Ryan Levesque, author of business methodology book Ask. Ryan wrote his book as a unique type of “business card.” It was a marketing tool for his “Ask Method” for businesses. After putting $1 million into his book, Ryan is now seeing the benefits, with tens of thousands of copies sold and a viable business in the education industry. Famous 5:   Favorite Business Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things What CEO do you follow? — Elon Musk Favorite online tool? — Slack Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? — Don’t be so afraid, man   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:16 – Nathan introduces Ryan Levesque, author of Ask 01:55 – Ryan wrote the book as a business tool, “a business card.” 02:40 – The first half of the book tells his personal story, a polarizing element for the book. 04:08 – more than 55,000 copies have sold. 04:35 – He was introduced to a publisher with no royalty, and his second book will have an advance 05:18 – He spent $1 million of his own money 05:42 – The biggest expense was advertising 06:28 – “If you’re writing a book to make money on the book, you’re going to be disappointed.” 07:16 – His advance for his next book is a six-figure advance--around $250,000 to $500,000 would be ideal. 08:15 – One mistake was to use partners to sell the book. 09:00 – Podcasters were the one group that understood giving out free books. 09:30 – He met with several podcasts each week. 10:20 – Ryan originally wanted to drive traffic to the “Ask Method” 11:30 – They are now exclusively an education company. 12:05 – He made over $1 million a year on his different platforms, and eventually a business hired him for $50,000 up front and 5 % royalty. 13:00 – He shifted to focusing on larger businesses. 14:00 – He works with different markets and learns about how to refine his business. 14:50 – Today they help students apply the methodology to their business. 15:28 – The book and the program work hand-in-hand. 16:28 – Go to askmethod.com for articles and downloads. 18:36 – Ryan does the Famous Five   3 Key Points: Make your story personal. Don’t write a book to make money—if you do, you’ll be disappointed. Considering using a book as a promotional or marketing tool.   Resources Mentioned: Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible. Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts. Leadpages  – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+ Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.   Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives