The Art of Succession

what the author's assistance do is we

take on many of those roles in our

business to help the self-published

authors um publish their book so like we

we I think that was probably the biggest

uh challenge we had was not not just

taking over the course and running it

but you know

re-engaging the people who had been a

part of what was going on before and may

not have known what was happening so we

knew right away that that was going to

separate us a little bit so that that

gave us a little bit of an edge up when

we were trying to bring people back in

my name is Barrett young and this is the

artist succession podcast my guest today

is Peter wheat Martian one of the

partners behind the author's voice an

online platform with courses that will

develop your skills for public

publishing professionals artists and

speakers today we're going to hear a

story about how three graduates of an

online course were presented with the

opportunity to purchase and carry on the

legacy of its founder Peter welcome to

the artst succession yeah thanks for

having me on the show today Barrett yeah

my pleasure uh so let's get a little bit

of context um you guys are the partners

behind the author's voice so what was

the author's voice uh what brought you

to the author's voice well that's

actually a really great story so going

back uh it's probably been close to

eight or so years ago uh my mother who

is uh one of the other partners in the

author's voice it's it's great to work

with a family members sometimes it's

really great to have her on board with

us but um you know about like I said

eight years ago or so she was able to

take the um original author's assistant

certification course which is what the

author's voice is based around it was uh

not actually the author's voice at that

time um it was just it's called the the

certified professional author certified

profession virtual author assistant

course um and they also had a a

companion course as well to that the

certified professional speakers course

uh speaker assistant course and so she

took the author's course she was able to

um get a scholarship through that

program she took the course and uh that

was right around the time I had

graduated college so I was kind of

coming into the workforce on my own and

since she was starting fresh and I was

starting fresh we decided to join forces

together and help authors publish their

books and that was with our uh first

company together your literary pros and

uh so like I said about eight years ago

that happened and throughout the uh the

time that we were working there one of

the things we had always thought of is

how can we make this more approachable

for authors and not just the author

assistant the the actual authors those

actually sitting down there writing

their manuscript and uh something

something had been in the back of our

mind for a long time

and 2021 2022 we were approached with

the the chance to or the offer to

purchase those classes those courses and

we kind of jumped on it from there and

said you know this is something that

we've always wanted to do um and it's a

great uh you know basis for launching

more programs and educating more authors

speakers other professional in the

industry because uh that's that's one

thing that we have noticed is there's a

lot of information out there a lot of

disinformation out there for people who

are publishing their books and we wanted

to become a trusted resource so that

authors and Publishers can know what is

the the right way to do it whether that

be you know um not taking advantage of

authors what authors should be aware of

when they're working with Publishers you

know there's there's a wide variety of

things that uh we want to educate our

our uh our students on and and we

thought this was a great opportunity to

do it okay so when your mother your

mother took the course because she was

trying to become an author's assistant

or already was in that and just looking

for further information or no you know

actually at the time um she had a a

previous company before that it was uh

in medical transcription which um if

you've followed along in the medical

world in the last 15 years has been a

pretty big uh shift in you know the use

of Technology there and you know her she

saw kind of the writing on the wall and

was looking for a uh a different avenue

to apply the same skills that she had

and so she was you know she'd been doing

a lot of uh virtual assistant work or

you know behind the scenes work for you

know not just medical transcription but

for other business owners and uh like I

said she was um she was part of the

virtual assistant um it was a networking

group at the time and through that group

she found out about this course and they

were offering a u a scholarship to take

the course and so she she applied for

the scholarship and lo and behold she

was able to take that course and go on

from there and start start our business

okay and so then the business that you

originally started started with her was

selling this service to authors then

right yeah we were we were a virtual

professional virtual authors assistants

is what the uh the course originally was

called or was you know that's what you

ended up uh the certification was called

but um you know so that's what we did we

we've worked with you know authors for

uh many different books you know whether

it be their writing a manuscript like a

memoir whether it's children's book but

we focused on working with the authors

to publish a book in the way that makes

them the best financial and business

sense for them okay so uh is am I

correct in thinking that the author's

assistant kind of fills this Gap in the

self-publishing world where you don't

have a publisher who's reviewing

manuscripts anymore or is there

something else there that I'm not aware

of I would say do what does an author's

assistant do yeah I would I would say

