Ash is the co-founder of Tradecraft and an authority on entrepreneurship, social media, and branding. Ash has written a bestselling book, spoken to over 10,000 people and been cited in Forbes, TEDx, and Entrepreneur Magazine. Listen in to hear Ash and Nathan break down how to launch a successful business book, the fine art of self-branding, and how to capture an email list of half a million. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Inside Steve’s Brain What CEO do you follow? — Elon Musk Favourite online tool? —Hootsuite Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be?—Master the art of being fearless. Stick with your heart. Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:19 – Nathan’s introduction 02:30 – Welcoming Ash to the show 02:45 – Right now Ash is making money through book sales and speaking engagements 03:08 – TradeCraft is Ash’s main business - but he drives traffic through self-branding 03:50 – Confessions From an Entrepreneur was published in 2012 04:02 – Ash makes $2-3 from each book sale; there have been over 150k volumes sold 05:00 – Ash focuses on a very niche market - and speaks to audiences to drive book sales 05:45 – Primarily promoted his book sales through Facebook 06:15 – Currently has a list of over 500k - captures emails by giving away the first volume of his ebook 07:10 – The reason that a lot of people don’t see returns on their books is that they don’t focus on one niche market 08:10 – Ash has a strong relationship with a lot of colleges through speaking 08:55 – Pushed programs to buy and distribute the book to students 09:45 – Speaking revenue in 2015 was around $90k for around 18 speeches 10:20 – Ash is stepping back from speaking while he works on a new book 10:50 – Works with some startups as a consultant to develop their pitch 12:10 – Ash has equity in 15 startups 13:00 – “Write an authentic book. Let your passion show.” 14:10 – Ash builds his by speaking engagements - and takes other people’s lists in exchange for co-promotions 14:10 – Connect with Ash on Facebook 17:35 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Promote yourself. Take speaking engagements, write, build authority. All of the self-branding work you do will drive your sales. If you want to write a book that sells - target your niche. Find the influencers there and push distribution through them. Work at being fearless. Resources Mentioned: Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts. Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible. Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+ Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books. Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives