In this episode, Christian Rodwell welcomes back book mentor and author Karen Williams to WealthTalk. Karen shares her journey from HR professional to publishing expert, and reveals why writing a book is a powerful tool for entrepreneurs, coaches, and consultants looking to build wealth, authority, and recurring income.
Welcome to another insightful episode of Wealth Talk, where we explore the strategies, tools, and mindset shifts that help you build lasting wealth. This week, host Christian Rodwell is joined by Karen Williams, book mentor and founder of Librotas, who helps coaches, consultants, and business owners turn their ideas into impactful books that elevate their authority and attract new opportunities.
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Speaker 1 (00:00.066)
Are we all going to become millionaires from the book sales themselves?
A lot of people ask me that and that is definitely not how you make money from a book. But when you have your book as part of your wider ecosystem, speaking gigs, courses, regular recurring income from monthly memberships which add value to people who bought the book, that's where the magic happens. How would you feel if in a year, two years time, either you didn't do it or someone else wrote a book that you thought, I wish I'd written it?
Welcome to this week's episode of Wealth Talk. My name is Christian Rodwell, the membership director for Wealth Builders, joined today by our founder, Mr. Kevin Whelan. Hi, Kevin. Hi, Chris.
Good to be with you again and you've taken us on a trip down memory lane and back again. How about that?
we welcome back one of our guests who first appeared on this podcast back in May 2020. So we can all remember what was going on back then, right?
Speaker 3 (00:50.37)
I remember I was booked on to go and see a concert with my wife, Level 42, if anybody knows who Level 42 are, a band of the eighties, guess. 16th of March it was, and it got canceled. And then the whole world fell apart, didn't it really? It's interesting for us because about five years ago, since we had the cohort intakes, we? Wealthbiddle is like a university class. And some of those students, wow, they're doing some good work, aren't they as well?
Well, we talk about five years to financial independence, between five to seven for most people who have a plan, who stick to it consistently. And yeah, I was speaking to one of those members who joined us back then only last week, who has now sacked his boss, quit his very high powered, high paying job and is financially independent. So, you know, it's absolutely possible.
Anyway, so what we talk about today
Yeah, so our guest today is Karen Williams. She's the book mentor and Karen is talking to us really about pillar number six. For those of you listening who are familiar with the wealth builders, seven pillars of wealth, pillar six is intellectual property. And it's one asset that we all have got, Kevin.
all have got intellectual property because we're trading, whether we're trading time for money or whether we're building a business, you know, if you're trading time for money, you're selling your intellectual property for an hourly rate. And I've used this before, so it's interesting, isn't it? That if you, if you divide your salary, if you've got a job by two, that's the hourly rate, you're selling the rights to your work IP. So if you're on 50 grand a year, it's 25 pounds an hour. you're on a hundred grand a year.
Speaker 3 (02:30.604)
It's 50 pounds an hour, but it's always giving it away. So you don't own the right to your IP because you basically sold it. IP times T equals your wage. Somebody else was putting a value on that. I just love the idea though of keeping IP and creating a recurring income from it or supporting a recurring income or supporting a much wider opportunity. So, you know, we're all standing on a mountain of value.
But rarely are we really sharing that. And Karen does a good job today in helping us understand how things have changed over the last five years and how even AI can help us be faster and easier to create the book that's in everyone as we hear so often.
Absolutely. So let's hope that today's conversation with Karen Williams will be the catalyst for you if you haven't yet released and published that first book. All right, so let's head on now to our conversation today with Karen Williams. Karen, welcome back to Wealth Talk. How are you?
I'm good, thanks Christian, thanks for inviting me back. It's been a while, hasn't it?
2020, I believe. We must have in the midst of COVID back then.
Speaker 2 (03:43.03)
We were. Yeah, a lot of things changed during that period, didn't they? So certainly my business changed during that period and I guess the way you worked changed as well.
It did, I think for so many people, whether that was where we work, whether it's in an office at home, how we work, the hours, everything. And of course, the advancement of technology in the last five years as well, which will probably be something that we touch on today because we're talking all about books today. I'd love to know, I'm going to go straight in with you, Karen, and ask you, how can a book play a part in somebody's wealth building journey? Because are we all going to become millionaires from the book sales themselves?
a lot of people ask me that and that is definitely not how you make money from a book. But as you know, one of your pillars is IP, intellectual property. And actually a book can play such a big role in that side of things because most of us as entrepreneurs, as experts, as coaches, consultants, as experts in our business, we've got so much content that we have in our heads and we can turn it into a book. But as you know, the book itself doesn't make you millions. But actually when you have your book as part of your wider ecosystem, that's where the magic happens.