that probably somewhere close to 75 5

80% of the work that we do is with

self-published authors um our main goal

is or a a professional author assistant

really takes on the

um the the work that would be done by a

traditional publishing company so you

know in a traditional when you give your

manuscript to a you know one of the big

five let's just say you like aimon and

trer or something like that you they

have the editors they have the book

designers they have the cover designers

and the marketing professionals and all

of the myriads of other people that work

to to publish your book and what the

author's assistants do is we take on

many of those roles in our business to

help the self-published authors um you

know publish their book and we do work

some with traditionally published

authors you know sometimes we work with

them to get an initial edit on a book or

to you know send out query letters to

agent and things like that but you know

a majority of what we do is working with

self-published authors and um you know

it's really um it's

really great because like I said we want

to our our main goal no matter what we

do is to make we say we want to make

their book their business for them you

know because you you have to go in there

spend the money but you also want to be

able to make sure that you can you know

recoup that money whether that being in

book sales or additional business that

you bring in or whatever that may

be and probably a lot of discipline

keeping them on track I need X number of

pages by a certain date I know that

would be my issue with writing a book no

yeah that's that's definitely a big big

part of it you know being that uh not

necessarily uh a strict project manager

if you will but you know keeping

deadlines on track and know knowing what

needs to be completed you there's a lot

of steps in there that uh need to be

completed but they have to be completed

sequentially and a lot of people who

first you know start off whether it be

their first or second book or whether

they're just trying to figure out what

to do they don't realize all of the uh

the the steps that need to be put in

order okay I gotcha all right so your

mother took this course you guys started

a business now how long did you run that

business and then lead me into the

opportunity that came up to actually buy

the business that ran the course so we

we started um it was middle of the of

2015 is when we first started um our our

business and we ended up purchasing the

courses turning into the auth that which

turned into the author's voice in um

late

2022 okay late 2021 early 2022 yeah okay

so about six years running that company

seven years so the course that the the

Cornerstone course that your mother took

and then also kind of launched the

author's voice this has been around for

how many years oh it's been around for

um it's probably been close to 20 years

or so now so the people that we've

purchased the course off of it had run

the course for a few years but it wasn't

actually created by them either the

original creator of the course was Jan

King and she put together both the

author and speaker assistant course and

you know sadly she uh she passed away

and and we had the the the ladies that

we purchased the course off of you know

took up the the banner and you know kept

kept the program growing and kept the

program you know up to date and you know

worked worked on bringing all the

information to author's assistance and

then you know like I said they kind of

um got to the point where they were

looking at uh moving on you know they

they were reaching retirement age they

were trying to you know settle things

down a little bit in their own business

business so they they were looking for

someone to take over the the course and

we said yeah of course we'd love to okay

I mean so this is a unique type of

acquisition this is this is intellectual

property almost entirely uh or just the

marketing that's been behind there the

capital that is built up from graduates

and and the you know the reviews and

everything like that so what what

describe for me that process who

approached whom how did you guys how did

it get evalu

um what's the buyout look like for

intellectual property well yeah that

like you're right it is you know we were

purchasing in intellectual Pro piece of

intellectual property but with that I

think most entrepreneurs understand that

there's not just the course that comes

with intellectual property there there

is the like you mentioned the the

built-in user base the built-in um you

the the program that actually ran the

course you know all of the uh the

graduates and the list of know potential

course participants you know there

there's a lot of different things that

come uh that's not just the course

itself um so so we did take a good

review we wanted to make sure that you

know we not only had a list of

prospective students but we also wanted

to make sure that we had you know a full

list of all of the students that had

already gone through and completed the

certification or who were in The

certification process so that we can

continue to use um to use them to help

promote the class because they they've

been through the course so they

understand the the benefits that come

from the course and so you know it was

it did take us some time we had to go

through the the list see who was who was

available who was not available you know

how all the list building goes it's

sometimes you might have a few thousand

people but not everyone's always engaged

so we had to work with that you know we

worked through the financials we saw

some some clear and obvious moves that

we could have made financially to help

just solidify the course itself when we

first bought it so you know there's a

lot of a lot of behind the scenes that

went into it uh to to make this to make

this a reality okay and about how long

