February 11, 2024 • 55 mins
Embark on an illuminating journey with the indomitable Peter Lopez, as he dissects the art of personal branding within the literary cosmos. Prepare to have misconceptions challenged and be armed with the unvarnished truth about the publishing industry. In today's narrative, it's not just about penning a story; it's a grand ballet of authenticity, self-belief, and strategic positioning that makes an author's name resonate as loudly as their words. Grasp the essence of standing out in a saturated market, where authors must become the embodiment of their work and utilize social media's prowess to shape their image.
Wander through the storied path of a tech innovator's ascension from the gritty South Bronx to the echelons of the publishing world, as Peter shares the poignant tale of digital media's genesis and its stalwarts. It's a saga of tenacity and the alchemy of relationships that transform every written dream into a tangible reality for readers. This episode dissects the intricacies of publishing – from the behemoth traditional deals where giants stake claims on creative assets, to the co-investment camaraderie of hybrid publishing and the empowering autonomy of self-publishing. Moreover, we unveil the often-overlooked linchpins of the craft: the ghostwriters, developmental editors, and the indispensable rigor of quality editing.
As we continue to dismantle the complexities of the industry, we confront the burgeoning realms of NFTs, AI, and their intertwining with the literary sphere. Anticipate a discourse that demystifies the role of NFTs in author royalties and the contentious rise of AI-generated content. Picture a future where publishing houses may be obsolete, supplanted by shrewd self-publishers who navigate rights ownership and foster communities through the written word. Our conversation culminates with a candid reflection on the journey of entrepreneurship – the bittersweet dance of support and betrayal, and the enduring power of authenticity. Peter's parting wisdom illuminates the path to becoming a local celebrity and the transformative impact of a well-crafted personal brand.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
This podcast is brought to you by Place Pros,
Commercial and Investment RealEstate and NikoTour Boutique,
your one stop shop foreverything cool.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Yeah, so yeah, I like that audio for concept right
now.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
You know we'll talk about it in the show too.
Yeah, let's talk about it.
Are we recording?
Okay, we have Peter Lopez.
You are a two time publisher ofthe year winner here in Brevard
, but you've also published athousand plus books.
You're a ghost writer, anaudiobook publishing genius, and
(00:46):
you also, you know, you're amint maker, your founder of Mint
Maker and a no Excuses podcast.
So, you are a brand of your own.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
You know, I think when it comes to branding right,
the person has to be the facebefore they introduce their
product.
So I've always been very.
You know, I have an awesomepartner, Mimi, and she runs
pretty much we've started apublic fire, but she likes to be
in the background and operateeverything.
So I'm like the front person.
So when you think about EliMusk, you think about Tesla.
(01:19):
When you look at Steve Jobs,you think about Apple and when
you look at Bill Gates, youthink about Microsoft.
So if you're looking toestablish a brand, people still
buy from people, People stilltrust people.
So that is very important.
When I'm talking to localcelebrities artists, you know,
(01:39):
entrepreneurs your face has tobe out there Of course.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
So do you think you kind of dabble in like branding
too?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, I have to because, being in the book
industry, right, we've I wouldsay I managed to work for a
major publisher over 10 yearsWe've had I mean collectively
we've done two, three thousandbooks.
We always tell the author it'simportant that your face is out
there to tell the story.
(02:07):
Right, there are pen names.
There are authors that have pennames, which means they don't
want to give their real identitythat you can understand, so
that we have to market it.
But it's important for you tohave that brand awareness of,
like, my face has to be outthere, I have to talk about it
and then people familiarizethemselves with you know
absolutely.
(02:27):
The hard part is you know ifyou're a jerk.
It comes out of your face.
It comes out like social mediawill expose who you really are
Like yeah, like I turn or nofilter.
Exactly, exactly.
Yeah.
The funniest thing, jesse,about filters and some people
like they look like JanetJackson on social media and you
meet them and like Tito Jackson,yeah like it's all good and
(02:48):
nice when you're filtered out,but like it's the horror of
seeing someone in person andthen yeah.
I'm looking at you and beinglike yeah, what that was 20
years ago I, you took thatpicture.
So it's another thing.
Update, it's a constant update.
So people feel like, well, Idon't like the way I look, I
don't like the way I feel.
You know what, man?
(03:09):
And that doesn't matter.
If you, if you exude confidence, if you believe in yourself,
that's the key, like the beliefsystem, if you believe in
yourself, you believe in yourbrand, that will come out.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
I agree.
Yeah, we're all in meat suits,but it just matters what's
inside and and anybody can getpast the visuals.
Is there something interestingand important coming out of
their mouth.
Did you say meat suits?
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Meat suits.
That's like the best.
That is like.
I've never heard that.
You know like we.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
We don't get to choose right, but we're all like
spirit.
I was not going to let thatpass.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
She said I love that, me too.
Can I use that?
Is that like coined phrase?
No, okay, take meat suits, allright, you exclusively in the
local bravado.
I love it.
Yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
I want to know how you got into publishing, because
you don't really run into manypublishers, especially here in
Brevard.
You don't If publishing.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
listen to this right, and I always say this it's like
uh, 89% of people want to writebooks.
New York Times wrote a report.
If you follow me, it's like I'm89% of people want to write a
book.
89.
1% actually publishes.
People say everybody'spublishing.
I'm like, please shut up.
Nobody there's.
(04:30):
You know seven, eight millionpeople in the world.
Only two, three million bookshave been published.
What?
Speaker 1 (04:34):
is that.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Like point 1%.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Well, nobody really knows how to do it so.
I was hoping you would shedsome light on that subject.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
I'm going to give you the secret sauce.
Guys, have you listening rightnow?
Grab a pen, grab a paper.
I give my stuff away and I'mgoing to tell you why.
Okay, one, how I got into the,the, the publishing, and then,
two, I'll tell you why I give itaway.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
I have been part of the technology sector for a lot
of years.
Like I, was one of the first umum companies to introduce DVD
technology Jesse, we're talkingabout that earlier.
It's called digital versatiledisc and my uh chairman at the
time who became a mentor the uhSprague family, but his name was
Nolan Bush now.
Have you heard of Nolan Bushnow?
No, I haven't.
(05:18):
Have you heard of Chuck ECheese Of course have you heard
of Atari.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Oh yeah, my parents used to work for Atari.
Get out of here, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Nolan Bush now is the creative Atari and then he
birthed Chuck E Cheese to have,you know, people playing the
thing.
So Nolan Bush knows the king ofPong, the most iconic map Were
you out in California.
Cupertino, san Jose.
Yeah, yeah, I was.
I was supposed to be that 9 11plane, but that's a whole other
book.
So I was I mean, I would travela lot and I got into technology
(05:47):
doing DVD and and we couldn't.
We had a great at that time, agreat CEO, but a poor CFO.
And that's when everybody wasgoing public.
Jesse's like we, we, we, that'sthe dot com era.
Yeah, like a 90.
Oh, yeah, like like 90, thatearly nineties, yeah, you know,
(06:09):
I would, you know I.
The story would go we all drovein with Hondas and came back
with Ferrari and then left withyou know, datsuns, like it was.
You know, we, we took a companyfrom like $3 a share to $49 and
it dropped out of you knowthree pennies.
But that was technology.
So we launched that.
And then there was an employeethat worked with with, with
(06:32):
Nolan Bush.
Now, every rebellious employeehad his own rules.
His name was Steve Jobs.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Oh, Steve.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Jobs worked with with Nolan Bush now.
He worked with Atari, and, andhe branched off and he created
another technology and part ofthe knowledge that we worked
with was called small selfmerchandising object.
What is that?
You take a.
We would take a video game andchop it up into pieces.
So instead of selling you a $99video game, we'll sell it to
(07:00):
you in increments, and that iswhat we call iTunes today.
So you know, I could have beena trillionaire, but the cards
are different.
So it was a technology and then,from technology, I started
working for you know, differentfinancial things software and I
ended up moving to Florida and acompany.
(07:21):
I worked a lot of years in theradio industry.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
I even helped buy and sell radio stations.
You remember, back then it waslike.
Am and then you flip up into FMand then you flip up into
satellite.
So flipping radio stations werevery big back then yeah, yeah,
it was huge Like and so thatcompany had a, a, a publishing
company, and I was like, man,I've been wanting to publish a
book for a long time and withoutlistening to me, okay, nico and
(07:48):
Jesse, I have the worst grandma.
I got ADD, I can't spell tosave my life.
But I didn't look at mylimitations Right and I was like
, started working in thiscompany the first year, the
first year.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
They just transferred you over.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yep, Yep.
There's like hey, just try it.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
I mean you have.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
It's all about relationships, right.
Like sales is a transfer ofemotions.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
And if you, if you believe someone?
So writing a book is about, youknow, pushing your dreams
across.
So I'm good at that.
I tell people, I'll throw youoff the cliff.
You can learn how to fly.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
How are you so good at that?
Like you say you come, like Isaw that you say you come from
poverty.
I, I grew up in the South Bronx.
You did, I grew up in the SouthBronx.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
So I grew up in, like I told them about the ghetto,
south Bronx, right Like I what?
We was standing in the line inthe line for free cheese.
You know, um, you know, uh, stAnne's Brook Avenue yeah, shout
out to my man, larry Law andpistol Pete.
So it's like like we was.
It was, it was gang life, butmy dad was a minister, very
strict, very, very like youbetter go to church, you know.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Do you think that's where you got like your?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
yeah, yeah definitely got that discipline, but you
still had to fight.
You still had to hustle LikeJesse.
It was like someone hits you,you don't hit back, you in
trouble, they'll punk you.
So you grew up in that, in that, like that that state of fight
or flight?
Yes, exactly, but I found out Ihad no flight and I know flight
I mean.
So you gotta fight.
So then people start respectingyou and got like I'll come.
(09:14):
I used to work at city bank andI'll be like two in the morning
with a book bag in a suit goinginto like the projects, and
nobody bothered me.
But that gave me thatunstoppable mentality Like I'm
not gonna go to Wall Street, I'mnot gonna be bullied by nobody
If I survive this.
You know it's no way someexecutive is gonna tell me it
(09:38):
can't be done.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Do you still keep in touch with some of the kids like
that were kind of that you grewup with.
Maybe I don't know, didn't havethat mentality?
Speaker 2 (09:45):
I would say 80% of them are dead in jail.
I grew up during the crackepidemic A lot of them.
I saw girls that were beautiful.
I mean, look like beautypageants.
You know that you were like inhigh school like wow, she's so
beautiful and then, like threeyears later, they like withered
away.
So crack killed a lot of people.
(10:06):
Aids came in, killed a lot offriends and family, so it's
literally like a genocide.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah, I knew, escaped at all.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Escaped at all, you know, and I still.
I'm still close to family, Istill got friends, but it's not
like it's a handful of people.
And I remember I went back tothe Bronx and a lot of people
are still stuck in the past.
The worst thing you can do isdwelling, and two things will
keep you stuck dwelling in thepast and then dwelling in the
future.
(10:35):
Not knowing so, you gotta livein the present moment.
I like looking at the future.
staying in the past could keepyou there, so I go there and I
still see some people living inthe past.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Do you think that's your number one problem for not
like doing what you did, gettingout of it?
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah yeah, a lot of people.
Well, they're product of theirenvironment.
A lot of times, of courseListen to me, man it's like I
like the secret and I like youknow you gotta think and grow
rich and you gotta speak life.
But there's some people in acertain environment, no matter
what happens, they're gonna bestuck there.
So I think some of them areproduct of that and, no matter
(11:11):
what happens, it's hard to getthem out there.
So there's just a few of us likethe last of the Mohicans that
we could just crawl out of there, and my job is to try to get
back there, and I'm actuallydoing a lot of books for the
culture, a lot of books for thehip hop culture, a lot of books
for people that have beenmarginalized and been treating a
part.
The publishing industry is likethe mafia it is a trillion, not
(11:36):
a billion, a trillion dollarindustry.
If you add, like MarvelUniverse, google, facebook
they're all publishers.
Publishing is the tip of thescale.
The richest company in theworld is a publishing company.
You know it's Amazon.
Started selling books out ofthere, yeah, so if you
understand publishing as anartist, as a brand even Jesse
(11:58):
has what you're doing with theaudio books if you understand
that part of publishing, thenyou can own all your assets
because eventually, everythingon the internet is public domain
.
It's fair use.
Like, I can write a book rightnow on Jay-Z, I can write a book
on Warren Buffett I don't needtheir permission Because now I
(12:18):
cannot write what they're sayingtoday, but being that it was
published before, so it'simportant for you to own your
publishing assets so no onepirates your stuff.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Okay, all right, but, like you said, 80% of the
public wants to write a book.
We all have that dream.
How does that come torealization?
How much does it cost?
