Inspiration, now we send you. Anisha, Justin, she's an author and editor and entrepreneur. She calls herself an entrepreneur, a book bully. So we're going to talk about writing a book.
This is for the people out there who want to learn how to write a book, the ideas and the concepts behind it. Or if your person is like, man, you know what, I don't believe I need to write no book. Maybe, Anisha can convince you and also maybe me today. Who knows?
Maybe I might write a book. You know how long people have been telling me to write a book a very long time. But we're going to dig into that conversation. I do want to tell you, on a front end, today's episode, we're going to tackle some, I can talk.
I can talk. Some mature content. You feel me? So I want you to know that ahead of time.
There are some things that are a little could be graphic for kids. I know that some people tend to listen to the show. You know, you might have the show going on with your kids in the car and things like that. So I just want to give you a heads up.
This is what I would say as a 18-up episode just because of some of the things we tackle. Not that they're not like bad, you know what I mean? They're within a context. But at the same time, we talk about really graphic or mature things or really serious issues.
I like to give you all that heads up so that you can make the decision about what your kids or, you know, what you call it, miners should be also hearing as it relates to those things. So that's just to give you a heads up because I got love for y'all. But I think you're going to get a lot out of today's episode. And yeah, you know, it was a live stream.
That's why I can do this. You know, if you're asking yourself, how does he know what they're about to talk about? It was a live stream actually before my vacation. So let me as well just, you know, kick it on that.
Just give me one minute. Went to Mayko last week, had a great time in Mexico. Man, off the Caribbean Sea. That was that was beautiful.
85, 90 degree weather. You know what I'm saying? It was 19 degrees when I left home. So that feel good.
We had a great time. Had a great time out there with friends celebrating our anniversaries. You know what I'm saying? Really a Katrina we was out there.
You know, I don't know if I should, you know, really Katrina might have been there. You know what I'm saying? I don't want to tell nobody business. Oh, y'all was in Mexico with J-Tip.
Look, we had a great time of friends celebrating anniversary. So shout out to them, much love y'all. Shout out to Tif, much love you. And anniversaries and marriages and keeping them going.
So thank God for that. But we were out there. So what happened was I think I recorded with Tunisia on a live stream like the night before we left or something like that because these interviews, you know, I book them when I'm off of my corporate job, you know, later in the evening, typically do these interviews. And then I sometimes a book back to back and we were traveling.
And so I wasn't able to get the audio out before it was time to go to Mexico because I had to make some last minute stops. So that's why you're getting this kind of a week late. But still great a week late, but great week, like great. Come on.
Anyway, I appreciate my apple pie cast my Spotify Amazon Audible Amazon music. If you're listening via audio, just know that I appreciate you and value. We are trying to continue to grow the show through video and visuals and we've been doing that on YouTube for a couple months now slowly, but surely growing. Appreciate everybody who's watching on Facebook and all of those outlets as well.
So if you're listening today and you hear comments and us referring to people, we're referring to the comments on the live stream. People were interacting and stuff like that. And if you want to see us then feel free to just go follow inspire guys people at inspire guys people on YouTube or just put that in a search bar and you'll be able to subscribe to the show. I think I've talked about enough and we're about to jump into this interview.
So yeah, thank you again for rocking with us and inspire guys people where we balance faith and business to guide you to your purpose and I can talk real fast. I need to but do not try this out. So what up, Tanisha Johnson is with me. How you feeling today?
Yeah, it's been a while. We ain't talked to nothing like that, but I'm excited to have you on today's show for the people out there. Tanisha is an author and author, manure is how you describe yourself. You know what I'm saying?
I'm like that where author, editor, you call yourself a book bully. We got a bunch of titles and things that we're going to learn all about your story today. But welcome to the show. Tanisha.
Thank you so much. This was long awaited. I'm excited. Yeah, you know, like on that note, we've, you know, we've known each other for a while.
Do you remember when we met though? I'm going to test you. We met, we met Antoine Jackson's workshop. Maybe 10 years.
Has it been 10 years? I don't think it's been 10 years, but I think it's been seven to eight for sure. It was a long time ago on John R. I remember we were doing maybe a business workshop.
Yes. So you were you were actually speaking about editing. Yeah, it was for authors. It was a workshop for authors that Antoine was doing.
And I was speaking on marketing. You were speaking on editing and we met that day and we've been cool every since. So I was talking my millionaire mindset t shirt. Well, I'm not mad at that, man.
It's a blessing to connect with people and, you know, like just to be able to meet people along the way. What the hell are you doing out there? Helen is definitely somebody who's been rocking with Inspire Guys people for a long time. Thank you for tuning in.
So, Tenisha, let's go on like, I want to go on a journey and understand. The first thing is first, can we talk a little bit about your Facebook post? You know what I'm saying? You're always bullying people and telling people that they need to write a book.
Can you kick it with me just a little bit and help me understand why are you so. Adam, that people need to write a book. So I'll say it like this. I am sick and tired of people being broke because they have not written a book that they know they're supposed to write.
Can we just say that? Okay. For me, it's not about the $10 book. Are you going to get to millionaire status with a $10 or $20 book?
Probably not. It's about the pay speaking engagements with people are paying you $25,000 to $5,000 to speak. It's about the coaching program where you're charging five to $10,000 and you get 10 people now you made $100,000. So it's not about the book, but the book is a blueprint to something bigger.
And so I'm telling people, listen, the film, the stage play, the ebook, the paperback book, the audio book, seven to 12 streams of income, that's one book. There is no reason why the Lord calls you to write and for many of us, he has that you should be broke and I'm sick of it. I love that. I love that you broke down like why and I'm being real with you like asking that question.
I had no idea you were going to say that. So it's really about the streams of income and the other opportunities that doing this one thing creates for you. So why do you think most people don't write the book? So mine said it's all about the different things that people say, well, I'm not right or I'm not this.
I'm not that like God is calling you the right. And you publish it being you're an author. So I don't understand. So so we struggle with this mindset of like, is that like inferiority?
You think like I'm not good enough? Because I think a lot of people struggle with that imposter syndrome, you know, who is she to write a book? Like when I wrote my first book, my family was like, what's your world about? Like really?
Okay. So now my book 23 and 24 and they just think the family don't even buy the book. So I tell people what to tell me. If you are worried about your family and what they don't think about your writing, most of your family members don't read no way.
So just write the book and get free. Okay. So tell me, I'm curious a little bit about like your background a little bit since you talked about family. Yeah.
Are you like, what kind of background did you come from? Did you come from poverty, money, middle class, upper class, lower class? Can you tell us a little bit just about like, you know, the younger, tenisha growing up and I want to make the connection between how who you were and help you become who you are today? Yeah.
So I literally grew up on the West side of Chicago. We call it K time because all the streets are cold and killed, air costs and all of that story very similar to Viola Davis. I'm reading her book right now finding me. And when she talks about the rats and the roaches and being in your bed at night and peeing in the bed and like, you don't want to get up because you're scared.
You're going to see some crawl across the floor. Like that was, that was my reality. Up until the age of nine years old, we moved here from Detroit, but before that I was molested by a female cousin. And so my first experience with any type of intimacy sex or whatever, it was with a female, but it was also with a family member who my mother and grandmother trusted to keep me, you know, we say to older siblings and older cousins, watch the younger cousins.
You know how we do? Yeah. But for me, that wasn't a good thing. So we moved to Detroit when I was like nine years old, my mother was 14 when she had me.
So she got pregnant 13. Wow. Yeah. Yeah.
She was 14 when she had me. So I'm 43. I'm not going to tell her age, but I'm real close. Like, yeah.
How is that like, you know, that that aspect of being so close to aging your mother? I can, I think the challenge of it is very clear, you know, when you're young, especially when she's younger. How does that evolve? Like, is there any advantages now that y'all are more mature to having a mother that that close we're no is it weird?
No, I was, for me, it's been a disadvantage because we are not the mother and daughter that's out at summer said shopping at the mall like, let's kick it, let's go to lunch, let's go to brunch. Let's go. Yeah. I was on my mother is the baby of 10, but I was raised like an 11 child for my grandmother.
So I'm the baby and then boom, here come you. So all my life she would be like, well, I didn't have birthday gifts because I had you and I didn't have Christmas because I had you. Well, you had me at 14. So at 14, everything you were getting is now transferred to your baby.
So it's almost like a tick for 10. Yeah, that's heavy. And that's interesting. That's why I love learning people's stories is like we were so like, you know, like you said, me and you've been knowing each other for a long time, at least, you know, through networking and, you know, business and, you know, social media, but there's so much more to us.
