my page 67 for a course on how to publish books online six weeks later I published my first book seven months after that I quit my job I ended up publishing 68 books that year and I didn't write any of them and now over eight years later I've made over a million dollars in royalties this video isn't about bragging or telling you how good I am you already know that instead I'm gonna share a story with you that I've never shared with anyone that will show you how I did it and the two key things to help me back for over a decade so you don't have to go through it too back in 2012 I wasn't a super cool clever handsome man sits before you when the queen jumped out of a helicopter for the London Olympics I'm Felix bandgartner left from 128 000 feet breaking the skydiving world record I was jumping to conclusions about why I didn't get that promotion it's not fair haven't got enough experience how am I supposed to get experience if you won't give me a chance the truth was I wasn't good enough I wasn't ready and I didn't have hair back then either my deep time I didn't even want the job I only went for it because it was a more senior position with better pay later that year I'd be turning 30 and life hadn't turned out the way I hoped I'd only just gotten out of debt and I had no savings or Investments I'd love my job and the company I worked for but I had this nagging feeling that I was capable of more I still had this desire to do something special with my life but no direction to channel it and it was in a way of me was I kidding myself was I destined for mediocrity [Music] if I didn't find a career path to throw myself in too soon I might have to accept my fate and aimlessly climb the corporate ladder for the next 30 Years something had to change [Music] not long after the rejection I was lucky enough to stumble across an old CD that was gathering dust on my sideboard it was by Jim Rohn I can't remember the title but it was something about becoming successful I had nothing better to do so I decided to hear the old man out don't wish it was easier wish you were better don't wish for Less Problems wish for more skills here's the secret Mr own learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job his words hit me like the g-force on Felix's freefall the problem wasn't my circumstances it was me I needed to acquire more skills and wisdom I need to become better I needed to take responsibility over the next couple of years I became obsessed with personal development and bettering myself I still didn't know what I wanted to do but it didn't matter my aim was to become the best version of myself and to become undeniable as started noticing changes in my mindset which led to changes in my body finances and happiness my circumstances were roughly the same but I felt the change Within Myself and it made all the difference there was still a question mark over my career path when I found an answer in the four hour work week I read the entire book in three days which I've never done before Tim Ferriss pointed out that it didn't matter what job you had if you were financially independent you could create a side hustle that provides enough passive income to cover your living expenses freeing you up to do whatever you want this was a revelation screw the career path I just had to find a side hustle that would cut my living expenses and I could do anything I could travel the world do bucket list items or spend time with people I care about I had no idea how to make money online but this was the only option in front of me in my mind it was very clear if I didn't find a way to earn passive income I had to be prepared for 30 years of corporate life and no way of knowing what I could have accomplished I was done with waiting it was time to finally back myself [Music] foreign I started researching how to make passive income online and I found Stefan James and his blog Project Life Mastery in 2013-14 Stefan claimed to be earning 5 to 10K a month in royalties publishing ebooks on Amazon he said he published over a hundred books and hired ghost writers to write for him and helped his brother earn up to six and a half Grand in four months oh and guess what he only had a course for 67 showing you exactly how he does it was this guy legit or was he just Shilling a course to cash him I wanted to believe him but it just sounded too good to be true so I left it and explored other options later that year I checked in on Old Stefan just to see how he was doing and it made me feel sick Not only was he still making five to 10K a month with publishing but in October he made 76k beating the 71k he made in September he'd saved 100K in five months and was seemingly smashing every goal he set for himself at the park how is this possible how is he doing it this was stopping me from finding out I could pay 38 pounds 29 or 67 to potentially earn who knows what and yet there was still something holding me back it's a bit cheesy I don't relate to him I hate you wasting money even sixty seven dollars is he just making money from selling courses I didn't know what to do at the time I didn't have any other ideas but then I noticed he's offering a seven day free trial on his course now I have no excuses so on the 30th of November after months of sitting on the sideline I finally signed up to his program my plan was simple book three days Holiday from work complete the course in three days and publish three books I had to give it a fair crack one book might not work out but if all three bombed then at least I gave it a go and knew this wasn't for me I set a goal for 2015 to cover my living expenses with passive income I remember at the time feeling a bit unrealistic well I was done with speculating now is the time to take some action and see what was possible the course is pretty basic but it got me up and running I learned how to find a profitable Niche stand out for the competition utilize keyword selection and SEO hire Freelancers like ghostwriters cover designers and editors how to construct titles and subtitles write book descriptions get reviews and promote my books I decided to hire three writers to write on three topics something I was passionate about something I had experience and knowledge in and something I thought would sell well so I decided on positive thinking running a marathon and despite not knowing anything about it growing orchids yeah about it on the 11th of January 2015 roughly six weeks after starting I published my first book pursuing positivity a guide to positive thinking and happy living I was over the moon I published a book and there was on Amazon I've done something that most people want to do in their lifetime but only a small percentage actually do I've done a thing now granted it only cost me 44 quid to create it was pretty poor I didn't write any of it it was only 29 pages long but he was mine I asked my family and friends for help but after initial pity purchases the sales died off like immediately what was happening where are all the royalties that niggling date crept in was this it