Because I know you said youknow to make money you have to
give some of your money up front.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
So there's three ways of publishing right, and it's
funny, I think, the perceptionpeople still call like well, do
I get an advance?
I'm like no.
You think you could, but it'sokay.
So the 89% people want to writebooks.
1% does right.
It's hard to publish a book.
People think it's easy.
A lot of people go theself-publishing route and then
(13:06):
God bless them.
It's easy, it's free, but youkind of go into some mistakes
and I'll tell you what that is.
The first part of publishing iswhat we call traditional
publishing, the hybrid.
I mean, that's the tradition.
It was the Penguin, the HarperCollins.
You know the Mafia, you knowthe anti-crisis.
No, they're a good company.
I love them, they're awesome.
But they're very important.
(13:27):
They maneuver and own.
They're the ones that give youa 360 deal and it's like a slave
contract.
They will own all your assets.
They will give you an upfront.
They will give you like alittle upfront, you know one of
my friends.
They own Imperperatuity, yourimage and likeness your name.
(13:47):
You think it's funny likepeople think, like they're like
no, no, you're not thatimportant.
Maybe Trump, obama, oprah, youknow, those people will get an
exclusive admin distributiondeal.
Sure but not in the US there'slike point, point point zero,
one of those people that getssome of that.
Everybody else has to give uppretty much a 360 deal.
(14:12):
If you say they don't, I callthem a liar.
Don Robinson from Invogue wetalked about doing her book at
one point like she lost all herassets, right.
Dave Chappelle at one pointdidn't even own Dave Chappelle.
So it's like I love this worldof like no publishing owns
everything.
So that deal.
(14:33):
You have to give up a 360 deal.
You mean everything like abrand.
Oh, my God, I had a my's vote.
She's like one of the mosticonic YouTubers and podcasts.
Max Maxwell was like one of thebiggest developers.
He's doing some killer stuff atDubai to do speed at his wife.
(14:53):
She's got three millionfollowers and it was like the
publisher wanted to even ownsome of her TikToks and all that
.
Publishers would do that.
You need to do these.
Many TikToks about her.
She needs yeah, so you'reworking for them when you
already have a brand Right.
So they'll do that.
They'll own everything andyou'll get, if you're lucky, a
(15:14):
six to 8% royalty deal.
Ryan Holiday has sold tens ofmillions of books, ryan Holiday,
and he has said in his podcasthe's finally recouped the
$250,000 that he got from hispublisher 10 years ago.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
He don't Okay, but how are you doing it?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Because I grew up in the South Bronx and I'm not
scared of those guys.
I've gotten ceaseless.
This is that is from them, sothat that deal happens.
It's not if someone's going togive you an advance, they're
going to own your assets.
The second one, where I'vebecome very important in the
field, is called hybridpublishing.
Hybrid publishing is not selfpublishing, is we create some
(15:56):
type of joint venturepartnership.
Sometimes I'll take 30% of yourrights, 30% of your royalties,
you get 70%, and then I can shop.
I can shop you foreign rights.
We have great relationshipswith awesome managers, awesome
people that can get you in frontof celebrities, get you in
front of podcasts, get you infront of Netflix.
(16:17):
Now you got to have a goodstory.
You just can't be some guy offthe street, but there are some
great writers out there, so youfind that talent.
We create some type ofpartnership.
I'll put some money in it,you'll put some money in it and
we'll create some type of hybridpublishing where it's not looks
self, it's not.
(16:38):
You know we create, so it'slike a deal.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
it's like a partnership, A partnership deal.
And what does that look like?
Give me like a ballpark figureof if someone's really serious
about writing their story andyou agree with it you think it's
there.
You know, you think it's gonnawork.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
The most important part, the biggest expense in
doing those deals, is editing.
Right, Like Stephen King, right?
Maybe the best writer we hadsince Ernest Hemingway.
I'm not into his books, buthe's the best conversational
writer that's ever lived.
Right, he will write a storyand put you in the story right.
So I mean, if you wanna knowabout editing and writing,
(17:17):
Stephen King's book on writingis the best.
I don't really care for StephenKing's movies, but I'm more of
a CS Lewis guy, or you know.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
But the cost of editing that trumps the cost of
printing, that costs the Trumpof everything.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
So, you have to pay a lot of money for editing.
You cannot just edit your bookonce.
Don't trust your own editing.
Don't trust your sister thathas a master's.
Don't trust your friend that'sa professor.
Editing is a gift.
Okay, People, you know, whenyou give it to people that are
smarter than you and they'reperfect, they're just gonna
(17:53):
correct you for grammar,punctuation, capitalization.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
There's a flow to write.
So a lot of times you'retelling the story and you don't
understand it.
So these ghost writers, thesedevelopmental editors, will put
you in that story, make yousound real and make it flow.
You're also a ghost writer.
Yes, are you an editor too?
I well, lord help me If I edityour book.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
It would look like they'd be like three, three
comments per person.
So publishing and editing andghost writing are three
different things.
You dabble in two of them.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Ghost writing is helping develop your story,
developing your arc, developingwhat is your brand, coming up
with story lines.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Oh really.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Yeah, yeah.
So it's like, a lot of times,ghost writers ghost writers do
two things Okay, A real ghostwriter is not even.
You don't even see their namesin the book.
Yeah right, Some ghost writersget a percentage but their names
are not on the book.
But they definitely do thewriting.
They do a lot of the writing,Okay.
Or they have a team of writersOkay, team of writers.
Yeah so it's like, okay, tellme about the book because I
(18:54):
can't write, but I could.
I could definitely develop yourstory.
Yeah if I talk to you, we have aone-hour meeting.
I'm like this is what yourstory is.
This is how to come out.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
You know how to extract Information and then the
the person tells some thewriters and the writers write it
out exactly then the writers.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
So you want to go from your story right, getting
your story written so that sayit's got to be developed right.
So developmental editing issuper important.
After that, 95% of books need aline editing.
Substantive, like awkward wordsentences, active passive words
you know what you, which is thatwe know which is the most
misused word what was really?
(19:33):
Was it past tense or was itpresent state of mind?
So I don't know how to writethat.
Well, yeah, so when I say was,was I there or was I there now?
Was I there yesterday?
And a lot of times when wewrite that, it becomes very
awkward.
So, and it's funny, like I talk, I Talk like I know these
things.
I just been doing these for 10years, but what I do is I
(19:56):
connect you with an expert.
Guys, true wisdom is knowingyour limitations.
There's like 1.0, point pointone, people that make money
writing.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
But yeah, yeah, there's.
I've actually gone theself-publishing route.
I helped my daughter publishlike a cookbook and we wrote it
through like chat GPT, so I justwanted to get a sort of
awareness of how it works.
Yeah, do you want to talk about?
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Yes, there's.
There's a war going on with therobots tell me.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
I know I don't, I mean I don't know.
I know what I hear, but I'mlike how bad can this get?
Speaker 2 (20:34):
so let's so you go from editing.
I would say a good hybridcontract.
Yeah should be about.
It should be between 20 and 40thousand okay you know Scribe
media when they did the dealwith with David Goggins.
You've scribe media is verysimilar to us.
Okay they've gone through upsand downs, like everybody.
(20:56):
But they kind of gave a dealand they shared on the royalties
and there was some upfront cost.
But David Goggins ownseverything.
David Goggins is gonna get250,000 dollars from a major
publisher.
They would have ownedeverything.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Millions of promise.
So he's a great and we talkedabout him.
Okay, so you get that.
You get it published hybrid.
The third one isself-publishing.
Guys, who cares, get your bookdone.
You're part of the one percent.
Right, you got a book done foryour daughter, you know.
Awesome, that is.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah, I don't know.
See, for the next, it almostfeels like, since everybody can
do it, though it's no longerspecial, like unless you do have
that penguin, or yeah, like Idon't think people really know,
I don't know and.
I'm glad you're here educatingwhen you go that route.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
You know it's always good to like have someone give
you some advice how to do it,but you got it out, who cares?
Okay right, who like it's like?
You got a prop that I'm proudof.
You Look for your daughter.
You know how cool that is.
I know my mom did a booktogether, so self-publishing is
a route.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
But you're not gonna see the return.
No can you guarantee the return, or Maybe not guarantee, but
can you be confident that?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
if someone yeah Like you won't make the deal unless
you're confident that this bookwill two things happen when you
write a book One, you have toinvest a lot of money to make a
lot of money back.
Yep, okay, marketing Brandingis important.
Marketing does not equate tosales.
It equates to expertise andexposure.
But there's like funnels andways of going around Amazon.
(22:30):
Because Amazon is 80 5% of thebuying habits, so people gonna
buy your book on Amazon.
The problem is, yeah, amazonwon't give you nobody's email,
nobody's phone.
So let's say, a thousand peoplebuy your book on Amazon Great,
you might make two dollars.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Cool your best seller , but you own no data.
I rather, a hundred people buymy book directly from me.
Yeah then a thousand people buythe book on Amazon.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Right, why?
Cuz I don't.
Yeah, I'll know the date, yeahdata is gold.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Yeah so if I have a hundred emails of their name,
their phone number, that's whatthey all want my month.
My shout out to my monthlymillionaire guys Like it's $16,
like an email's a dollar, aphone is A five dollars and
addresses ten dollars.
Wow, that's, that's the returnyou get.
Yeah, so let's say you blastingemails, I'm gonna be at a book
(23:23):
signing, I'm giving away this.
You have that data.
Guys Work on your email listlike like it's the old people
still do that I hear this allthe time, but we're so bad at it
, yeah so, so that that becomesso.
Self-publishing is another routethat you can take and, and a
lot of times it you know, nico,I'll tell them we're not the
(23:47):
company for you out.
Yeah, I have never.
I'm not that important, I'm notthat type of guy like.
I feel like you, you, you, yougood to people, you bless people
.
I'll come back to you.
So I'm like do this right, butdo it this way, don't go that
way and I'm gonna self-publish,do this, and then you give him
advice.
But you know, you know what I'velearned, jesse, this is the
(24:07):
coolest part.
It's DIY to D I FM.
I tell everybody how to do it.
You know what they tell me.
Now you need to do it for me,because I People say they don't
got money.
Oh no, no, no, no, no.
You got money.
You just don't got money toinvest in your dreams because,
dreams cost a lot of money.
You know you got money to go ona $5,000 out of vacation.
You got money to buy Starbucksevery day.
(24:28):
If I got a cup and you add thatwas that 2,500.
So they got.
They got money until they haveto invest.
So I tell them invest this wayand do that.
So I think it gets real forpeople.
They get scared.
The best investment you canmake is in yourself.
Yeah, that's it.
That's the biggest ROI you'llget.
Yeah, if you make an investmentin yourself, it's the best ROI
(24:48):
you get.
People are like investing onother people Every time.
Now, like I use my own brand.
I'm not spending money on Guccior Nike.
I buy my own t-shirts with myown name on it.
I'm the brand right.
So when you see me Like what'sthat?
And it's like I'll be thebillboard, I'm not gonna
advertise, it's funny likepeople got these, these fendi
(25:11):
bags and all that, but it don'tmatter.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Like it's nothing like having your own brand,
right, right and and where welive in a world where, like now,
you, you almost have to brandyourself.
If you're gonna put yourselfout there, you can't do it so
frivolously.
I mean, of course, you can, butlike if you're taking the time
out to, whether it's educatepeople or give them a freaking
makeup tutorial.
(25:33):
Yeah you have to show up.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Right, you have to show up.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
I like that, I like that.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah, so you guys want to talk about AI.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Yes, let's talk about that Any questions about AI, so
go ahead.
Well, I was like I know you didthe NFT stuff yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
NFTs.
We went to podcasts like twoyears ago.
I'll talk about that.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
I feel like it went this and then, and then it
stopped.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
NFT, let me, let me, let me explain this.
Everybody started hanging outwith the gorillas and monkeys
and apes.
Yeah, yeah it's like a circusand I think that was what
confused people paying like whatis it?
Speaker 1 (26:08):
a million dollars for a monkey, yeah, that I can
screenshot and also hang up onmy wall, like I think people
didn't really that.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Well, that's the concept.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Yeah, people didn't understand owning something
digitally.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Yeah, and it's still important.
Nfts and if you understand theback end software Value to it,
it's still going to be a gamechanger.
I said something on one of mymy, my, my, my um Posts it once.
Once people understand NFT andAI it'll be the best integration
, because NFTs is a digital formof authenticity.
(26:44):
It's like a stamp that saysit's you okay and it's and it's
there forever.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
But I think people like me have trouble valuing
that.
Yeah, like, what's the value ina, in a, in a digital
fingerprint, right?
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Okay.
So let's good question.
Let's say, some of yourdaughter's Cookbook, right?
Yeah?
Somebody says, hey, I want tobuy a recipe.
Right, how would they buy arecipe?
They have to like, try tocontact you.
They can't buy it from yourbook, you know, do you?