So like you and like high school college, you know, coming from the background that you came from. Yeah. Like in like where's the bridge right in that background to become who you are today? Like if I went to high school college, would you, would I have known or would I be surprised at what you doing today or what?
I'd be like, Oh, no, like I knew it's an issue was gonna be an author. She was gonna be, you know, forcing you to write a book. Can you tell us a little bit about that? So here's the caveat.
Like I want to go to Mackenzie, which is no longer standing. Yeah. Yeah, I'd be crazy. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I was actually the second graduating class from CMA in 97.
Oh, yeah. And so I was the girl in school where all the classmates was like, I know you did your papers. I need to copy off you. Like I need to answer to the test.
Wow. So my love for journalism really developed as CMA because at that point, my journalism teacher had a connection to the free press where the students were actually writing for the Detroit free press before we even graduated. Oh, wow. So yeah, yeah, it was, it was hot.
And so what's crazy is tomorrow morning, I have to speak for communication in VR senior penny 20 years later. Yeah. This is, this is like the kind of stuff I like to talk about. So you go from going to a high school in the first graduating class at CMA.
Yes. Second graduating class. So now you are about to go and speak tomorrow at the senior penny. Yeah.
I have a keynote at the infinity. Yes. Wow. Congratulations.
First of all, um, second of all, coming from that background coming from not just poverty, but you talked about being molested having a mother that was, you know, had you at 14 years ago, oh, yeah, when you, you talk about what you wrote your first book, family, not really kind of pulling it imposter syndrome syndrome. Yeah. Like, was that a real big deal for you? Like, cause it sounds like you, like, it sounds like you had some challenges to get over.
Like, how was it making that step from where you at, where you were to believe in that you can be successful, to accept that you could be successful? Um, and I'm asking this specifically because I think a lot of people struggle with this. I'll struggle with this to be honest. Yeah.
And so I think the biggest thing is mindset. And so as a child, I always tell people nobody ever told me I was beautiful or pretty. I was a smart girl. And in high school, nobody wants to be a smart girl.
Like you want to be the cute girl, you know, but anyway, you want to be the cute girl. But they were like, nope, that's the smart girl. And then just very promiscuous in high school, very promiscuous in college molested by a male hairdresser. So now molested by both men and women, got to college, didn't really know my identity and you know me, my life is an open book.
So I've been with both women and me because my identity was like, when do I really like, I don't know, I've been introduced to both. Going through all the motions. I didn't really get saved and come back to Christ to like my senior year of college. I mean, I've talked about I wilded out in college.
I had a great time. Listen. I'm a nerd. Yeah.
Yeah. So, so let me ask you with going through what you went through, right? And you said, what book number you want now? How many books?
23. 23 books. How have those evolved over time? I would imagine I'm gonna just make a guess that the information you just shared is in one of these books, especially probably earlier ones.
Like, how is that even evolved? Like, you know, again, going through my left station and some of the struggles that you had, I would imagine that at some point, maybe, I don't know, I'm just guessing where you did you ever write out of anger, out of fear. And then if that progressed to anything like a brighter day, you know what I mean? A more and more version of that.
And how did you deal with that? Yeah. So my first book was 100 words of encouragement. It was very motivational inspiration.
No, it wasn't really anything about me. It was 2014 when I wrote Windows Smoke Clears, which is actually the one that we did stage play on. And that one talked about losing a set of twins. Me and my husband were married on October 19th and October 20th.
We were in a hospital losing twins. Literally, when no honeymooner, nothing like, yeah. So, we talked about, you know, being a blended family, we're a blended family. I got an older son in California.
It talked about me not really being prepared to be a wife because I don't like cooking and cleaning like all the things. And then I probably didn't really open up about my sexual abuse story in book form until I started the Hush series, which really was like 2018 maybe. But yeah, so now it's the book that I'm writing right now is specifically for Christian women actually who want to be free from addiction to porn and masturbation because I know they are women in the church that are battling with this and think it's okay. We make it okay for women, but not me.
So yeah, those are some powerful topics. Hey, so I commend you for kind of attacking those things. I know that those aren't always easy for people to discuss and sometimes shy away from a lot of that. We actually have a, I did an episode last year that was called porn, no.