So I'm thinking things like courses and programs and one-to-one services consultancy. Gosh, there's so many things that people can do.
So book is really an essential piece in that personal branding, that profile building, and of course the authority that comes from being a published author. So today, who are we really talking to in terms of the ideal kind of person who could benefit from this?
Speaker 2 (05:10.902)
Really, I tend to work a lot with entrepreneurs. So they can be, as I mentioned earlier, coaches, consultants, accountants, payroll experts, CEOs. I work with quite a few CEOs who are using the book to build their brand. They want to do more speaking outside of their business and to really build their credibility and expertise. So that's typically the types of people I work with. So those who are providing a service, so it's less likely to be those providing a product, but it can be, it really depends.
Now you've published 10 books yourself plus two second editions and you transition from that corporate role in HR to becoming a business owner and a book mentor and you published your first book and I think that was such a big moment for you, wasn't it? Secrets of successful coaches. So how did that impact your business and your own brand?
it turned around. Writing that book back in 2009 was not the easiest thing to do because I didn't have someone like myself mentoring me through the process. So I did it. was feeling in the dark trying to work out what to do, how to do it. I got in my own way. It was a massive learning curve. But it took me 18 months from start to finish, but it transformed my business because this is 2011 that I published it. So that's way before social media is like it is today.
Way before a lot of the tech obviously has changed recently and also marketing was very much old school back then when it's changed hugely in the last, gosh, where are we now? So 16 years. No, 15 years ish.
And what was the reason for you writing that? What were you hoping to gain from that process?
Speaker 2 (06:33.55)
That was a bit random. I was doing my NLP master practitioner at the time and I was interviewing some really successful coaches across the UK and the US and I wanted to get that message out to more people. At the time, the best way of doing it was by writing a book and that's really where it came from. It was one of those, I think I'm going to write a book moments and a lot of people go through, but I did it and just put it into practice and got it out there.
Yeah, and it's still as powerful today. You know, whilst the world is a digital world these days, you you still love the tangible feel of having a book. You know, one of our members kindly sent me a copy of their book this week and just receiving that package, you know, coming through the letterbox, opening it, thumbing through it, looking at the cover, the artwork, all of that magical stuff still.
is, and I don't think it ever goes away, even when you've published so many books like I have, and you probably know what it's like yourself. It doesn't go away, that feeling of excitement and also trepidation when you get your book in your hand for the first time.
Is it easier or harder in your opinion than Karen to write and launch a successful book today?
Gosh, that's a really big question. I think it's easier because it's easier to publish a book. It's harder to stand out and actually get it noticed because so many people are doing it. Over the last five years, we talked about the pandemic. I noticed in 2020 and I shifted my business because I knew a lot of people were going to be using that time to write a book and they did. It proved me right. A lot of people did use that period, but so many people are doing it these days as you have to stand out. It's not enough to write any old book these days. You have to write the right book.
Speaker 2 (08:04.46)
your business, especially if you're using it as part of your funnel, as part of your ecosystem to actually generate more clients, more business. You have to write a really good book and it needs to look good and it needs to feel good and it needs to be good.
And we know a lot of people talk about doing a book, they never get around to it, or it takes a long time, never gets finished. So perhaps you can share some tips with us in a moment as to how people can just get started and a bit of a process that maybe they can follow for that. But from your experience, what are some of the most unexpected opportunities that have come from some of your clients that you've seen from someone being a published author?
Traveling around the world speaking, certainly one of my clients. So she wrote her first book in the pandemic, actually. She came to me before everything happened in 2020 and she was working in Croatia at the time. She is Croatian and she wanted to travel the world speaking and that's what she does now. She's just about to launch literally as we're recording this, just about to launch her second book. So it's really exciting to see her journey and what she's been creating, traveling around the world, delivering the content in the book and also the second book, which is going to make more of an impact.