was that process oh and it was kind of a

little bit of a a rocky road not going

to lie so um we we had initially brought

it but you know through some you know we

had some uh my grandmother was sick at

the time and then the the people who

were PCH who were selling the course

they had some of their own um you know

not necessarily health issues but you

know things come up in life so it was a

back and forth that we had for probably

close to six months or so before we were

able to you know finally uh nail down

the the yes we were going to do it you

nail down the price that we were going

to purchase the course for and you know

get all of the the finer details figured

out but you know it did take some time

but I think it was time that um looking

back we an we asked all of the right

questions but you know maybe um with the

timeline that we had going into it um

would have maybe made some different

changes if you will just to you know

maybe ask some different questions or

maybe um you know help it's hard

because yes you're interested in

purchasing a course yes you want to you

know start this off you know with a big

bang and you know carry on like as if

nothing were to happen but know when you

have this back and forth for a few

months it it's hard to lay down the

groundwork right away to you know start

going because you don't want to put in

all that time and effort into uh

creating something for it to fall

through at the last minute so it was

kind of you know a double-edged short it

was good because we were able to answer

those questions or have those questions

answered but you know sometimes you kind

of come across with a little hiccup

sometimes yeah you you chuckled when I

when I asked that question so there's

got to be something specific in your

mind that's like we should have asked

this three months ago what was that you

know I I think the biggest question or

maybe the biggest thing that I would

um biggest piece of advice that I would

tell people is it doesn't matter how

many people are on a marketing list if

that's what you're looking for it it

really matters how many people are

actually engaged with the marketing list

or how many people people are um I mean

what we noticed is that that there was a

a robust list of potential of potential

course participants when we purchase the

course but we had noticed that um they

weren't

necessarily

um know kept kept up to date with what

was going on there was not necessarily

that um continued growth of the list so

like we we I think that was probably the

biggest uh challenge we had was not not

just taking over the course and running

it but you know

re-engaging the people who had been a

part of what was going on before and may

not have known what was happening you

know we we had a couple of um uh great

great people come in it's say hey I

didn't know you guys were taking the

course and it had been six or nine

months later and just because they you

know had to rebuild relearn who was not

just what the course was but they had to

learn that we were the author's voice

and we were the ones that were taking

over and you can only do so much saying

hey we're the new people who are running

the course you're the new people running

the course but if you have that

unengaged audience sometimes they don't

necessarily see everyone or see all the

emails that come through are kind of

questioning what you know who are these

new people why should I pay attention to

them you know so that that was probably

the biggest challenge that we had

initially nobody told me then you point

to the six emails and it's like oh I

didn't see that exactly yeah okay um so

when you are looking at a list prior to

that you guys acquiring it the the

certification course was not something

that you would refresh every year every

two years so you may have people on that

list that took it nine years ago but

they're still on

list right H how how did you go about

valuing something like that I know

there's the platform there's the

trademark uh and then there's the list

but there's no recurring built into to

that list how how did you guys come up

with a value for that you know I think

that was that's probably one of the

learning experiences we had is like I

said we had put value into the number of

people who were on the list but we

weren't

necessarily um we may not have may maybe

we would have asked different questions

like what is your you know um active

active list participation you know what

are some open rates on some things like

that and maybe we would have had more

clarity on that when we first um were

asking those questions so that's

probably the hardest part I think for us

is um we

we we May in it going back two or three

years now you know we may have asked

some different questions just to

understand what was uh what we were

seeing because the numbers don't always

tell you the whole

truth okay all right interesting so you

guys take possession of logins and lists

and the you know the backend side of

course delivery and it's you and your

mother at this point about five three

years ago or so M you guys brought in a

partner I know soon after that uh candy

was your third partner what led to

bringing in a an additional partner

she'd also been through the course yeah

so she had been in she had been through

the course and uh Colleen and Candy had

known each other for I guess it's

probably been 10 or more years you know

they met through some networking events

some virtual assistant events and um it

happened to be in

2020 candy had been working with another

company as kind of their head editor

head marketing person and we you know

2020 comes around everyone's you know

looking for work at that time everyone's

scrambling around and one of the things

that we did is we just happened to reach

out to some old old friends some old

clients some old colleagues and Candy

said hey I've got a job for you so we'