And then I had a gentleman from a ministry helps me in and we talked about that because I actually think I'm just being real. Like, I think porn is being ushered into society as like a standard. And so I think one of the things we do, especially as Christians is like think about the ratings on the movie, our rated PG 13, we follow the ratings like gospel. Yeah.
So we kind of feel like, well, if it made it in PG, it must be cool. If it made it, it's just rated R. I tell you man, a couple years ago, me and my wife started having conversations because I started realizing I'm like, look, I'm gonna just be real. We had kind of rented a couple movies and you know, like the trailer didn't, like I'm some, you were.
Yeah. It didn't have nothing. You think you watching a cool movie? We watched a movie.
I'm some like they getting busy busy and I'm like, yo, all right, I'm, you know, it's all kind of stuff happening. And I was like, look, one time I paused one of the movies, I'm not even gonna say what it was because I just didn't expect what it was. I thought it was coming action movie or whatever. And I was like, I'm gonna be real.
Like, I can't honestly say I could really sit up here and watch what these chicks doing and I'm gonna be all the way straight. And so I think a lot of people struggle with being real with themselves as it relates to porn and you want to say, soft porn. So I just commend you for talking about that. But I want to know.
It's hard in the movement, regular movies. Like I think I think why Empire, I get none of this stuff. None of it. I never seen that stuff.
I never, like I'm gonna be real. I have for the shows that people talk about on social media and I ain't, you know, not trying to do myself righteous or something, but I just stay away from it. Like I don't really need it if it ain't making me better and it ain't helping me grow. And I've heard about some of the scenes and some of this and I guess the reason I'm bringing it up because you talked about like how people are secretly struggling.
I think that's part of why because we watch stuff and then we get surprised about the reaction. It's like, oh yeah, I saw this and that. But then it's like, yo, what you doing for real for real when you up? Yeah.
You know what I'm saying? And I was sharing this in the book, but it took me a while to learn. I think it was a pastor, friend of mine, and he was like, you know, it's a form of prostitution. And I was like, you just call me a prostitute?
Like, wait, I'm not on a mile like stripper for money. Like what he said, this thing, your body is not your own. Even when you're married, your body is your spouse's. So you're prostituting your husband's body.
It's crazy. Like it just, it just opened my eyes. Like, whoa. I mean, I'm not harming nobody.
I'm not having to say nobody else. Yeah. It's just just as damaging if not more because when I got into my marriage. Now I've already replaced my husband before he even got here.
And that's that's the type of stuff where, and again, I want to like people who listen it is, whether you listen alive or you listen later, like understand, I think this is a great example of what I consider the beauty of Christianity, which is that sin is within us. Like, like a lot of times people think like, let me I'll go back to myself like, oh, you not watching this or not watching that because you think you're too good. It's like, no, no, no, no, I don't. I don't need.
Don't let this move taste fool you and spy your guys, people, whatever whatever, whatever. I am human. I'm a man. Like I'm a man's man.
So like, don't let this move taste fool you. And I think we do that sometimes. We put people on a pedestal like they're not capable of seeing it. So, yeah, those are definitely some heavy topics that need to be talked about.
So, yeah, you know, if you're looking forward to what you do now, you talked about like the stage plays. Are you doing anything else with stage plays? You know, is that something you just kind of dabble in with a book and you know, you kind of check the box like I was cool, or is that like a passion or something you want to continue to do? No, so I love theater.
I like to tell people if a picture is worth a thousand words, a film or a show that's probably worth a million. And I like the type of theater where we get to engage with the audience throughout the show. I mean, it's like Black Box Theater. It's up close to personal.
They come up in the stands like that's the type of theater I like to do. So next year we're looking at doing Win and Smoke Clears again because we haven't done it since 2018. So it's been four years. I know some people now who probably haven't seen it, you know, and we always do an alternative ending.
We always switch up a big, but I'm also working on a stage production called Mothers and Daughters. And I'm being voted about releasing it around Mother's Day because it does not paint mothers, particularly Black Mothers in a good light because we want to glorify Mothers on Mother's Day and then Father's Day is like, okay, let me bash baby, anytime. You know what? I think, man, first of all, again, just cool those to you for addressing some of these topics artistically, right?
Yeah. Because we sweep so much stuff under the rug in our culture. Yeah. It's like you saying, always tell people, like, be careful not that you shouldn't celebrate single mothers.
