Behind the scenes: My book launch is tomorrow

So when I got a Big Five Book deal years ago, today felt like Light years away. And now tomorrow my debut book, When I Start My Business, I’ll Be Happy, comes out everywhere books are sold. What is happening? I don’t know. Let’s talk about it.

I wanted to sit down and chat with you in a cozy style, so hopefully you grab something cozy, pop in your headphones, go take a walk, do something. But I wanted to chat with you about what it’s really been like behind the scenes to run a multi seven figure business, get a big five book deal, have both of my parents died and somehow here we are the day before my book comes out.

And today I’m answering the five most common questions that I’ve gotten about writing a book while running a multis seven figure business. Like why I chose to write a book, how I see it fitting into my business, how I was able to keep running my business, what it taught me about myself and being an entrepreneur, how I was able to keep running my business and market my book at the same time, especially because my book Is not directly related to what I sell. I sell legal templates. I help online business owners legally protect their businesses. But my book teaches you how to market your online business, how to build out a marketing strategy and evergreen content, and build funnels and all these kinds of things. It’s not legal, so I get questions about that.

At the end of today’s episode, I’m gonna share my raw, honest feelings with you about how I’m feeling with less than 24 hours to go until my book is available and in people’s hands, everywhere the books are sold.

Let’s dive into the first question. So I get this one a lot. People ask me, why did you decide to write this book, or why did you decide to write a book?

So I wanted to write a book that I thought should be the book that everyone gets handed. If you knew that you were going to start an online business, right? If you wanted to start your own business, and instead of you having to go down all these rabbit holes and downloading all these freebies and joining courses and buying up business coaches and all kinds of stuff.

I just wanted this book to be your guide to building an online business. I also thought that from my own experience, I wanted to set realistic expectations for people who either are thinking about starting a business or already have one, but it’s not quite going exactly how they envisioned it going because I was someone, as I share a lot about in the book, like I was a corporate lawyer.

I left the law, I started my own business, and I thought. Like that would be it. Like that was gonna be the resolution to all of my problems, and it was going to be the one big pivot that I had to take in my life in order for everything to magically work out. Spoiler alert: Not only did my business not make me happy, but through a series of events, I realized like, oh, that wasn’t my business’s job. Like, my career doesn’t have to be the thing that provides me with happiness. It doesn’t have to cause me as much strife as being a corporate lawyer did. Right. And that’s okay too., But, it’s not gonna bring me like this resolution that I kept thinking like, when this one thing happens, then I’ll finally be happy.

After joining the online business industry and starting my own business here, I also wanted to write a book that was the unfiltered, no bs like real advice that you need, like tactical, actual advice as to how to build a business from somebody who has professional business experience, both from an educational background being a lawyer.

My professional experience as a corporate lawyer and only worked for other business owners and then running my own business is actually my second business, so I wanted to help people understand without any gross aspirational marketing or like spammy money tactics. I wanted to teach people how to actually build a real business.

Last but not least, I have to be honest, probably my most personal part of this was that I wanted to write a book for any of you who have gone through anything personal like what I’ve gone through. I had brain surgery. I lost both of my parents, in pretty traumatic ways, and within a year of each other.

And not just running my business, but actually growing my business alongside it. And oftentimes it was, it was really annoying for me because, when my dad was sick, for example, my dad had leukemia. I was caring for him. I was financially contributing a lot towards him and his care.

And I kept hearing from other people like, you should just stop working or you should stop your business or stop doing this or stop doing that. And I’m like, first of all, that’s not an option for a lot of people, right? Like that’s a very privileged position. When my dad was sick, I was not in a position where I actually needed to work because I needed to make even more money, not only for myself, but to help him.

And I was very concerned about the future with him, of where things were going to head. A lot of his. Like experimental medication was not covered. So there were all kinds of things. So I wanted to be able to take care of him and do the best that I could for him. So that was that. The second thing was that I really love my business.

My business doesn’t make me happy. It’s not the provider of my happiness. But, I love what I do and I didn’t wanna stop working. I mean, what was I supposed to do? I was caring for my dad all the time, going to the hospital with him all the time. And then it’s like I was just supposed to sit around and have no career?

I have a job. I wanted to continue to advance myself, but I knew that that had to change. Like that couldn’t continue to be, I couldn’t continue to run my business the way I used to. And this is a lot of what I talk about in the book was that I started working less but smarter and my business grew.