been working with candy for you know

some uh two or three years at that point

and we knew the quality of work that she

put into uh to to everything she does we

we knew uh her work ethic and it was

kind of funny because as soon as we got

the offer to purchase the course I I

looked over to Colleen and I was like

hey can we steal candy from where where

we're working and kind of as a joke

because you know we we knew we were we

were all very happy with what we were

working the company that we were you

know doing the the Contracting work with

so we weren't necessarily trying to

actually steal her away it was just the

the joke of we knew what candy brought

to the table we knew the quality of work

that she did and we were trying to

figure out if um if this would be a good

Avenue for her to to you know to join us

and so we you know as we were going

through the process we had brought in

candy to some meetings with the three of

us me Colleen and Candy just to see

what the possibilities were and and we

we knew pretty early on that um Candy

would be a a founding member of the

author's voice okay so at the time your

your mother Colleen is GNA be like the

new personality probably recorded in

class any future development classes was

candy kind of like an overlap like

another Colleen or there were skills

that she had that you and Colleen didn't

have at this point what what did that

look like in that decision you know I I

think the the biggest thing that led us

to knowing that we would want to work

with candy is um not only does she do

the work that we do but like I mentioned

before she she's a a pretty uh she's a

very competent marketer and she also

herself is an author so we don't

necessarily we we've written you know

articles we've written blogs we've

written all of that but we haven't you

know until actually just recently we

haven't P we hadn't published a book but

we knew candy had the author's

perspective and one of the the main

things that we wanted to do when we

brought on this course was to have or to

adapt the course into a new course

geared specifically towards authors

because like I mentioned it was author

assistant the when we first bought it

there's a lot of overlap but not

necessarily everything as is is as

specific towards authors so we wanted to

create and um build a an author specific

course for the program and we we thought

candy would have had and and she does

have some really great perspectives on

that side of the business okay I gotcha

so you guys brought her in as a partner

now you have this new uh this new

IP a a list that's not necessarily just

going to come back and look for you in a

month because it's time to purchase

again so how do you go about marketing

this new thing or this old thing or

refreshed or how how do you go about

saying come back and look at us again

well I mean it's actually it really

started out with come back and look at

us again because this is who we are

we're new we are here to refresh the

course update the course um give it a

new set of

I don't want to say a new code of paint

because it was it was more than that but

um what we initially did is we said the

the course was originally run through

just a a simple WordPress site with you

know the the the tools and the you know

the the plugins to to run the course and

the first thing we did is we moved it to

um I'm not sure if anyone's uh familiar

with go high level but it's a kind of an

all-in-one seal RM

marketing website tool and they have a a

really good uh course structure so we

can build courses in there we can Market

specific courses to specific individuals

we can cross-promote courses within each

other we can add in uh any type of

documents we want add in videos add in

audio add in you know pretty much

anything you want and gear it

specifically towards who we want so so

we that was our first step is we had

something different we had something new

to add to the course it was all

self-guided to so you can go and see

your progress you can go and you know

check everything that um that you've

gone through you can go back and forth

you know go at your own pace um so we

knew right away that that was going to

separate us a little bit so that that

gave us a little bit of an edge up when

we were trying to bring people back in

so that was that was um that was good I

think it was it was probably our biggest

our biggest uh change and probably the

most

impactful okay so Step One is a new

platform or a refresh uh LMS learning

management

system how soon did you did you reshoot

content uh did you just rearrange reedit

um printed content how did that go yeah

so so initially what we did is we just

said we're going to keep everything the

same as it is and just re like I said

kind of throw on a new coat of paint um

but on this new system that is easier

for people to access and easier for

people to use so that was main the main

goal and and actually over the past year

or so we have um we haven't recorded

them and turned them live quite yet but

you know we've been doing our you know

we've been researching and updating the

course in the background we're going to

have have a and so we'll have a a

completely maybe not a completely new

course but um updated course you know as

we as we go along and I think that

that's another thing too is you kind of

think when you first start oh we're

going to have these big changes but I

think a lot of times it takes longer

than we think to really get the right

information out there and and acceptable