Do you have a QR code?
Right, that NFT, you canliterally like Figure it out
(27:20):
that they could buy it andthere's a subscription base and
they'll get, like, the recipe intheir house.
They might even get the plate,but why, not just buy the book.
Be oh no, you could buy the book, but within the book you can
sell Seven, eight differentvariations of the book.
So think about this when youbuy one book, you get one
royalty.
If you create an NFT I can't beup to about NFTs, but it's
(27:44):
important.
It's a software.
If you buy one, if you createan NFT, it's about the software,
not NFTs.
That it is.
It could be perpetual.
So one you could have one bookthat'll give you seven, eight
different type of royalties,because every time that book is
sold to somebody else you get acut of that.
So the thing with AI right now,so NFTs, right.
(28:06):
So I I'm still dabbling in that, but you know you have to pivot
and we saw AI become like hugeand I saw that from the from AI
has been around a long time,jasper, people are getting to
know that yeah, ai has beenaround for years, years right
now, but Because of Eli Mossthat found the chat GPT and then
(28:28):
, of course, I think, sold hisoptions to Microsoft.
Now Microsoft is owns chat GPTand then Bard owns Google.
That's gonna be like like anArmageddon wall, like on data
right.
Yeah once Google Figures it out, everyone's in trouble, okay.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
They haven't yet I thought they did come up with
something.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
They did, they came out with um oh bark.
But it's, you know it's, it'sit's chat.
Gpt is so big right now.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
It's yeah, it's the brand awareness right.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Yeah um, but this is the problem Amazon is undefeated
.
Right there are people that arecreating AI generated books.
So far, there has been tens ofthousands of books that have
been kicked out of Amazon.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Wait what?
Because they're GPT.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
AI.
It's called plagiarism.
It's you're pulling from datathat's already published.
So every time, like Mimi, mypartner, she uploads a book on
Amazon.
It says did you use AI to?
Speaker 1 (29:30):
do this, but then you can check off.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Yes, yes, and you, if you think you're smart, right,
you think you're smart, you like?
No, I didn't, well, one, you'relying.
Yeah you don't want to lie.
Two they're going to find youout.
Three they're going to kick youout.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Wait, I didn't know that you can't write a book with
chat GPT and publish it onAmazon, because I mean, that's
what we did for the cookbook.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
You did, I did, but eventually there'll be a war and
and they're going to startdisbanding a lot.
They've been doing it lately.
Chat, I think chat GPT wrote acontract with Politico, because
anything, anything that that youbuy right from chat GPT, it's
from a source that's alreadytaken.
So that's that's copyrightinfringements, trademark
(30:16):
infringement, plagiarisminfringement.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
But it's all.
I mean.
You could ask chat GPT torewrite it in a more casual
style, or you know, whatever itis, it's newly generated.
I mean, that's just like sayingthat you're plagiarizing by
looking at an encyclopedia,which is how we used to write
reports, Exactly.
Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
People, people forgot about those days.
There is a psychopathBritannica or something.
So I'm not against chat GPT.
I'm telling people you have toknow how to use it right.
Of course because if you'reusing chat GPT to publish books
and I'll tell you they're allout there, people publishing
books they're going to startbeing chopped down.
I've been in the publishingindustry for many years.
(30:59):
The Google is not going tosupport chat GPT books.
Amazon is not going to support.
Like there's going to be.
Like there's going to be like.
We're going to be the first tomark.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
How are they going to be able to know?
Is it like written in the code,like how will they know?
Speaker 2 (31:18):
They're going to know .
How will they know?
They're going to know.
There's OK, we, I, I use chatGPT for research.
Right, I'm writing a book,right, I'm, I'm, I'm talking to
the ghost writer and I talkabout this awesome.
His name is James, you know,when he was four years old, his
father passed away and I'm like,first of all, what is it to be
(31:40):
four years old?
So I asked chat GPT, how is it?
What are the emotions of a fouryear old?
How does a four year old act?
I've had I got three boys.
Yeah, you, I totally forgotwhat they were for.
Right, you know what I mean?
I home so and it's like, oh, afour year old does this.
He starts to understand hisemotions, he starts to
understand sound, and you wantto incorporate that in the book,
but we did not copy and pastethat into the document.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
No, you use that as a reason so research and a
resource like encyclopediaBritannica.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Yeah, you know the lexicon or whatever you you use.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
You're not taking the words.
Verbatim is what you're saying.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
You use the word verbatim Then is words have been
used before and they've beenpublished before.
Chad GPT is only pooling datathat's already been published.
It is not creating new data.
It's taking data that's alreadybeen written.
So even music people that areusing Chad GPT to mix music that
that's been like.
A lot of those, those, thosethings are taken away.
(32:33):
So I'm telling people use itfor research.
You publish a book with thatGPT Cool, you're right, but
there's, I don't, don't, don'tget it wrong.
No they're going to go againstthe big guys, right, the big
publishers that are doing thatthere's.
I mean we, we.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
I mean, I don't think you could actually chat.
Gpt is good for generatingquick things, but but, like you
said, you have to edit andre-edit, and re-edit.
There's no way that it's goingto spit out what you really.
Yeah, oh, no, no, no, no, firstround anyway.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
There.
There are like words that ChadGPT uses.
Like it's funny, they'll find I.
There's so many I could say andI don't want to sound like like
I'm I understand AI, I have iton my phone and it's not just
chat GPT, there's so many otherAI softwares that are way better
.
There are AI softwares thathumanize your voice.
(33:23):
But it's just what do you mean?
Humanize your voice?
They take your, they takewhat's written on chat, gpt, and
they re-edit and say make itsound human, but it's.
I tell people you have to sayyes, and if you say no, so that
means they will.
So when you uploaded your book,did it save?
Was it AI generated, I think?
Speaker 1 (33:44):
I remember clicking that and I actually even
credited the chat GPT bot.
I even asked the chat GPT botyou know I'm going to credit you
what do you want to be named?
Speaker 2 (33:55):
And he told me what was his name?
Anti Christ.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
No, just get out the Terminator.
No, I'm just kidding, right, Iforget.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
But I use chat GPT for research, like I use, like I
use data like you know,newspaper, but I don't use it to
publish because, people, youwill never replicate the human
voice to human experience.
Oh yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
But with you.
I mean, I got away with itbecause I was looking for
recipes childlike recipes.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
That was awesome.
We put it on.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
Canva and we made it look all kid.
Like you know, I asked for heradvice because she I wanted
something for her.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
That is no, I don't.
That is awesome, Like I justwanted to play with all the
elements.
And the chat GPT, having thischat GPT rat with you has done a
deal, with you doing the.
No, I don't feel that wayeither.
I'm just like oh my gosh yeahno, I didn't know but B.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
I do remember checking the box.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
But it makes sense.
It makes sense because we couldall get carried away with this.
Ai thing outside of writing.
What do you make of it?
Speaker 2 (35:04):
AI yeah Data.
It gives me the bestinformation quick.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
Are you on the 4.0?
Do you like pay for it?
Okay?
Speaker 2 (35:12):
It's better than it's better than Google search
engine.
It gives me so much moreinformation it's eventually just
going to pull.
You know, the two biggestsearch engines in the world is
Google and YouTube.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Of course, they're owned by Alphabet.
Alphabet owns both of them.
Eventually, you know when youunderstand how data is used.
As much as chat GPT wants andthey're going they're using, is
it Explorer?
Which is the other browserbeing, or I don't know which?
Their own browser?
Right, microsoft?
(35:45):
Whatever?
That's like 3% of people.
Everyone's still on Google,right?
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Yeah, chrome.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Yeah, it's like so.
So Google is going to be likeoh, you want our data, Well,
you're not going to get it.
Or they're going to talk likeit's going to be something like
you can't pull data from GoogleIf you're using chat.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
There's going to be but right now is chat GPT
pulling from everything that iseverything out there on your
computer's Internet.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Period Yep.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Google and then Google.
You know, they filter for theirown good.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Right.
If you pay them money, theywill put your website on the top
hits or whatever Exactly Right.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
I mean, it's funny, like I did a thing about making
sure you're verified on Google.
Your business is verifyingGoogle and that's helped us out.
Like we've been last like 10deals I think five are just
local, organic people, like Idon't know whether, like hey,
you're here and we're a grandswell and they show up in the
office.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
It's because we're prevalent on Google making sure
our reviews are right.
We keep our data up Like Googleis, like the new shopping mall,
Like it's a new office right.
Back then it's like oh, there'sthe mall, there's your store,
oh there's there's the, I couldgo to your office.
That's like them going to youroffice.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Yeah, so that's important.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
So I think chat, gpt and AI, it's not going anywhere.
If you learn how to use itright, you're going to do well.
If you learn how to use itwrong, you're going to get in
trouble.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Yeah, of course.
What is your affiliation withgrounds?
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Well grounds.
Well, it is one of the coolestincubators that I've ever seen.
We're actually doing a lot moreconnections with them.
We're just a publishing company.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
They're a technology driver.
Like a lot of great companiesare coming out of there.
Yeah, they're like a nonprofit.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
So they help with, business them, and I
investigated what exactly theydo over there, so I have a good
understanding.
Are you, are you part of thegrounds?
Well, I'm not part of them but?
Speaker 2 (37:46):
but we're meeting about trying to get their, their
awareness out more.
Yeah, Because that's what we dowe give, we make brands, we
give expertise to brands.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Right.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
So so we're meeting with them, I think coming up
Friday to make sure they'revisible in Brevard, Like Brevard
needs more groundswells, moreincubators that are serious,
that are invested, that arereally helping local companies
succeed.
So they help you do everything.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
Yeah, they do they.
They're very big.
Shout out to them.
They have a lot of tools andthe prototype lab there.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
Like it's kind of amazing the way that there's
like a hundred businesses thereand it's such a great place to
hang out at and speak to.
I'm just are you going?
Speaker 1 (38:31):
in there and speaking .
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Yeah, yeah, I've done a lot.
A lot of events there.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
And at the end of the day, let me tell you something
Publishing books is the greatesttechnology ever invented.
Like I don't care what booksare the tip of the iceberg, and
these people still need books todo everything.
So that's where it's importantfor us to be there.
And then also publishing right.
So publishing rights are themost important rights in the
(38:57):
world Publishing rights- you gotto send the right contract.
Not copyright, not trademark,not you know not not NDAs.
The biggest, most importantrights are publishing rights.
If you understand whatpublishing rights are and you as
a person understand that, thenyou own every asset that belongs
to you.
So that's where companies needto do that.
I even tell companies createyour own publishing house and
(39:19):
everything you publish, all yourarticles, all your research, is
under your own publishing house.
It's like things they got tounderstand.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Yeah, because people think publishing, they just
think books, yes, but you, youare, your publishing blogs,
you're publishing.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
YouTube.
You're publishing data postseven interest.
Everybody that's here nowshould just create a little
publishing company together LLC,put it under there.
Even your audiobook company,right, it's a publishing company
and I'm an audiobook publisher.
You know, I'm Nico thecelebrity.
You know mom book you know,doing great things and I have my
(39:56):
own publishing company.
When you, when you went onKindle, did you create your own
publishing house or you wentunder Kindle?
Speaker 1 (40:05):
Um, I don't really know yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Good advice in the future Anyone doing self
publishing Create your ownpublishing house and don't just
upload it on Kindle.
Upload it through yourpublishing house.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
I think people get overwhelmed you know, especially
when you're like you've got toeven me, like I've been telling
my husband, we got to create anLLC to like umbrella what we do.
But here we are.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
It's crazy Like your son business is a hundred
dollars, a hundred, yeah, to doan LLC.
But people pay like, if youdon't know, you pay more, right?
Yeah, I, I Can change that myown, all you in my car.
But do I want to do that?
Do I want to go on YouTube andtry to change the all you in my
car?
No, I pay someone $50 to do it.
Yeah, yeah.
So you got to pay the expertbecause if not, it'll cost you
(40:52):
more.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
So some people will go on these legal zoom and pay
$500 when you can literally justdo it for 100 bucks.
Get your LLC and get your EINfor free, but it's like no one
knows no one, and you know.
This is the thing people areselfish with data and
information like I give it awayand People eventually trust me
(41:16):
and pay me for her.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
Yeah.
So I mean yeah, I would trustyou.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
Yeah, a good guide.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
That's it.
You know what you're doing.
I Saw this guy on your feed whoactually branded his book in a
shoebox.
Listen.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
It's called, I think, free Sneaker book, comm Tommy.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
Tommy is I gotta make sure I got the right link.
Maybe we'll put it on the thing.
Yeah he's giving away a freebook.
Yes, tommy, urban D is one ofthe most I've worked with a
bunch of authors Okay, he's oneof the most creative, innovative
Authors I've ever worked with.
We've done a lot of projectstogether.
He's all about a book in thebox.