had I just wasted all my time and money was this just too good to be true even to this day this book is maybe 14 pounds and 2p in total in eight years of sales I felt flat and disowned but it was too late I was already committed and books two and three were almost ready on the 15th of Jan I released my second book your first marathon and on the 19th of Jan I released my third your first Orchid original titles for book two I went on my gut I moved away from some of the advice from the course I basically put more money and effort into it it cost me 162 quid to create but I was more proud of the end result and I took a hybrid approach for book three which cost me 63 quid I was more nervous about these two I spent more money and followed my own gut rather than his recommendations if they didn't work out I'll be back to square one again it wasn't worth thinking about at the end of Jan in my first month of publishing with three books on the market I made nine pounds 50 in royalties but in my second month sales die picking up and I earned 51 pounds 47. then these royalties were miles off covering my living expenses but it gave me hope that there might be something in publishing if I earned 50 Quid in a month with three books then I could see how it was possible to earn 500 quid a month with 30 and 5 000 pounds a month with 300. so I set up my next batch of books in flowers and fitness and expanded into new niches in my third month I had a new problem to contend with a problem you might face if you start a side hustle I've now published 10 books I'm a royalties Rose to 101 pounds which was okay but that would barely cover the cost of creating one book let alone the 300 I needed to make five grand a month before publishing when my wage came in I put aside money for my living expenses money for spending and I invested the rest into dividend stocks bigger sales commissions and bonuses would go straight into investing so but now I had to find money to create books so I was left with a dilemma should I wait for royalties to accumulate and reinvest them in this case March's royalties were 101 pounds which would barely cover the cost of one book or should I break my monthly investing habit which I knew was working and use some of that to keep my side hustle going March's investment allocation was just over a thousand pounds which would help me create five to ten books I remember agonizing over this at the time but looking back the decision is really simple if I invested a thousand Pounds into dividend stocks yielding five percent I'd receive 50 pounds a year but if I use that money for publishing I could create five to ten books that had the potential to earn thousands of pounds a year was it really that difficult I didn't know how long this was going to take or if I was going to regret this decision but the numbers in front of me gave me hope and find out soon enough [Music] over the next quarter I got serious I was inspired by Brian Tracy's 40 plus formula every hour that you invest in your work or yourself over 40 is an investment in your future he said you can tell what someone's future will look like based on the amount of time they're putting in above 40 hours now how many hours does the average self-made millionaire in America work until he passes the million dollar mark 59. this was my Benchmark so I could spend at least three hours a day publishing that put me around 61 hours a week so I started inhaling coffee and got to work during the week I set an alarm from 10 to 5 which gave me two solid publishing hours before work I did one to two hours in the evening three to six hours on Saturdays and Sundays and even squeezed in the odd cheeky 30 minutes during my lunch hour unsurprisingly my production and blood pressure went to another level I hired more writers explore new genres and continued refining my process I expanded my ebooks into paperback and audio performance and with three revenue streams per book my royalties continue to grow in April my royalties grew to 204 43 pounds in May 503 pounds and in June 752 pounds I was now comfortably hitting my 21 hour weekly goal some weeks it was double that it was intoxicating to see my efforts paying off in six months I published 27 books on my royalties were in Touching distance of covering my living expenses I might just bloody do it in just six months I could feel myself changing as I worked through challenges and got more familiar with the publishing process my confidence grew and then one day everything changed for this little fella I still remember the moment to this day [Music] me and Lou were Midway through a long drive and I couldn't stop thinking about publishing and all the possibilities so I started a Whimsical conversation Lou imagine if we were earning 5 to 10K a month through publishing like how would our lives change what would we be doing Lou played along we could travel the world we could help family and friends goodbye whatever we wanted or we could finally relax about money and then I did I felt it physically I knew I was just pretending but for the first time in my life I allowed myself to feel what it was like to earn 10K a month and I have to be honest it felt amazing my shoulders dropped and relaxed my breathing slowed all tension was let go as I eased into the driver's seat for the first time in a very long time I felt a reassuring sense of calm confidence I previously thought that visualization was a load of woo-woo nonsense and I'm not sure what changed for me in this moment I just went with it I didn't just believe I was going to hit my goals it felt inevitable I was going to earn 5 to 10K a month and in a way I already had [Music] watching my royalties grow each month was exhilarating I was hooked all I wanted to do in my spare time was create books so I did but I created a new issue blue wasn't happy with the lack of time I was putting into the relationship and she was right she had been super supportive throughout all of this and there were days where we would barely speak because I was working something had to give my biggest time commitment was my job I was working 40 hours a week and I imagined what I could do if I spent that time publishing I didn't want to stop publishing I didn't want to wait this wasn't going to be easy but it was time to speak to my boss I remember feeling nervous it was like breaking up with a girlfriend I was so excited about the publishing possibilities but I was walking away from a job that I loved and from people I cared about this wasn't going to be easy I brought her up to speed with what I've been doing and told her my plans she was surprised and disappointed but fully supportive she was amazing she asked if there was anything she could do to change her mind and I said unless you can offer me 5 to 10K a month which wasn't realistic I definitely you can after speaking to her boss she asked if I could help her find a replacement so rather than work A month's noticed I could work three days a week in August two days a week in September and leave in October this was perfect I could put extra time into publishing and I'd still have a wage as I transitioned into self-employment once we have finalized the agreement we told the team my boss started talking and broke down into tears she turned to me and said I can't do it people on the team start freaking out what's going on so I tried and my voice went it kept breaking due to the emotion but I managed to tell them I was leaving it was horrible a couple of people started crying one person left the room and they were celebrated I love this place people thought I'd never leave the company and that was my original plan but now I had something driving me that I'd never experienced before looking back I can see that leaving at this point was Reckless and I wouldn't recommend it my business wasn't even cover my living expenses but there are four reasons why I made the jump early number one safety net my boss and the company MD both told me I was welcome back anytime this gave me a safety net number two savings I didn't want to use it but I had a good chunk of money in the stock market that I could draw upon if needed I wasn't going to go hungry number three time I was convinced that with a two-month Runway and an additional 40 hours a week I'd eventually cover my living expenses with publishing and I had something else that not a lot of people have number four conviction that's what I told the team I was leaving a colleague came up to me and asked if I was scared about the business not working out I said I was concerned but I wasn't scared it was my plan but I was prepared to work 16 hour days if needed to create enough income and not spend any money on things I didn't need like holidays clothes or fun stuff if I couldn't make it work by putting in a hundred hour work weeks and spending no money then I could always get back to employment and at least I gave it a go not everyone can say that and mean it but I did after handing him my notice in July I earned 982 pounds in royalties followed by 1043 in August and 972 in September I did it I was finally covering my living expenses with publishing and I'd hit my 2015 goal I was buzzing but I wasn't done I hired a coach I created a limited company I started coaching people on how to publish books and I joined a publishing Mastermind of high performance in October I'll be on my own I was excited but I was also nervous for my final day at work I dressed up as He-Man long story it was a very special day for me filled with lots of emotion it will go down as one of the best days of my life as I left the office for the final time I was free and deep down on you that I'd probably never work for anyone else again my royalties for my first full-time month were 1322 pounds followed by just under 2 000 pounds in November more than my previous wage and all the months of hard work sacrifice and frustrations came together in the peak selling season of December [Music] my goal at the start of the year which felt unrealistic at the time was to earn over 800 pounds a month or a thousand dollars in passive income in December with 68 books published my royalties for the month were 5 299 pounds I couldn't believe it I've done it I've never earned so much money this month this mother alone would cover my living expenses for six months I knew I had a long way to go to create sustainable income over the long term but I couldn't help but feel excited about where I was heading for good reason from January 2015 to the end of December 2022 I received 866 000 pounds or just over a million dollars in royalties this side hustle which I learned for 67 has turned into a lucrative part-time business it's the best investment I've ever made I've learned so much during this time but there are two key takeaways that really made the difference and they're not limited to publishing [Music] number one utilize leverage you're never going to get rich exchanging your time for money because you'll always be limited by the number of hours you can work even with your mind not your time wealth becomes Limitless when you utilize leverage here's how number one labor pay people to work for you and leverage their time rather than writing editing proofreading designing covers and promoting I've got professionals to do all that for me number two money use other people's money to grow faster now I didn't use other people's money I use my own earmark for investing so rather than waiting for my royalties to build up I use that money to create more books which expanded my income much faster number three digital content buy back your time by creating digital products that make money while you sleep digital content has little to no cost of replication meaning if I sell one book or one million it still cost me the same amount of time and money to create if you exchange your time for a wage there's always going to be a ceiling to what you can earn because you can never work more than 24 hours in a day and that's not recommended it instead if you exchange your time to build assets you earn money without working which frees you up to build more so as I'm creating this video for my YouTube business I'm still selling books and earning royalties in my publishing business as you're watching this video thank you very much by the way I'm learning ad Revenue without having to work free will be up to create more books more videos or create value elsewhere you can combine all forms of Leverage to expand your wealth exponentially I hope it's clear but this video isn't really about publishing you can back yourself and utilize leverage in content creation print on demand Drop Shipping service based businesses or information based businesses just to name a few the vehicle matters less than your desire and perception to act on it don't ever think it there's no perfect time just get started number two back yourself whether you think you can or you think you can't you're right there's a truth within all of us that's waiting to be discovered you deserve the very best life has to offer trust me playing small doesn't serve you I did that you are far more capable than you give yourself credit for dare to dream and go out and get it there's no extra cost of thinking big price of not backing yourself is huge you're going to make mistakes it's going to be difficult you're going to feel uncomfortable and it's going to be worth it the sooner you put yourself out there the sooner you'll get the feedback you need to grow don't wait around like I did dream big and back yourself I'm starting over and using leverage to create a media business centered around content creation and online education I'm backing myself on Dream League by attempting to help a million subscribers become financially independent join the group what about you could you benefit from backing yourself or using leverage if you want to start a side hustle that works around your current lifestyle then check out this video here where I share four exercises to help you find business ideas that design perfectly for you I'll see you over there I wonder before you go you might need a tissue