Other things, speaking gigs, not necessarily worldwide, more visibility, courses, memberships, that type of thing as well. So regular recurring income from monthly memberships, which add value to people who have bought the book. Gosh, so much. I'm not really sure where to go. I've got one of my clients, former client of mine, who's actually trying to fund a film with his life as well at the moment. So that's another thing you can do is look at things like Netflix or other channels out there, especially if you're writing a memoir style book.
to maybe actually record that as a film.
Speaker 1 (09:39.502)
And there's a phrase, there? The book is the new business card. if you're in business, if you're looking to get new clients and stand out from the competition, sending a copy of your book and having a client receive that, that's going to make an impact, isn't it? And most people are not doing that. So if you can stand out and put yourself front of the line, really, then yeah, there's a huge advantage.
think people need to think beyond Amazon because yes, your book needs to be on Amazon and it all needs to be on all of the other platforms out there. But if you think beyond the book itself and how you can use your book as maybe lumpy mail to get in front of the right people or even bulk book sales as well. I'm thinking about organizations, if you're doing a speaking gig, including it in your speaker fee.
Or if you want to get in front of a college or university as part of a course, for example, there's so much scope for a book. And I think people think, I've got a book and that's it. But actually, if you think beyond the book, there's so much potential for it to build a business.
Yeah, that's a point actually. Yeah, I've definitely been to events where I've received a copy of the book from the person on stage and that's great. And as you say, that's a deal that you can kind of broker as part of overall package there. So let's get into why so many people have a book in them, but so many people don't ever get around to actually releasing that book. Why do people overcomplicate it?
Well, that's what they do. They don't, they, Christie, and they overcomplicate the process. They think it needs to be big. And actually, when you have a process, then most of us, we have got so much knowledge in our heads, too much knowledge, and that can be overwhelming. But actually, if we just take what we've got and actually lay it out in front of ourselves and go, okay, so what is the process that we might teach our clients or what do we know that would be useful for people? What nuggets of information do we have? How can we share it in a book? And for me, the success comes from actually the planning, the structure.
Speaker 2 (11:31.618)
I think too many people start writing the book without a structure and then they get overwhelmed. Then they start, they stop, they don't finish it. But actually when you've got a really good plan right from the very beginning, you spend time with that structure, that's where the magic happens because it makes it easier. The people overcomplicate it and it doesn't have to be complicated. Believe you me, I have an idea pretty much every month on, I could do this, but I have to make a decision not to do it or when I'm going to do it. Otherwise, well, you know what it's like. You can go in a million directions.
Yeah, I think it's like any wealth building strategy and writing a book is a wheel turn in wealth builder language. You turn the wheel on a strategy and that could be writing a book, which means getting enough knowledge and education and having support. But having accountability, having someone to push you to guide you is important. Hence, of course, why you've been coaching and having such success as the book mentor for all these years.
And community that goes with that, it? Because when you, guess you're almost in a cohort and, know, for nice competition, shall we say, but encouraging others to get across the line. And when you're doing it by yourself, that can be really hard.
Yeah, so I've run free monthly online networking, which enables people to get together and learn from each other. I've also got a mastermind group where people work with me on a more intimate basis as well. And I think it's really nice to be working on other people and me working with clients. I can see kind of the, almost the dots that can be connected with clients. So I've got this client who's doing this and I connect my clients sometimes. If there's a commonality, it's very rare that a book is, is identical to another book.
because it might be for similar audience or on a similar topic, but it's a very different angle or hook normally. Normally, I think there's some real hot topics at the moment. Neurodiversity is one. I've worked with quite a few clients working within that realm, but very, very different books. Technology, of course, it's another thing that moves so quickly, doesn't it? So it's a hard thing to write about. And also memoir style books, especially if someone's building their brand from their book. So there's some hot topics that I see, but every book is different.
Speaker 2 (13:33.388)
And it's finding that unique angle and the thing that makes it different and the thing that makes it stand out.
Another question I know people have is when should they write the book? You know, at what stage? perhaps people wait until they feel they've got enough knowledge or credibility or success stories behind them. What would your advice be in terms of when to actually start?
Probably about a year ago. It's one of those things, you know, if you think about when you want the book published and work backwards. So I think people tend to leave it too long. I think it has to be the right time for the right person, know, for the person, because ultimately if you've got a lot going on, you're probably not going to be able to commit to it. But actually, if you want to have a book out, say May 2026, you need to start it now.