(42:00):
He's all about the brand.
So if you see the Emmy, if youput the link up, he did a book
about sneaker culture, right and, and so he did a sneaker box.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Yeah, he put the shoe in the box, even got the little
tissue.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
It's, and so now when you buy the book, you actually
buy the box.
It's like a sneaker box.
Then he also sells customsneakers, so he'll still have
maybe a dozen people by the freebook under the thousand.
Like you know, I want thesneaker.
That's this.
It's just.
His branding is on a thousand.
Yeah you know I'm very good inbooks, but I've learned a lot
(42:36):
from him, so we've done a lot ofprojects.
That's why I give him a lot.
I mean shout out to Urban DTommy is an awesome dude.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
So where are these authors at?
Are they here in Brevard, orare you catching them from all
you know what?
Speaker 2 (42:49):
crazy.
We just got inducted to theHall of Fame in Brevard.
Yes, three time.
Three time now, three time, notwhat, I don't even know who
nominated us, but we like toserve the community.
Yeah we're finally like usually, our authors are all around the
world, you know, maybe Tampaokay.
Georgia, california.
(43:10):
I was not.
I don't think I've published aMelbourne author, brevard author
it, but the last few yearswe've been getting a lot of them
.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
And what do you look for it in an author?
Authenticity, I think a lot ofpeople that are listening now,
you know, might be askingthemselves that question, you
know.
Speaker 2 (43:29):
And don't don't act too important.
Okay, when I get an authorHello, please, guys.
Okay, stop this, stop, stop.
When I get an author that tellsme you need to sign an NDA To
read my book, my book is superimportant.
I don't know when to steal it.
I'm like, please.
You did not write war and peace, you know.
You know there's that whateveryou're gonna write has been
(43:52):
written before.
If you have a humble approachto your book, you want to tell
your story to change lives.
Yeah worth it.
But when I get people saying,no, this book is and and don't
steal my title, first of all,titles are a copy written.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
Right, so if you have a title, I can use it, yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
I mean, my book is called excuses, excuses.
The book was done 10 years agoand there's a hundred titles of
excuses.
Use it.
So you know, when they act likesuper important, like that, I'm
like man You're.
If you're a diva now, you'regonna be worse deal with you.
Just be humble.
It's your story.
You want to change lives.
If you want to write a book toimpact lives, you write a book
to build your brand.
25% of companies have seen auptick in business because they
(44:29):
wrote a book.
Books established who you are.
You could be smarter than thedumbest person next to you, but
if he writes a book, he's theexpert right.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
Is that crazy?
Speaker 2 (44:37):
So a lot of that stuff.
I try to tell people you know,write the book.
Sometimes you don't make a lotof money with the book, but
listen, maybe I've sold 10, 15,20 thousand selling books but it
opened up a hundred thousanddollars worth of speaking
engagements and a birthday.
That's what books do, okay,they kind of build like like, if
(44:57):
you want to get rich, justselling books, no people not
wanting to buy the book, theywant to buy the experience, they
want to buy the story, theywant to buy everything around
right and a lot of people say,hey, write the book, establish
your brand, show who yourcompany is and now use that book
as the ultimate calling card,the ultimate.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
Yeah, because once you do have the book, you will
get the, the right, the speakingengagements and.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
Very interesting, pretty, so yeah, so we've been
getting a lot of local authors.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
Do they come with you with a book or with an idea?
Speaker 2 (45:28):
I 90% of our authors come with an idea.
Not it, not anything rightabout it.
I mean, if we, if they likeDavid Bernard, we're doing a
book with him is calledkidnapping Jesus about the
shroud, it's pretty cool.
It's like how they steal theShroud whatever, it's pretty
cool.
I can I don't even havepronounced the way, but and it's
like a you know uh.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
Then they do a DNA and we yeah, the one where they
there's like radio.
Yeah, yeah, of his body.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
That's gonna be a great story that's coming.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
He's a local Entrepreneur.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
I think they own a turbine company.
Nephi Moffitt, you know Like awell top football players for
FSU Coach the Palm Bay heritage.
His book came out.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
Do you stick to just like motivational books, or do
you do like?
Speaker 2 (46:13):
fiction.
I would say 70% of my books areself-help, self-help.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
Yeah, that's what people write.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
Yeah, so, um, okay, self-help books, but we do
fiction, nonfiction, children'sbooks, religious books,
political books.
I don't choose preferences, Idon't choose sides, I don't care
, I publish your book.
Speaker 1 (46:34):
How long does it take you to know whether or not you
want to hook up with this client?
Speaker 2 (46:40):
Like the first five minutes.
The first five it's I, I, just,I just that BS meter comes
quick right, yeah, like oh god,because if they're listen,
listen, listen, cheap isexpensive.
The authors I deal with that islike, oh no, that's too much.
Or they, the ones that pay more, demand less.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
The ones that pay less demand more, yep, yeah is
that what weird like?
Speaker 2 (47:05):
And I treat you all the same, but it's like well,
you give me this much and youcall me every day and then the
ones that give me a lot more I Igotta find them.
So I think, if you invest andit's not about the money is just
who you are and how much you'rewilling to invest in your brand
.
Speaker 1 (47:20):
Right, and if you believe in your formula, because
it seems like you do have one.
Yeah you've developed it?
How long have you been in thisindustry?
Speaker 2 (47:27):
Good Lord, over 12 plus years.
Yeah to die on self.
Be true, like now, with thefocus of who you are.
Like I tell people I'mConfident when I suit, when I
see you on Instagram.
Who are you?
Who's your brand?
Speaker 1 (47:40):
Yeah, all over the place, yeah not not you.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
I'm saying people.
It's like you follow me.
You know I do publishing.
That's it.
I like to motivate.
I like to be real.
I'll speak on technology.
Ai is becoming very huge, soI'm getting invited on a lot of,
because there's gonna be a lotof books are gonna be disbanded.
Amazon sent out a press releaselike if your book is on AI,
(48:04):
we're gonna start taking it down.
That's what they you gotta sayyou did yeah.
So there's gonna be a lot of.
There's a lot of these gooslike a do a book in ten minutes.
If you could really write abook in ten minutes, then then
it's probably not worth readingright before.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:21):
Let's see, do you have any advice?
I mean you, you're full ofadvice Beyond publishing.
I mean, that's what the I'mfull I.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
You know I'm full of advice because I'm full of
failures, you know, I think, Ithink failures are the best
indicator.
Wisdom and if you don't learnfrom your failures, you're bound
to repeat them.
So I think a lot of timespeople see they think they have
this success, but there's a lotof mistakes.
You made a lot of bad decisions, but you built from them.
So I think true wisdom comesfrom that, you know.
Speaker 1 (48:51):
I like that, yeah, like do you ever let your
mistakes haunt you a little bitthough.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
You know, do you beat yourself.
I don't dwell, I'm superpositive, but yeah, I'm a human.
Speaker 1 (48:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:02):
You know but um, but it's gotten to you where you are
.
Don't take advice from peoplethat haven't done it.
It's funny like people want togive you advice.
I got people while I give meadvice on what I should do on my
brand and but they don't doanything on their brand.
I'm like whoa, I can't get it,like, yeah, well, you need to do
this, what are you like?
I like to take, not to bedisrespectful.
I like to take advice from up,not down.
(49:24):
Yeah, that makes I like to takeadvice for people that know more
than me.
Right now, don't get it twisted.
There are people that know lessthan you.
But to give you some word ofwisdom at that moment, yeah,
that you have to take like theirchildren.
I learned from right, but it'slike when it comes.
So I think just motivatingpeople is like I.
I, I said it on my I wanted mythe Larry Lawton shout out to
(49:47):
Lila podcast, like my teachertold me, man, mr Bucci, and I
love her man, you, you terribleat writing.
You can't spell.
I mean I, I say I got ADHD.
I've never been a Like those,but I just know me.
I'm like a.
Let's go.
You talked to me.
I just forget.
So I just.
But I've published books.
Speaker 1 (50:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:07):
I didn't know.
Now my limitations, like, don'tlet anyone tell you can't be
done, people will try.
Let me tell you family members,we'll try.
To the first.
People, if you write a book,are gonna want to freeze your
family.
You got no problem spending tendollars at Starbucks buying a
latte and a pastry, but you wantme to give you a book for free
to ten dollars.
That cost me thousands ofdollars.
(50:28):
So, or like when I go to afriend's restaurant, I don't
want your food for free, right?
Speaker 1 (50:34):
I'm gonna go to.
Speaker 2 (50:34):
Carabas and pay them.
Let me support you.
So you know it's a problem withwith with people.
They don't support their ownpeople a lot of times, and
that's that's the problem, right, they want it for free.
They want you know what, man?
I rather just focus on people.
That that Most.
It's funny.
Like most of my, my shine comesfrom people I don't know.
Speaker 1 (50:52):
No, I don't know me.
Yeah, it's crazy, so it's crazy, yeah, it's crazy.
You know, with success you getthe haters if they listen, man.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
Betrayal happens, only happens people that know
you.
Speaker 1 (51:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:03):
I can't betray you, I don't know you right so it's
like.
But it's a best teacher, youknow and it's good when they
betray you early, because nowyou know who they are.
Speaker 1 (51:11):
Right, but family members, I could stay it happens
, fam.
Speaker 2 (51:15):
I love my family.
Yeah you know, and, and I'mloyal to my boys, you know, and,
but you know, a family is Roughto you know, but it is what it
is.
Speaker 1 (51:26):
It is.
You know what, you know what.
Speaker 2 (51:29):
No, it's perfect.
We've made mistakes.
Yeah, I must have done some baddecisions.
I must have hurt people, soit's a it's a typical vicious
cycle.
Speaker 1 (51:37):
Are you on your podcast regularly?
Speaker 2 (51:40):
my, I made the biggest mistake.
You don't talk about mistakesmy podcast hit top 50, top 150
it.
It is called the Peter Lopez noexcuses podcast.
I haven't done one in a while.
I wanted to own my data at thetime.
Yeah, so I'm gonna.
I have to relaunch.
It became like my podcast was a10-minute Rent on whatever I
(52:01):
wanted to.
Speaker 1 (52:02):
I like that increment of time and and I think that
would work for you because, Idon't know, you just have so
many little nuggets of.
Speaker 2 (52:10):
Even now, the podcast that I haven't revived is still
like well, I feel like you'remaking content.
Speaker 1 (52:17):
Anyway, whether you're sitting in front of a
microphone or just at youroffice, you're, your page is
full of good advice.
Speaker 2 (52:23):
Yeah, my pivot now is to take all my Podcasts turning
into YouTube shorts.
I mean, I'm verified on YouTubeand I haven't been honest, I'm
gonna, I'm gonna pivot.
You know, I, if you want tobecome an expert writer book and
I'm an expert because I wrote abook on excuses but I still
make excuses.
It's like, you know, my mind islike you got to get your
podcast back up and but it's alot like, it's a lot of energy
(52:46):
and the thing is I don't want tobe.
I thought at one point I wasjust forcing it.
Authenticity wasn't coming outlike and if I don't do that, I
don't want.
Speaker 1 (52:54):
I'm not gonna do anything I'm not forced to do.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
I know is an answer.
No one is gonna tell me.
Speaker 1 (53:00):
I'm learning that this year no, no, no no, I'm not
doing it.
You know cuz I know yet now?
Speaker 2 (53:06):
Yes, I should, and I have to for my brand because I
noticed, the more visible I am,the more helps our company.
Yeah so that's that's, that'sthat's it.
Speaker 1 (53:18):
Crazy.
I want to ask you one morething.
You know you've come across thebest of the best in Brevard,
I'm sure who would you nominateto come on this show?
I?
Speaker 2 (53:29):
There's a few.
There's the lady Georgia.
She's a Grammy winner.
I mean Grammy nominee.
She lost to Elmo.
Get out of town she has likelittle Elmo thing, everyone
kicks around great story.
She wrote a composer storyabout her sister that passed
away.
When she plays that piano Tearsand then David Bernard his book
(53:54):
is coming out.
He's pretty cool guy, you knowthere's there's a, but like
Niefi Moffitt is pretty cool.
He wrote a book about parentingCalled Niefi isms.
Yes they're all from.
From Mimi my business partner.
(54:15):
She hates to be in thelimelight.
I tell her she's got to be morepublic like she's a strong,
strong leader.
Strong a businesswoman.
Speaker 1 (54:22):
But it sounds like you guys have a good yeah, yeah,
and Yang that's right.
You need somebody like thatbehind you and she needs you in
front of.
It was so nice meeting you.
Can you tell us where we canfind you?
Speaker 2 (54:37):
you can find me.
So XP Lopez Jr.
There's a bunch of ones, butthis one is, you'll see, the
verify one.
Yeah, it's my youth ofInstagram and LinkedIn.
I'm very big.
If you want to really establisha brand, you.
