He Generated a $25,000,000 Return from Selling Books

YOUTUBE 📚 THE READING LIFE 📚 PATREON

📚 Hey! Time to win.

A lot of people underestimate the scale of the internet and what’s actually possible.

Today I had (a VERY early) coffee with a friend of mine, Jonathan Goodman, who I consider to be one of the “good guys” of the fitness industry.

He’s an expert. He demonstrates real knowledge, competence, and skill, and he doesn’t have to resort to all these crazy (read: scammy) tactics to get clients or anything.

Jonathan’s the real deal.

Anyway, so at coffee this morning, the dude casually mentions that he’s probably generated about $25,000,000 (indirectly) from the sale of his books.

I forget how many he has - I think he’s written seven or eight of them, mostly self-published. He’s got another one coming out early next year, and I’m going to read it for sure.

But what’s most important to understand is that that’s NOT $25M in book sales.

That’s: people who have hired him after reading his book, other opportunities that have come to him just by being the guy who wrote “the book” on such and such, speaking opportunities, etc.

Nobody except James Patterson and those guys are getting rich off book royalties. It’s all in the backend, which is where you and I need to focus instead of chasing “the obvious thing.”

Think: Customer LTV, or “lifetime value.”

Because say you write a book (you probably should), and someone then goes on to buy a course from you because they liked what they read in the book.

Then they’re impressed with the high quality of the course, decide they want more, then hire you to work with them personally.

THAT’S the play. I mean book sales and platform ad revenue is cool and all, but you gotta make sure the unit economics work in your favor.

Be like Jonathan. Build a quiet publishing empire. Serve people at the highest level. Stack cash on the backend. Repeat until you astonish some guy over coffee by telling him that you made $25M selling books.

There are still 11 spots remaining inside The Competitive Advantage community and you can grab one of the last remaining ones here.

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1. The YouTube Formula, by Derral Eves

2. Zero Resistance Living, by Dr. Maxwell Maltz

3. The Winner Effect, by Ian Robertson

4. How High Will You Climb?, by John C. Maxwell

5. Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, by Napoleon Hill

6. Retirement Money Secrets, by Steve Selengut

7. Three Feet from Gold, by Sharon L. Lechter and Dr. Greg Reid

8. Play a Bigger Game, by Markus Kaulius

9. No B.S. Trust-Based Marketing, by Dan S. Kennedy

Within My Direct Control:

Read 20 Books | 11 Books Left

Publish 8 New Time Mastery Videos | 8 Videos Left

Publish 31 YouTube Videos | 26 Videos Left

Publish 155 Medium Articles | 130 Articles Left

Completely Update My Social Media | Almost Finished

Completely Update My Patreon Page | Incomplete

Completely Update My Newsletter Platforms | Incomplete

Launch Affiliate Program for My Paid Community | Incomplete

Update 30 Patreon Book Notes | 30 Book Notes Left

Network with 500 New Authors | 393 Authors Left

Not Within My Direct Control:

Get Monetized on YouTube | 3,487 Watch Hours Left (12.8% Complete)

Negotiate 12 Newsletter Partnerships | 4 Partnerships Left

Organize 12 Instagram Collaborations | 8 Collaborations Left

Reach 118,000 Instagram Followers | 4,304 Followers Left

Reach 23,000 Threads Followers | 4,300 Followers Left

Reach 10,000 Twitter Followers | 2,267 Followers Left

Reach 4,000 Medium Followers | 2,059 Followers Left

Reach 2,000 Facebook Followers | 691 Followers Left

Reach 2,000 LinkedIn Followers | 1,169 Followers Left

Reach 10,000 YouTube Subscribers | 8,504 Subscribers Left

Reach 10,000 Reading Life Subscribers | 5,601 Subscribers Left

Reach 1,000 Competitive Advantage Subscribers | 459 Subscribers Left

Reach 50 Competitive Advantage Members | 11 Members Left

Reach 50 Patreon Supporters | 20 Supporters Left

Note: I’ll update follower counts once per week, since it’s such a waste of time to go through all of them every single night. Also, Threads annoyingly doesn’t give exact numbers. Oh well.

Read 7 New Books | 6 Books Left

Publish 2 New Time Mastery Videos | 2 Videos Left

Publish 7 YouTube Videos | 7 Videos Left

Publish 35 Medium Articles | 33 Articles Left

Upload New VSL for Skool Community | Editing Now

Upload Skool Community Testimonials | Gathering Now

Upload All Old Podcast Episodes | Almost Finished

Completely Update My Instagram Profile | Almost Finished

Completely Update My YouTube Profile | Almost Finished

Completely Update My Website | Almost Finished

Completely Update My Newsletter | Almost Finished

Completely Update My Patreon | Almost Finished

Update 15 Patreon Book Notes | 15 Book Notes Left

Network with 140 Authors | 130 Authors Left

Note: “Week Four” Runs From August 25th-31st

Woke Up: 7:00AM (NEVER again haha)

Sleep Quality: 71%

Pages Read: 166

Workout: Active Recovery Day

Work Completed:

Posted 1x on Instagram

Posted 4x on Twitter

Posted 4x on Threads

Posted 3x on LinkedIn

Posted 3x on Facebook

Posted 1x to YouTube Community Tab

Drafted 10 Medium Articles

Worked on Updating My Website

Worked on Current Author Campaigns

Worked on the Next Reading Life Newsletter

Managed Paid Competitive Advantage Community

Completely Organized My Workflow for Tomorrow

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Today was a LONG day, and even though I got quite a bit of reading and writing done, it was more of a strategy day than anything else.

I hate to admit it, but I’ve been quite frustrated with my lack of overall progress updating my website/social media presence this month, and building out some of my backend systems - it’s taking me a LOT longer than I thought it would, and it’s actually kind of embarrassing, declaring that I was going to publish all these articles and videos and then just…not.

Like I said, I hate it. I mean, it’s not like I’m wasting time or taking my eyes off my goals, but I have a coach too and I feel like I’m letting HIM down sometimes! The only thing I can do though is press on until the end of the month, set myself up to win this September, and come back swinging (and publishing!).

But hey, it’s 3:51AM here right now and I’m going to bed!

All the best,

Matt Karamazov

P.S. Whenever you're ready, here are three more ways I can help you:

1. Work with me personally to scale your business past $5K per month and experience the intoxicating freedom of finally being in control of both your time and your income. High-performers only.

2. Become a Premium Member of The Reading Life and enjoy unlimited access to 150+ Premium Book Breakdowns, my complete notes from 1,300+ books, exclusive discounts, monthly donations made on your behalf to an incredible literacy charity, and more!

3. Join The Competitive Advantage, my private business mastermind for creators looking to add at least$1,000/month to their revenue and save at least 20+ hours of productive time each and every week.