving us, we're getting traffic from Mike.
AJ Harper:
Okay. So that's helpful. By the way, if you guys pre-order the Money Habit, you can see all this firsthand. Yeah, please get a copy.
Mike Michalowicz:
Please get a copy.
AJ Harper:
But, okay. But you could also, if if Dream First wanted to, they could get like say, you know, it's not that expensive to do say a 2000 print run or a thousand print run. And then you could do a band across the front. Yep. You could have their logo somewhere. Yep. It could be a or, uh, you could, uh, put a stickers on.
Mike Michalowicz:
That's the Poor Man's Lobster. That's what I did with, uh, Nextiva. I called him up and said, Hey, do you wanna sponsor, uh, 50 books? I think it was, this is early on our relationship. I said, there'll be about a thousand dollars. I said, yeah, let's try that out. So we got stickers printed up. Yeah. In the very front. I said, the, the knowledge in this book has been brought to you by Nextiva.
AJ Harper:
I also wanna say when you, you could plan ahead. So, okay. When you're printing, and it depends if you're doing offset or print on demand, but there's, you're never just adding one page. You're either adding, you know, four pages, eight pages. So if you add one, it's gonna be four or eight.
Mike Michalowicz:
Oh, that's right. That's
AJ Harper:
Right. Yeah. Just depends on the, the, the type of printing. But what if you just had a couple of blank pages that you reserved for future, uh, sponsors. That's a good idea. So if you wanted to do something custom in the back for in, because you, you can't add that later. That's right. You can't change that metadata of the page count. That's right. So if you just think, all right, maybe in the future I'm gonna add a couple pages where I do a featured story on a sponsor that I have yet to get. Yeah. No one cares if you have a couple blank pages in the back
Mike Michalowicz:
And some people put this page intentionally left blank. That's fine
AJ Harper:
Well, you don't have to.
Mike Michalowicz:
You don't have to.
AJ Harper:
But you could, you, you could put notes a place for people to jot down notes.
Mike Michalowicz:
Oh, that's a good idea.
AJ Harper:
Yeah. But I think some pre-think, you know, 'cause you can't late after the fact add pages.
Mike Michalowicz:
That's brilliant. That's brilliant. You can insert applications. So we did this with, um, I, I can't remember which bank it was. Let's to say it was Relay where we sent out books and inside the book the shipper, which was Book pal, it's book pal.com if you wanna check 'em out, they inserted for a fee, I think it was a dollar per book inserted an application they mailed then 500 books to this one speaking engagement. And when you got the book, it was in there. Um, you can customize the dust cover and you can just listen. If you were the traditional publisher, like we have been for the longest time and people wanna order the pumpkin plan in bulk, I can customize the cover. Yeah. And he goes, what I do is you go to your local Kinko's doesn't exist anymore, but we go
AJ Harper:
It does.
Mike Michalowicz:
Oh, does it? Yes. Oh, you go to the local Kinko's, aren't they? Didn't they got, weren't they purchased by FedEx or something?
AJ Harper:
Yeah, but it's, it's the, it's called FedEx Kinko's. Oh, great.
Mike Michalowicz:
I met Kinko, you know, that was his ne that was his name.
AJ Harper:
What?
Mike Michalowicz:
I met Kinko.
AJ Harper:
You met Kinko. Yep. It sounds like Kinko was like the, the, um, like the, some sort of name someone came up with when you like, named the new animal at the zoo. Kinko. Yeah.
Mike Michalowicz:
You're pretty darn close.
AJ Harper:
So It's a nickname.