Linkedin is huge.
I get most.
I'm not on Facebook a lot, butPeter Lopez on LinkedIn and then
(54:59):
Public five press calm or PeterLopez junior calm.
You'll find me through allthose.
Mean is send me an email today.
If you guys like anyone sendsus an email that they heard me
on the show, I'll send them afree like template on how to get
their book done.
Speaker 1 (55:15):
All right authors out there.
We got somebody in town thatcould help us our local
celebrity, peter Lopez.
Thank you so much for beinghere and educating us Hope to
have you back.
Speaker 2 (55:26):
Yes, yes, we'll come back when the robots take over.
Speaker 1 (55:30):
The world and we have to hide.
Thank you so much.
Thank you the pleasure,pleasure To be a sponsor or
nominate a guest.
Hit us up on Instagram at localunderscore celebrity underscore
bravard.
Until next time, goodbye.
This podcast is brought to you by Place Pros,
Commercial and Investment RealEstate and NikoTour Boutique,
your one stop shop foreverything cool.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Yeah, so yeah, I like that audio for concept right
now.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
You know we'll talk about it in the show too.
Yeah, let's talk about it.
Are we recording?
Okay, we have Peter Lopez.
You are a two time publisher ofthe year winner here in Brevard
, but you've also published athousand plus books.
You're a ghost writer, anaudiobook publishing genius, and
(00:46):
you also, you know, you're amint maker, your founder of Mint
Maker and a no Excuses podcast.
So, you are a brand of your own.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
You know, I think when it comes to branding right,
the person has to be the facebefore they introduce their
product.
So I've always been very.
You know, I have an awesomepartner, Mimi, and she runs
pretty much we've started apublic fire, but she likes to be
in the background and operateeverything.
So I'm like the front person.
So when you think about EliMusk, you think about Tesla.
(01:19):
When you look at Steve Jobs,you think about Apple and when
you look at Bill Gates, youthink about Microsoft.
So if you're looking toestablish a brand, people still
buy from people, People stilltrust people.
So that is very important.
When I'm talking to localcelebrities artists, you know,
(01:39):
entrepreneurs your face has tobe out there Of course.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
So do you think you kind of dabble in like branding
too?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, I have to because, being in the book
industry, right, we've I wouldsay I managed to work for a
major publisher over 10 yearsWe've had I mean collectively
we've done two, three thousandbooks.
We always tell the author it'simportant that your face is out
there to tell the story.
(02:07):
Right, there are pen names.
There are authors that have pennames, which means they don't
want to give their real identitythat you can understand, so
that we have to market it.
But it's important for you tohave that brand awareness of,
like, my face has to be outthere, I have to talk about it
and then people familiarizethemselves with you know
absolutely.
(02:27):
The hard part is you know ifyou're a jerk.
It comes out of your face.
It comes out like social mediawill expose who you really are
Like yeah, like I turn or nofilter.
Exactly, exactly.
Yeah.
The funniest thing, jesse,about filters and some people
like they look like JanetJackson on social media and you
meet them and like Tito Jackson,yeah like it's all good and
(02:48):
nice when you're filtered out,but like it's the horror of
seeing someone in person andthen yeah.
I'm looking at you and beinglike yeah, what that was 20
years ago I, you took thatpicture.
So it's another thing.
Update, it's a constant update.
So people feel like, well, Idon't like the way I look, I
don't like the way I feel.
You know what, man?
(03:09):
And that doesn't matter.
If you, if you exude confidence, if you believe in yourself,
that's the key, like the beliefsystem, if you believe in
yourself, you believe in yourbrand, that will come out.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
I agree.
Yeah, we're all in meat suits,but it just matters what's
inside and and anybody can getpast the visuals.
Is there something interestingand important coming out of
their mouth.
Did you say meat suits?
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Meat suits.
That's like the best.
That is like.
I've never heard that.
You know like we.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
We don't get to choose right, but we're all like
spirit.
I was not going to let thatpass.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
She said I love that, me too.
Can I use that?
Is that like coined phrase?
No, okay, take meat suits, allright, you exclusively in the
local bravado.
I love it.
Yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
I want to know how you got into publishing, because
you don't really run into manypublishers, especially here in
Brevard.
You don't If publishing.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
listen to this right, and I always say this it's like
uh, 89% of people want to writebooks.
New York Times wrote a report.
If you follow me, it's like I'm89% of people want to write a
book.
89.
1% actually publishes.
People say everybody'spublishing.
I'm like, please shut up.
Nobody there's.
(04:30):
You know seven, eight millionpeople in the world.
Only two, three million bookshave been published.
What?
Speaker 1 (04:34):
is that.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Like point 1%.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Well, nobody really knows how to do it so.
I was hoping you would shedsome light on that subject.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
I'm going to give you the secret sauce.
Guys, have you listening rightnow?
Grab a pen, grab a paper.
I give my stuff away and I'mgoing to tell you why.
Okay, one, how I got into the,the, the publishing, and then,
two, I'll tell you why I give itaway.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
I have been part of the technology sector for a lot
of years.
Like I, was one of the first umum companies to introduce DVD
technology Jesse, we're talkingabout that earlier.
It's called digital versatiledisc and my uh chairman at the
time who became a mentor the uhSprague family, but his name was
Nolan Bush now.
Have you heard of Nolan Bushnow?
No, I haven't.
(05:18):
Have you heard of Chuck ECheese Of course have you heard
of Atari.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Oh yeah, my parents used to work for Atari.
Get out of here, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Nolan Bush now is the creative Atari and then he
birthed Chuck E Cheese to have,you know, people playing the
thing.
So Nolan Bush knows the king ofPong, the most iconic map Were
you out in California.
Cupertino, san Jose.
Yeah, yeah, I was.
I was supposed to be that 9 11plane, but that's a whole other
book.
So I was I mean, I would travela lot and I got into technology
(05:47):
doing DVD and and we couldn't.
We had a great at that time, agreat CEO, but a poor CFO.
And that's when everybody wasgoing public.
Jesse's like we, we, we, that'sthe dot com era.
Yeah, like a 90.
Oh, yeah, like like 90, thatearly nineties, yeah, you know,
(06:09):
I would, you know I.
The story would go we all drovein with Hondas and came back
with Ferrari and then left withyou know, datsuns, like it was.
You know, we, we took a companyfrom like $3 a share to $49 and
it dropped out of you knowthree pennies.
But that was technology.
So we launched that.
And then there was an employeethat worked with with, with
(06:32):
Nolan Bush.
Now, every rebellious employeehad his own rules.
His name was Steve Jobs.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Oh, Steve.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Jobs worked with with Nolan Bush now.
He worked with Atari, and, andhe branched off and he created
another technology and part ofthe knowledge that we worked
with was called small selfmerchandising object.
What is that?
You take a.
We would take a video game andchop it up into pieces.
So instead of selling you a $99video game, we'll sell it to
(07:00):
you in increments, and that iswhat we call iTunes today.
So you know, I could have beena trillionaire, but the cards
are different.
So it was a technology and then,from technology, I started
working for you know, differentfinancial things software and I
ended up moving to Florida and acompany.
(07:21):
I worked a lot of years in theradio industry.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
I even helped buy and sell radio stations.
You remember, back then it waslike.
Am and then you flip up into FMand then you flip up into
satellite.
So flipping radio stations werevery big back then yeah, yeah,
it was huge Like and so thatcompany had a, a, a publishing
company, and I was like, man,I've been wanting to publish a
book for a long time and withoutlistening to me, okay, nico and
(07:48):
Jesse, I have the worst grandma.
I got ADD, I can't spell tosave my life.
But I didn't look at mylimitations Right and I was like
, started working in thiscompany the first year, the
first year.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
They just transferred you over.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yep, Yep.
There's like hey, just try it.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
I mean you have.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
It's all about relationships, right.
Like sales is a transfer ofemotions.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
And if you, if you believe someone?
So writing a book is about, youknow, pushing your dreams
across.
So I'm good at that.
I tell people, I'll throw youoff the cliff.
You can learn how to fly.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
How are you so good at that?
Like you say you come, like Isaw that you say you come from
poverty.
I, I grew up in the South Bronx.
You did, I grew up in the SouthBronx.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
So I grew up in, like I told them about the ghetto,
south Bronx, right Like I what?
We was standing in the line inthe line for free cheese.
You know, um, you know, uh, stAnne's Brook Avenue yeah, shout
out to my man, larry Law andpistol Pete.
So it's like like we was.
It was, it was gang life, butmy dad was a minister, very
strict, very, very like youbetter go to church, you know.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Do you think that's where you got like your?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
yeah, yeah definitely got that discipline, but you
still had to fight.
You still had to hustle LikeJesse.
It was like someone hits you,you don't hit back, you in
trouble, they'll punk you.
So you grew up in that, in that, like that that state of fight
or flight?
Yes, exactly, but I found out Ihad no flight and I know flight
I mean.
So you gotta fight.
So then people start respectingyou and got like I'll come.
(09:14):
I used to work at city bank andI'll be like two in the morning
with a book bag in a suit goinginto like the projects, and
nobody bothered me.
But that gave me thatunstoppable mentality Like I'm
not gonna go to Wall Street, I'mnot gonna be bullied by nobody
If I survive this.
You know it's no way someexecutive is gonna tell me it
(09:38):
can't be done.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Do you still keep in touch with some of the kids like
that were kind of that you grewup with.
Maybe I don't know, didn't havethat mentality?
Speaker 2 (09:45):
I would say 80% of them are dead in jail.
I grew up during the crackepidemic A lot of them.
I saw girls that were beautiful.
I mean, look like beautypageants.
You know that you were like inhigh school like wow, she's so
beautiful and then, like threeyears later, they like withered
away.
So crack killed a lot of people.
(10:06):
Aids came in, killed a lot offriends and family, so it's
literally like a genocide.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah, I knew, escaped at all.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Escaped at all, you know, and I still.
I'm still close to family, Istill got friends, but it's not
like it's a handful of people.
And I remember I went back tothe Bronx and a lot of people
are still stuck in the past.
The worst thing you can do isdwelling, and two things will
keep you stuck dwelling in thepast and then dwelling in the
future.
(10:35):
Not knowing so, you gotta livein the present moment.
I like looking at the future.
staying in the past could keepyou there, so I go there and I
still see some people living inthe past.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Do you think that's your number one problem for not
like doing what you did, gettingout of it?
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah yeah, a lot of people.
Well, they're product of theirenvironment.
A lot of times, of courseListen to me, man it's like I
like the secret and I like youknow you gotta think and grow
rich and you gotta speak life.
But there's some people in acertain environment, no matter
what happens, they're gonna bestuck there.
So I think some of them areproduct of that and, no matter
(11:11):
what happens, it's hard to getthem out there.
So there's just a few of us likethe last of the Mohicans that
we could just crawl out of there, and my job is to try to get
back there, and I'm actuallydoing a lot of books for the
culture, a lot of books for thehip hop culture, a lot of books
for people that have beenmarginalized and been treating a
part.
The publishing industry is likethe mafia it is a trillion, not
(11:36):
a billion, a trillion dollarindustry.
If you add, like MarvelUniverse, google, facebook
they're all publishers.
Publishing is the tip of thescale.
The richest company in theworld is a publishing company.
You know it's Amazon.
Started selling books out ofthere, yeah, so if you
understand publishing as anartist, as a brand even Jesse
(11:58):
has what you're doing with theaudio books if you understand
that part of publishing, thenyou can own all your assets
because eventually, everythingon the internet is public domain
.
It's fair use.
Like, I can write a book rightnow on Jay-Z, I can write a book
on Warren Buffett I don't needtheir permission Because now I
(12:18):
cannot write what they're sayingtoday, but being that it was
published before, so it'simportant for you to own your
publishing assets so no onepirates your stuff.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Okay, all right, but, like you said, 80% of the
public wants to write a book.
We all have that dream.
How does that come torealization?
How much does it cost?
Because I know you said youknow to make money you have to
give some of your money up front.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
So there's three ways of publishing right, and it's
funny, I think, the perceptionpeople still call like well, do
I get an advance?
I'm like no.
You think you could, but it'sokay.
So the 89% people want to writebooks.
1% does right.
It's hard to publish a book.
People think it's easy.
A lot of people go theself-publishing route and then
(13:06):
God bless them.
It's easy, it's free, but youkind of go into some mistakes
and I'll tell you what that is.
The first part of publishing iswhat we call traditional
publishing, the hybrid.
I mean, that's the tradition.
It was the Penguin, the HarperCollins.
You know the Mafia, you knowthe anti-crisis.
No, they're a good company.
I love them, they're awesome.
But they're very important.
(13:27):
They maneuver and own.
They're the ones that give youa 360 deal and it's like a slave
contract.
They will own all your assets.
They will give you an upfront.
They will give you like alittle upfront, you know one of
my friends.