So a lot of the motivation for me to write this book was, I wanna teach you how I did that, regardless of whether you have something horrific in your life or not. Or if you have a more positive one, like you’ve had children or you want to travel or like you’ve, I don’t know, had some life circumstance change.

But I can tell you by sharing my own story. I’ve gotten thousands of messages from people saying that they’ve been in a similar position and that they wanted to learn, ‘how do I grow my business while all this stuff is going on?’

Question number two, what surprised you about writing a book? Oh my gosh. So I would say how different it felt from all the other content that I produce. So I thought, like when I first got a book deal, I’m like, well, I write all the time. I write my weekly email. I’ve written thousands of blog posts, I’ve written thousands of captions, like all of these things, right?

And then you go to sit down to write a book and you’re like, oh, not the same thing. Spoiler alert, it’s a lot longer. But also just like the structure of it is very different and I’m kind of used to, I guess in, like my email newsletter, being able to intersperse like images and gifs and emojis.

In a book, it was like, oh, okay, I have to do this a little differently. It’s also really different, like if you’ve had your own business online, you’ve primarily built things off social media, had a podcast, YouTube, something like that.

It’s really interesting to then go and sit and write a book with a big five publisher who rightfully was like, Hey, people are gonna pick up this book who have no idea what the heck you’re talking about. Like you use a lot of jargon. You talk about funnels, you talk about freebies.

You have to slow down and you have to explain. So I had to in my writing, really change, change my writing and be different in the sense that I had to sit and think. I always had this image of a random woman who’s never heard of me before, never seen my stuff, walks into Barnes and Noble because she’s curious about starting her own business, goes to the business section, sees my book, has never heard of me from anybody else, and doesn’t follow me on Instagram, doesn’t, you know, consume this kind of content yet. Is she going to be able to understand what the heck I’m talking about? So that’s really different than when you’re creating content on social media or writing to your own email list.

For the last eight years I’ve been writing to my email list of 47,000 people. Who know what I’m talking about for the most part. So that was a really big shift that I think was a healthy shift in terms of reorienting myself to like. You know, people might be new here, they might not understand what I’m talking about.

So that was unexpected, but also helpful. I would also say how helpful it was to get feedback from my editor Nana and have somebody actually edit my work for the first time. And then once it went off to like the copy editors and everything. But that was really different for me too. I mean, having had my own online business now for eight years, it’s been a long time since I’ve been.

A corporate lawyer and you know, nobody’s looking over. You get the nasty comment every once in a while from somebody who, whatever, it doesn’t matter. But not from like a person who you’re really, you know, my editor who’s an incredible professional writer and who knows way more about it than I do.

Obviously I’m gonna take her feedback and I’m gonna pay attention and get better at writing. So that was just not something I expected to be different.. Like, it’s been a long time since I’ve gotten feedback and even if at certain times it stung or felt personal, which it wasn’t, it just took getting used to it.

Everyone on the publishing team had the same goal, like we all wanted to produce a good book that was good for you. And so just like always looking at it through that lens and being like, how can I make this better? How can I make this easier to understand? How can I make this clearer? That was really unexpected and I think also a very helpful benefit.

Question number three, how did you balance writing a book and running your business? So I think the most important thing is that I saw this book, or like eventually I saw this book as part of my business.

The book in and of itself is like a masterclass in marketing your online business. You could then come into my orbit and maybe need my legal products, need the legal templates that I sell, join the Ultimate Bundle®, or you start listening to my podcast or following me on Instagram or, ’cause you read the book.

I see it as now just part of the business. I was also able to balance it by one, I have a really, really good team. And my team has worked over time to the max. We are all pretty stretched thin. Like, I don’t know how you wouldn’t be at this point in terms of like, we’re, we’re just balancing the entire business plus balancing the launch of this book, which as much as I wanna sit here and tell you like, oh, it’s just like it’s just like a product, you know? It’s like a product on, on steroids. So it’s not just like a product, at least not to me, and it matters a lot to me. How it goes, and I want it to be well received and well read and I want to help people and all that kind of stuff.

So it’s been a lot. So I have a team, so I’m not doing this alone. So that’s a big reason. I have a great publisher. I have gotten so lucky with Hachette and Grand Central Balance, my publisher, they’re incredible. They’ve done so much. They’ve helped a lot. Everyone has been. So nice across the board and so helpful.

So there are tons and tons of people behind the scenes that go into helping this thing work. In terms of how I made my business work and the book work on more of a, like a logistical level, I essentially wove the book and promoted the book into the nooks and crannies in between my normal promos and launches.

