The 99 Authors Project – Season 6 – Episode 8 with Dr. Emily Letran31 min read

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
Hello Janine Bolon here today and welcome to the show where we bring you quality content on saving your time, saving your money, saving your knowledge while staying sane in this topsy turvy world of ours. The Janine Bolon show is a syndicated program of four podcast shows that were combined in October of 2021. Three Minute Money Tips, The Thriving Solopreneur, The Writers Hour Creative Conversations and The Practical Mystic Show were all programs have been running since 2017. We’ve produced over 300 episodes and interviewed over 250 guests, and today we will be spotlighting one of our authors that is contributing to our 12th book The 99 Authors Project. Emily Lutran, Emily is a serial entrepreneur, CEO of multiple dental practices, a private coach to many professionals, as well as an international speaker. She’s been on TEDx stages, she shared the stages with countless other business leaders like Sharon Lechter, as well as Dr. Howard Farran and Linda Miles. She’s been featured in several magazines, Dental Town, Global Woman, CBR, and as well as the media, Yahoo Finance, Forbes, USA Today and Fox. She’s a contributing writer for Dental IQ, Dr. Bicuspid, and Dentistry Today. She is the founder of Exceptional Leverage Inc, and is host of Action to Win seminars, author of several books, and a certified copy consultant, helping teams grow with customized insights that boost their performance. And all I can say is Emily, thank you for making time in your busy schedule to be on our show.

Emily Letran
Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to be here. I do want to add one more, one more thing to my introduction. I’m the best mom in the world. I claim it , first so there it is, and thank you so much for creating this platform. So we can share our stories, our insights, and you know, whatever, whatever we can bring to help others grow business and grow themselves personally.

Janine Bolon
And I appreciate your very giving nature in that way. One of the things that was most exciting for me is I got to see Dr. Emily, on the stage at a international bootcamp that was happening for business owners. And tell me a little bit about the book, if you don’t mind recite the title of that story that you shared with us.

Emily Letran
Yes. So it’s actually my first book that I wrote, the first I don’t know 14, 15, I kind of lost track. But that was that was my very first book. And it’s still one of the books, you know, the book that I promote, because it is the personal story. And a lot of times, you know, people can do business with you, because you’re a great business owner, but really, they do business with you because they like you. And whatever your story is, however you can communicate that and help people relate to you, appreciate you, respect you, yeah, whatever the new story is, if you can put that into a book, and you can share that. And the nice thing about that is, nobody can take it from you, right, because it’s your story, there’s only one of you. And there’s only one of that story. And so it was me sharing the journey of being born in Vietnam, back in the late 60s during the Vietnam War, living through the Communist takeover, escape on a boat to from the from the communist regime, live in a refugee camp, and then coming to the United States, overcoming a lot of challenges that are really very normal to immigrant refugee who come to this country that are with the language barrier. And then there’s a financial barrier. And then there’s a cultural barrier. And, you know, overcoming all of that, you know, when I was growing up, I thought it was normal, because all of the people around me had the same challenges. But the very first time I share that was actually back in 19. I mean 2014 was when I first share my story, and it was a shock to me that the majority of the people never knew that. And then I’ll ask them when I when they meet me and you know, I’m a dentist and I have multiple practices. They never knew that that’s where I was coming from. And it was an eye opening for me because all of a sudden, it’s a different light. Right, like now they know me more than this doctor, you know, she’s serious and all that. And for me it was it was great because it opened up hearts. People connect with me more. It opened up doors, because now that because they know the story and not just a dentist, right? I got that story behind me. There’s a reason why I do things for the community. I give back. I help people with low income. It all come from that story. And as I thought about packaging it in the little book, it’s a small book. My friends, a lot of people would tell me that it’s very impactful for them when they read it. And, and to me, that’s, that’s one of the greatest gift that we can give if we shared a story and we could inspire some action, even if it’s just simply gratitude for what you already have. And then you go, you give it to other people. So that’s, that’s the book and is titled, From Refugee to Renaissance Woman.