They own Imperperatuity, yourimage and likeness your name.
(13:47):
You think it's funny likepeople think, like they're like
no, no, you're not thatimportant.
Maybe Trump, obama, oprah, youknow, those people will get an
exclusive admin distributiondeal.
Sure but not in the US there'slike point, point point zero,
one of those people that getssome of that.
Everybody else has to give uppretty much a 360 deal.
(14:12):
If you say they don't, I callthem a liar.
Don Robinson from Invogue wetalked about doing her book at
one point like she lost all herassets, right.
Dave Chappelle at one pointdidn't even own Dave Chappelle.
So it's like I love this worldof like no publishing owns
everything.
So that deal.
(14:33):
You have to give up a 360 deal.
You mean everything like abrand.
Oh, my God, I had a my's vote.
She's like one of the mosticonic YouTubers and podcasts.
Max Maxwell was like one of thebiggest developers.
He's doing some killer stuff atDubai to do speed at his wife.
(14:53):
She's got three millionfollowers and it was like the
publisher wanted to even ownsome of her TikToks and all that
.
Publishers would do that.
You need to do these.
Many TikToks about her.
She needs yeah, so you'reworking for them when you
already have a brand Right.
So they'll do that.
They'll own everything andyou'll get, if you're lucky, a
(15:14):
six to 8% royalty deal.
Ryan Holiday has sold tens ofmillions of books, ryan Holiday,
and he has said in his podcasthe's finally recouped the
$250,000 that he got from hispublisher 10 years ago.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
He don't Okay, but how are you doing it?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Because I grew up in the South Bronx and I'm not
scared of those guys.
I've gotten ceaseless.
This is that is from them, sothat that deal happens.
It's not if someone's going togive you an advance, they're
going to own your assets.
The second one, where I'vebecome very important in the
field, is called hybridpublishing.
Hybrid publishing is not selfpublishing, is we create some
(15:56):
type of joint venturepartnership.
Sometimes I'll take 30% of yourrights, 30% of your royalties,
you get 70%, and then I can shop.
I can shop you foreign rights.
We have great relationshipswith awesome managers, awesome
people that can get you in frontof celebrities, get you in
front of podcasts, get you infront of Netflix.
(16:17):
Now you got to have a goodstory.
You just can't be some guy offthe street, but there are some
great writers out there, so youfind that talent.
We create some type ofpartnership.
I'll put some money in it,you'll put some money in it and
we'll create some type of hybridpublishing where it's not looks
self, it's not.
(16:38):
You know we create, so it'slike a deal.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
it's like a partnership, A partnership deal.
And what does that look like?
Give me like a ballpark figureof if someone's really serious
about writing their story andyou agree with it you think it's
there.
You know, you think it's gonnawork.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
The most important part, the biggest expense in
doing those deals, is editing.
Right, Like Stephen King, right?
Maybe the best writer we hadsince Ernest Hemingway.
I'm not into his books, buthe's the best conversational
writer that's ever lived.
Right, he will write a storyand put you in the story right.
So I mean, if you wanna knowabout editing and writing,
(17:17):
Stephen King's book on writingis the best.
I don't really care for StephenKing's movies, but I'm more of
a CS Lewis guy, or you know.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
But the cost of editing that trumps the cost of
printing, that costs the Trumpof everything.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
So, you have to pay a lot of money for editing.
You cannot just edit your bookonce.
Don't trust your own editing.
Don't trust your sister thathas a master's.
Don't trust your friend that'sa professor.
Editing is a gift.
Okay, People, you know, whenyou give it to people that are
smarter than you and they'reperfect, they're just gonna
(17:53):
correct you for grammar,punctuation, capitalization.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
There's a flow to write.
So a lot of times you'retelling the story and you don't
understand it.
So these ghost writers, thesedevelopmental editors, will put
you in that story, make yousound real and make it flow.
You're also a ghost writer.
Yes, are you an editor too?
I well, lord help me If I edityour book.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
It would look like they'd be like three, three
comments per person.
So publishing and editing andghost writing are three
different things.
You dabble in two of them.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Ghost writing is helping develop your story,
developing your arc, developingwhat is your brand, coming up
with story lines.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Oh really.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Yeah, yeah.
So it's like, a lot of times,ghost writers ghost writers do
two things Okay, A real ghostwriter is not even.
You don't even see their namesin the book.
Yeah right, Some ghost writersget a percentage but their names
are not on the book.
But they definitely do thewriting.
They do a lot of the writing,Okay.
Or they have a team of writersOkay, team of writers.
Yeah so it's like, okay, tellme about the book because I
(18:54):
can't write, but I could.
I could definitely develop yourstory.
Yeah if I talk to you, we have aone-hour meeting.
I'm like this is what yourstory is.
This is how to come out.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
You know how to extract Information and then the
the person tells some thewriters and the writers write it
out exactly then the writers.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
So you want to go from your story right, getting
your story written so that sayit's got to be developed right.
So developmental editing issuper important.
After that, 95% of books need aline editing.
Substantive, like awkward wordsentences, active passive words
you know what you, which is thatwe know which is the most
misused word what was really?
(19:33):
Was it past tense or was itpresent state of mind?
So I don't know how to writethat.
Well, yeah, so when I say was,was I there or was I there now?
Was I there yesterday?
And a lot of times when wewrite that, it becomes very
awkward.
So, and it's funny, like I talk, I Talk like I know these
things.
I just been doing these for 10years, but what I do is I
(19:56):
connect you with an expert.
Guys, true wisdom is knowingyour limitations.
There's like 1.0, point pointone, people that make money
writing.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
But yeah, yeah, there's.
I've actually gone theself-publishing route.
I helped my daughter publishlike a cookbook and we wrote it
through like chat GPT, so I justwanted to get a sort of
awareness of how it works.
Yeah, do you want to talk about?
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Yes, there's.
There's a war going on with therobots tell me.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
I know I don't, I mean I don't know.
I know what I hear, but I'mlike how bad can this get?
Speaker 2 (20:34):
so let's so you go from editing.
I would say a good hybridcontract.
Yeah should be about.
It should be between 20 and 40thousand okay you know Scribe
media when they did the dealwith with David Goggins.
You've scribe media is verysimilar to us.
Okay they've gone through upsand downs, like everybody.
(20:56):
But they kind of gave a dealand they shared on the royalties
and there was some upfront cost.
But David Goggins ownseverything.
David Goggins is gonna get250,000 dollars from a major
publisher.
They would have ownedeverything.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Millions of promise.
So he's a great and we talkedabout him.
Okay, so you get that.
You get it published hybrid.
The third one isself-publishing.
Guys, who cares, get your bookdone.
You're part of the one percent.
Right, you got a book done foryour daughter, you know.
Awesome, that is.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah, I don't know.
See, for the next, it almostfeels like, since everybody can
do it, though it's no longerspecial, like unless you do have
that penguin, or yeah, like Idon't think people really know,
I don't know and.
I'm glad you're here educatingwhen you go that route.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
You know it's always good to like have someone give
you some advice how to do it,but you got it out, who cares?
Okay right, who like it's like?
You got a prop that I'm proudof.
You Look for your daughter.
You know how cool that is.
I know my mom did a booktogether, so self-publishing is
a route.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
But you're not gonna see the return.
No can you guarantee the return, or Maybe not guarantee, but
can you be confident that?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
if someone yeah Like you won't make the deal unless
you're confident that this bookwill two things happen when you
write a book One, you have toinvest a lot of money to make a
lot of money back.
Yep, okay, marketing Brandingis important.
Marketing does not equate tosales.
It equates to expertise andexposure.
But there's like funnels andways of going around Amazon.
(22:30):
Because Amazon is 80 5% of thebuying habits, so people gonna
buy your book on Amazon.
The problem is, yeah, amazonwon't give you nobody's email,
nobody's phone.
So let's say, a thousand peoplebuy your book on Amazon Great,
you might make two dollars.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Cool your best seller , but you own no data.
I rather, a hundred people buymy book directly from me.
Yeah then a thousand people buythe book on Amazon.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Right, why?
Cuz I don't.
Yeah, I'll know the date, yeahdata is gold.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Yeah so if I have a hundred emails of their name,
their phone number, that's whatthey all want my month.
My shout out to my monthlymillionaire guys Like it's $16,
like an email's a dollar, aphone is A five dollars and
addresses ten dollars.
Wow, that's, that's the returnyou get.
Yeah, so let's say you blastingemails, I'm gonna be at a book
(23:23):
signing, I'm giving away this.
You have that data.
Guys Work on your email listlike like it's the old people
still do that I hear this allthe time, but we're so bad at it
, yeah so, so that that becomesso.
Self-publishing is another routethat you can take and, and a
lot of times it you know, nico,I'll tell them we're not the
(23:47):
company for you out.
Yeah, I have never.
I'm not that important, I'm notthat type of guy like.
I feel like you, you, you, yougood to people, you bless people
.
I'll come back to you.
So I'm like do this right, butdo it this way, don't go that
way and I'm gonna self-publish,do this, and then you give him
advice.
But you know, you know what I'velearned, jesse, this is the
(24:07):
coolest part.
It's DIY to D I FM.
I tell everybody how to do it.
You know what they tell me.
Now you need to do it for me,because I People say they don't
got money.
Oh no, no, no, no, no.
You got money.
You just don't got money toinvest in your dreams because,
dreams cost a lot of money.
You know you got money to go ona $5,000 out of vacation.
You got money to buy Starbucksevery day.
(24:28):
If I got a cup and you add thatwas that 2,500.
So they got.
They got money until they haveto invest.
So I tell them invest this wayand do that.
So I think it gets real forpeople.
They get scared.
The best investment you canmake is in yourself.
Yeah, that's it.
That's the biggest ROI you'llget.
Yeah, if you make an investmentin yourself, it's the best ROI
(24:48):
you get.
People are like investing onother people Every time.
Now, like I use my own brand.
I'm not spending money on Guccior Nike.
I buy my own t-shirts with myown name on it.
I'm the brand right.
So when you see me Like what'sthat?
And it's like I'll be thebillboard, I'm not gonna
advertise, it's funny likepeople got these, these fendi
(25:11):
bags and all that, but it don'tmatter.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Like it's nothing like having your own brand,
right, right and and where welive in a world where, like now,
you, you almost have to brandyourself.
If you're gonna put yourselfout there, you can't do it so
frivolously.
I mean, of course, you can, butlike if you're taking the time
out to, whether it's educatepeople or give them a freaking
makeup tutorial.
(25:33):
Yeah you have to show up.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Right, you have to show up.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
I like that, I like that.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah, so you guys want to talk about AI.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Yes, let's talk about that Any questions about AI, so
go ahead.
Well, I was like I know you didthe NFT stuff yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
NFTs.
We went to podcasts like twoyears ago.
I'll talk about that.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
I feel like it went this and then, and then it
stopped.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
NFT, let me, let me, let me explain this.
Everybody started hanging outwith the gorillas and monkeys
and apes.
Yeah, yeah it's like a circusand I think that was what
confused people paying like whatis it?
Speaker 1 (26:08):
a million dollars for a monkey, yeah, that I can
screenshot and also hang up onmy wall, like I think people
didn't really that.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Well, that's the concept.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Yeah, people didn't understand owning something
digitally.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Yeah, and it's still important.
Nfts and if you understand theback end software Value to it,
it's still going to be a gamechanger.
I said something on one of mymy, my, my, my um Posts it once.
Once people understand NFT andAI it'll be the best integration
, because NFTs is a digital formof authenticity.
(26:44):
It's like a stamp that saysit's you okay and it's and it's
there forever.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
But I think people like me have trouble valuing
that.
Yeah, like, what's the value ina, in a, in a digital
fingerprint, right?
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Okay.
So let's good question.
Let's say, some of yourdaughter's Cookbook, right?
Yeah?
Somebody says, hey, I want tobuy a recipe.
Right, how would they buy arecipe?
They have to like, try tocontact you.
They can't buy it from yourbook, you know, do you?
Do you have a QR code?
Right, that NFT, you canliterally like Figure it out
(27:20):
that they could buy it andthere's a subscription base and
they'll get, like, the recipe intheir house.
They might even get the plate,but why, not just buy the book.
Be oh no, you could buy the book, but within the book you can
sell Seven, eight differentvariations of the book.
So think about this when youbuy one book, you get one
royalty.
If you create an NFT I can't beup to about NFTs, but it's
(27:44):
important.
It's a software.
If you buy one, if you createan NFT, it's about the software,
not NFTs.
That it is.
It could be perpetual.
So one you could have one bookthat'll give you seven, eight
different type of royalties,because every time that book is
sold to somebody else you get acut of that.
So the thing with AI right now,so NFTs, right.