So, you know, I can’t afford for the business to not have its normal promotions like I normally do. Two big sales per year that are live with like a live webinar and then one, over the summer. I put those on my calendar when I did my annual planning. Like those are non-negotiable.

Those have to go on. So then we have to, in between those times when normally I would just go back into email list building mode and I would only be focused on like, how else am I building up my email list, um, between these promos. Now I had to go into like, Hey, by the way, I have a book that’s coming out, so I kind of wove it in there.

I did a whole big launch back in January, when the pre-order started and I got to unveil the cover and share that with everyone and offered two bonuses. I kind of like wove this in, in between all of those promos as kind of like a backdoor marketing strategy. I, and honestly, I wasn’t even doing this so much on purpose as it was out of necessity.

But I documented the crap out of the book process. Every single thing I’ve done along the way about the book, from literally the book proposal, I talked about it, trying to find an agent, I talked about it. When I got Wendy Sherman, my agent, I talked about how I secured my dream agent and how I was so excited.

And then I talked about how we were shopping it around to publishers and how I was bullish that I really wanted a big five book deal. I shared when I got a Big five book deal. I shared when it was published in Publisher’s Marketplace.

I shared the writing process. Oh my goodness. I shared the writing process so much. I took everybody to the library where I wrote most of it. I took everybody to coffee shops. I shared the moments that were difficult to write, the moments that felt more fun, I would read excerpts, I would get on Instagram and read excerpts.

Oh my gosh. I just shared so much about the book process. And then when it got to editing and the copy edits and the proofs and designing the cover and going to New York for four days and recording the audio book like. Literally everything, unboxing it for the first time. I’ve shared all of it along the way.

I say that because when you are building something really big in your business, sometimes you’re like, I don’t know how to teach this because I’m doing it. And I think that my book process is a good example of just showing what you’re doing. You don’t need to tell everything, just show what you’re doing.

Just show me how you’re doing it. That’s all. And so I didn’t know as I was doing that, like, Hey, I’m showing you me writing this book at the library so that in two years from now, you wanna buy my book. Like I just shared, like, Hey, I’m at the library writing my book. I’ve got two hours in between meetings and I’m squeezing this in. Or I’ve challenged myself to write 2000 words today. Like, here’s how I did that. That’s what I would share. Also, this is not something I’ve really talked about elsewhere, but I think the only way I was able to run my business and launch this book, or produce this book at all was by having seasons of deep work and going a little bit more off the grid than I have in the past.

So there were periods over, like when the final full manuscript was due. For example, I think I went off social media for like at least a month or two. I was like trimming down how much I was posting. I paused my podcast On Your Terms® last summer when I needed to finish the manuscript.

Like there just have been different times when I’ve gone a little bit more off the grid and had to protect myself. And I think if I’ve learned anything big from the launch of this book, it’s that in the future I will be better about giving myself periods of deep work. And I see the benefits of deep work in the long run.

Like it’s really your business’s addition of a high interest savings or something like that because it feels like “I should be posting on social media right now. Or I felt so bad about pausing my podcast,” for example, and I was like, oh, everyone’s gonna stop listening.

And I thought it was gonna hurt my business and it didn’t do anything. I needed that time to put my head down and get the deep work done. Like the big picture things that are actually going to move your business forward now. Most of the time, that’s not a book, but for you, it might be creating your online course or finally creating that digital product, right?

Like creating your first funnel. If you go read my book, you’ll learn how to build out a funnel for a digital product or a course or a membership, and so you know that. Stuff takes a lot of time. You can’t be posting on Instagram stories every day and producing a podcast and being on YouTube and writing your email newsletter and producing this major body of work.

So I just wanted to share that because I wanted to normalize and how safe it can be in order for you to do that for the long run.

Question number four, what have you learned about yourself by writing this book? Well, definitely how strong I am to have even gotten this book out of me in the first place, because I literally got the call from Wendy, my agent, at like three something on a Friday in May. She told me I got the book deal with the publisher that I really wanted from a big five publisher, and then my mom died a few hours later. So, yeah, I admittedly it, it’s not that I wasn’t happy about getting the book deal, but it was like. Yay. I mean, what are you gonna do?

So that was really hard. For the first few weeks, months, they are still hammering out the details like contracts and when things are due and payment schedules for the, um, advance and all these kinds of things.