Mike Michalowicz:
It's a nickname for, he had, he has very curly hair. He's a white guy with very curly hair. And they called him Kinks and he came Kinko. And so his nickname was Kinko. I can't actually remember his real name 'cause I started calling him Kinko and that was his nickname. And so he created this. And he was solving a problem. He had, he was in college and he tried to find a 24- hour shop because he was late, you know, per most college students for turning his project and was in a pure panic. And he said, oh, there should be, uh, a store for this. So at his college, he opened a store. That's how it started. Um, but you can go to a Kinko's and you can have a dust cover printed out and fold it up. They score the score so you can fold up. So we deal with this with Get Different recently where we made a custom cover that said this is a gift by: And then we had a stamp, or because we, they were small sponsors, they could sponsor like 10 books a time. But it had, it said this book was gifted to you by, and its a big white box and you stamp in Joe's Coffee, Jane's Laundromat or whatever it is. Hmm. Right on there. Phil, Phil Jones famously does this.
AJ Harper:
Uh, he sold so many books doing custom books.
Mike Michalowicz:
If there's one guy can milk one book title forever, it's Phil Jones.
AJ Harper:
Yes. The author of Exactly What to Say.
Mike Michalowicz:
Exactly.
AJ Harper:
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah. It's unlimited. As long as you understand the objective of the sponsor by asking them, do you want exposure to a larger audience? Do you want credibility with your existing or new audience? Um, do you want to be put on a pedestal, you know, elevated in some capacity? Once you start defining those things, then you can structure this in so many ways.
AJ Harper:
Yeah. So I'm curious though, is what materials do you have to have ready? Because my experience is a lot of people don't really understand what it takes to go into a book. A book seems like this bizarre concept to people of is this actually going to be a real thing? What do you have to have ready to show them about the book?
Mike Michalowicz:
Well, I think minimally you have to have an author page. 'cause it, the, the book is part of it, but there's usually a human they want behind it. So I think you have, I know you have to have your author website. Website. Yeah. I think that's big deal. I think you have to have some proven measurements of community and effectiveness of reaching out to that community. So do you have an email list? What's the open rates? That's often data looking for social media is still relevant. Like how big is social media following? Uh, but social media, for me, the biggest social media platform is, is YouTube. So I point to YouTube and say, check out, you know, one of my speeches and see that has a hundred thousand downloads or something like that.
AJ Harper:
Sure.
Mike Michalowicz:
So you point to that credibility. Uh, if, if they're gonna be inserted in a book, you better have a book that they agree with the content. You know, I use profanity or suggestive language in, in the books in a fun
AJ Harper:
Few, but, but minimally.
Mike Michalowicz:
Minimally. But I do. Yeah. And so you want the, the group to consume that. There's some religious oriented groups that have hired me to say, oh, we, that content is just not within our domain and we, we won't work with it. And there, conversely, other communities say, thank God, that's the way we do communicate. So they do want to consume your content to make sure that they're, the messaging is consistent with that.
AJ Harper:
One thing I've, I've suggested to people who do book proposals, right. Take a lot of the elements of the book proposal and convert that into a sponsorship proposal.
Mike Michalowicz:
Oh yeah. That's great.
AJ Harper:
There's so much info about the book in there, and it's really a business plan for the book. So it seems that co corporations can relate to it. (Yeah.) Because this is very thought out. There's a plan, here's what it is, here's exactly who, who it is. And then also that target audience section in the proposals is gold because it's showing how big the exactly who's the reader, how many are there, what's the secondary reader, what's the tertiary reader, you know?
Mike Michalowicz:
I like that. Yeah. When you go into these deals, I try to build a relationship very early on and try to come with a trial offer, which is often just, Hey, would you wanna try something together? But I first determine what are they looking for? Exposure, trust, transfer, authority, whatever it is. I just get a sense like, what would be important and serve you. And then I say, Hey, do you wanna try something together? So that's how I get started. Um, I have a history of doing enough of these projects though. I can pull from the magician's hat, you know, out a deal right away and say, oh, in the past we did this and just plug it in. So I think it's a good idea to have a, a bronze, silver, gold kind of
AJ Harper:
So, so you wanna have that in your back pocket or you wanna present them with multiple options? I,
Mike Michalowicz:
I think having the back pocket, I first say, do you wanna try something together and just get a yes. Okay. And say, what, what would be a minimal risk for you, but maximum proof that this works. That's how I typically start. I don't like to say, here's the three options right outta the gate,
AJ Harper:
Y'all. This is an episode you need to listen to where you can take notes. You need the transcript, which shout out to Laura Stone, who listens from my team, who listens to every single episode in advance, does the transcript, cleans it up, makes it pretty, does all the show notes. Thank you Laura.