Shout out to the single mothers out there like all day long, but we should be careful how we celebrate them because people want to become what you celebrate. Right. So it's like, if you celebrate a single mother, do it in a way where it's like, be clear about the fact I'm celebrating this person that did something above and beyond, but I don't want this to be the norm. I think sometimes we get stuck in the fact of like, all right, bro, you want to celebrate my mind, but I don't want the daughter to turn into that too.
And that's how we have these cycles. Yeah. So I think talking about it and creating art around it is one of the ways you break the cycle. So yes, so that production will be a series of monologues.
It'll be similar to the vagina monologues, nothing but stools, no set, no nothing. And then we're working on a short film called What Happens in His House, which is of course centered around my molestation, what happens in his house days in his house. So yeah, that's what's up. And next year, the film, the stage play.
Yeah. I want to write a book or they question it. Can you tell me like, who should write a book? And then how do you know that it's time to write a book?
So I tell people, everybody can ideally write two types of books. So the first book is the book, whatever you're an expert in. So for you, you can write expert book in, it could be inspired by all the things. But again, what are you an expert in?
Now for me, it just happens to be books, my expertise is book. So I wrote a book about books dramatically incorrect, which is like editing and proofreading tips for authors. So whatever you're an expert in, that's the first book. The second book I tell people is writing a memoir about a significant time in your life where you've had to overcome something.
So not your whole life story. When we sit down and try and do a life story, I get overwhelmed because there's only so many people. I'm not reading Michelle Obama's 400 page book. I'm overwhelmed.
So yeah, I'm like, don't write the whole life story. But if you were diagnostic with cancer and then you got healed of cancer, I need just, just write about that window. And then that becomes your ministry, your marketing, everything, like you become the expert on overcoming cancer because you've been healed from it. So take a portion of your life, something that you've done or experienced and write a book on that.
And I'm assuming you must encounter a lot of people who try to fit their entire life. They do. And I can definitely understand it. Shout out to the people in the comments, Lydia, Jean, Helen, appreciate your job.
All right, so that's helpful. That's even helpful to me. Take a portion of your life and write that way. So then let me actually just an example of that.
So for me with the sexual abuse, so I have the Hush series, the first book is all women. The second book is three men and four women. The third book will be all men. But I also started a nonprofit called the Monarch, where I help both men and women heal from sexual abuse through the use of small group discussions because when I asked particularly Black men, where do they go on heal?
The answer was, we don't. We don't have any real deal. So yeah, so I feel like if I'm in the urge to solve any one problem, that's probably it. Okay.
And the reason being, I'm making this connection because it's helpful because that was what you went through. Right. And a lot of times our struggle becomes our story. Yeah.
And we have to be in control of that story, meaning putting God in control of it. And the reason I'm saying is, is because sometimes we go through things, actually made a post today, like don't let your struggle. What I say your brokenness become an idol. Yeah.
Because I think what we end up doing is instead of doing like what you're doing and creating content and opportunity and resources and businesses to help other people get out of it, we just keep like reinforcing why we are in it. And like, hey, like, so let's say if you know, if you if you grew up broke, and it's like you grew up broke and then you spend the next 20 years complaining and talking about being broke. Yeah. That's that's making it an idol versus if you grew up broke, and you create something and become something out of your life.
And then you go back and start helping other people out of that situation. So, so, hey, like, hopefully somebody grabbed onto that. If you're thinking about writing a book or you're thinking about your life story, like think about some of your struggle or something that frustrates you and focus on that one thing and start writing on that. Yeah.
So, so here's my other question, it's an issue on that because I think a lot of people are going to be asking like, how do you, how do you write a book? Yeah, Lydia, like, write how you write how you ever can. And let me say this, I'm glad Lydia said that. Don't bleed on the pages.
If you know, having worked through the healing process yet, it may not be time to write the book. You're going through a divorce right now. Don't write the book on divorce. Like, sis, bro, you might need to wait eight years before you come in these streets telling people how to successfully get through a divorce.
Like, you just signed the paper. It's like, wait a minute. Don't bleed on the pages. A lot of people want to do telos.
They want to out their spouse. They want to out the other person. Like, that's not what we're doing. If you come to sort this reading, I'm not even publishing it.