So I had about a month or so after my mom died, where it was still like. Hey, you’re gonna write this book any second now, but like, get your, get yourself together essentially. Everybody was really nice about it. Very kind, very patient. But there’s nothing that anyone can do to prepare you for that.

And so the fact that I, I, whenever I start spiraling about how I’m feeling, I come back to how. Freaking strong. I am. I can’t believe I actually got this done. So, in a way, there’s a part of me that’s like, no matter what anybody says or what everyone thinks of it, like you’re never gonna make everybody happy.

But even if everybody hates it, I have to like it because I have to be like, dang, how’d you get that done? If you told me that this happened to you and then you produced a book out of all of it, like on time and participated in all of it, and oh, by the way, your business kept going and actually grew during this time.

I’d be like, how the heck did you do that? I’d be worried about you and also wonder if you needed a nap. But I would be really impressed. And so I have to give that to myself, right? It’s not fair for me to give that only to other people, so I shared that in the sense that if you are worried about how your work’s gonna be received or your content and you’ve been through it, like you need to be proud that you’ve even been able to do it, um, and that you’ve showed up.

I think that the book has also been this incredible opportunity for self-development and, and some growth opportunities for me because it’s, I am very uncomfortable, as you will read about in the book, I’ve had a very difficult childhood and it’ll make a lot of sense to you. I had a really hard time like putting myself out there and taking up space and like thinking I was worthy of all of this stuff and like the attention.

And it’s been a challenge writing this book, promoting this book to ask people for help to go into bookstores, to random people I don’t know, and say, Hey, I’m Sam Vander Wielen and I’m the author of When I Start My Business, I’ll Be Happy. Introducing myself and everybody just looking at me and being like, sure you, You have to have guts. So it has invited me to get some guts and grow, grow into the role of like, somebody called me a writer the other day and I was very quick to be like, I’m not a writer, I’m a lawyer, right? And I’m like, well, no, actually I am a writer. I’m like, how am I gonna, I’m not gonna be able to escape that moving forward.

I’m a published author as of tomorrow. That’s something I want to embrace. Like I know that there’s that. When I deny it, it’s coming from that uncomfortable part of myself that’s just not comfortable, like thinking I’m worthy of being called that.

Question number five. The real, the real question. How are you feeling on this book, Eve? Oh gosh. I feel like it’s the night before the wedding. Over here. I am full of all of the emotions, so mainly I am excited. I’m excited. I don’t know how you couldn’t be excited. This is my first time obviously producing a book. Um, I’m really excited, like it’s already been really fun.

I mean, I have loved every part of it. I loved writing it. I didn’t love what was going on in my life while I was writing it, because my mom had just died after my dad had just died. So I was pretty depressed while I was writing it, but I actually did like writing it a lot. I loved editing it. That was even more fun.

And then if you follow me on Instagram, you know, I love doing the audiobook.. It was like acting, it was so much fun. It was such an experience. So I’ve, I’ve really liked every part of it. I remember when I first got this book deal, I was like, oh, I can’t wait until I get to market it because I just, it’s like a totally new, avenue for me.

Like I’ve just marketed legal products for so long. So I’ve really enjoyed that too. I’ve gotten to do an insane number of interviews, podcast interviews. I’ve traveled to Chicago to interview with Nathan Berry, the CEO of Kit. Like I’ve done all of these really cool things and I know that there’s even more to come.

So in general, I’m really excited. I keep imagining, like I was saying earlier, I keep imagining that woman walking into Barnes and Noble or her local bookstore and like seeing my book. And I think if you’re an online business owner who works really hard to build an audience and is like, I don’t know, social media to me feels like I’m standing in like a warehouse, like screaming on a microphone. But also, in the warehouse of other creators who are also screaming on microphones and I’m just like competing to get heard.

There’s something that’s exciting to me about the idea of just a book, like sitting on a shelf. It’s quiet. Someone sees it, they pick it up and they decide to purchase it. And like somebody who never found me through social or any other thing, like, having maybe something tangible that they get to give to a friend. That’s really exciting. I’m excited for the lasting power of a book, the longevity. I think in our kind of online business world, there are just not many opportunities to feel like you’ve created something that has a lot of lasting power.

It is pretty exciting, but I’m not gonna lie, I am terrified. I’m also terrified. Where do I even start? I mean, I’m terrified of what people will think of it. I mean, come on, who wouldn’t? A lot of the book is very raw, very vulnerable, uh, tells a lot about my story, my childhood, my experiences that are very hard to talk about, and I wanted to talk about them.

