In this info-packed episode, Mark Guberti, who started his entrepreneurial journey at eleven and now has over 100,000 students, shared his insights about why and how authors can  use You Tube to sell books and grow their businesses, how to sell without selling, his secret for churning out content for Twitter every hour, his thoughts about age and how you shouldn’t let yours hold you back and more!

Resources mentioned 

Book: You Tube Decoded

Free Virtual Content-Marketing Summit http://tinyurl.com/guberti

3 Key Points

You tube is video, which is one of the most engaging forms of content and a great way to get exposure for your books.

Do videos on topics related to your book, and then mention your book to get people to buy it.

Automate your content distribution and make it evergreen so you can reuse it over and over again.

Show Notes

[.51] My guest is Marc Guberti, a USA Today and WSJ best-selling author with over a hundred-thousand students in over a hundred and eighty countries enrolled in his online courses.

He’s the host of the Breakthrough Success Podcast and Radio Show where listeners learn how to achieve their breakthroughs. He coaches content creators on how they can attract more traffic to their content and boost revenues.

Ellen shared that she’s been following Marc on Twitter and loves his content and then got the chance to meet him on Steve Olsher’s podcast pitch.

Marc had shared with Ellen that he’s focused on YouTube right now.

[1:52] Why do you think YouTube is great for authors?

YouTube is a great place for authors because it’s video,  which is one of the most engaging forms of content and it’s also a way for you to get more exposure for your books. So one of the things you can do with the free content Is direct people to your books.  You can create content that revolves around your books.

[2:15] So one of Marc’s books, YouTube Decoded,  which recently came out. So, he is doing YouTube videos, and he talks about his book at the end. So combine that with the engaging format of video be able to show your book to your audience and having access to all this awesome data, like retention rate.

[2:37] Click the rate for your thumbnails is really important things like that gives you a quantified approach of how you’re doing with your content.

[2:53] How do you transition from talking about a topic to talking about your book?

Pick a topic that’s related to the book and say something like “I covered this topic in greater detail in my book,  YouTube Decoded. So if he’s  talking about how to create a high-quality video that makes money he’ll share three different tactics in the video and say, “  For more insights on how to make money with your YouTube channel, how to actually get people to those videos, you can get your copy of my book You Tube Decoded. “

So, if you’re talking about a smaller topic that is covered within your book and that leads into the rest of your book. You can even look at individual chapters and sections of your book to get an idea of what you should be talking about in your videos, so you can more easily transition to the book.

[3:57] What do you say to people when they say that they are not comfortable selling?

They want to make money; they feel like they have a book that provides value or is entertaining but not sell. Marc approaches this way, you have to think more about the benefit you’re going to give the reader or the journey you’re going to take them on instead of the fact that you have to ask for money for them to go on that journey.

[4:33] So if someone picks up Marc’s book, he knows that someone can transform their business or their life, sometimes both in a different way, but they only get that transformation if they get the book, and the only way they can get the book is if Marc does a good enough job at selling it and distributing it. So, think more about how your book can serve the person over feeling like you have to sell.

[4 :57] And that is just going to be easier for you to sell when you think more about the benefit of someone getting a copy of your book. And the only way that you can really continue to write books, make it full time,  and support the people you need to support,  is if you make money, and that’s done through selling.

[5:19] What do you say to people when they are afraid of giving too much away? How much content should they give from a single book?

Marc gets asked that a lot.  He wouldn’t worry about that. The reason being is that free content on the web is often very disorganized.

[5:43] So when it comes to an information product like a book you could probably find almost all the things from that book just by Googling, just by doing some research of trial and error, but the benefit of the book isn’t just information. There’s so much content out there. The benefit is that it’s streamlined in a very effective and efficient manner.

[6:08] Also people who they take themselves seriously or they take their Journey seriously,  at some point, they’re going to make investments like in a book. Marc says, personally he have spent thousands of dollars on coaching for instance, and he’s a coach so he understands both sides when it comes to you having to make the sale.

[6:30] ] You know you can impact the client, and you need to make money, at the same time, being able to make those investments in yourself. So when it comes to free content, Marc feels that if people aren’t going to buy your book. There’s but they consume your free content, that’s fine because, on places like YouTube,  it still helps with your discoverability and getting in front of potential readers.

[6:58]  Plus, when you do offer them free content, and you go all-in on your free content people say, “Wow, this free content is amazing The book must be like world-class!” So, the free content is a preview of the book whether you do that intentionally or unintentionally, that’s just the way it is.

[7:15] What do you say to people who are intimidated by video?

Video is a great form of content to produce, but, sometimes, people are camera shy. So, if that’s the case, you can do something like getting Screenflow or Camtasia, recording yourself doing slides because doing audio, Marc doesn’t think that’s as intimidating because it is more so for girls than guys with makeup and how they look on camera.

[7:51] ] It’s based on how you feel in front of the camera. If you’re not ready to go on the camera or you feel like it’ll take some time for you to prep to be on the camera do slides with Screenflow or Camtasia, record yourself, and then publish your videos and building up to the point where you can talk on camera because those are going to be the videos that are more engaging.

