I told Chris Joseph years ago that his book would lead to a coaching career. He told me absolutely not. He meant it.

It took about two years for him to tell me I was right.

Chris was diagnosed with stage three pancreatic cancer in 2016, and seventy percent of people with that diagnosis are dead within a year. He quit chemo, fired his oncologist with no Plan B and is now about to turn 70.

He wrote his memoir, Life is a Ride, because the story was in his head and he had to get it out, not because he had some grand business plan.

But the book became his business card, his credibility, his foot in every door. People found it and kept asking the same thing: tell me what you did.

He threw himself into new projects (at one point he was doing five podcasts). He did a book tour with a musician friend because he was smart enough to know not that many people show up for an author alone. And eventually, all those "tell me what you did" conversations became Terrain Navigators, the health coaching practice he now runs for people facing the diagnosis he survived.

Chris didn't plan any of this. He just published a real book, took it seriously and let the ride take him where it was going. (It's not an accident the book is called Life is a Ride.)

In this episode:

• Why Chris fired his oncologist with no Plan B (and why he'd do it again)
• How he used his book as a business card to introduce himself to Joe Polish at a gala
• The moment he realized "tell me what you did" was a coaching business waiting to happen
• Why he wrote a memoir instead of a how-to (and why the how-to he's writing now terrifies him)
• What a friend's pickleball book disaster taught him about trying to do it all yourself

Want to learn more about Legacy Launch Pad Publishing—my high-end hybrid book publishing company that helps entrepreneurs turn their expertise into authority-building books? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com

Curious how entrepreneurs use books to generate seven-figure returns, speaking opportunities and high-value clients? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/7-figures

Interested in working with a selective hybrid publisher that focuses on strategy, authority and long-term business growth—not just publishing a book? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/apply

And if you just want to know more about me, 👉 www.annadavid.com

Remember, if there's anyone in your life whose wisdom you deeply admire, or who you know could be considered an authority in their field if they were better known, share this show with them.

Kelsey Chittick wrote a book about her husband dying at a trampoline park while she was on a spiritual retreat in Jamaica, and somehow it's one of the funniest books I've ever read. But what I really wanted to talk to her about is what happened after.

Because the book, Second Half, became the thing people hand to someone when the worst has happened. It led to Zibby Owens inviting Kelsey to co-host a podcast about sex that lasted five years. It led to a grief group in her basement that ran every two weeks for three and a half years and is now being pitched as a scripted TV show. It turned her into a speaker, a life coach and someone whose phone rings every time somebody in the South Bay loses the person they love most.

Kelsey didn't write this book to build a career. She wrote it so her kids would know the truth about their dad. They still haven't read it (too embarrassing, apparently). But the book did what books do when they're real: it opened every door she didn't know existed.

In this episode:

• How a death-and-mourning memoir became the go-to gift when someone dies (and led to a five-year sex podcast)
• Why the grief group in her basement is being pitched as a scripted TV show
• The moment Kelsey knew she was done being "the dead-husband woman" — and what comes next
• The cover design that looked like a vagina (her mother-in-law loved it)
• What it means to write something so true to your voice that you can hand someone the book instead of reliving the story

Want to learn more about Legacy Launch Pad Publishing—my high-end hybrid book publishing company that helps entrepreneurs turn their expertise into authority-building books? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com

Curious how entrepreneurs use books to generate seven-figure returns, speaking opportunities and high-value clients? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/7-figures

Interested in working with a selective hybrid publisher that focuses on strategy, authority and long-term business growth—not just publishing a book? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/apply

And if you just want to know more about me, 👉 www.annadavid.com

Remember, if there's anyone in your life whose wisdom you deeply admire, or who you know could be considered an authority in their field if they were better known, share this show with them.

Alex Mandossian sold 87 copies of his book and made $2.5 million from it, which is either the best argument for publishing a book or the best argument against caring about sales numbers (or both).

I've known Alex for years, and what makes him fun to talk to is that he'll just say the thing most authors won't admit: the book was never the product. It was the thing that got him in the room. He gave signed copies away on stages across six continents and every single one of his high-ticket consulting clients mentioned the book before they hired him. Not because it was a bestseller (600 copies sold, total, across two books) but because having it made him the guy who literally wrote the book on his thing.

Alex calls a book a "credentializer," which is not a word, but it should be. He also has a collection of one-liners he calls Alexisms that are annoyingly quotable. We get into all of it — how he turned one book into years of content, why he thinks most authors completely misunderstand what a book is actually for and what happens when you stop chasing sales and start using your book as the best business card that's ever existed.

In this episode:

• How 87 copies sold turned into $2.5 million in revenue (and why the math makes more sense than you think)
• Why every single high-ticket client referenced the book before saying yes
• What happens when you give signed copies away on stages instead of trying to sell them
• The Alexisms — and why deceptively simple one-liners are a branding strategy
• Why most authors are obsessed with the wrong metric

Want to learn more about Legacy Launch Pad Publishing—my high-end hybrid book publishing company that helps entrepreneurs turn their expertise into authority-building books? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com

Curious how entrepreneurs use books to generate seven-figure returns, speaking opportunities and high-value clients? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/7-figures

Interested in working with a selective hybrid publisher that focuses on strategy, authority and long-term business growth—not just publishing a book? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/apply

And if you just want to know more about me, 👉 www.annadavid.com

Remember, if there's anyone in your life whose wisdom you deeply admire, or who you know could be considered an authority in their field if they were better known, share this show with them.