It was very cathartic and I know, I know that a lot of people are gonna relate because when I’ve shared snippets about this on social media, people like, it’s just crazy. How many of you reach out and say that you’ve unfortunately experienced something very similar and so. I know it’s gonna help a lot of people but I already feel vulnerable.

I imagine I’ll feel vulnerable, vulnerable hangover later, right? I’m nervous. I’m nervous about what people will think. I know it sounds stupid, but even though my mom unfortunately was killed, she’s no longer alive. But like, I’m worried what she’s gonna think about what I’ve written about her.

I’m worried about what my dad thinks about what I’ve written about my mom. And he’s also unfortunately not alive. Unfortunately, those feelings just don’t go away. And I’m just worried and then I’m worried just whether people are gonna like it, whether people will criticize me. You know, and, and then when something feels very personal and people criticize it, it’s hard not to feel and not to take it personally.

So I’m worried about all that stuff, but like I said, I’m just like, well, who, who wouldn’t feel that way? Like, I just don’t know if you, I mean, would you feel that way if you put out a book? You’ll have to tell me if this was the night before you put out your first book, like wouldn’t you be terrified?

I think so. Also, I am really excited for this week. Okay, so today kicks off a very exciting week. Let me give you a little preview because you’re actually gonna see a vlog about this later in the month. I’m gonna share all the behind the scenes of this week, but today, my, my Lindsay comes in as I call her. So Lindsay is my director of operations for the company. She’s flying in to get everything all started, we’re gonna get things situated today. Tomorrow, obviously the book comes out. So we’re gonna have all kinds of things going on. Behind the scenes, some media stuff, all that. I’m gonna go get my hair done.

And then we are having a major party out here on Long Island. So many of my friends are coming from all over the place. All my friends here on Long Island, my friends from the gym, like my entire neighborhood’s coming, like just so many people are coming to this. So I am. Really, really excited to have this party.

I’m excited for the food. We’ve got drinks, we’ve got the whole thing, so we’re doing that tonight. Wednesday, I’m taking some of my friends to the Hamptons, which is close to us, or we’re gonna hang around my house, do some things here on the North Shore of Long Island. And then on Thursday we all kind of migrate into the city, and I’m hosting a huge blowout party in New York City to celebrate my book.

My publishing team’s coming, my agent, Wendy’s coming. I’ve got even more friends flying in for that one. So we’ve got all that. In between, we’re going to Barnes and Noble. We’re signing books, we’re gonna sign books at bookstores in New York. Then on Friday morning, I’m taking all my friends who have flown in and traveled in, um, for this week out to brunch in New York City before everybody heads home.

So I’m so excited and you’re gonna get a full blog. I’ve never done a vlog like this before and I am very excited to share it with you because I really wanna take you with us if you can’t be there in person, I wanna show you what’s been going on. So this has been a wild ride so far. I can’t for the last like four years leading up to this moment.

I cannot believe that tomorrow is the day that my book comes out, and I am so excited to see where this all goes. I have an open heart and open mind, and I’m just so appreciative that you’re here with me on this journey. And if you haven’t yet, make sure you grab a copy of my debut book. When I Start My Business, I’ll Be Happy wherever books are sold.

She’s beautiful and she’s gonna help you learn how to build and grow an online business that fits with your life, that doesn’t drive you crazy and that doesn’t have you beholden to social media if you don’t want to. I’m gonna teach you how to build an email list of funnels and your first $1 million digital product online. So grab your copy of When I Start my Business, I’ll Be Happy wherever books are sold. Don’t forget, if you grab a copy of my book before April 18th, you’ll actually get access immediately to my free email list builder course, um, that teaches you how to add 1000 subscribers to your email list and my easy email list building strategies.

Make sure you grab your copy of my book so that you also get that free email course and you’ll get access to my No BS Book Club this May where I’m going to do four live sessions, walking all the people who have purchased my book through how to implement everything I teach you inside of it. See you next week.

Thanks so much for listening to the On Your Terms® podcast. Make sure to follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen to podcasts. You can also check out all of our podcast episodes, show notes, links, and more at samvanderwielen.com/podcast. You can learn more about legally protecting your business and take my free legal workshop, “Five Steps to Legally Protect and Grow your Online Business” at samvanderwielen.com. And to stay connected and follow along, follow me on Instagram @ samvanderwielen and send me a DM to say hi.