I'm not touching it with a 10 foot phone because that's bleeding on the pages. Those are your journal notes. But what do you want the world to read and how can it benefit your readers? I love that.
Don't bleed on the pages. Janelle said, you helped a couple of her family members and she's next. Shout out. Janelle, let's go.
Let's do it. Um, listen, I look like, all right, I got to make sure. I got to make sure they heard that. Don't bleed on the pages.
Now, here's where else I think that has a lot of value. We run to social media these days for everything. And I think sometimes people don't realize like the emotional aspect of social media. Something that if you super emotional when you're going through something in your life, you might need to turn your phone off.
I'm gonna be real with y'all. Yeah. Like, throw it out the window. Delete Instagram.
I'm being real when I'm quiet, not all the time. I don't want to misrepresent people like, oh, that's when some of you going through something, but I'm telling you all, when I'm emotional, I ain't saying nothing. Like, I ain't talking. And some people bleed on the post.
This is like, don't bleed on the pages. Don't bleed on the post. All right, so that's super helpful. So now let's talk about like, we talk about like, how to start your journey in writing a book from the standpoint of creative lead or the action.
From the business side, can you talk to us a little bit about that? Because I don't know that we all know, hey, what's the first step? Even when you talk about being an editor, maybe we start there like, hey, I'm not that good at writing. How do I make sure I capture everything properly?
Can you talk about that a little bit? Yeah, so I think the benefit of the time and space that we live in right now is that you don't have to be a writer to write a book. You really don't have to write anything. There are audio apps where you can literally speak, and it will take the words on the pages for you.
As a matter of fact, Microsoft Word has a dictate feature. So if you want to dictate in your car, you literally can be driving out the street and writing chapters for your book, like just speak. I tell people a lot of times, even for you, Jay Wheel, a lot of your episodes, repurpose the cup. Don't you do it.
I didn't know this was gonna get personal. Listen, repurpose the content that you already have. So many times we're trying to start with a blank page, which are from the very beginning, and we already have content. It may be social media posts.
Listen, 100 words of encouragement was nothing but social media posts. That was, and I took 100 of them, and I published it in a book, 100 words of encouragement. Boom. We over the...
We might have to end this early on. This moment that came on here and attacked me, live on my show, like, oh, you got personal note. Look, I'm gonna be real with you. You helping me for real, even with that whole concept of focusing on one thing, because I'm an abstract person.
So it's like, I'm a thinker. I'm an ideas guy. So I have a million ideas, which, because I'm like that, I can be all over the place seemingly. When I'm trying to do something focused, I'm kind of like, yo, I'm one of them people that probably wanna talk about my whole life.
So you just helped me in that regard. So, okay, we got... Go ahead. But the other thing I tell people is, let's say you are writing.
Let's say you're gonna sit down and write in a computer. I tell people you're not sitting down and write a book. You're sitting down and write chapter three today. You're sitting down and write chapter five tomorrow.
We become overwhelmed when we sit down and say, I gotta work on my book and I gotta finish my book. No, you don't. Today, you need to just finish chapter three. So when we take that dream and that goal and break it down into bite-sized pieces, we can digest it.
If I tell you J-wheel, chapter three needs to be five to seven pages, get it to me by next Friday. You can do that. You're like, okay, five to seven pages, great. Now we go through that for 10 weeks.
Now you got 70 pages in Microsoft Word, but when we put it in book form, it's 140 pages. So in 10 weeks, you've written 140 pages book. Okay, all right. So Chanel said for her, it's about the confidence, because she's scared and she overthink.
So what would you say to somebody who like, okay, let's just make it practical. Today, I'm a grandma phone, I'm a talk, whatever you're gonna use, I'm gonna use the voice text, I'm gonna talk it, I'm gonna do chapter one, right? But I'm an overthinker and I'm not really confident. I know that the book is gonna be about going from poverty to wealth, right?
So that's what I'm gonna talk about. I went from poverty to wealth. All right, Tanisha, what is chapter one about? Like I'm overthinking.
I wanna talk about when I was five, when I was 15, like, help me, where do I start? If I'm like Chanel and I'm an overthinker and I can't figure out where to start, how do I do that? Yeah, so unfortunately too many people start in the wrong place. If you are writing your life story, I don't wanna hear about, I was born and raised in Mississippi, like nobody cares.