[8:16] It will build a lot more trust because people see who you are. You could actually hold up your book during the video, which will also help to promote the book. You could have a nice background. Marc has five backgrounds -a bunch of copies of his book behind him with his podcast logo behind him too. So, you could do things like that.

[8:41] Ellen added, she remembers being so freaked out about being on camera, and how she looked. But she learned that when you’re giving really good information,  you stop thinking about yourself (focus on the audience); when you’re comfortable in your own skin that it comes across really well.

The key is to not think about yourself.

[9:33] Something Marc has done somewhat successfully is vlogging. But, just don’t vlog in public for a while, till you are more comfortable. But you get through it by thinking about your audience.

[10:04] Is there anything else to cover today about YouTube specifically?

Marc said that obviously his book has a lot more details on creating videos and promoting them to reach more people.

[10:23] ] There are some different parts of YouTube that could be tackled, but if you just go out there; you create the videos; you have some kind of offer like your book that you mention in your video, and then you use social media or your networks, all your connections, reach out to people when your video comes out-you do that, that could be the foundation of a really successful YouTube-marketing strategy.

[10:54] When you’re talking about reaching through social media… you have over a hundred thousand students. How did you do create such a huge social-media presence?

Make shared that he did that through a lot of patience,  a lot of content creation and added there is no super hack; it comes down to creating all that content.

[11:18] Then, looking at what his audience liked the most. Then, doubling down on that type of content and just kept on showing up because on YouTube it could take a while for some creatives to be successful.

But what they hit that success all of a sudden, their channels spike. It’s just a matter of time, a matter of listening to your community and showing up to them in ways to big guys don’t

You could jump on a call with someone in your community if you have a smaller community-someone who has thousands of subscribers can’t really do that as effectively just because of scale.

[12:01] So if you’re a smaller channel you have ways to engage their community and really build and grow in ways that it’s impossible for the bigger channels to do.

[12:14] One of your online bios said that you put out content every 15 minutes on Twitter. Is that true?

Marc shared that he used to but has scaled down to once per hour. He uses  HootSuite to schedule the tweets;  the bulk scheduling features is what he likes to use because a lot of the content he creates is evergreen. So like this interview, for instance, it’s not like it’s published, and then like three weeks from now it’s irrelevant.

[12:48] This is an interview about YouTube, and it is going to be relevant for as long as YouTube stays relevant, and it’s not going to become irrelevant anytime soon. It’s evergreen content, so you can tweet it over and over again.

[13:03] What do people do when they are just starting out and thinking, “Oh my God, you know, how am I going to put out that much content once an hour?”

Somebody has to sit there and get it up into HootSuite.

Initially, it was just doing a tweet every hour to where he is now at this point, but when he first started,  it was done manually, then he made the investment, which is common when you are around people who are successful.

[13:36] He made the investment in HootSuite Pro. They gave you a bulk scheduler, so you put all your tweets in a CSV file, and you could literally have like over a hundred tweets scheduled with like six clicks, and they just change around the dates each time you need to reschedule all those tweets in the CSV file. That’s how he’s been able to easily do it.

[14:06] So let’s talk about being a best-selling author. So, Marc was a USA Today and WSJ best-selling author. How did you do that?

So, the story behind that book is it was a collaboration book with over twenty authors who teamed up to write that book. That is where you get at the heart of what makes the best-selling author because even people who write their own book don’t have co-authors or a way to become a best-selling author.

[14:34] It’s practically never just you. It’s always going to be a ton of other people working behind the scenes, promoting your book for you to their audiences. You get maybe fifty people to promote your book, do the whole outreach in advance. That’s how Marc became a bestseller-a bunch of people promoting your book to their audiences, and you can say something like, “If you promote my books to your audience, I’ll return the favor.”

[15:01]” I’ll promote your book to my audience,” or “I’ll have on my podcast”, or “I’ll promote you to my Facebook group,”  whatever it is. If you have that incentive, more people are going to promote your book to their audiences, and that’s how you build-up to the bestseller status. It’s a bunch of people promoting your book.

[15:20] ] Advanced tip: also make your book available for pre-order if you really want to hit a bestselling list because the way those bestsellers are calculated is all the preorder sales you make in advance are lumped to the day of.  So if you make let’s say 3,000 preorder sales in like three months leading up to your book launch,  day one of your book release will register as 3000 sales for the different numbers you have to hit for bestseller lists.

[15:52] Is that for paperback or Kindle books or does it matter?

It could be Kindle or paperback books. The bestseller lists are complicated stuff- some are ebook-specific others are print specific every book-specific. Some of them require you to not exclusively use Amazon. So for this bestsellers list, for instance, Marc’s book was also published on Barnes & Noble and get sales through that platform before they even set the pre-order up on Amazon.

[16:22] So if you want to hit a big bestselling list, make sure you know what the requirements are.

What would you say to people who want to be a best seller and only give themselves three weeks or a month to set it up where there is no time to set up pre-orders?