Janine Bolon
From Refugee to Renaissance Woman. And it was one of those very powerful productions that came from the stage. When Dr. Emily was sharing with us her story, that sort of thing. I was like, I knew she needed to be in this book, she needed to be on my podcast. And so thank you for making time out of your busy schedule. And she’s, she’s been willing to answer our questions about how you go about becoming a better author yourself, and how you can go about selling your book. So out of curiosity, this was your first book, you know, the Refugee to Renaissance Woman. But what got you stimulated to even write it? Because there were so much you were already engaged in; there was so much you had already overcome. It’s like, this is just another amount another mountain, you decided to climb? I mean, cause you wrote it, you know what I mean? Because kind of what’s the story behind this book?

Emily Letran
Yeah, well, I will tell you, the story was, I was in my office, my dental office, and I had a patient sitting in the dental chair and the patient, I think, I told the patient, you know, your treatment costs, however many $1,000 and the patient look at a high tech equipment behind me, and, and he said, I’m paying for that, right? And I got frustrated, right? You pay for your health, you paying for the value that you get has nothing to do with this high tech equipment behind me. But you know, how people are judging. And to me, in the back of my head, I’m thinking, if you only knew how I got here, right, it wasn’t about me make the money to buy the high tech equipment. It was there was a lot of things I have already overcome in order to get here and be a doctor. But I couldn’t say that to the patient. Right. And, and I just said,no, you know, that that equipment was already paid for and this is where your treatment, right? And then it just so happened that the week, the weekend right after that I was in a mastermind meeting, and we had to go around sharing our story. They told us they gave it an assignment. Tell a short story, make people laugh. Now, the same story, make people cry. They’re just like different angles of your story. They got to me. And I said, I don’t have a story. And they say, what do you mean, you don’t have a story? And I said, well, you know, and you’re gonna tell me my story coming here to this date. And then I took all of that, I think emotion. I told them the story. I said, well, you know, this patient was in the chair. And then this happened. And he didn’t know my story. And my story was, and I thought telling the story. And when I was done, there was no dry eye in the room.

Emily Letran
And my friends were all white Caucasian, in the room. So they never heard this story. They never experienced it. And they all looked at me and said, you have to write a book. And if you’ve ever been in the mastermind, you do what the mastermind tell you to do, right? Because it’s the collective intelligence in the room. So I just went home, and I just started writing this book. And so that’s how I wrote the book. And as I, as I wrote it, you know, I started understanding that there were a lot of things that, like I was holding back, but it’s just kind of back there, right? You don’t revisit it. And, and as it come back to you, then you actually realize how much you’ve gone through. So I think, from personal growth point of view, if you ever want to write a book, it will really help you grow. Because you have, you got to look at what you’ve done, what you’ve overcome, maybe the mistakes you make, and then it became very interesting to me because when I shared with my friends, who went to school with me and undergrad, who went to school with me in dental school, they didn’t know the story. Like they never knew, hey, I didn’t know you had no money. And I said, well, I did ask you for money to fix my car. So it means like you don’t tell the whole story. You just say hey, can you can you lend me $200 to go fix my car, right? And but I put all of that in that book. Because those are the little, it’s not a milestone but it’s the little things that you carry with you you remember the last time you had to borrow that money, the last time you had to ask for something because something happened. And, and the thing I didn’t realize is, there are other people that had that same experience. Maybe that to borrow money to fix something else, but they understood, they understood me. Right? That yes, you could be at this level, but you have climbed so many steps. And maybe they are on those steps. And they want to see themselves, I can get to that level, just like Emily. And so for me, it was, it was a personal growth journey. And it’s, it’s also something I realized that it can be very powerful when we share. And so I’m very glad that I that I wrote that book. And then as I wrote more books, and then I collaborated with more books, it was all the same, all along the same line, which is to create impact.

Janine Bolon
And you have definitely done that, not only with book number one, but like you say after you’ve written about 10 to 12 books, you do start losing track, how many you have. And so that’s where I was like, yeah, I understand your problem when you were trying to figure out, wait, how many have I written? I understand that, well, how long did it take for you to be able to label yourself an author? Some writers, they do it with their first book, like me, I had to write five books before I could really call myself an author, because I just felt so not that. But anyway, I was just curious with you, did you have the same challenge?

