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Ryan Levesque, author of business methodology book Ask. Ryan wrote his book as a unique type of \u201cbusiness card.\u201d It was a marketing tool for his \u201cAsk Method\u201d for businesses. After putting $1 million into his book, Ryan is now seeing the benefits, with tens of thousands of copies sold and a viable business in the education industry.

Famous 5:

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• Favorite Business Book? \u2013 The Hard Thing About Hard Things

• What CEO do you follow? \u2014 Elon Musk
• Favorite online tool? \u2014 Slack

• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?\u2014 No
• If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? \u2014 Don\u2019t be so afraid, man

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Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:16 \u2013 Nathan introduces Ryan Levesque, author of Ask
• 01:55 \u2013 Ryan wrote the book as a business tool, \u201ca business card.\u201d
• 02:40 \u2013 The first half of the book tells his personal story, a polarizing element for the book.
• 04:08 \u2013 more than 55,000 copies have sold.
• 04:35 \u2013 He was introduced to a publisher with no royalty, and his second book will have an advance
• 05:18 \u2013 He spent $1 million of his own money
• 05:42 \u2013 The biggest expense was advertising
• 06:28 \u2013 \u201cIf you\u2019re writing a book to make money on the book, you\u2019re going to be disappointed.\u201d
• 07:16 \u2013 His advance for his next book is a six-figure advance--around $250,000 to $500,000 would be ideal.
• 08:15 \u2013 One mistake was to use partners to sell the book.
• 09:00 \u2013 Podcasters were the one group that understood giving out free books.
• 09:30 \u2013 He met with several podcasts each week.
• 10:20 \u2013 Ryan originally wanted to drive traffic to the \u201cAsk Method\u201d
• 11:30 \u2013 They are now exclusively an education company.
• 12:05 \u2013 He made over $1 million a year on his different platforms, and eventually a business hired him for $50,000 up front and 5 % royalty.
• 13:00 \u2013 He shifted to focusing on larger businesses.
• 14:00 \u2013 He works with different markets and learns about how to refine his business.
• 14:50 \u2013 Today they help students apply the methodology to their business.
• 15:28 \u2013 The book and the program work hand-in-hand.
• 16:28 \u2013 Go to askmethod.com for articles and downloads.
• 18:36 \u2013 Ryan does the Famous Five

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3 Key Points:

• Make your story personal.
• Don\u2019t write a book to make money\u2014if you do, you\u2019ll be disappointed.
• Considering using a book as a promotional or marketing tool.

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Resources Mentioned:

• Host Gator \u2013 The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
• Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
• Leadpages\xa0 \u2013 The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
• Audible \u2013 Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.

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• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

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