It's not something, you know, because it can take some time to plan it, to write it. If you've got a busy life, you've got a busy family, busy business, you need to fit it in amongst everything else. And yes, you know, I've run a writing retreat, just come back from Spain recently where I run a retreat, but not everyone can do that, have that luxury of going away and actually having that quality time. That's just never the right time to write a book. It's just finding the right time for the person. And, but yeah, if you want to book out summer 2026, I'd say get a move on.
you mentioned there about working backwards, what would someone realistically expect the process to take from idea to publication?
Speaker 2 (14:47.99)
It depends. I tend to work with people for nine months, but normally I would say probably my average is about 12 months. Some people do it quicker. One of my mastermind clients, she went from idea to publication in nine months. So that's probably unusual. Most people I would say take about an average of 12. Some take more, some take less.
You've got your own process that you teach, the smart author process. Can you give us an idea of kind of how that looks? Just kind of break it down.
Yeah, so basically it takes people through the whole process of writing a book from that idea of, want to write a book, I don't know what it's about, who it's for, or they've got a vague idea, but they're not quite sure on the structure, through to publication, marketing, and launch. So I take people through the whole process. So getting really clear on that messaging before they start writing it, getting really clear on the vision and the goal for the book as well. Because if you know what you want your book to do, it's easier to actually measure whether you've achieved it at the end of it.
So knowing whether you want it to get more speaking, to maybe sell a program or a product, how it links into the business you've got already or a business that you might want to create as well. Because not everyone comes to me with a business already created or they might be, I hate this word, I use it anyway, pivoting their business as a result of writing their book. So ultimately it's starting with the end in mind and knowing where you want the book to go, knowing what you want to create with it. And then it's that process of getting really clear on what your message is, what you're good at.
what your story is, what client stories you have to bring to the party, what the structure for the book is before you start writing it. There's obviously the writing process and getting feedback along the way and then editing, publication and the launch side of things as well. And not forgetting marketing, which needs to happen throughout because that's another thing that people leave to learn.
Speaker 1 (16:28.846)
Well, I can say from experience as well, the process of writing is a challenging one, right? To actually get the book done, get it finished. And then you've got to think about how you're going to market this and how you're going to get out to the world because you could have the best book ever, but if nobody knows about it, then it's not going to do much for you. yeah, marketing's a huge part. Come onto that in just a second, but I want to ask you about publishing options as well, because
Perhaps you can just explain what the options are for people today and do you need to have decided on that before you start writing?
question. So, no, you don't need to have decided it before you start writing, but your process might be slightly different depending on which way you might be going. At the end of the day, everybody needs a really good idea. I recommend everyone puts together a proposal, even if you're not proposing to get a traditional publishing deal. Having that clarity right from the very start will help you anyway, even if you're self-publishing. But in answer to your first question, Christian, there are three main ways in which people publish. Self-publishing, hybrid publishing, known as partnership publishing sometimes.
and also traditional publishing. The thing about self-publishing, again, there's a million different directions you can go in with that. You can write a book, you can put it on Amazon without needing any support, but I work with a great self-publishing partner who does a lot of the legwork for the clients so they don't have to worry about a thing. There's different ways in which you can take that. They're the three main ways in which people get published and there's pros and cons of the different ways in terms of cost, timeframe, control.
control of your intellectual property as well, which is obviously a big concern for many, many of your listeners as well. Self-publishing is a way of retaining your intellectual property totally. There are good ways of doing it and not so good ways of doing it.
Speaker 1 (18:08.542)
What's your advice for promotion then, especially for those who perhaps haven't got a big list or a big database? What are some tips for someone who maybe they've been writing the book, they're listening now, they're kind of working out now, how are going to launch it? What are some ideas for them?
So I would say first off is to build the list as you write the book. So there's so many things which you can do to do that in terms of sharing your content, using social media. Social media is such a powerful tool, not everyone likes it, but depending on your audience and where they tend to hang out and also where you hang out, there are ways you can sort of test how the material lands with people. Podcasts are an amazing way, obviously, of doing it. I've got my own podcast, you've got a podcast. We both know how powerful that.
this medium has become over the last few years. There's certainly building the list and using your connections. I think the most important thing when it comes to the launch itself is looking at who you know and who can actually help you to get the message out and your book out to more people. Because it's not what you know, it's who you know in terms of getting that wider reach. It's building your own list and curating your own contacts, but it's also about getting it out to more people who can sing your praises as well.