It depends on the bestseller list. If you want to be a USA Today Wall Street Journal or New  York Times you definitely need more three weeks. But if you want to be an Amazon bestseller-like a number-one bestselling Amazon author, any category, then it’s possible.

You just do your research into categories. You see what the number-one books are for different categories. See where their ranking.  Pick a category with not that much demand that relates to your book, and then drive a ton of sales to it on day one.

[17:24] ] You don’t even need that many sales.  If you get like three to five sales per day for a week for subcategories, that’s enough to put you to number one. It just depends that the categories you pick on Amazon.

[17:39] What else can I ask you about that?

Marc said he was going to talk about the books a little bit-to make sustainable sales then you can run the Amazon ads as a     way to continue driving sales after a launch-AMS ad.

Ellen looked into that and doesn’t think it’s very hard to do. Marc agreed.

[18:08] You just pick a few keywords. You have a good book cover, you get reviews because like it’s not guaranteed money;  you still have to have a good-looking book cover, description, reviews -all that stuff, but if you have those basic things, Marc believes it’s very easy to profit from Amazon ads. However, It’s hard to actually get Amazon to spend your money.

[18:31] So, let’s say you made $10 you spent like $5 to $7, so it’s a profit. It’s hard to get that to spend a ton of money to make more profit, and they are cheaper than Facebook.

[18:52]  Marc’s Podcasts

One that everyone knows is Breakthrough Success. That’s where Marc interviews two people each week. They talk about how to achieve your big breakthroughs in business and life. His second podcast, Profitable Public Speaking, takes a deep dive into how people can get booked on more stages, how to make a full- time income from your public speaking and what you can do to grow your business through public speaking-two different shows.

[19:43] What would you tell people is the best ways to grow their business?

Marc shared that it’s all about relationships. Focus on the opportunities that lead to the most relationships, so podcasting. You can do strategy calls but you can get into a lot more conversations with people around podcasting and give your audience the content they need so that they see all this content from you, and there is actually a reason to jump on a strategy call.

[20:17] Also, think about using LinkedIn to build business relationships and get some clients from that platform,  and YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are all really great options as well for creating content and distributing it.

[20:33] But the big theme here is building relationships and having a way to get a bunch of those people on your email list,

Ellen agreed. She loves podcasting for that exact reason; you get to meet new people, hear what they have to share and seeing the different ways that people approach their businesses.

[20:59] And it’s true, once you create those initial touches with people, it’s just a lot easier to then continue and Ellen has had great things happen from getting to meet people. It’s definitely about the relationship.

[21:23] She added that when she started her business in 2004 it was a lot easier, but she still started out building relationships and so was able to get started really fast. And even today, a lot of her business is referral, and it’s all through the relationships.

[21:46] How to reach Marc:

So for people wondering how they can have more success, they can listen to his podcasts. He also has a YouTube channel. And you can check out his virtual summit, Content Marketing Success Summit.

That is an evergreen Summit, so you’ll always be able to watch the sessions. There’s more content that they keep publishing, so it’s updated and his latest book is YouTube Decoded.

([22:19]) To get the Summit, go to: http://tinyurl.com /guberti*

It’s FREE!

And get the book on Amazon.

[22:50] Closing thoughts

Age should not limit your success. Marc started at eleven years old. People thought he was too young to be talking about business. He ignored those thoughts and kept going, and now he’s a successful entrepreneur. He helps people make money with their content. So if you believe there is a limit to your success, he would challenge you to challenge that limit.

[23:21] And think about, “How can I achieve the success that I want to achieve, and power through all the roadblocks that are standing in my way,” and that you may also be putting those roadblocks in your way. So, think about that too.

[23:36] What got you started at eleven years old?

Marc was a Red-Sox fan who lived in New York. There were no Red-Sox fans in the area. , he wrote a blog about the Red Sox. It introduced him to blogging and taught him about content marketing and digital marketing- stuff like this.

[24:11] Ellen added that it’s not about feeling your too young, but also too old. She recently saw a tweet,  and somebody was saying that if you’re between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four, you have time to take some risks,  and Ellen just started laughing because she was in the music business for twenty years and is a Grammy-nominated songwriter and didn’t start online marketing and coaching until she was fifty-one!

So, it’s not just whether you’re young it’s also whether you think you’re too old;  it goes both ways. Marc agreed.

[24:51] Ellen then shared a story she heard in the best video of 2018; it was a motivational video with Les Brown; it was amazing.  But, one of the stories he told about a woman who was in her 70’s, and she wanted to build a multi-million- dollar complex, and, of course, everybody told her she was crazy,  she was too old,  and  he said, luckily she didn’t listen to them,  and she got it built!

So yeah, you’re never too young, you’re never too old.

[25:30] ] Ellen then encouraged everyone to follow Marc.

She also reminded them that they could get Marc’s program at http://tinyurl.com /guberti *  for FREE!  And get the book, YouTube Decoded on Amazon.

*That is an affiliate link if you decide to upgrade, I will make a commission. I appreciate you supporting the podcast by using the link if you want to go on with Marc.

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