to uh you can't just uh have me rambling

on about something just because it's you

know new exciting so you know had to

have to really put in that production

value to make it um worthwhile for

people to come back in but you know

that's that's something that we were not

too far in the future is going to all

come live okay so about three years to

develop any new content the focus up

until now has just been this is still

the Jan king course that you remember

it's just on a new platform easier to

navigate easier to know when you've done

all the steps come back and take a

refresh maybe and then you guys are

still going to that Client List and

saying tell new client you know uh Shar

us with other people okay well one one

other good thing about the the platform

that we did is we we automated it more

too so people can you navigate it

themselves there are some um at the end

of each module there's like test

questions that you can refresh your

memory you can you challenge yourself to

make sure you are taking in the right

information and at the very end there is

a certification course and originally it

used to be done on word when I remember

I had to uh like handgrade papers and I

hadn't done hand grading

papers um so you know it's going back

through that but now it's all automated

so that actually makes it easier for not

just the students but for us and

students are able to you know get their

certification a lot quicker and a lot

more accurate now than they they were a

few years ago I got you okay uh let's

talk a little bit about marketing this

refresh property so other than asking

for referrals um I know you you have

your own podcast so that's been part of

it and I know you've got multiple youve

got a LinkedIn presence and Facebook

presence all that kind of stuff how much

of that existed before you guys came in

or was it just an email list it was

basically just an email list there was a

Facebook group of past professional

virtual author assistant students okay

um again kind of going back to what I

had mentioned about the the email list

we knew it was there you know Colleen

had been a part of it candy had been a

part of it I had been a part of it so

like we knew that there were people who

were

doing doing the thing if you will you

know doing being making that their

living but it was not always as active

as it was so we initially tried to just

refresh that course or refresh that

group right away and you get people more

active more involved and you know again

like I said it's kind of a little bit

hard you can only you know announce your

presence so many times before you got to

find a new different new and different

way to go about it so that's actually

one of the reasons uh we had a couple

starts and stops actually so then we we

decided hey let's start a a slack

community for everyone and that worked

for you know three or four months and

then you know again the same thing

starts happening where your people are

busy or people weren't always as

invested as we wanted so that actually

almost directly led to our podcast which

we we said it's more important that

people know the information that we have

and we can connect better with people

with the information that we have then

instead of just yelling into the void

hey come and check out the information

that we have we said let's go and share

that information with whether that be

authors whether that be author

assistants or speakers or whoever it may

be and uh share with them so that they

can come and find and connect up connect

with us okay so the peer-to peer wasn't

Community wasn't necessarily a value

proposition for them they were just in

there so that they could see you guys

sharing free content free updates and

things like that and you said a podcast

will do the same thing right yeah you

know um in a weird way um this is

something that has kind of I don't want

to say uh bothered me but I think one

thing that comes up a lot is the

competition between people you know and

and I'm not necessarily saying that that

was the reason why people were not

interacting with each other but you know

I I think that

there's there's a community out there

and if a lot if more people understood

that

we say there's over a hundred different

parts of publishing a book if we if more

people realize that there were that we

are each professionals and we are each

um experts in two or five of those you

know and we can work together more uh to

to help the entire publishing Community

instead of focusing in what we can do um

I think that would be a lot better for

the community as a whole but you know

that's what we want to do with our

podcast hases share that share all that

information we have uh guests on who

have either been authors who have been

working in the publishing industry just

to do to do just that it is you know to

bring that Community share what

expertise we all individually have for

each other okay so there's you'd think

there is kind of like a a lot of people

out there that want to pretend they can

take it from Step One to a

100 but once you get into the weeds of

it you realize that's overselling and

really it it'll take four or five

different people handling different

pieces of this yeah that that's really

what um what our our focus is is to help

each other uh realize what we're good at

what we're an expert at and you know one

thing even going back to our our the

company me and calling have your

literary Pros we still have a list of

you know five or 10 or 15 people with

each client that we work with who we