Yeah, the podcast is definitely a good, I mean, I podcast and book, those two are just such powerful, powerful tools for anyone listening who does want to kind of step up and really build their brand. Just focus on those two things, right? And you've got a book and now you've got something to actually talk about on podcasts and give value to, to, you know, other listenerships. It's such a good way to build up your list, build up your profile and your social followings. So really on board with that and talking about technology then.
got to mention AI, right? It's taking over the world and surely we could just write a book in 10 minutes with AI, couldn't we?
Speaker 2 (19:53.922)
You can, and I use it a lot to unravel the thoughts in my head. As you can imagine, I have a lot of thoughts and a lot of my clients use it to not help them to write the book, but just to help them to maybe clarify what they want to say. It's a great research tool for people. did when ChatGPT came into my orbit, where are we now? So about two years ago, two and half years ago, I...
had a choice, do I embrace it or do I ignore it? And I was working with a business coach at the time who said, you need to embrace it. So I learned a lot about it. I do use it. I do teach and talk about it quite a lot with clients, but there's a right way of using it and a wrong way of using it. I can tell when people have used ChatGPT because it does have its tells, as you probably know, but it is a really great way of, know, if you're writing a book, it can help you to maybe create a mnemonic around what you're teaching. It can help you with what needs to go in a chapter, what doesn't need to go in a chapter.
When I was updating Book Marketing Made Simple, which is one of my books, which was a couple of years ago now, so obviously I've been using it for a fair while, I was updating it. I was writing new chapters. I was changing content in the book and one of the new chapters I created, I just used it to go, okay, this is what I want to create. What needs to be in it? It just gave me that push to do more research in areas that I didn't have much knowledge. Again, you've got tools like Perplexity.
that can do a lot of deep research as can chat GPT these days. So there's plenty of tools out there and it's finding the one that works for you in terms of AI. Some people hate it, but why not make life easier for ourselves?
perplexity. That's one that I've not heard of. I will definitely check that out. there's, you know, the editing process you talked about, proofreading and there's tools out there. know, Grammarly is great for helping with things like that as well. Yeah, I can see how, you know, AI takes away the challenge that a lot of people have. I think when writing a book is sort of that blank page of, right, where do I start? How do I just get going? Because it can get the ball rolling and then you start adding your touch to it.
Speaker 1 (21:53.294)
Okay. So I know you've, you've also kindly put together a freebie for our listeners, Karen. I'll put a link to download that. Do you want to just let them know exactly what that includes?
I think a lot of entrepreneurs, as you say with the blank page syndrome, Christian, we think, okay, where do we start? A lot of people think they have to create something new, whereas most of us have a huge amount of stuff within our business. I put together a PDF which talks about the nine hidden bits of information in your book. The things that you have that you may not realize could make great book content. It might be things like the questions that your clients have asked you. It might be notes that you've created over the years, that type of thing.
So there's nine different things. There's probably more than nine, but I've kind of created it into nine different areas. So it gives you prompts and things to think about in terms of where to create your content to make it as easy as possible to pull it all together into a book.
Fantastic. Well, thank you for creating that for our listeners. And as I said, click on the link in the show notes and download a copy of that right now. And alongside that, maybe you can share the information about your upcoming writing challenge. I know that's coming up in July. What does that involve, Karen?
So I'm running a summer challenge over the summer holidays, running a webinar which kind of introduces it on the 9th of July. And again, I'll let you have the details for the show notes, Christian. But the writing challenge, I used to run it prior to 2019, where every summer we would get a group of people together writing a book. But I'm just, I'm going to throw it up a little bit differently this year. So I've got my smart author system, people will get access to. I'm going to give people the option to have writing hours so they can actually get together with a group, with a community to actually write the book.
Speaker 2 (23:29.1)
I will be doing an AI workshop as part of that. So I'm currently pulling all of the details together, but I'm looking to find out what people want from it at the moment. So it'd be a mixture of workshops, Q &A sessions, and just really support over the summer because I find that a lot of people during the summer holidays, they have less client work if they're working one-to-one with people and they have a little bit more time to write. So yes, of course you've got some holidays as well, but actually having that headspace to write is a great time, which is why.
I support people during the summer as much as possible.
If anyone listening is on the fence about writing a book, Karen, what's the final piece of advice that you'd give them to get started?