Mike Michalowicz:
Thank you Laura. Um, yes, you should have a, a structured deal and there should be a contract. This is in our show notes. I'm looking, but there should be a contract.
AJ Harper:
So it's not a handshake.
Mike Michalowicz:
No. Nothing speaks like money in your pocket. Invoice upfront, collect the money.
AJ Harper:
Oh, invoice upfront.
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah.
AJ Harper:
So who's doing, I mean can you just, do you need an attorney for this thing or could you just kind of run it together? And I
Mike Michalowicz:
Was talking with some dude and he goes, just go on a l legal Zoom. He goes, it is so good. It's, it's real lawyers behind the scene. So it's, you have a real lawyer,
AJ Harper:
Uhhuh
Mike Michalowicz:
and, and there's, but there's documents that are created
AJ Harper:
And they are not your sponsor. Right.
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. Legal. Not yet. Yeah, that's a good idea. So you, someone like that, um, a contract's important, a money in your pocket can never be beaten because a contract can be disputed and it can be costly to enforce money in your pocket is in your pocket. If you're doing something that you can't unwind, like, oh, I'll do 500 books with your name in it, and then I'll charge you after that's done. If you don't pay me, it's, I, there's nothing I can do to recover. (Fair.) That's out there. So, um, make sure you get money upfront. Um, let's see.
AJ Harper:
So I, I wanna know when has it ever gone bad? Like gone, super left and you think, Ugh, that was, that was a terrible sponsorship situation.
Mike Michalowicz:
I don't, I'm just trying to think. I think without really naming names, because I can't think of any names. I have had situations where the sponsor, their platform is so inconsistent with mine in regards to their definition of ethics.
AJ Harper:
Mm-hmm
Mike Michalowicz:
Um, and who they serve. So there's these, um, I get contacted, in the past it was daily. It's a little less frequently now, but we want to be featured in your blog. We'll pay you x number of dollars for you to put this link in our blog so we can get back link.
AJ Harper:
Mm-hmm
Mike Michalowicz:
And some of us, there's some creepy things out there, but they, they kind of dance around. There's been some of those like, oh, we'll take those on. And it's like, oh, now we're back linking to stuff that's not congruent with our brand. And it starts degradating us. So I've done a few of those by accident and I've stuck with my obligation. They bought for a few hundred dollars a lifetime link. And so they're still linked, but that can be costly over time. Um,
AJ Harper:
Yeah. And who knows what happens if they change what's on the link.
Mike Michalowicz:
That's a good point. Yeah.
AJ Harper:
It could, it could, it could really change. It could burn you and then you're stuck with that link.
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah. So for us it's like, do we use this stuff for ourselves or does our community use this stuff? That's our biggest test.
AJ Harper:
Any other cons with sponsors? Um,
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah. Well, they can assert authority over you. So, you know, I, I've done that TV show that it's very difficult to consume. It was sponsored by Vizio, which is a great company product, but the backfire on that one know it's only on Vizio. You cannot get this TV show. So we do this public announcement. 'cause that was part of the deal to something that you can't access unless you
have a Vizio television. So there were some things that I didn't think through enough, um, that can become a con that you can get put into a channel where, where your community doesn't get exposure to it yet, you're expected to prop promote to your community. That was a backfire.
AJ Harper:
Yeah. Wait, you know what, um, we've had a sponsor on this show Yeah. For the, for the book. And so, you know, that's another thing you could do,
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah, Exactly. Right. Exactly. Uh,
AJ Harper:
A lot of authors have podcasts.
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah. Yeah. And that, that author, we promoted the heck outta that book. Um, I hope it served them, but you're right. A podcast is a great platform for something like that.