Emily Letran
No, I did not because I had a coach, who immediately say, you are now an author. And then he said, you also will become a speaker. And I said, well, no, I’m not going to be a speaker. You know, why would I speak? I am a dentist. Yes, I wrote a book. But, you know, the day before yesterday, no, Wednesday, I just went to a speak off. To do winner a stage time I didn’t win. But it was a competition to get stage time to speak in front of 40,000 people live and virtual. And to get there, I had to audition. We were 150 people picked out of about 2000. Right. And then we got them we competed and then they pick out 30. So I didn’t quite make that 30. But my point to that story is my coach still remember, you said you didn’t want to be a speaker. And I’m going to, you know, like kind of get stage time in front of 40,000 people? And he said, and he said, now we can’t get the mic from you. Right?

Janine Bolon
It’s like, you want children to talk, you want children to talk, then once they start speaking.

Emily Letran
You know, but it’s see, it’s the reason why right? I think if somebody write a book, or somebody wrote the first book, and then what do you do with that book? Is the drive of the reason why you actually wrote the book. And now why do you want people to know about the book, right? It is one thing when you say, okay, this is my personal story, I want to share this story. I want to know, you know, my kids and later generation, and the other thing is, I want to share this story. And I want to help people change their lives. And it’s just not people here it’s people global, it’s people everywhere and it doesn’t have to be a refugee or, or an immigrant. Even if you live in this country, if you read that book, you’re going to have a sense of appreciation, like this person went through all this, I didn’t even have to go through all this, I should appreciate what I have. And, and then if this person is achieving certain things, by implementing certain business strategies, I can do that too. So I think having that global appeal where you can create impact, for me, it was a very big driving force.

Janine Bolon
Really set you on your on your path, that mastermind really knew what it was doing. You need to write this book because I know what you mean with those masterminds. You walk in and you that’s an agreement, you commit before you’re allowed to sit at that table with all those people, then you commit that you will do whatever the mastermind comes up with. And so yeah, I can understand you saying well, I guess I’m writing a book. So, obviously, you know, you’re a dentist, you know how to market yourself as a dentist, but what what would you change if you started marketing your book today? Knowing everything that you know now, what would you change about the way you market your book?

Emily Letran
Well, I think for all of us, the very first thing is, is to have to understand the process. And I’ve been very blessed. I’ve been studying marketing under some of the greatest gurus, online and offline and you know, direct mail and all that. I say, if it’s the one thing, I will not change is to study marketing. So understand the process, that you say, I’m a dentist, I know how to market myself, as a dentist, it does not, it does not mean I know how to market myself as an author. Right? So I gotta, I gotta get somebody like you, who can help me promote my book, right? I need to get some, some, you know, like, you would do one thing, maybe another person would help do other parts of marketing, maybe get me on stage, you know, as an example, because those are the faster way to get the book out there. Right? Rather than just call up all your friends, hey, buy my book it’s on Amazon, right? Which is where we started, hey, got the book. Right. And, and so to leverage other experts. That’s when I call it. And, in broader term, that when people do, you know, joint venture, the book launches, and it’s not just me launching, if you have launched, the other person have launching it, then the book will be a success. And because we driven by the fact that we want to create impact, right, then we are not shy in asking for help, whether we’re gonna have to pay for that help, share the revenue, or just, you know, a good friend who have followers who are helping us promote the book. That’s the that’s the one thing that I know now that I didn’t know then, which is to reach out to other people who can help you promote the book.

Janine Bolon
Yep, that is a big one. And a lot of times we are used to doing things solo. And that’s kind of a different challenge for us. So out of curiosity, what has worked best for you, when it came to selling your books?