How would you feel if you didn't do it? I think it's worth asking yourself that question. How would you feel if you didn't do it? What's the benefit of doing it? So really sit with the fact, how important is it? Writing a book is not for everybody, but actually, how would you feel if in a year, two years time, either you didn't do it or someone else wrote a book that you thought, wish I'd written it, which a lot of people go through as well.
They do indeed. Karen, thanks so much for being a great guest on Wealth Pult.
Speaker 2 (24:32.536)
today. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (24:36.718)
Okay, so always great insights from Karen and she's very experienced. 10 books under her belt. Kevin, how many books for you now? Three. Yep, nearly on Karen's tales there.
Well, you know, I'm not after just creating books for the sake of books and neither is Karen, of course, but I think the three books for me were really sequentially where I was at a place in time. And they've all, they were never actually ever written. I think you made the good point. They were never written in the JK Rowling style to fund a yacht lifestyle. You know, they were never done for that. They were done for a combination of reasons. One,
because I'm committed to the cause of sharing and sharing the book, then you can turn it into a video, you can turn it into a audible, you can multipurpose, read dice and slice it any way you want to get the message out, but also it forces you to think about the value you're adding and it gives you credibility and authority. mean, if you think about the word author, the stem of authority comes from the word author. So I think
I've enjoyed that one was written talking specifically about debt when I was focused on how to pay a mortgage off really, really quickly. paid my own off in seven years and wrote a book on how to do that. And then the second most seven pillars of wealth, which interesting because that book found you. And then the third one was the wealth coach, which is really a more sophisticated book aimed at the business owner community. So each one has been written at a point in time.
And I think what I've seen recently, Chris, and I think you touched on it with Karen a little, was the use of AI now. And I think definitely with the benefit of AI and its ability to try and help you map out chapters, map out process, almost give you a template to run on, there may well be more books, but I didn't have the luxury of writing things in Portugal like you did. You took a little bit of time off to write your book, Sac Your Boss, right?
Speaker 1 (26:43.912)
I yeah, and probably fell into that trap that many feel that you could write a book in a week. It took me probably about eight months after returning back from Portugal before it was finished. hey, taking that first step is key. I think there's so many parallels of points that Karen made, which just apply to the entire wealth building journey. Having a guide, someone to keep you accountable.
to avoid the mistakes, to be a sounding board. Exactly the same when it comes to wealth building really. Whatever strategy, all of these things are key and overwhelmed as well. Most people overwhelmed with the process of actually getting started, but that's the same for many wealth building strategies, isn't it? It's just taking small steps. That's the way to proceed.
I suppose it's isolation as well. You when you write a book, it's in your head, isn't it? So starts out life in your head and then it turns into reality if it does. And many people feel isolated and on their own when it comes to that. even just having a sounding board, a sounding board where you can get something out and it echoes back can help you. So someone like Karen is great or a buddy, somebody who's co-authoring, somebody who's, you know, can write with you or somebody writes for you.
because you can use ghost writers these days as well. So all sorts of different ways you can create the right environment and the right support that works just for you. But I would definitely recommend wholeheartedly thinking about putting some time in your lifetime to having something written. And it doesn't have to be, I heard somebody say to me when they were talking about book writing, just don't think about it as a book. Don't write a book.
just write something. Imagine you're writing an article. So you don't give it a name because book sounds really heavy. Whereas if you just say, I'm just going to do a bit of writing on the subject of this. And then you'll find that it will expand as you use other people and AI to try and help you create chapters. Because that's really what a book is, is just a series of chapters. It doesn't have to be long either. It doesn't have to be a tome. It doesn't have to be thousands of pages. It could be an e-book. And with the advent of self,
Speaker 3 (28:55.458)
Publishing, you can do it really quickly. You don't need to persuade anybody else that your ideas are great. You just need to use it, test it. You can even write a book to test whether your ideas are well received.
That's a really good point. again, Karen said, think about the end goal, what's the purpose of it? And as you say, Kevin, could just be a few really key points that you carry around in your pocket when you're at networking meetings and you can hand a book, which might just be a really useful guide or introduction to some of the value that you can provide, obviously, as a wider service to someone. So events, speaking at events, you speak on many stages, Kevin.
ability to have some books with you and hand them out to people you meet. So as you say, doesn't need to be a big book by any standard.
