Tyler Jorgenson 0:01
You’re listening to biz ninja entrepreneur radio. This show was created for entrepreneurs, business owners, marketers and dreamers who want to learn from the experts of today and drastically shortcut their own success to build a business that supports their dream lifestyle. Since 2011, Tyler Jorgenson has been interviewing business thought leaders from around the world a serial entrepreneur himself. Tyler also shares his personal insights into what’s working in business today. Welcome to biz Ninja, entrepreneur radio. Welcome out to biz ninja entrepreneur radio. I am your host, Tyler Jorgensen. And today, for those of you that are not tuning in over the radio, but that are catching this on video, I’m going to show you this amazing thing that I got in the mail. It’s a book called one week, author, and the author of this book is Dana Derrick’s who is our guest today. Welcome to the show, Dana.
Dana Derricks 1:02
Hey, thanks for having me, man.
Tyler Jorgenson 1:05
Dude, it is always always good to catch up with you. I think what I’m really excited about this time is whenever I connect you there’s something big and new and exciting in your life. Last time we you were really getting massive momentum around the dream 100 and dream 100 movement is kind of your flag that you were waving, pun absolutely intended. And today, you’re really disrupting the publishing world with one weak author. So why don’t you first just tell us what is the concept? What is when we got there, the book and what’s it, you know? So long book, right. So like, what’s it about what’s going on?
Dana Derricks 1:38
Yeah, thank you, man. Well, um, so speaking of that, like, disrupting, for the record, if I get assassinated, it was probably the publishing industry. So I just want that to be known. Everybody know, but uh, so basically, the backstory on the book is I’ve written like, 13 books prior to this one. And I came to realize that writing a book is not as difficult as the narrative that the publishing industry puts out. It really isn’t. It isn’t easy. But there’s a systematic way. And it’s like a way to go about it. That’s not awfully difficult. And 14 times, then I kind of made a challenge to myself that I’m going to write a book in a week to prove this. And if I don’t, my punishment was I would have to spend a night in my goat pen with them. Thankfully,
Tyler Jorgenson 2:30
I got in. I thought you slept there every Saturday anyway, it’s just to stick.
Unknown Speaker 2:34
That’s true. But you know, yeah. Don’t really try it, everybody.
Tyler Jorgenson 2:40
Yeah. So the premise of it right is writing a book doesn’t have to be hard, right? And that you have a system for it, you’ve realized this after writing 14 books, that man I can make this, I can put this in a process, right that people can actually make it happen. Let’s, before we go into that, because we will, why should someone write a book?
Unknown Speaker 3:01
Oh, man, there’s a lot of reasons. So right now, it’s for a person that’s going to be in business and specifically for marketing, it’s hard to get noticed, it’s getting harder and harder. Every day, people are putting out more content every day, people are launching more videos, more ads, more everything, everyday emails, you name it, what’s happening and books, his books, fortunately, are not as, like content rich, or as valuable as a lot of the other content that we can get our hands on. And so it’s easier to compete and win within a book, I think, than it is in a lot of other places. And it’s kind of like more of a long lasting thing. It’s almost like a generational thing. So if you think about it this way, I like doing things that don’t get slapped by the next algorithm or the next change, right. So like, if you put a post up on Instagram, I think the shelf lives like five minutes. Right now, that didn’t take you that long to put a post out. But if you add it all up, and you do a year’s worth of posting, a lot of time you spent four or five minutes, whereas if you write a book, some of the books that like for me, like ultimate ship sales machine like that, that Chet Holmes book like that fed him for a lifetime, and now it’s feeding his daughter in there, the company lives on because in a major way because of that book, and I think to myself, like Jeez, that’s like the most solid foundation you can create. So why wouldn’t you want to you know, leverage that and have some lasting legacy?
Tyler Jorgenson 4:31
So for permanence, right, you this the ability to last beyond the time and it’s a similar thing I hear to people that say, Well, I’m putting more energy into YouTube videos or those kind of things that may not get the initial pop that other types of content get but it lasts right it can be found for years. Now books are even more permanent than that they can be you know, ebooks and you can be purchased. What is the appeal? Why do you think so? There’s a lot of people that are all here. You know, they hear an amazing story like oh, man You should put that into a book or you should write a book. What is it that makes books so different? How we consume them than other mediums.