Emily Letran
Well, what worked best for me is actually speaking, for me. When, when I’m onstage because, as you know, when we sharing our story, that that book is always part of the story. So that is one, one part of it, speaking. So now I’m sure there are going to be authors exactly like me, who say, I did not sign up to be a speaker, right? And I totally understand that. But you know what, if you’re, if you’re out there doing one of those Facebook Lives, you are a speaker, you just don’t think of yourself as a speaker, but you are a speaker. Whenever what I learned from my coach, Brendon Bouchard, is if people are giving you their attention, and it doesn’t matter if it’s two minutes or three minutes, you need to respect that. Right? And you need to deliver and delivering as in a speaker, right? We’re not gonna get online and do a live and gossip and say stuff about other people, you know, get online, deliver a message, help people or share your experience that you know will be helpful to other people. So if I’m online, and I say something, I’ll give you an example. I could be online and I could be you know, I, it’s the end of the year, and we reflecting back in what we’ve done, right. And for me, it’s always that journey, starting from wherever, or maybe that first book that now it’s the 15th book, or whatever, whatever the number of books. That’s, and I appreciate, right, I want to reflect and I want to appreciate. And I want to I have gratitude. Other people, they may not have written a book or anything like that but now the message is gratitude. The message is, is reflection and gratitude. So just to make sure that, you know, whenever you have that opportunity, now that you have your book, when you are doing live, talk about your book. No, not like go buy my book. But in my book, I share this story. Right. In my book, I share this insight. I was very emotional writing this part of my book, like different ways when you when you talk about your book, but you’re not selling your book. And people go, people will go look for it.

Janine Bolon
That is one of those things I had to teach myself how to do because it didn’t come naturally to me at first. And so yes, thank you for so much for bringing that up. Now, here’s a question that I enjoy, because nobody has answered this the same way. And that’s one of the things I love. As a scientist, I thought these answers would all be very similar, but no, it’s all across the board. So what process did you try at selling your books that was an epic failure?

Emily Letran
That was an epic failure?

Janine Bolon
Yes. Basically, what we’re trying to do here is I’m trying to share have authors share what didn’t work so that we make different mistakes. We don’t make the same ones, as other people have done.

Emily Letran
Well, I think, I think an epic failure would be to try to get people to help you who don’t believe in you. So, I’ll give you an example, your family. I don’t mean they don’t believe in you, but they don’t know you as an author. Right? Like my family, they know me as a dentist. So if I were to go home, and think that they’re going to help me promote a book, they know me, and they love me, that’s not going to work. And it could be sometime it’s going to be your, your closest friends, right? The people who know you, you’ve never been another before you’re a first time author. So why would they be enthusiastically going out there and say, hey, Emily just wrote her first book, everybody should buy it. Right? Versus I’m talking to you, I know you have a platform. I know you have, you know, all of these channels. And I tell, and I, now I’m gonna convince you that, hey, this is a good book. It shares a lot of, you know, great insights, I think it’d be inspirational. I think it’s going to help people across the board. And because you have the platform, and you have that outreach, that will be much better to promote the book. But we don’t know each other. Right. Like, like, we went to the seminars together. We sat there, we had lunch together, but it’s, but we’re not buddies, buddies. Right, right. Yeah, I think one of the things is for the author to, for you to be a successful author, let’s just, let’s just call it that. And you have to get through that mindset. You know, you got to develop that business mindset. What is the best way for me to sell my book? Right.

Janine Bolon
Exactly.

Emily Letran
And, and it’s not, again, we go back to the comfort zone. You know, let me see. So we had a book before and you know, I share that message with you go ask her. Right, we’re going to try to cross sharing. And that will absolutely work. But what I’m saying is she the best person? Is your family, the you know, the best your family members and the the best people to actually promote your book? And I’m not saying that it’s an epic failure. Yes. You know, you can always make them all buy your book. But, but they’re not going to be the one that I going out there to promote you because they don’t know how to do that. They just don’t know.

Janine Bolon
Right? That’s very well said, very well said, I’m so grateful that you said that, because over and over again, I have tried to encourage people I’m like, please don’t expect your family and friends to know what you’re doing. Please don’t expect anything from them. They want to support you just because they love you. But they really aren’t the ones with the skill sets, unless you’re fortunate enough to be in a family of authors or something like that. But most of us don’t come from that background. So well, I would love to pick your brain on what are the top five tips that you would give authors that are selling their books? We’ve already described several things. So feel free to repeat, but what are some tips that you the five tips you would give them?

Emily Letran
Well to sell their books the very first one and this one that took me a couple of years to work on myself.

Janine Bolon
Right, exactly.

Emily Letran
Is to have that courage to go and promote yourself. Right? I think the Americans have that expression, don’t toot your own horn. Yeah, I don’t usually use that expression but I see it all the time. In Vietnamese, we have the same thing. Right? Something very similar. And we have a saying that basically say if you’re if you’re a great flower, people will, people will get you know, the great set. Already a great flower. Well, hello, nobody knows who you are great flower. So you gotta have to be out there telling people that this is a great book. Yes. And that’s why I think it’s not, it’s not you like, like, if you’re out there and you say I’m a great person that’s a little different. If you’re out there and say my book has a great message, that is a whole lot easier to promote. Right? Because I’m promoting the message. Yes, happened to be my story and deliver the message, but I’m promoting the message. And so the very first thing is to develop that mindset, that self promotion or whatever you want to call it, right? But it’s to me, it’s actually the courage, the courage to step out of your comfort zone. The courage to go out and tell people to promote yourself, right? You go to a conference, and you tell people you know, Can I do a book signing? I just finished my conference in Dallas. And we have I think six of us who are authors, so I made it into a reception. One of my friends own a winery, he wants to promote his wine I go great. You bring the wine, I’ll order some appetizers. And there are six of us over here we just signing books together. Right?

Emily Letran
Those are pictures that you can make yourself, you know what I mean? Like you can stand inside the book yourself, but make it into a party, make it into something fun. And again, it’s the self promotion part, right? And if you do it in the group that is a little bit less self promotion or that but it’s just in your head. So have the courage to promote yourself. That’s, I think that’s a very big one. You want to sell your book, right? Number two, I think we already mentioned, reach out to people who can actually help you. And by that I mean, marketing, PR, people who have followers, right? It’s not going to be your mom’s group, because there may be 30 of them. And your family? Nah, my kids when I were writing my book, they were they were asking, Are you dying? Are you dying? And I go, What do you mean? You’re writing your memoir? So you must be dying? What’s wrong? I go, no, this is not a memoir. I’m not dying. And so, you know, it treat it as a business. Right? There are people who write a book because they just say, oh, I just want to write my book. And, but for who, but why? Right. And then there are people who say, I want to buy my book, because I want this to be out there. I just happen to write my book with the first reason. And I was totally convinced by my coach, that this book could be out there. That I need to become a speaker, right? So get the right mentor, the mentorship, right, somebody who actually know what to do with the book to help you. And can I tell you a secret?

Emily Letran
Yeah. So the very first question, when I when I was writing the book, the very first question, the publisher asked me, because the coach or the publisher lead together, right? The coaches on, you know, PR, the publisher publish the book. And so the very first question she asked me, which shocked me was, do you want people to read your book? And I was thinking, that’s a weird question. But you know what, it actually is very true. If you write a book about something that people don’t and are interested in, would they read your book? You want to write a book and you want to sell your book, you almost have to kind of look at it, like, what is the universal theme, right? Like, unless you’re writing a book or niche, which is totally different. And so she actually actually just asked me, do you want people to read it? And I said, of course, I’m gonna try to write this book. And she said, because there’s some people who write it as a business tool. Right? As we commonly say, it’s the business card, right?

Janine Bolon
I’d love to hear it.

Janine Bolon
Business card on steroids.

Emily Letran
Do they care that you read that? You know, do you care if they read your book or not? That’s up to you. But yes, you could have some very basic advice in there. But it just now it’s acting as a tool as a promotion tool. Right? And I got people say, yeah, I’m writing. I’m on word number 27,000, or whatever, you know, because I’m writing a serious book. For me, the book, decided that first book was just my my story. When I got to the second book, I learned, I already learned why the heck should I write a book? What is this book for? Who is it for? What come after the book, I already learned all that, but not with the first one, right? And so that’s where that’s why a coach or a mentor, get somebody to help you do that. Like right now, I’m helping two of my most recent clients, I have this program called Authority Positioning. And guess what? You learn how to write a book. But before you write your book, you’re gonna have to figure out who is it for and what can you create from the book. That’s the very first thing we start with, for Authority Positioning. And I’ve done it several times, and I’ve done it with other clients. And if you want to be serious about growing your business, and if you already wrote the book, welll look at it and see how you can create more from it. And, you know, grow your business that way, because the book is only I hate to say it, but it’s only the first step.

Janine Bolon
Right for so many people, they think it’s the last step and you almost hate to tell them as they’re writing the book. You’re like, well, when you’re done with your book, let me know you know, I’m sorry. Usually when it’s published, come back to me but first you got to get because I don’t want to disillusion them too quickly. Well, one last question before we get ready to go, we’re about out of time. And that is, what’s the primary thing that was the biggest reward to you as an author, to become an author?

Emily Letran
I think I already mentioned that and that is to create impact. And, you know, people talk about movies, you know, the movies, it. It memorializes, you know, things. For me, it’s more books I grew up in a family, both of my parents were teachers. And one of the rules is do not ever write in the book. No, absolutely never. I went to school here, and I have friends who highlighted books, and I just stopped putting anything in the book get on the book, gotta be you, you respect the book. Right? Sorry, I grew up respecting books. And for me, a book is something that you leave for generations to come look at. Look at our Shakespeare, right. All the great writers, it’s the books. We have a book in Vietnamese culture. It’s a poetry book. It’s a long poetry book that they teach in all the schools. And I didn’t learn that because I left a little bit too early that teach it when you’re a little bit older. And it’s been around for, I believe, 1000s of years. And they still, they make movies from it, they, they create plays from it, and we quote, you know, the lines from the poems just like my Shakespeare, right. And that’s what you want leave a lasting impression. I believe it’s the book.

Janine Bolon
Right, exactly.

Emily Letran
So I think, I think that’s the one reason that you want to do the book. I think that’s the perfect reason. And then of course, you make reading it mandatory to your kids generation. That’s another discussion.

Janine Bolon
For generations to come. So, Dr. Emily, I want to say thank you so much for your time today. And for being one of our spotlighted authors, I appreciate your time.

Emily Letran
Thank you so much again, and, you know, if anybody wants to chat about the book, they could just reach out to me. I think one of the one of the duty of some of us who have ran it through a couple miles is to help the people who are starting. And like I mentioned earlier, if you just started, don’t waste your time trying to figure out, get a coach, get a mentor, get somebody who know what they’re doing. And, and if they’re already working with you, they’re already on the right path. Right. Which is, you know, get somebody to help you get the book out. If you believe in that mission and purpose. I think it’s your duty to do that.

Janine Bolon
Thank you so much. I love it that you left us with a golden nugget like that, Dr. Emily, and for those of you that are listening, we will have shownotes for you can reach out to this wonderful woman should you feel that she is the coach for you. You want to take your action and you want to become a winner with it. This is the woman that can help you with it. Also, she has this beautiful program called Exceptional Leverage Coaching, she’ll be glad to walk you down that path.

Janine Bolon
So if you are an author, or you know of an author and you would like us to spotlight you, please visit our website, author podcasting.com where you will find the 99 Author Project listed. We talked to all authors from all walks of life as we build out book number 12 which is Advice from Authors to Authors, due out in 2023 and this is Janine Bolon signing off with you today and all of us here at the 8 Gates that produced the Janine Bolon show. We wish you a wonderful week and encourage you to get your message, your story or your knowledge out into the world and make it a better place just like Dr. Emily here that we’re interviewing. We see you again next week. And until then, keep sharing what you know with others keep shining that light that is you and don’t forget to go out today and do something for yourself that’s just plain fun. See you next week.

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.