And then I think there's been definitely some value and if I'm speaking on stage, I always show the three books, just show them on screen. And it gives the sense to the audience that this person has got some credibility to pay attention because they don't know you until you've really finished. So yeah, and I think if we listen to some other really good people in the world like Daniel Priestley who talks about becoming a key person of influence.
You're being outstanding in your field. One of the steps you can take to demonstrate your outstandingness is to say, what do you stand for? And to stand out, you've got to stand up. So what do you stand out? What do you stand up for? So you can create something. And in his book, The Key Person of Influence, he talks about publishing as being one of the key steps in the five steps becoming a KPI. So you're right. There's so many parallels, Chris, and there are probably more we could pull out if you wanted to do that.
Speaker 1 (30:37.792)
one that I'd like to leave our listeners to ponder on is how would you feel if you didn't do it? this, course, Karen was referring to if you didn't write that book. But again, when it comes to wealth building, when it comes to recurring income, when it comes to over-reliance on one source of income, how would you feel if you got to a point where it was too late and you look back and you haven't done it, you haven't taken the steps to secure your future, I think is a good thought.
It's an interesting one. It's real challenging thought though, because people live in the moment more often than not, and they don't pay the price for a lack of preparation, a lack of recurring income, until they begin to see they're running out of money. And I think increasingly we're seeing in the retirement world in the UK for sure, people are running out of money way before they run out of life. And that means a life of compromise, a life of disappointment.
a life of, well, very little or no legacy. And you can't be proud of that situation. So you can't be a great money model for your kids. So I would encourage anybody to make the choice. Recurring, building cashflow is better than building value and being involved and proactive is better than like giving somebody else your money and being reactive and spending some time, even if it's, what do we say, two hours a week, you know, spend, even if it's, can't spend two hours, spend one hour.
Listen to a good podcast, read a good book, try and write some things down that you want to build and develop in your own life and then escalate that to two hours. Because what we see when people build their wealth by incrementally adding the two hours on top of the two hours, the compounding effect starts to take place. And then when you get to security, you really can give up the day job because you don't need the money from the day job to live. That way you...
You give your wealth a huge acceleration, which is why that gap from three years to typically five years to build independence, often a much higher level, three grand to 10 grand, for example, can be achieved in two years, three to 10, then north to three, which is a much longer and a much harder because you've got so much gravity to overcome.
Speaker 1 (32:57.144)
So I think that wraps up today's episode. you enjoyed this, please do hit the share button, send it to a friend. Also, don't forget to follow, subscribe and like Wealthbuilders on whichever podcasting platform you are listening to. Maybe it's YouTube as well.
I'm just going to reach out here. I'm going to be a little bit confrontational if you don't mind. You and I show up on this podcast every single week for how long now? Six years? We've been doing it. We absolutely give everything we can. We hold nothing back. We find guests, we seek out guests, we seek out discounts or value as you do on behalf of our members, on behalf of our wider listorship. And I just mentioned, you know, can you give
an hour to yourself to start building wealth. But could you please give 30 seconds to me and 30 seconds to Chris, one minute of your life, and just subscribe or rate or share the podcast? It would mean a lot to us. And so few people just take that for granted. And I want you to not do that and just take one minute of your life, please one minute. Just give us the gift of one minute.
If we've been what, 250 plus episodes, we've given that gift back and we'll continue to get that. And I'd love to see a few people posting, liking, subscribing. And if you do that, honestly, I'd be very grateful.
Absolutely. Yeah, we'll be looking out and I'm sure we can read out some of those comments as well. yeah, Spotify now is more features. We see a lot of people listening on Spotify. If that's you, then do look at some of the Q &A's, the comments, and you can give us a star rating as well through the Spotify app. All right. So thanks for listening today. And Kevin, you and I will be back same time, same place next week.
Speaker 3 (34:41.23)
You like it of course,
Speaker 3 (34:50.86)
we will as long as we get some bloody reviews until then my friend see ya
Speaker 2 (34:58.318)
We hope you enjoy today's episode. Don't forget that we are constantly updating our resources inside the WealthBuilders membership site to help you create and protect your wealth. Head over to wealthbuilders.co.uk slash membership right now for free access. That's wealthbuilders.co.uk slash membership.
help you build and protect
Speaker 3 (35:15.214)
Okay, slash.