Unknown Speaker 5:09
So books are one of the only places right now that are relatively distraction free. So if you’re reading an email, you’re getting distracted by whatever else is going on on your computer screen or your phone, or on Facebook, you’re obviously getting bombarded by 17 other things or whatever, social network. So first of all, it’s like you in the book that right and and i think books inherently are things that people like to go and escape from all the other stuff to get into the book, right. So for me, when I’m at the gym, like I’m zoned into the book, like it’s me in the book, so it’s a really intimate, awesome, you know, spot to be with the author without the author having to, you know, actually be there. And then you’re spending more time with the author inside of the book than most other places, because you can listen to a 30 minute or 10 minute podcast, or you can watch a video or you can follow someone on Twitter, but at the end of the day, like you don’t get that off, like really holistic beginning to end sort of conversation and life lesson that you would within the pages of a book.
Tyler Jorgenson 6:12
So I was waiting for the like Reading Rainbow theme song to queue up. I don’t know if you remember that show with Oh, yeah, come on. Okay, thank you. Oh, yeah, it was like, I was just like, I was waiting for it. So I don’t have to put that in here. But it I love that. So distraction free and more time. So more. And really it becomes what’s funny is, you would think that a multimedia type of thing like a video or something would would be have a greater intimacy. But books allow for this really fascinating thing where the brain connects at a different level, and it connects dots that may not exist in fills it in with their own experience. So books create this connection, that becomes very personal, very intimate. And I love that, like what you said, distraction free, you’re not seeing, you know, when you’re on page seven, right? There’s not a notification popping up saying, hey, but check out this ad, or look at this, or your friend just commented on somebody else’s post, right, you’re there and in the moment. So those are all great things and all good reasons. And I love the permanence. I love everything else you said, but like, who should write books, like who should do this.
Unknown Speaker 7:11
So everybody should write a book just for their legacy and their family and to pass on whatever skills they have acquired and accumulated in their lifetime for next generations and further legacy. But specifically, where I have kind of carved my place in the market, is I help nonfiction authors, specifically business owners, or marketers to market their other products and services with a book because I have not found a better selling tool, including salespeople, including myself selling then a book. And I’ll give a quick story of how I figured that out. And what I’ve adopted in my own business because of it. So I was reading a book from Dan Kennedy and I stumbled across a nugget. Yeah, Dan, right. And I stumbled across a nugget where he kind of let it slip like that in later in his career, he wouldn’t entertain a discussion with a potential client about a copywriting project unless they had read a book of his and they could recite, you know, improve it. And I thought to myself, Wow, that’s really smart. Why? Because that’s doing the heavy lifting of the selling. And so like what I should probably try that. So so I did. So I basically forced people to prove that they’ve read at least a book of mine before they can get on the phone with any of our sales people to talk about, inquire about any of our services, any of our courses, products, you name it, and ever since it’s like a match made in heaven, the dynamic is totally detached. Yeah, like they’re sold before they get on the phone. They’re less price resistant. It’s the best selling tool, I think anybody could plug into their existing business.
Tyler Jorgenson 8:47
So you know, an example of that, that is through secondary benefit. You know, we run an e commerce marketing agency. And I have found that clients who have already read some of Russell’s stuff, right, if they’ve read, like dotcom secrets and expert secrets, then the likelihood of them being successful is easily 10 times more, and the likelihood of them being at least a good client is 100 times more, because we can speak the same language I can we can speak in frameworks, right? But here’s the important thing. Like, I feel like I need to quote some stuff from the golden river from Dana Derrick’s and daveland. And bomb, but I have a few of your books I have. So I now have I think three I have, you know, your dream 100 book, The Golden River, which is very exclusive. I think the price point on this one is $25,000. Yeah, we didn’t go with the giant price point I noticed on on one week author, what was the pricing strategy on this new launch? Yeah, so
Unknown Speaker 9:40
this one was a little different. It’s kind of a loss leader for us. We want lots and lots of people coming into our world. We want to help a lot of authors out we want to really cut into an undercut the publishing industry, because I think that this process is better and I don’t need to, you know, I’m not even in that space. So it’s just my system. I created Here it is like, so I don’t really need to make money off of it. So yeah.