AJ Harper:
Yeah. And incidentally, if anybody else wants to sponsor, Don't Write That Book. We
Mike Michalowicz:
Need, we need your
AJ Harper:
Money, we need your mind. That's not, that's not in my outline, but it just occurred to me. Yeah.
Mike Michalowicz:
But by all means, it's an opportunity. Yeah. For us. Um, but you know what's funny is sponsors too have a responsibility to make sure that it's a platform fit. I can't tell you how many times people have reached out and say, Hey, we have a guest that would be great for your show. It's a sponsorship. We'll, we'll pay even for them to be on Don't Write that book because we want them talking about so and so. Right. We don't have, we've never had a guest don't have guests. Yeah. So a sponsor has to do their due diligence too. Yeah,
AJ Harper:
Of course.
Mike Michalowicz:
But some don't.
AJ Harper:
That's great. I mean, I'm telling you, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna teach today and I'm gonna go back and I'm gonna tell everybody, listen to episode 1 11, 1 11 of don't write that book because this is like, you gotta have a notebook ready to listen to this thing.
Mike Michalowicz:
I'm gonna make a bold claim here. I challenge every author to have one third of their annual income created through sponsorships. That's very doable. And I'm saying one third is book sales, one third is speaking.
AJ Harper:
Wow.
Mike Michalowicz:
One third is sponsor you.
AJ Harper:
Is that doable?
Mike Michalowicz:
Absolutely. Absolutely.
AJ Harper:
I have zero. I I don't even think about it.
Mike Michalowicz:
And welcome to being almost every author I've ever met, and I think you're missing one third of your potential income. You can get a boatload of income, all the author, all the different platforms and stuff out there supporting authors that you use.
AJ Harper:
I know.
Mike Michalowicz:
That you believe in.
AJ Harper:
Well, you know what, you know who I want is Microsoft Word. (Yeah.) But you know why I want it. I'm gonna tell you why.
Mike Michalowicz:
Well, you use it exclusively.
AJ Harper:
I think it's better than Scrivener.
Mike Michalowicz:
Okay.
AJ Harper:
I think people don't understand the capabilities that I teach in my class, uh, that Microsoft Word has for organizing your draft when you're going through it. And I prefer my students to use that because ultimately Microsoft Word, you have to deliver it to your editor and, in Word. Anyway.
Yeah. So I'm almost like you are gonna, you are gonna create a document and work in this freaking document, like authors, like let's build the draft in the same software you're gonna use. And, um, I've been saying that forever,
Mike Michalowicz:
so call upon it.
AJ Harper:
So I wanna have, I know I need to contact, if you know anyone, y'all email the show.
Mike Michalowicz:
Well, you, you just start one Google of who is a contact that's for sponsorships at Microsoft will yield information. Like it, it's literally that little effort and then you start the campaign. (Yeah.) Um, I also have, uh, okay, I'll save it. It's a juicy tip. I, I may get saved in a second, but I want to say to our listeners, get Write a must read right now,
AJ Harper:
Which I wrote on Microsoft Word.
Mike Michalowicz:
Which she wrote on Microsoft Word,
AJ Harper:
And when and what it's about to come out. So when this airs, it's gonna be out in I think a couple weeks.
Mike Michalowicz:
That's right. Yeah, that's right. You also have some retreat dates coming up.
AJ Harper:
So we did release our editing retreat dates, and I did, I have limited them now to three retreats next year instead of four. Mostly just because of bandwidth for my team. Uh, and for me, because I, I'm planning to do some writing next year. And so we are doing them just in the summer in June, July and August. And we've already started booking. So this is November 17th and we're recording this. We've already started booking. I You definitely wanna go
Mike Michalowicz:
I got one more juicy, juicy tip on sponsorships. I'm not gonna share it just yet. I'm gonna hold on, but I'm gonna share it. The reason is I got a listener who's listening to the show and said, oh, I can tell when you guys start wrapping up. And I start doing that, you know, fast forward 30 seconds to the very, very end.
AJ Harper:
You did.
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah. Like, thanks for your integrity. So, uh, I got a massive juicy tip. I wanna do a couple more promotional things, but I'm not gonna tell you where the juicy tip's coming.
AJ Harper:
I said text him and tell him what you want him to bake for you. He's
Mike Michalowicz:
Making an apple pie and a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, I'm se sending them down.
AJ Harper:
Stop it.
Mike Michalowicz:
And he sent pictures of an apple pie he had made and my mouth was salivating.
AJ Harper:
But you make an apple pie.
Mike Michalowicz:
Yeah, but not to his level.
AJ Harper:
No, he's of course,
Mike Michalowicz:
he goes immediately to expert level. It's gorgeous. It's a lattice work, you know, on the top. It's gorgeous. So I can't wait to spend some time with him. I'm heading down there, uh, on Tuesday before Thanksgiving
AJ Harper:
To pick up your
Mike Michalowicz:
Pies. Yeah. And to hang out with Michael for a little bit.
AJ Harper:
Oh, I love it. I'm so glad. So I, I just did, I just hung out with Michael about a month ago. Yeah. We were recording some promo and he was interviewing me, uh, at the studio, and he had remembered that a few weeks before that I had dinner with hi, with um, uh, Michael and Amy. And he had asked me my favorite and I said, I love anything cream filled. So I show up a month later and to the interview and he's got the whole table full. All these--
Mike Michalowicz:
Like cannolis and stuff?
AJ Harper:
Or No, like, um, like almost like aan eclaire's, but they're called something else. And forgive me if you're listening, Michael, I don't remember the name is the best thing I ever ate in my whole life. And he remembered. So he had all these cream-filled desserts, plus he made, um, macrons and everything. Oh yeah. He's, um, well, first of all, very dear to both of us, but, um, amazing.
Mike Michalowicz:
Amazing. Yeah,
AJ Harper:
He jJust got back from Europe where he took a, um, Patista re class for like a week.
Mike Michalowicz:
Is did he redo his kitchen? Do I understand that?
AJ Harper:
Yeah, I, I think so. But I think he took part of his dining room and expanded. I don't know. I can't wait to You'll get to see it.
Mike Michalowicz:
I cannot wait to visit him. Okay. Um, do we cover all the key stuff before I give him away my crazy?
AJ Harper:
Do the tip. Do the tip.
Mike Michalowicz:
So a little sponsorship hack you can do if you're afraid of approaching sponsors when you have never had one, is to do a podcast or something and thank a sponsor that you don't have
AJ Harper:
You wait a minute. You never had an American Express as a sponsor.
Mike Michalowicz:
I, I, later on I did.
AJ Harper:
Okay. I was gonna say, because I remember
Mike Michalowicz:
Later on did, yeah. Okay. But when I started out in the very beginning, I just, Hey, I wanna thank American Express for your support. That's how I did it. I didn't even say sponsorship. I wanna thank American Express for your support supporting this episode because
AJ Harper:
It wasn't an official sponsorship. So you weren't lying.
Mike Michalowicz:
Was not lying. And uh,
AJ Harper:
But you were grateful for the credit card.
Mike Michalowicz:
Grateful for the credit card and um, sure enough, they became an official sponsor later on. So There's your little tip.
AJ Harper:
That's funny. That's such a mike thing. Yeah.
Mike Michalowicz:
Just get out there and do it and get your copyright must read for God's sake. Uh, next week we're gonna talk about working on multiple books at the same time. The pros, the cons, the insanity. Remember that commercial? Stop the insanity. Yes. That's what this is. Uh, we have a website. What is it? It's Dwtbpodcast.com. You can get a sampling more than a sampling. You can get a treasure trove of AJ's materials up there. It's for you for free. Plus, uh, we are sending out some other bonus stuff that we're doing, uh, and sharing from subscribers to that page. So go to dw tb podcast.com Also, uh, if you have a topic you want us to talk about, email us at hello@dwtbpodcast.com. Thank you for joining us for today's episode. The World does not need More books. I'll promise you that. AI is spitting 'em out left and right, but gosh, AI is writing those books, so don't write that book. Write the greatest book you can.
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