Brian Kurtz spent decades helping build Boardroom into a billion-dollar business through direct response marketing, which means he knows more about what actually makes people buy things than almost anyone I've ever talked to.

So when he finally wrote his book Overdeliver, he didn't do what most authors do (cross his fingers, pray for a bestseller list, then move on). He treated the book like a business asset that would keep working for years, and that's exactly what it's done.

What I wanted to get into with Brian is his idea of the "perpetual launch"—that a book is never done launching, which sounds exhausting until you hear how he actually does it. He used bonuses, podcasts and decades of relationship capital to turn one book into a long-term client engine, and he'll tell you straight up that capturing a reader's email matters more than any Amazon ranking ever will.

He also wrote for nearly a decade before publishing, which gave him something most authors skip straight past: an actual voice.

And then there's the part of this conversation that puts everything else in perspective. The day before his book launch, Brian had a near-fatal stroke. We talk about what that did to how he thinks about legacy and why, after something like that, the long game stops being a strategy and starts being the only thing that makes sense.

In this episode:

• What the "perpetual launch" means in practice (and why most authors quit too early)
• Why Brian says capturing an email is worth more than an Amazon ranking
• How decades of relationship capital turned one book into a multi-million-dollar asset
• The near-fatal stroke that happened the day before his launch — and how it changed everything
• Why writing for years before publishing is the real shortcut

Want to learn more about Legacy Launch Pad Publishing—my high-end hybrid book publishing company that helps entrepreneurs turn their expertise into authority-building books? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com

Curious how entrepreneurs use books to generate seven-figure returns, speaking opportunities and high-value clients? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/7-figures

Interested in working with a selective hybrid publisher that focuses on strategy, authority and long-term business growth—not just publishing a book? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/apply

And if you just want to know more about me, 👉 www.annadavid.com

Remember, if there's anyone in your life whose wisdom you deeply admire, or who you know could be considered an authority in their field if they were better known, share this show with them.

Richard Lawson has spent 50+ years in Hollywood acting, teaching and mentoring people like George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer, so writing a book could have been a victory lap—a way to package the lessons and put a bow on everything.

That's not what happened. Writing The Artist's Roadmap: Navigating Your Career in SHOW Business didn't just organize what Richard already knew. It woke something up. It led to a Substack, a memoir in progress, a series of children's books and an entirely new creative chapter that he wasn't expecting at this stage of his life.

What I wanted to get into with Richard is how that happened—how the process of writing the book became the thing that renewed him, not just the product of a long career. He tells me about a moment during a college musical in 1969 that set everything in motion (and why he still feels guided by that same force today). He talks about surviving an actual plane crash and what that did to his relationship with intuition. And he explains the dialogue between his two inner voices—his spiritual guide "Richard" and his creative alter ego "Tricky Dick"—which is not the kind of thing you expect from a guy who's spent five decades in the business, and that's exactly why it's interesting.

In this episode:

• The 1969 revelation during a college musical that he says still drives him today
• How surviving a plane crash reshaped how he trusts his own instincts
• "Richard" vs. "Tricky Dick"—the two inner voices and what they taught him about creativity
• His three-part formula for show business success: politics, personality and craft
• Why the book led to a Substack, a memoir, children's books and an entire second creative wave he didn't plan
• What he means by "dream whisperer" (and how he helps people find their way back to their purpose)

Want to learn more about Legacy Launch Pad Publishing—my high-end hybrid book publishing company that helps entrepreneurs turn their expertise into authority-building books? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com

Curious how entrepreneurs use books to generate seven-figure returns, speaking opportunities and high-value clients? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/7-figures

Interested in working with a selective hybrid publisher that focuses on strategy, authority and long-term business growth—not just publishing a book? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/apply

And if you just want to know more about me, 👉 www.annadavid.com

Remember, if there's anyone in your life whose wisdom you deeply admire, or who you know could be considered an authority in their field if they were better known, share this show with them.

Justin Breen used to charge $500 for his PR services. After writing his first book, he started charging $30,000.

That's not a typo, and it's not because the book sold a million copies—it's because the book made him the person clients wanted to hire at that price.

Justin's path to authorship started when his journalism salary got cut in half and he cold-contacted 5,000 people to find his first five clients. He documented that whole ride in Epic Life, and it led to The Epic F.I.T. Network, speaking engagements and media opportunities that didn't exist before the book.

But what I really wanted to talk about is what happened with his second book, Epic Journey, because it got weird in the best way.

Justin describes the writing process as channeling divine inspiration while literally staring at the sun on his daily runs, which I know sounds like something you'd scroll past—but the manuscript had such an impact on early readers that one of them got a tattoo inspired by it. The book led to what he calls a "complete ego death," an amicable divorce, a total life overhaul and a new AI music company called Corvia.AI. He's currently not sure where he's going to live next, which is either terrifying or the most honest thing an entrepreneur has ever admitted on a podcast.