(28:06):
So I I'm still dabbling in that, but you know you have to pivot
and we saw AI become like hugeand I saw that from the from AI
has been around a long time,jasper, people are getting to
know that yeah, ai has beenaround for years, years right
now, but Because of Eli Mossthat found the chat GPT and then
(28:28):
, of course, I think, sold hisoptions to Microsoft.
Now Microsoft is owns chat GPTand then Bard owns Google.
That's gonna be like like anArmageddon wall, like on data
right.
Yeah once Google Figures it out, everyone's in trouble, okay.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
They haven't yet I thought they did come up with
something.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
They did, they came out with um oh bark.
But it's, you know it's, it'sit's chat.
Gpt is so big right now.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
It's yeah, it's the brand awareness right.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Yeah um, but this is the problem Amazon is undefeated
.
Right there are people that arecreating AI generated books.
So far, there has been tens ofthousands of books that have
been kicked out of Amazon.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Wait what?
Because they're GPT.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
AI.
It's called plagiarism.
It's you're pulling from datathat's already published.
So every time, like Mimi, mypartner, she uploads a book on
Amazon.
It says did you use AI to?
Speaker 1 (29:30):
do this, but then you can check off.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Yes, yes, and you, if you think you're smart, right,
you think you're smart, you like?
No, I didn't, well, one, you'relying.
Yeah you don't want to lie.
Two they're going to find youout.
Three they're going to kick youout.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Wait, I didn't know that you can't write a book with
chat GPT and publish it onAmazon, because I mean, that's
what we did for the cookbook.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
You did, I did, but eventually there'll be a war and
and they're going to startdisbanding a lot.
They've been doing it lately.
Chat, I think chat GPT wrote acontract with Politico, because
anything, anything that that youbuy right from chat GPT, it's
from a source that's alreadytaken.
So that's that's copyrightinfringements, trademark
(30:16):
infringement, plagiarisminfringement.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
But it's all.
I mean.
You could ask chat GPT torewrite it in a more casual
style, or you know, whatever itis, it's newly generated.
I mean, that's just like sayingthat you're plagiarizing by
looking at an encyclopedia,which is how we used to write
reports, Exactly.
Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
People, people forgot about those days.
There is a psychopathBritannica or something.
So I'm not against chat GPT.
I'm telling people you have toknow how to use it right.
Of course because if you'reusing chat GPT to publish books
and I'll tell you they're allout there, people publishing
books they're going to startbeing chopped down.
I've been in the publishingindustry for many years.
(30:59):
The Google is not going tosupport chat GPT books.
Amazon is not going to support.
Like there's going to be.
Like there's going to be like.
We're going to be the first tomark.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
How are they going to be able to know?
Is it like written in the code,like how will they know?
Speaker 2 (31:18):
They're going to know .
How will they know?
They're going to know.
There's OK, we, I, I use chatGPT for research.
Right, I'm writing a book,right, I'm, I'm, I'm talking to
the ghost writer and I talkabout this awesome.
His name is James, you know,when he was four years old, his
father passed away and I'm like,first of all, what is it to be
(31:40):
four years old?
So I asked chat GPT, how is it?
What are the emotions of a fouryear old?
How does a four year old act?
I've had I got three boys.
Yeah, you, I totally forgotwhat they were for.
Right, you know what I mean?
I home so and it's like, oh, afour year old does this.
He starts to understand hisemotions, he starts to
understand sound, and you wantto incorporate that in the book,
but we did not copy and pastethat into the document.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
No, you use that as a reason so research and a
resource like encyclopediaBritannica.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Yeah, you know the lexicon or whatever you you use.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
You're not taking the words.
Verbatim is what you're saying.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
You use the word verbatim Then is words have been
used before and they've beenpublished before.
Chad GPT is only pooling datathat's already been published.
It is not creating new data.
It's taking data that's alreadybeen written.
So even music people that areusing Chad GPT to mix music that
that's been like.
A lot of those, those, thosethings are taken away.
(32:33):
So I'm telling people use itfor research.
You publish a book with thatGPT Cool, you're right, but
there's, I don't, don't, don'tget it wrong.
No they're going to go againstthe big guys, right, the big
publishers that are doing thatthere's.
I mean we, we.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
I mean, I don't think you could actually chat.
Gpt is good for generatingquick things, but but, like you
said, you have to edit andre-edit, and re-edit.
There's no way that it's goingto spit out what you really.
Yeah, oh, no, no, no, no, firstround anyway.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
There.
There are like words that ChadGPT uses.
Like it's funny, they'll find I.
There's so many I could say andI don't want to sound like like
I'm I understand AI, I have iton my phone and it's not just
chat GPT, there's so many otherAI softwares that are way better
.
There are AI softwares thathumanize your voice.
(33:23):
But it's just what do you mean?
Humanize your voice?
They take your, they takewhat's written on chat, gpt, and
they re-edit and say make itsound human, but it's.
I tell people you have to sayyes, and if you say no, so that
means they will.
So when you uploaded your book,did it save?
Was it AI generated, I think?
Speaker 1 (33:44):
I remember clicking that and I actually even
credited the chat GPT bot.
I even asked the chat GPT botyou know I'm going to credit you
what do you want to be named?
Speaker 2 (33:55):
And he told me what was his name?
Anti Christ.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
No, just get out the Terminator.
No, I'm just kidding, right, Iforget.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
But I use chat GPT for research, like I use, like I
use data like you know,newspaper, but I don't use it to
publish because, people, youwill never replicate the human
voice to human experience.
Oh yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
But with you.
I mean, I got away with itbecause I was looking for
recipes childlike recipes.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
That was awesome.
We put it on.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
Canva and we made it look all kid.
Like you know, I asked for heradvice because she I wanted
something for her.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
That is no, I don't.
That is awesome, Like I justwanted to play with all the
elements.
And the chat GPT, having thischat GPT rat with you has done a
deal, with you doing the.
No, I don't feel that wayeither.
I'm just like oh my gosh yeahno, I didn't know but B.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
I do remember checking the box.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
But it makes sense.
It makes sense because we couldall get carried away with this.
Ai thing outside of writing.
What do you make of it?
Speaker 2 (35:04):
AI yeah Data.
It gives me the bestinformation quick.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
Are you on the 4.0?
Do you like pay for it?
Okay?
Speaker 2 (35:12):
It's better than it's better than Google search
engine.
It gives me so much moreinformation it's eventually just
going to pull.
You know, the two biggestsearch engines in the world is
Google and YouTube.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Of course, they're owned by Alphabet.
Alphabet owns both of them.
Eventually, you know when youunderstand how data is used.
As much as chat GPT wants andthey're going they're using, is
it Explorer?
Which is the other browserbeing, or I don't know which?
Their own browser?
Right, microsoft?
(35:45):
Whatever?
That's like 3% of people.
Everyone's still on Google,right?
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Yeah, chrome.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Yeah, it's like so.
So Google is going to be likeoh, you want our data, Well,
you're not going to get it.
Or they're going to talk likeit's going to be something like
you can't pull data from GoogleIf you're using chat.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
There's going to be but right now is chat GPT
pulling from everything that iseverything out there on your
computer's Internet.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Period Yep.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Google and then Google.
You know, they filter for theirown good.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Right.
If you pay them money, theywill put your website on the top
hits or whatever Exactly Right.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
I mean, it's funny, like I did a thing about making
sure you're verified on Google.
Your business is verifyingGoogle and that's helped us out.
Like we've been last like 10deals I think five are just
local, organic people, like Idon't know whether, like hey,
you're here and we're a grandswell and they show up in the
office.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
It's because we're prevalent on Google making sure
our reviews are right.
We keep our data up Like Googleis, like the new shopping mall,
Like it's a new office right.
Back then it's like oh, there'sthe mall, there's your store,
oh there's there's the, I couldgo to your office.
That's like them going to youroffice.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Yeah, so that's important.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
So I think chat, gpt and AI, it's not going anywhere.
If you learn how to use itright, you're going to do well.
If you learn how to use itwrong, you're going to get in
trouble.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Yeah, of course.
What is your affiliation withgrounds?
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Well grounds.
Well, it is one of the coolestincubators that I've ever seen.
We're actually doing a lot moreconnections with them.
We're just a publishing company.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
They're a technology driver.
Like a lot of great companiesare coming out of there.
Yeah, they're like a nonprofit.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
So they help with, business them, and I
investigated what exactly theydo over there, so I have a good
understanding.
Are you, are you part of thegrounds?
Well, I'm not part of them but?
Speaker 2 (37:46):
but we're meeting about trying to get their, their
awareness out more.
Yeah, Because that's what we dowe give, we make brands, we
give expertise to brands.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Right.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
So so we're meeting with them, I think coming up
Friday to make sure they'revisible in Brevard, Like Brevard
needs more groundswells, moreincubators that are serious,
that are invested, that arereally helping local companies
succeed.
So they help you do everything.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
Yeah, they do they.
They're very big.
Shout out to them.
They have a lot of tools andthe prototype lab there.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
Like it's kind of amazing the way that there's
like a hundred businesses thereand it's such a great place to
hang out at and speak to.
I'm just are you going?
Speaker 1 (38:31):
in there and speaking .
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Yeah, yeah, I've done a lot.
A lot of events there.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
And at the end of the day, let me tell you something
Publishing books is the greatesttechnology ever invented.
Like I don't care what booksare the tip of the iceberg, and
these people still need books todo everything.
So that's where it's importantfor us to be there.
And then also publishing right.
So publishing rights are themost important rights in the
(38:57):
world Publishing rights- you gotto send the right contract.
Not copyright, not trademark,not you know not not NDAs.
The biggest, most importantrights are publishing rights.
If you understand whatpublishing rights are and you as
a person understand that, thenyou own every asset that belongs
to you.
So that's where companies needto do that.
I even tell companies createyour own publishing house and
(39:19):
everything you publish, all yourarticles, all your research, is
under your own publishing house.
It's like things they got tounderstand.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Yeah, because people think publishing, they just
think books, yes, but you, youare, your publishing blogs,
you're publishing.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
YouTube.
You're publishing data postseven interest.
Everybody that's here nowshould just create a little
publishing company together LLC,put it under there.
Even your audiobook company,right, it's a publishing company
and I'm an audiobook publisher.
You know, I'm Nico thecelebrity.
You know mom book you know,doing great things and I have my
(39:56):
own publishing company.
When you, when you went onKindle, did you create your own
publishing house or you wentunder Kindle?
Speaker 1 (40:05):
Um, I don't really know yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Good advice in the future Anyone doing self
publishing Create your ownpublishing house and don't just
upload it on Kindle.
Upload it through yourpublishing house.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
I think people get overwhelmed you know, especially
when you're like you've got toeven me, like I've been telling
my husband, we got to create anLLC to like umbrella what we do.
But here we are.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
It's crazy Like your son business is a hundred
dollars, a hundred, yeah, to doan LLC.
But people pay like, if youdon't know, you pay more, right?
Yeah, I, I Can change that myown, all you in my car.
But do I want to do that?
Do I want to go on YouTube andtry to change the all you in my
car?
No, I pay someone $50 to do it.
Yeah, yeah.
So you got to pay the expertbecause if not, it'll cost you
(40:52):
more.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
So some people will go on these legal zoom and pay
$500 when you can literally justdo it for 100 bucks.
Get your LLC and get your EINfor free, but it's like no one
knows no one, and you know.
This is the thing people areselfish with data and
information like I give it awayand People eventually trust me
(41:16):
and pay me for her.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
Yeah.
So I mean yeah, I would trustyou.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
Yeah, a good guide.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
That's it.
You know what you're doing.
I Saw this guy on your feed whoactually branded his book in a
shoebox.
Listen.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
It's called, I think, free Sneaker book, comm Tommy.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
Tommy is I gotta make sure I got the right link.
Maybe we'll put it on the thing.
Yeah he's giving away a freebook.
Yes, tommy, urban D is one ofthe most I've worked with a
bunch of authors Okay, he's oneof the most creative, innovative
Authors I've ever worked with.
We've done a lot of projectstogether.
He's all about a book in thebox.
(42:00):
He's all about the brand.
So if you see the Emmy, if youput the link up, he did a book
about sneaker culture, right and, and so he did a sneaker box.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Yeah, he put the shoe in the box, even got the little
tissue.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
It's, and so now when you buy the book, you actually
buy the box.
It's like a sneaker box.
Then he also sells customsneakers, so he'll still have
maybe a dozen people by the freebook under the thousand.
Like you know, I want thesneaker.
That's this.
It's just.
His branding is on a thousand.
Yeah you know I'm very good inbooks, but I've learned a lot
(42:36):
from him, so we've done a lot ofprojects.
That's why I give him a lot.
I mean shout out to Urban DTommy is an awesome dude.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
So where are these authors at?
Are they here in Brevard, orare you catching them from all
you know what?
Speaker 2 (42:49):
crazy.
We just got inducted to theHall of Fame in Brevard.
Yes, three time.
Three time now, three time, notwhat, I don't even know who
nominated us, but we like toserve the community.
Yeah we're finally like usually, our authors are all around the
world, you know, maybe Tampaokay.
Georgia, california.
(43:10):
I was not.
I don't think I've published aMelbourne author, brevard author
it, but the last few yearswe've been getting a lot of them
.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
And what do you look for it in an author?
Authenticity, I think a lot ofpeople that are listening now,
you know, might be askingthemselves that question, you
know.
Speaker 2 (43:29):
And don't don't act too important.
Okay, when I get an authorHello, please, guys.
Okay, stop this, stop, stop.
When I get an author that tellsme you need to sign an NDA To
read my book, my book is superimportant.
I don't know when to steal it.
I'm like, please.
You did not write war and peace, you know.
You know there's that whateveryou're gonna write has been
(43:52):
written before.
If you have a humble approachto your book, you want to tell
your story to change lives.
Yeah worth it.
But when I get people saying,no, this book is and and don't
steal my title, first of all,titles are a copy written.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
Right, so if you have a title, I can use it, yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
I mean, my book is called excuses, excuses.
The book was done 10 years agoand there's a hundred titles of
excuses.
Use it.
So you know, when they act likesuper important, like that, I'm
like man You're.
If you're a diva now, you'regonna be worse deal with you.
Just be humble.
It's your story.
You want to change lives.
If you want to write a book toimpact lives, you write a book
to build your brand.
25% of companies have seen auptick in business because they
(44:29):
wrote a book.
Books established who you are.
You could be smarter than thedumbest person next to you, but
if he writes a book, he's theexpert right.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
Is that crazy?
Speaker 2 (44:37):
So a lot of that stuff.
I try to tell people you know,write the book.
Sometimes you don't make a lotof money with the book, but
listen, maybe I've sold 10, 15,20 thousand selling books but it
opened up a hundred thousanddollars worth of speaking
engagements and a birthday.
That's what books do, okay,they kind of build like like, if
(44:57):
you want to get rich, justselling books, no people not
wanting to buy the book, theywant to buy the experience, they
want to buy the story, theywant to buy everything around
right and a lot of people say,hey, write the book, establish
your brand, show who yourcompany is and now use that book
as the ultimate calling card,the ultimate.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
Yeah, because once you do have the book, you will
get the, the right, the speakingengagements and.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
Very interesting, pretty, so yeah, so we've been
getting a lot of local authors.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
Do they come with you with a book or with an idea?
Speaker 2 (45:28):
I 90% of our authors come with an idea.
Not it, not anything rightabout it.
I mean, if we, if they likeDavid Bernard, we're doing a
book with him is calledkidnapping Jesus about the
shroud, it's pretty cool.
It's like how they steal theShroud whatever, it's pretty
cool.
I can I don't even havepronounced the way, but and it's
like a you know uh.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
Then they do a DNA and we yeah, the one where they
there's like radio.
Yeah, yeah, of his body.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
That's gonna be a great story that's coming.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
He's a local Entrepreneur.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
I think they own a turbine company.
Nephi Moffitt, you know Like awell top football players for
FSU Coach the Palm Bay heritage.
His book came out.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
Do you stick to just like motivational books, or do
you do like?
Speaker 2 (46:13):
fiction.
I would say 70% of my books areself-help, self-help.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
Yeah, that's what people write.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
Yeah, so, um, okay, self-help books, but we do
fiction, nonfiction, children'sbooks, religious books,
political books.
I don't choose preferences, Idon't choose sides, I don't care
, I publish your book.
Speaker 1 (46:34):
How long does it take you to know whether or not you
want to hook up with this client?
Speaker 2 (46:40):
Like the first five minutes.
The first five it's I, I, just,I just that BS meter comes
quick right, yeah, like oh god,because if they're listen,
listen, listen, cheap isexpensive.
The authors I deal with that islike, oh no, that's too much.
Or they, the ones that pay more, demand less.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
The ones that pay less demand more, yep, yeah is
that what weird like?
Speaker 2 (47:05):
And I treat you all the same, but it's like well,
you give me this much and youcall me every day and then the
ones that give me a lot more I Igotta find them.
So I think, if you invest andit's not about the money is just
who you are and how much you'rewilling to invest in your brand
.
Speaker 1 (47:20):
Right, and if you believe in your formula, because
it seems like you do have one.
Yeah you've developed it?
How long have you been in thisindustry?
Speaker 2 (47:27):
Good Lord, over 12 plus years.
Yeah to die on self.
Be true, like now, with thefocus of who you are.
Like I tell people I'mConfident when I suit, when I
see you on Instagram.
Who are you?
Who's your brand?
Speaker 1 (47:40):
Yeah, all over the place, yeah not not you.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
I'm saying people.
It's like you follow me.
You know I do publishing.
That's it.
I like to motivate.
I like to be real.
I'll speak on technology.
Ai is becoming very huge, soI'm getting invited on a lot of,
because there's gonna be a lotof books are gonna be disbanded.
Amazon sent out a press releaselike if your book is on AI,
(48:04):
we're gonna start taking it down.
That's what they you gotta sayyou did yeah.
So there's gonna be a lot of.
There's a lot of these gooslike a do a book in ten minutes.
If you could really write abook in ten minutes, then then
it's probably not worth readingright before.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:21):
Let's see, do you have any advice?
I mean you, you're full ofadvice Beyond publishing.
I mean, that's what the I'mfull I.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
You know I'm full of advice because I'm full of
failures, you know, I think, Ithink failures are the best
indicator.
Wisdom and if you don't learnfrom your failures, you're bound
to repeat them.
So I think a lot of timespeople see they think they have
this success, but there's a lotof mistakes.
You made a lot of bad decisions, but you built from them.
So I think true wisdom comesfrom that, you know.
Speaker 1 (48:51):
I like that, yeah, like do you ever let your
mistakes haunt you a little bitthough.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
You know, do you beat yourself.
I don't dwell, I'm superpositive, but yeah, I'm a human.
Speaker 1 (48:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:02):
You know but um, but it's gotten to you where you are
.
Don't take advice from peoplethat haven't done it.
It's funny like people want togive you advice.
I got people while I give meadvice on what I should do on my
brand and but they don't doanything on their brand.
I'm like whoa, I can't get it,like, yeah, well, you need to do
this, what are you like?
I like to take, not to bedisrespectful.
I like to take advice from up,not down.
(49:24):
Yeah, that makes I like to takeadvice for people that know more
than me.
Right now, don't get it twisted.
There are people that know lessthan you.
But to give you some word ofwisdom at that moment, yeah,
that you have to take like theirchildren.
I learned from right, but it'slike when it comes.
So I think just motivatingpeople is like I.
I, I said it on my I wanted mythe Larry Lawton shout out to
(49:47):
Lila podcast, like my teachertold me, man, mr Bucci, and I
love her man, you, you terribleat writing.
You can't spell.
I mean I, I say I got ADHD.
I've never been a Like those,but I just know me.
I'm like a.
Let's go.
You talked to me.
I just forget.
So I just.
But I've published books.
Speaker 1 (50:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:07):
I didn't know.
Now my limitations, like, don'tlet anyone tell you can't be
done, people will try.
Let me tell you family members,we'll try.
To the first.
People, if you write a book,are gonna want to freeze your
family.
You got no problem spending tendollars at Starbucks buying a
latte and a pastry, but you wantme to give you a book for free
to ten dollars.
That cost me thousands ofdollars.
(50:28):
So, or like when I go to afriend's restaurant, I don't
want your food for free, right?
Speaker 1 (50:34):
I'm gonna go to.
Speaker 2 (50:34):
Carabas and pay them.
Let me support you.
So you know it's a problem withwith with people.
They don't support their ownpeople a lot of times, and
that's that's the problem, right, they want it for free.
They want you know what, man?
I rather just focus on people.
That that Most.
It's funny.
Like most of my, my shine comesfrom people I don't know.
Speaker 1 (50:52):
No, I don't know me.
Yeah, it's crazy, so it's crazy, yeah, it's crazy.
You know, with success you getthe haters if they listen, man.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
Betrayal happens, only happens people that know
you.
Speaker 1 (51:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:03):
I can't betray you, I don't know you right so it's
like.
But it's a best teacher, youknow and it's good when they
betray you early, because nowyou know who they are.
Speaker 1 (51:11):
Right, but family members, I could stay it happens
, fam.
Speaker 2 (51:15):
I love my family.
Yeah you know, and, and I'mloyal to my boys, you know, and,
but you know, a family is Roughto you know, but it is what it
is.
Speaker 1 (51:26):
It is.
You know what, you know what.
Speaker 2 (51:29):
No, it's perfect.
We've made mistakes.
Yeah, I must have done some baddecisions.
I must have hurt people, soit's a it's a typical vicious
cycle.
Speaker 1 (51:37):
Are you on your podcast regularly?
Speaker 2 (51:40):
my, I made the biggest mistake.
You don't talk about mistakesmy podcast hit top 50, top 150
it.
It is called the Peter Lopez noexcuses podcast.
I haven't done one in a while.
I wanted to own my data at thetime.
Yeah, so I'm gonna.
I have to relaunch.
It became like my podcast was a10-minute Rent on whatever I
(52:01):
wanted to.
Speaker 1 (52:02):
I like that increment of time and and I think that
would work for you because, Idon't know, you just have so
many little nuggets of.
Speaker 2 (52:10):
Even now, the podcast that I haven't revived is still
like well, I feel like you'remaking content.
Speaker 1 (52:17):
Anyway, whether you're sitting in front of a
microphone or just at youroffice, you're, your page is
full of good advice.
Speaker 2 (52:23):
Yeah, my pivot now is to take all my Podcasts turning
into YouTube shorts.
I mean, I'm verified on YouTubeand I haven't been honest, I'm
gonna, I'm gonna pivot.
You know, I, if you want tobecome an expert writer book and
I'm an expert because I wrote abook on excuses but I still
make excuses.
It's like, you know, my mind islike you got to get your
podcast back up and but it's alot like, it's a lot of energy
(52:46):
and the thing is I don't want tobe.
I thought at one point I wasjust forcing it.
Authenticity wasn't coming outlike and if I don't do that, I
don't want.
Speaker 1 (52:54):
I'm not gonna do anything I'm not forced to do.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
I know is an answer.
No one is gonna tell me.
Speaker 1 (53:00):
I'm learning that this year no, no, no no, I'm not
doing it.
You know cuz I know yet now?
Speaker 2 (53:06):
Yes, I should, and I have to for my brand because I
noticed, the more visible I am,the more helps our company.
Yeah so that's that's, that'sthat's it.
Speaker 1 (53:18):
Crazy.
I want to ask you one morething.
You know you've come across thebest of the best in Brevard,
I'm sure who would you nominateto come on this show?
I?
Speaker 2 (53:29):
There's a few.
There's the lady Georgia.
She's a Grammy winner.
I mean Grammy nominee.
She lost to Elmo.
Get out of town she has likelittle Elmo thing, everyone
kicks around great story.
She wrote a composer storyabout her sister that passed
away.
When she plays that piano Tearsand then David Bernard his book
(53:54):
is coming out.
He's pretty cool guy, you knowthere's there's a, but like
Niefi Moffitt is pretty cool.
He wrote a book about parentingCalled Niefi isms.
Yes they're all from.
From Mimi my business partner.
(54:15):
She hates to be in thelimelight.
I tell her she's got to be morepublic like she's a strong,
strong leader.
Strong a businesswoman.
Speaker 1 (54:22):
But it sounds like you guys have a good yeah, yeah,
and Yang that's right.
You need somebody like thatbehind you and she needs you in
front of.
It was so nice meeting you.
Can you tell us where we canfind you?
Speaker 2 (54:37):
you can find me.
So XP Lopez Jr.
There's a bunch of ones, butthis one is, you'll see, the
verify one.
Yeah, it's my youth ofInstagram and LinkedIn.
I'm very big.
If you want to really establisha brand, you.
Linkedin is huge.
I get most.
I'm not on Facebook a lot, butPeter Lopez on LinkedIn and then
(54:59):
Public five press calm or PeterLopez junior calm.
You'll find me through allthose.
Mean is send me an email today.
If you guys like anyone sendsus an email that they heard me
on the show, I'll send them afree like template on how to get
their book done.
Speaker 1 (55:15):
All right authors out there.
We got somebody in town thatcould help us our local
celebrity, peter Lopez.
Thank you so much for beinghere and educating us Hope to
have you back.
Speaker 2 (55:26):
Yes, yes, we'll come back when the robots take over.
Speaker 1 (55:30):
The world and we have to hide.
Thank you so much.
Thank you the pleasure,pleasure To be a sponsor or
nominate a guest.
Hit us up on Instagram at localunderscore celebrity underscore
bravard.
Until next time, goodbye.
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