send hey these are people that you want

to work with in this area these are

people you want to work in this area

just because like I said you we can't

all be experts in everything and it's

kind of um I wouldn't say you're a fool

to say you are an expert in everything

but you'd be uh better off uh I think in

the long run accepting that it's better

when we all help each other with what

we're an expert in I Goa

okay uh so one of the you said one of

the most important things you want to or

one of the questions you want me to ask

is just the importance of leaning on

history of a program versus creating a

new history today how do you you know

you've rebranded the name um but you go

to your website and you'll see this is

Jan King's program how do you how do

today I guess what is what would be the

mix of historic versus new and then how

do you emphasize that Legacy because

that's what you bought is you bought

Legacy yeah you know I think the the big

thing is that that when you go to our

course uh or when you go to our website

you'll see there's two certification

badges that everyone who's gone through

the course and has passed a

certification can put in their website

can put on their email list can put on

wherever that might be that they want to

use it and I think that is probably that

that's what we want to really focus in

on is that it's not just a course that

somebody takes who wants to say I know

everything it's a course that we

actually like I said we have Challenge

questions after every module we have an

a actual certification test that you

know students take at the very end of

the course and when they pass it you

know they get the certification badge

and I think um I'm a I'm a Craft Beer

Drinker myself and if you look at the

back of a a can of uh of a craft beer

it'll have like a little uh Brewers

Association badge saying this is a craft

beer you know and there's specific

guidelines right you know they can't be

too big they can't be you know owned by

a major Brewery they have to you know be

independent all of that and that's

really what our that's what we're our

main goal is is that this badge that we

have will be that Mark that an author

can go and see on this on someone's

website this person knows what they're

doing because they have the history and

it like I said Jan King started this 20

years ago or so so it's not just

something that's new that's popped up it

is something that we've had the history

and the uh revisions and that people

have been continually in in charge of

keeping the program up to date and

keeping the program running for all of

this time so I think that's really what

we want uh it's an education program not

just for ourselves not just for author

assistance speaker assistance but for

authors and clients and speakers

themselves to know that this program

teaches the

the the best thing for the

industry okay I gotcha um talk about

expanding into speakers and authors

directly it if they take the course I

assume because you're talking about

knowing what your gifts are know what

you're good at it's not take this course

and you won't need an assistant is it

more of a course of

here's how to get the most out of a

speaker's assistant an author's

assistant is that the right way of

thinking about that so with

the Advent of Amazon like KDP and other

printers like that everyone has the

ability to go and publish a book and we

say that I I mean I I wholeheartedly

believe this from the bottom of my heart

everyone has a story to tell and

everyone should tell their story

whatever that story may be because other

people are going to read the book and

connect with you and hopefully you make

positive change in the world however

what we say is it's kind of a two-p

parted thing one authors need to

understand that a writing a book is a

business you have to you know put in

equity you have to put in time you have

to put in money you have to put in all

of those things that a business owner

would would to run a business but then

you also in the end receive you know

money from Book Sales you receive if

you're a business owner you receive new

clients off of you know your your new

book that you wrote about your business

whatever that may be so if you treat

your book like a business you'll have

the chance to turn your turn your book

turn your story into a career you know

write a second book and we say that too

more often than not most authors have a

stumbling block somewhere in their first

book that doesn't allow them to publish

a second book whether that be because

they make a mistake and they ruin their

reputation or don't have a reputation or

too often we've had people who have said

hey I wrote this book and I threw it up

on Amazon and nobody bought the book and

we're like well did you ever Market the

book did you do anything besides you

know just tell your family that the book

was up there and they're like no so what

I'm what what we we really want to focus

in on is that um and as an author or as

a speaker and really they go hand inand

you have to make

yourself understand that that is a

business you know and that's why the

speaker and the author assistant go hand

inand with each other because you know

once you become an author once you have

your book ready to share with the world

one of

the easiest ways to go about you know

spreading the word is becoming a speaker

going up on stage talking about your

book going to book signings whatever

that may be so they fit in hand inand

with each other the same thing too is as