We also get into why he thinks not everyone should write their own book (which is a bold thing to say on this particular podcast) and his potential collaboration with Melissa Bernstein of Melissa & Doug Toys.

In this episode:

• How writing a book took him from $500 to $30,000 per client
• The 5,000 cold contacts that launched his entire business
• Why Epic Journey led to an ego death, a divorce and a company he didn't plan
• The early reader who got a tattoo inspired by the manuscript
• Why he says not everyone should write their own book (and what to do instead)
• The potential Melissa Bernstein (Melissa & Doug) collaboration

Want to learn more about Legacy Launch Pad Publishing—my high-end hybrid book publishing company that helps entrepreneurs turn their expertise into authority-building books? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com

Curious how entrepreneurs use books to generate seven-figure returns, speaking opportunities and high-value clients? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/7-figures

Interested in working with a selective hybrid publisher that focuses on strategy, authority and long-term business growth—not just publishing a book? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/apply

And if you just want to know more about me, 👉 www.annadavid.com

Remember, if there's anyone in your life whose wisdom you deeply admire, or who you know could be considered an authority in their field if they were better known, share this show with them.

Christos Garkinos went from being a lonely gay Greek kid in Detroit to running marketing for Virgin Megastores, launching fashion lines on HSN and becoming Bravo's "Robin Hood of Fashion"—and then lost nearly all of it to addiction, financial collapse and grief.

So he wrote a memoir called Covet the Comeback and launched it like a rock tour.

What I wanted to talk to Christos about is the launch, because it's one of the most ambitious rollouts I've seen from any author, and he did it entirely on his own terms. Celebrity-filled dinners, sold-out events across the country and a billboard in LA that ran for five months—positioned directly above an ATM he used during his darkest days. That's not a marketing stunt. That's a man staring down his own story from a billboard.

But the launch isn't actually the most interesting part of this conversation. Christos gets into what it felt like when people he hadn't spoken to in years started reaching out after reading the book—people who had written him off, people who barely knew him, people who suddenly understood something about him they never had before. He talks about sobriety, ego and surrender with a kind of honesty that you don't usually hear from someone whose instinct is to produce a show. And he gets into how the book didn't just change his public image. It changed his business, his relationships and the way he thinks about what he's actually building.

In this episode:

• The five-month LA billboard placed directly above an ATM from his worst days
• Why he refused a traditional book launch and built a rollout that looked more like a concert tour
• What it felt like when people who'd written him off started reaching out after reading the book
• How sobriety reshaped his instincts, leadership and creativity
• The moment his community turned his story into their own

Want to learn more about Legacy Launch Pad Publishing—my high-end hybrid book publishing company that helps entrepreneurs turn their expertise into authority-building books? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com

Curious how entrepreneurs use books to generate seven-figure returns, speaking opportunities and high-value clients? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/7-figures

Interested in working with a selective hybrid publisher that focuses on strategy, authority and long-term business growth—not just publishing a book? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/apply

And if you just want to know more about me, 👉 www.annadavid.com

Remember, if there's anyone in your life whose wisdom you deeply admire, or who you know could be considered an authority in their field if they were better known, share this show with them.

Walter Clarke lost his investment management firm after a catastrophic business failure involving regulatory action and bad advice, and then did the thing most people in finance would never do: he wrote a book about it.

The Big Risk told the whole story—the painful parts, the parts that could have stayed buried—and it turned what could have been a career-ending chapter into the reason people started hiring him. Writing the book transformed shame into authority because he was teaching from experience, not theory, and that distinction is the difference between a consultant people tolerate and one they actually trust.

What I wanted to get into with Walter is what happened next, because he didn't stop there. He wrote a second book, 401Kid, built around an idea that sounds simple until you think about it: financial education should start at birth, not adulthood. Walter has spent 30+ years advising wealthy families, and he's watched money quietly destroy relationships, identity and mental health when people aren't prepared for it. He says you lose your kids' attention around age 11, which means every parent who's waiting until their teenager "is old enough" to talk about money has already missed the window.

We also get into why he thinks sudden wealth is more dangerous than not having money at all and why avoiding the "entitlement" conversation with your kids does far more harm than just having it.

In this episode:

• How losing his firm led to writing the book that rebuilt his authority
• Why sudden wealth is more dangerous than lack of money
• The reason financial education has to start before age 11 (and what happens when it doesn't)
• How The Big Risk turned a career-ending story into a business asset
• Why 401Kid clicked as a title—and as a philosophy

Want to learn more about Legacy Launch Pad Publishing—my high-end hybrid book publishing company that helps entrepreneurs turn their expertise into authority-building books? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com

Curious how entrepreneurs use books to generate seven-figure returns, speaking opportunities and high-value clients? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/7-figures

Interested in working with a selective hybrid publisher that focuses on strategy, authority and long-term business growth—not just publishing a book? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/apply

And if you just want to know more about me, 👉 www.annadavid.com

Remember, if there's anyone in your life whose wisdom you deeply admire, or who you know could be considered an authority in their field if they were better known, share this show with them.