Tyler Jorgenson 10:03
What is the value ladder than with one week author? Like, where are you hoping they go? Like once someone reads this and applies it and goes and does what they need to do to get your book ready to be written, edited design, printed and fulfilled without guessing or wasting money once they do that? What How else does Dana help them?
Unknown Speaker 10:21
Yeah, so pretty much everything they have, or the need is in that book. So they you know, if you’re the DIY, go getter, great, go get your book done, I’ve got plenty of people that are doing that right now ever since the book launch. And it’s amazing. Otherwise, there’s a kind of a fast forward option, where within the confines of a book, it’s kind of almost impossible to get every resource you need, in order to get your tire book done, including like, the design, the formatting, the template, the the printing, the fulfillment, like all of that, it’s always changing. It’s always we’re always improving it. So we’ve got an author challenge that is comparable to a probably $40,000 publishing deal, where it puts the power back in your hands, as the author shows you everything you need to do for like, I don’t know, 2% of that cost. But that I mean, like I said, you can figure it out on your own, or we just kind of compile the resources right there inside the author challenge for you. Awesome.
Tyler Jorgenson 11:18
So the author challenge kind of makes it you know, you’re still doing it yourself. But a lot more guidance, a lot more direction, you know, help you get over the finish line.
Unknown Speaker 11:25
Exactly.
Tyler Jorgenson 11:26
Yep. Very cool. So tell me what’s going on in the world of Dana Derek’s like, what did what are you? What are you building? What are you creating? You know, you we had you on the show? I think it was almost two years ago talking about dreaming too long? Yeah, like what’s, uh, what’s evolved since then what have you learned?
Unknown Speaker 11:41
Oh, man, a lot. So I’ve really tried to kind of focus down on one value ladder, and he talked about that, and your audience probably is well familiar. So like, so you guys can kind of see the bigger picture of what what I have going on is the dream 100. If that’s unfamiliar, or whatever you want to get a refresher, go listen to that episode we did a couple years ago, it’s all still very relevant. Like I said, I like to do things that don’t get slapped by algorithms. So, um, but what I’ve come to realize is I’ve kind of squeezed a sponge. So the DRI 100, is kind of almost like a subculture where it’s like, either ignore it, or you don’t. And those that No, no, you know, when you know, you know, kind of same thing. So we’ve squeezed that sponge really, really hard. And I think we’ve captured a lot of the market. So what we’re now doing is we’re creating more offers for the front end of that to bring more people in from other markets. So that’s why I launched partly why I launched this, I had kind of a personal agenda to help fellow authors. But it also brings people that are business owners that want to, you know, launch a book, they get their book done. And then what’s next? Well, I need to market the book. Okay, well come into the dream 100 side of our business. And so it’s another lane for people to be brought in and to be exposed to the rest of our world and fresh eyes. So
Tyler Jorgenson 12:56
I love that what was one of the biggest challenges that you’ve had to face in like the last year or so
Unknown Speaker 13:02
kind of two things. First, we started running a lot more lean at like the end of 2019, which, like, divine, thank goodness, we did, because then this pandemic thing happened. Right. And so thankfully, we had already kind of reduced what we need to do. But we were also hit with about 50% of our revenue. I didn’t realize this until it happened, but 50% of our revenue was from live events. And we decided to not pivot into virtual events. Because we didn’t think we could get the same experience across. We’re kind of a high end, you know, very limited mastermind style events that we host and there, there’s a lot that happens as you right. Oh, yeah. So we didn’t think we could emulate that experience. So we kind of double down had to pivot back into other things. We went further into our agency in the past year, got a revenue in the agency side, double probably tripled now to kind of make up for the rest. But COVID was not easy for us. I don’t like making excuses. Like I I started out my business during the recession. And I was like, Why is no one buying my like logos like, you know, like, what’s going on. And I just thought business was really hard. But I realized I was like, in the midst of a recession selling a complete Lee useless thing. But it made us a lot better.
Tyler Jorgenson 14:18
So I’m grateful for it. Awesome. And so what do you see coming? You know, we’re here in end of 2020, right? We’re going into 2021 talking about being algorithm prove or right, like what’s gonna be a strong, permanent, like, What’s something that someone needs to be doing now, but what’s going to be working for businesses in 2021?
Unknown Speaker 14:38
I’m calling it direct mails coming back. direct response, letters, sales letters are coming back. I think advertisers are getting squeezed out. I think, you know, a lot of the hot ad networks kind of cashed out on the election. And now they’ve kind of got the big fishes they want now us little guys are gonna hit the road for that. The next thing so I predict that it’s going to be big. I also predict that the days of the big box marketing firms and doing like posting like pictures and like that kind of thing just to post and show how many engagements and likes you get, I think those are going to start going out the window so that your medium sized small sized companies are going to get smarter, they’re going to recognize data, and like the need for it, and the need for ROI based marketing as opposed to just a let’s just get as much traffic as possible or eyeballs. And I think everyone’s going to have to get smarter and leaner. And I don’t know what the economy’s going to do as a whole. But I think businesses are gonna have to tighten up. It’s an opportunity for all of us, if you’re out there. And you know, ecommerce people, we are lucky, if you have to switch into a different niche or tweak something or whatever do it now if it feels like you need to do it. And just double down on what you’re doing. And I think those things are going to hit and take off. And if you can get a piece of it, go for it.
Tyler Jorgenson 15:57
Yeah, I think it’s really interesting. When I first got into e commerce and started selling online, I didn’t know where to go to like network. So I went to all the direct response shows. So like most of my connections, and most of the early network that I built, we’re all infomercial, guys, right, and direct and response mail and stuff. And so what I think is interesting is they lagged, they didn’t adapt fast, right? They really stuck in their ways. But I think what we have now as an advantage going into 2021 is this ability to say okay, what did I learn from Facebook and what I learned from these type of ads? Well, I learned audiences. And I learned hyper segmenting, and I learned, like data tracking. And that can all be now applied back to doing direct mail. So much smarter. And really being able to do it. Yeah, it takes longer, right, you have to print you have to mail you have to it has to be received as to all of that stuff. The cycle time is longer. But the data, I think we can start tracking faster again. Absolutely. So I think and that’s really dream 100 type stuff like how do I get really narrow in my niche and dominate there? Instead of just trying to go mass market? And don’t you know, go into buying a Superbowl ad or something to open them? Yeah, makes
Unknown Speaker 17:08
me win. shotgun blast. Yeah. So what do you think about this, like, so when I first started, like, in eecom, over a decade ago, but especially like, when I got serious about it, and like got into the Amazon game, and all that seven ish years ago, back then it was like every person for themselves and people like, like you were saying, like networking, probably why you were networking with direct response people is because the econ people didn’t network because it was like you’re all against each other. And like, if you shared a like secret, or something, pretty soon everybody ripped it off. And it was like awful. So do you think though now that more and more of the little guys and little gals are getting squeezed out? Because of all this stuff? Do you think that in 2021? Or beyond or even happening now? Do you think there’s going to be more of a collaboration and more of like, how can I work with that person? Or how can we help each other? How do you see that playing
Tyler Jorgenson 17:56
out? So I think there will always be the people that have this scarcity mindset that are too scared to share, right? They’re like, and look I’ve shared before and had my entire business ripped off and the person did we like better and but I I’m always the general rule that I have is that such a small percentage of the time when that happens, where the opportunity to like, be open and share and collaborate is 10 to one and from the risk versus reward, right, like, so I think that we are seeing a abundance mindset permeate the entrepreneur space at a greater level than we have in years. Like there’s just more mindfulness, there’s more consciousness in entrepreneurship than there has been in decades. And I think, at least in my experience of two decades of entrepreneurship, right. And I think so what I’m seeing is that that abundance mindset is in the e commerce and in the marketing space is encouraging people to share in ways where they wouldn’t have before, because they realize like, none of us are keeping up with Bezos, right like, so we’re not competing over a finite piece of pie. The pie itself is growing exponentially. And so like even if you had 10% date, you know, today, next week, you’re at 5%, just because the pie is growing. So if you can share faster, like, again, unless you are trying to compete at a Coke versus Pepsi level, right? If you’re that cool, keep your cards to your chest. If you’re a small person operating out of your house, trying to get your first million in revenue or your first 10 million in revenue, share and collaborate and grow faster. That’s my spirit. And that’s what I think. I think we’re seeing more people do that too. Amen.