an auth or as a speaker you have a story

that you're telling up on stage every

week or every month or whenever it is

you're up on stage why not turn that

into its own Revenue stream of a book

right yeah you write the book to get the

speaking gigs and you do the speaking

gigs to sell the book exactly

exactly okay all right uh are you guys

going to develop the podcast assistant

as a future course because I mean I

don't know if you use a virtual

assistant but the services I've seen

just a virtual assistants trying to get

bookings for podcasting I'm like have

you ever done this before this is not

not practiced and doesn't come across

the best way either so well you know I

maybe it's not quite on our our you know

board right now but you know one thing

we do focus in on and it's going to be

in our new author course which is coming

out soon is a a specific

podcasting um like how authors can use

podcasting to help promote themselves

because again like I said with the

podcast or with the authors and speakers

it's a great way it's a great combo

there but it's just as easy today if not

easier today to hop on a podcast with

someone like you or some another podcast

to promote your your book as well so you

know that's like again it's a a hate

using this word because it's like

corporate jargon but like the Synergy is

there it's an all of the above kind of

approach sometimes speaking is on a

stage sometimes it's on in front of a

camera sometimes it's behind a

microphone yeah exactly but but the

principles of public speaking are

similar across all all the mediums

exactly you know I think the the basis

of everything and where you can really

see someone

Thrive is when they have a story that

they not only um that they not only have

lived through but they connect with and

are excited to share so whether that be

speaking whether that be podcasting

whether that be being an author when

they when we I love when I've been on

the on my own podcast and I've

interviewed an author I can just see the

smile that they have when they start

talking about their book or when they

start talking about their project that

right there is when you know you have a

story story that's worthy to tell and

worthy to share and people are going to

go bananas

over okay that helps so the the the

author's course really is keep that

smile into your second book right

exactly

yeah okay awesome well Peter I really

appreciate you coming on the podcast

with me um we do a lightning round at

the end of the show uh where I just ask

a couple questions you already said

craft brew that's not one of my question

question but it might be the future uh

but are you ready for a lightning round

yeah let's go all right uh so yeah just

one one to two sentences no real

embellishment or anything needed on that

but just kind of get get a survey across

my guests uh coffee and coffee or tea

and how do you prefer it um Black Coffee

by the

pot uh pie or cake um

it used to be pie but since I worked in

a bakery I could go with a cake now okay

all right uh what is a common belief

among entrepreneurs uh that you would

want to

challenge too many people believe that

there's not enough work out there for

for everyone to thrive there's plenty of

work out there

awesome uh what's your favorite holiday

and just one sentence why

um probably Christmas

because uh it's an excuse for me to sit

around on my couch and watch me at for a

week all right uh are you a morning

person or a night person and do you have

a favorite

routine um probably more of a night

person uh but I do start pretty much

every morning with a cup of coffee and

whatever book I'm

reading

okay um what is one thing that you would

want your successors someone buying the

author's voice coming into this place

somebody that you what would you want

your successor to know Peter

for I think the most important thing

would be to um

continue the success of the history that

that the program has

had continue putting on the the sharing

the right sharing the correct

information with the authors that need

it gotcha all right uh where are you

finding creativity right now for

yourself well like I said I start every

morning with a cup of coffee and a and a

book so I'm a firm believer and you know

creativity comes because we we're

reading what anything and everything any

good ones right now you'd

recommend um I'm stuck in a fantasy r a

little bit but I've been um been reading

through the mbor series recently so just

finished the second one I just I was

late aror to the series but I've enjoyed

it all right uh and last question what

do you have coming up at the author's

voice as you really excited for this

coming

year well um

we've I I've run the podcast pretty much

as the producer editor all of that and

I'm really excited for what um we have

at BL page to bestseller coming up this

summer especially we've got some awesome

interviews okay

excellent uh well thank you Peter I

appreciate you being on the guest of the

art guest on the artist succession

podcast this has been a great discussion

and uh best of luck to you yeah thanks

for having me I'm glad to share

everything about the author's voice yeah

where can people find you yes so you can

find the author's voice on our website

the authors voice.org you can find us on

Facebook uh the voice find us on

Instagram and Linkedin at the author's

voice and then you can listen to us uh

talk about everything publishing and

being an author on the blank page to

bestsell our podcast okay thank you so

much Peter thanks