The Janine Bolon Show with John Feldman - 99 Authors Project, Season 5, Episode 9

The 99 Authors Project – Season 5 – Episode 9 with John Feldman14 min read

John Feldman

John Feldman founded Visionary Literary in 2021 after a decade of ghostwriting for NFL players, executives of billion-dollar organizations, and, his most memorable client: a World War II veteran.

John’s vision is to help entrepreneurs and industry leaders spread their message and positively impact readers’ lives across the globe. His life’s mission is to create a better future through sharing wisdom from the thought leaders of today.

He is the author of Your Book on Your Terms: The Most Efficient Way to Write, Publish, and Promote Your Nonfiction Book and the host of The Self-Published Success Podcast.

Transcript of the Show

Bryan Hyde
Welcome to the Janine Bolon show, where we share tips from around the globe. As we guide practical people with their finances using money tips, increase their incomes through side businesses, and maintain their sanity by staying in their creative zone.

Janine Bolon
Hey, welcome to The Janine Bolon Show where we are here to help you save time, save money and save your sanity. Now maybe for some of you that’s a lost cause I know it is with me. But today, we actually have somebody who can help you save time and is a godsend to folks who are struggling to write their books, and they need some assistance. And I just want to introduce you to John Feldman. Welcome to the show today, John.

John Feldman
Thank you for having me, Janine.

Janine Bolon
And so a little bit about John, before we just kick into high gear here, John has been writing and publishing books for over a decade. So like myself, he and I started our careers as hobbyists, it was a hobby, we enjoyed it. But he couldn’t focus in lecture halls. And now he has really made it established it as a career. After freelancing for several years and working with a client list that includes and this is where it’s awesome. He has NFL players, billion-dollar organizations, executives, and even a World War II veteran, John took his knowledge of his own business and he founded Visionary Literary in 2021, with one goal in mind: to help create a better future through sharing wisdom from thought leaders today. So basically, John and I both help people who have money, but not time. And we have concierge services. And when I found John, and he found me, we got very excited. We were like, oh my gosh, we can so help our clientele so much better. So thank you so much for doing what you do, John.

John Feldman
Good. Yeah, exactly. To you know, what you just said, we found each other we, we saw the connection, and we both like to save each other and our clients time in this busy, busy world that we’re living in. So excited to talk more about it.

Janine Bolon
Right. So kind of give us the story behind the story. That’s my favorite part. I always like learning, like, what made you decide to even create this company? I mean, you know, there had to be some sort of inspiration. It’s like, nobody takes calculus unless they have to, right. So some people, there’s a few percentage of people that really love and thrive in calculus, but to become an entrepreneur, what was your inspiration for this?

John Feldman
Yeah, so calculus was never my thing. But yeah, so just going back to, again, to my writing, right, in college, I thought, I’m going to write screenplays, I’m going to be a millionaire, I’m going to have movies and Hollywood, then that turned into okay, I’m gonna be a fiction novelist. And that all kind of fell through. Once I discovered ghost writing and writing for other people, nonfiction especially, I just a whole new world opened up, I was introduced to people who I always thought of as like, otherworldly. Right? So you mentioned NFL players, executives of billion dollar industries. I sat at the kitchen table of a business partner of Sam Zell, and just had a conversation with him, had I not had that conversation, I would have assumed again that you know, otherworldly. But just having that down to earth conversation, realizing that, you know, everyone is sort of everyone is the same, and everyone has this capability. It just opened my eyes. And then from there, just speaking to more people, again, being lucky enough to be a ghostwriter, and to speak with successful people. Everything just kind of lined up. And I realized that if I want to be successful, I need to take that leap of faith that they have all done at some point in their career.

Janine Bolon
Exactly. It is like feel the fear and do it anyway. It’s like, even though the pit in your stomach has butterflies, it’s one of those things just keep going. Talk to us a little bit about your company, what is the problem that you saw? Because every entrepreneur, this is what we do, we see a problem, we know we can solve it. And that’s we set up our whole business around it. So what was yours?

John Feldman
Yeah, so in, you know, a decade of writing for other people, especially since COVID hit and everything went remote, I would say 30 hours of my week were spent this on Zoom calls, having conversations with again, very busy, successful people. So for me to ask them for 2, 3, 4 hour blocks of time during business hours, was not doable for them. But they were forced to do it if they wanted to complete their book project. So again, with all the software available now, I just started to, you know, come up with a better way, devise a new plan, that was more beneficial and time efficient for them. But also, for me and for other ghost writers as well, right? Like I will come to the call with eight to 12 questions and for two- or three-hour block of time, I might speak for 15 minutes. And I’m just listening; the other portion. So again, for both parties, that’s not really efficient. So I just decided that there’s a better process and for the time being for the clients that we’ve had, it really has worked well. Again, technology has, has assisted.

Janine Bolon
Yes, it has made everybody’s life a little bit better when it works, right. When it works. When it works it works. So talk to us about, you know, how did you write your own book? How did you go about that process?

John Feldman
Well, trial and error, really. So when I first started again, like with fiction writing, it was just trying to go to conferences and study, you know, other books read a lot. So reading is key if you want to be a good writer, and from there just kind of coming up with new plans, right? Again, trial and error, write and rewrite. And then just researching, finding new ways, again, with technology has made everything more time efficient. But it’s also made everything more readily available. You can literally learn how to code apps on YouTube for free. So you can certainly learn how to be a better writer. And that’s kind of what I did by reading and by observing.

Janine Bolon
Right, learning what other people have done before you, yes, so what keeps you fired up with Visionary Literary? I mean, you know, what is it that keeps you moving when times get tough? Because we all of us, entrepreneurs, hit those times we’re like, oh, man, I hope something happens, because I’ve got mortgage, I’ve got bills. Yeah.

John Feldman
Yeah. I mean, that’s the unfortunate truth of life, right? We all have to pay our bills; we have families and everything. But when I just feel like when you find, and I’ve spoken to so many, again, business owners who just that passion is just there, right? And at some points, sure, you have your bills are due and your bills are behind, and you know, you’re getting collections calls, but you still know, deep down that your business is going to work. And it’s because you care, right? Like if you’re out for and again, this is a lot of cliche stuff, that’s all over Twitter, but if you just care about the numbers game and adding to your bank account, you’re not going to have that passion, right. But I love writing. And I love helping clients that I love, even after, you know, over a decade, and even though they’re not my books, but when a client’s books come in and you unbox those books for the first time. It’s, yeah, it’s, it’s an amazing feeling. And just knowing that I can help them and their busy schedules to create something that helps their business, their brand, and also their readers. It’s just, you know, something that I, I don’t see the fire ever subsiding.

Janine Bolon
Right? Exactly. I remember, what got me going and wanting to help authors was when my very first time it was in 2005, I was a self-published, they called it “vanity publishing” back then you were so vain, you were publishing your own book. But I had 27 rejections, and I got tired of waiting on publishers to figure out what I had was worthwhile. So I just went into the vanity publishing world. And I remember when we first got that first book, a box of books, and my youngest child looked up at me, because she saw me pulling the books out of the box. And she saw that my picture was on the back. And she went mom, and she looked at me with the biggest blue eyes and said, you’re famous. Like she was, mind altering to her that her mom’s face was on the back of a book. And that was so pivotal moment for me that I was like, I want every person who has a message, to be able to have that experience where one person turns to them and goes, this was inspiring. This really helped me. And so that’s my fire. Right. And I know every other entrepreneur has that same pivotal thing that happened that got you fired up. So talk to us a little bit about how do you market your authors? So that was the thing that shocked me when I was talking to you. You were like, yeah, and then we help them market their book. I’m like, whoa, what? Wait, did I hear that correctly? So talk to us. It’s so unusual for a publishing company to do that, or a publishing firm.

John Feldman
Yeah, yeah. And it’s just again, from my experience over again, I’ve saying a broken record here. But like, over the decade plus of writing, I just, I started to learn more about marketing, as I needed it for my own personal brand. And for my own books, right. And of course, I fell flat on my face many times, but I’ve learned a lot. And over those years after falling on my face, and then you know, seeing what works, what doesn’t work, I kind of put together like a little like a launch plan. So there is a simple launch plan that we give to everyone that comes through our doors. And that includes a copy of your book.

Janine Bolon
Thank you, yes.

John Feldman
So that again, the that helps them right. Like if they want to, again, take the time and go through that process. They have that. If they want something if they want us to help more again, we do more. I guess like customized planning, right? Because as you know, marketing isn’t a simple one-page document. Right? It’s not.

Janine Bolon
It’s not a one and done. Yeah, it’s not a one and done. I think a lot of us thought that that’s what was that the book would market itself or something like that. And that word of mouth or something like that and boy does is that an eye-opening experience for every new author. They’re like, whoa, why? Well, I thought this was the hard part getting the book out and published and you just kind of want to like, pat him on the head and go, okay, ready for the big world? Strap in your five point harness, get ready for the roller coaster. Yeah.

John Feldman
Yeah, there are, yeah, roughly 1 million books published each year. So if you just publish your book and kick back and put, you know, put your feet up on the desk and wait for royalty checks to come in, like I did when I first published. You’re going to be highly, highly disappointed. So yes, marketing is huge. And there are so many different variables, including just at the beginning with description and keywords and categories, and then going into paid versus organic, you know, ads and reach. So yeah, there’s a lot there. But it is possible to get your book, you know, to have it be successful.

Janine Bolon
So definitely tell us where people can find you.

John Feldman
Yeah, so Visionaryliterary.com is where you can find us. And then also, I am pretty active on LinkedIn, and Twitter. So Twitter is John_Feldman_, other than that, yeah, the website, again, is a good place to reach us to find out more about what we do. We’re constantly you know, speaking to new people, getting excited. We have two clients, or two prospects now that we’re hoping to bring on soon, and they are absolutely, like, never expected to have these types of clients at this point in our business life. But we are so so excited. And again, just excited to hear more stories from entrepreneurs and see how they can help their readers.

Janine Bolon
And that’s really the name of the game, get the message out there, inspire somebody or help them through tough times, so that they don’t have to slog through the mud like we did. I mean, anything I can do to help an author. So first of all, I just want to say, John, thank you for your time. And thank you for purchasing a whole bunch of my copies of my book, Author Podcasting, How to be a Standout Guest While Taking Your Book on a Virtual Tour. John’s company invested in me and so yeah, I’m gonna support him. He’s helping me with my message and solving author’s problems, and I will be glad to refer you to others. And so thank you for your time today. Any last-minute thoughts you want to give us?

John Feldman
No, obviously, I mean, any conversation with you is a great energetic positive one. So thank you for having me on. I look forward to continued conversations with you.

Janine Bolon
All right back atcha and this is Janine Bolon with The Janine Bolon Show where we bring you amazing thought leaders who are moving the envelope; they’re pressing the needle, so they say. When they come to publishing your own work when it comes to spreading your message. When you have a business and an idea, and you want to promote it and get bigger with it we can definitely help you out with that. So definitely take a look at John Feldman and his company Visionary Literary. All right. Take care guys have a great day and keep reaching for the stars.

Bryan Hyde
Thank you for listening to the Janine Bolon show. Be sure to subscribe to our show notes by going to www.theJanineBolonshow.com, where you’ll find additional resources as well as the opportunity to sign up to receive our program in your email each week. Be sure to visit our sponsor at www.the8gates.com.

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