Unknown Speaker 19:35
I think the adage, faster alone further together. It’s probably how I would suggest everybody should be playing this one.
Tyler Jorgenson 19:45
Yeah, and you know, there are obviously things where you may not like, okay, like if it’s a direct competitor or something that you may not make sense to do a joint venture with, but to just talk about what’s working. Nobody is is so efficient in their marketing that there’s no got room for someone else? Nobody. Exactly like even at the highest levels, there’s not only one using the the example a minute ago, there’s not just one superbowl commercial. Right? There’s like four beer company commercials, like, you know what I mean, and three insurance company commercials. It’s not like there’s just one. So if you do a good job, you actually accelerate the growth of that pie. And both of you can actually yield a greater net. But you know, I that’s just my mentality. And I do see more people being like that I did see it in the early days, ecommerce. It was very hush hush not even wanting to share what tools they used, even though the republic tools, but now with the I think part of it’s also the ability to see what other people are using just to examine their code, Facebook libraries being public, like and hide, you can’t really hide that much. So you might as well share and go faster, right?
Unknown Speaker 20:51
Yeah, that’s awesome, man. Totally.
Tyler Jorgenson 20:53
So are you stoked? Are you happy with how one week author turned out?
Unknown Speaker 20:59
I am. So believe it or not writing a book in a week is pretty hard. Like, yeah,
Tyler Jorgenson 21:04
I believe it. I figured I could do I don’t think that’s something people doubt.
Unknown Speaker 21:08
Okay. Yeah. Fair. That’s fair. I Well, what they doubt Is that Is this real? That’s what they write. Yeah. Um, so this, I’ll tell you like, the two kind of secret nuggets and you guys should really read this. If for nothing else, just appreciate the irony of who wrote the foreword. Harburg is the world’s fastest reader. He’s, you’ve seen him on Oprah. He’s the guy that’s like, his fingers like burning through the book. And somehow he’s like consuming it. And yeah, amazing. Now, Howard is awesome. He really he inspired me in a major way to write this. So anyway, the two kind of secret sauces, you do need to read this, but it’s two parts. First, is you’re not gonna read a book in a week, if you don’t know the subject matter, at an expert level, okay. So if you’ve put your 10,000 hours in whatever it is, you should be using out of you. Okay, so that’s what the majority of the time is on a book. So when you hear people saying, well, you need to research for like a year, okay, that’s if you’re gonna write it from scratch, and you don’t know much about the subject. But if you’re an expert in your field, or if you’re an expert in a skill, you should be able to knock out a book because all in your head, it’s just getting it out appropriately. Right. So that’s the first secret sauce second secret. So is it alright, for me to reveal the secret sauces here?
Tyler Jorgenson 22:12
I’m okay with that.
Unknown Speaker 22:13
All right. So um, second secret sauce. And this is was was really weird for me. Quick backstory on how I discovered it. So I’m a writer by trade. I’ve written a lot in my career, I’ve made millions of dollars for myself and lots more for clients. And so I don’t like to fly. It’s not my thing. So I had a pretty big meeting in Boise, Idaho, which is 36 hours one way, in a vehicle in a car or truck from Wisconsin where I live. So I hired a driver. I’m like, let’s go. And I got in the truck. I’m like, how do I justify 36 hours one way, I said, Okay, I’ve got my book, outline my next book, I’m gonna write it in the truck, and it’s gonna be awesome. And then two hours later, I’m closing my laptop because I’m sick as a dog and carsick. Then 30 minutes later, I get into, like South Dakota, start losing cell signal. So now I’m in a truck with a driver that is a retired school bus driver that I have nothing in common with and doesn’t know why I’m going to Boise of all places. He’s like, what is there a rodeo out there? Something like that. Yeah. And so I’m like, Alright, I got to be able to do something, I can’t go on my phone. I can’t go my computer. I can talk. I’ve been talking about the Packers with this guy for hours. So I decided, Well, why don’t I just I’ve got the outline, why don’t I just read my book into my phone, like talk it into my phone. So I did. So I went through the outline. And I six hours later, I look over, I’m like, Oh my god, I’m done. My book is done like the contents aren’t done. And so that is like the fastest way to write a book. That’s how you write a book in a week. And the reason for it is it’s because the average person can type only like 80 words a minute, but they can speak like 160 or twice that many. So not only can you write books way faster by talking, you can also produce content like we are right now, way faster, way more efficient, by talking and even more. So for any of you out there that have tried write a book or have written a book before. When you sit down at a computer screen, you’re not typing out 80 words a minute, you’re typing it probably 20 at most, why to write your book, because you’re taking the place of editor while you’re typing. Because your natural tendency is not to make a typo is to go back and fix it. Or like I didn’t like that. So then you delete it. versus when you get into a groove and you’re just spewing like content on your mouth. It’s on you’re unstoppable.
Tyler Jorgenson 24:33
So those are the scopes, I think and that secret sauce, like reveal something that’s really important. I think perfectionism stops so many people from creating amazing things. But when we’re typing, we think we have to be perfect. So we stop ourselves, go back, lose our train of thought forget. Then try to build momentum again. You know, and I mean, again, we’re going into details if you don’t want to say anything, but is your thing. Like just get it out there and then let the editor clean it up.
Unknown Speaker 24:56
Yeah. And so get it out there for sure. It, we don’t want it perfect. We just want it out out of your brain because that’s where most people’s books are trapped. Right? And then once it’s out, it’s so much easier to just clean up after the fact that you move stuff you can do all that. And actually in the book I get into more depth on on this is I don’t really think in editors is necessary. So awesome. Or Ghost Rider and I talked a little bit more about why that is in the book, but I’ll have to let you see that one for yourself.
Tyler Jorgenson 25:24
Yeah, no, everyone should check that out. And so I’m gonna if your place where you can click a link, I’ll put the link it’s Tyler dot pro slash one week author. Otherwise you can type that in yourself. We believe in you. Tyler dot pro slash one week author, we can learn more about the book. Dana, what is one item on your personal bucket list no matter what you’re going to accomplish in the next 12 months.
Unknown Speaker 25:44
Okay, this is embarrassing, but I need to go on a honeymoon. I haven’t gone on our honeymoon yet. We’ve been married for like two years, but we had a lot of craziness going on while we’re getting married. So yeah, got to make sure you’re listening.
Tyler Jorgenson 25:56
We’re going it’s happening 12 o’clock starts now.
Unknown Speaker 25:59
Did you on one where’d you go?
Tyler Jorgenson 26:01
Yeah, we went to Hawaii. Awesome. What
Unknown Speaker 26:03
do you recommend on there?
Tyler Jorgenson 26:05
Man, there’s a lot of different ways to go with Hawaii. It depends on the person so like we actually really like Waikiki because nightlife and go out and grab a great dinner everything’s close but you can still have a great beach but some people really like the more remote islands and the more private stuff so it just sounds like a key sounds pretty good I think yeah, we like it we like being able to you know have dinner at a nice restaurant and then still spend the day on the beach and then you know when you’re you know if you ever end up going with the kids right it’s also nice bill to run right across the street and grab stuff instead of having to like oh crap we forgot something and but yeah, we love it there but missing travel a lot right now. Dana we’ll wrap it up here. Really appreciate it. Everyone please check out Dana Derrick’s he’s got you know crazy links all over the place. jumping off point for now go to Tyler dot pro slash one week author and learn more about him and appreciate you being on the show. All my biz ninjas wherever you are listening just remember it’s your turn to go out and do something. Thank you for tuning in to biz ninja entrepreneur radio. What you didn’t hear was one more very important question that Tyler asks each guest if you want to be a fly on the wall when the real secrets are shared. Go to biz ninja.com slash VIP and get your access today. Remember to subscribe so that you don’t miss any future episodes. And our one last favor. If this episode was meaningful to you, please share this podcast with a fellow entrepreneur so they can grow along with us is ninjas. It’s your turn to go out and do something