The, you really, you really have to, and I tell people, I watch movies through the lens of an author right now. Because in the first five minutes, you know there's a problem in the movie. You know there's a problem. You are crystal, you may not know what the problem is.
It might be a coincidence, somebody might be dead, somebody might get shot, but something is happening within the Prime Minister, let's you know there's a problem. Likewise with the book, within the first five pages, you need to wow your audience, you need to know their problem. Now you don't necessarily need to tell them what the problem is, but you need to tell, okay if you're talking about from poverty to wealth, you need to talk about when I was so broke that we were living with roaches and ramen noodles was too expensive and all the things. And the reader is like, well I gotta keep reading because if first of all they need to see themselves in chapter one.
So the people who live with roaches and rats and ate ramen noodles like we get it. So then, then now you put me and I'm like, I gotta see how this person comes out of this. Like Viola Davis's book, that's where she starts with, the rats are like on the way to her toys and she can hear it at night and she went to bed and didn't have hot water. Like it's the whole thing, like man, okay.
I'm gonna be real like too, like, cause I'm from the hood, I didn't, you know, roaches was like a puppy, we didn't even around roaches before. I'm gonna be real man, some of my friends and people like you, y'all with the rats, look, I'm somebody, I'm from the gutter. If a rat would have came up, I would have built a house. I'll tell you.
It was a mouse, it wasn't like a big rat. I was five years old, I see a rat, I am a carpenter. I am going to tell you something. We had mouse traps in every corner, I promise you.
I'm talking with my mom. When you live in an apartment building with three levels, you start getting everything else that other people in the apartment got like, there's no way that it comes through the bed. Hey man, now I know that's how roaches go back and forth. Yeah.
LaVell say I'm so inspired to write a book about how I can cast out J. Wheel. Listen, brother. Got it.
Well, you need to make it exciting in the first five minutes. Yeah, first five pages. So that's how you do it. Nick McCurdy say not the rats.
Listen, bro, I can't do the rats. So, but no. But the other thing I tell people is J. Wheel, so that first chapter is gotta be exciting.
It's gotta hook me or else you risk me not finishing the book at all. The second thing is people need to know who their book is for. Your book is not for everybody and it won't be for everybody. So when I'm writing my story about sexual abuse, is for specifically African American women who have went through sexual abuse, usually of both men and women as a child, not rape, not rape as an adult, but childhood molestation.
Got it. Yeah. So you got to know the audience. That makes a lot of sense.
And like you said, hey, the people out there will roach us. Clearly the roaching, some of our audience members can connect because Ellen said, they go back and forth with suitcase. I feel it. That's really how it is.
So no, that's cool. So it's be clear. You use technology. Focus on a specific topic.
But know your audience. And I think that's important, you know, working in sales and marketing. That's always really important to know your demographic. And sometimes we, you know, people don't realize that major organizations who sell you stuff, like you might think you go in a grocery store and you like, oh, this is my favorite candy bar.
Those people, I've worked with organizations, worked on marketing campaigns where some people named the target audience. So like let's say if they're like, if you like, I got this book is for females that from the age of 30 to 40 who experienced this, and it's some people named the person like a female named Susan who did this. So these are the companies. Yeah, thank you.
What does Susan do? What is Susan married? Is she divorced? Is she single?
Does she have kids? What's her, how much money does she make? Like all the things? Yeah.
So you got to be willing to put that effort in that work behind it too. And I always feel like that effort in work really exposes who really wants something for real and who doesn't. So Art, Tenisha, let me actually stand on the line of the business perspective, right? Yeah.
What do you, like, can you talk a little bit about what you do specifically to help people with books? So if I'm writing my book, what would I come to Tenisha for? And when and what point in the process should I come to you? So I've started doing the voice notes on my phone.
I got two chapters done. Like, do I finish the book? Do I call you before I start? Like, how does that part go?
Because I really want people to walk away from this episode, actually knowing like, this is how you write a book. Absolutely. So we offer three signature packages. We keep it simple.
I have streamlined everything. So the first package is what I call a brand book bestseller where I'm coaching with people for 60 days to get their book written. I published, but get the writing done in 60 days or less. I've actually done it in 30.
60 days is to get people great because I know like this happening for them. Not so much for me, but for them. The other package is ghostwriting. So that is me interviewing you.
So I would interview J. We all get all the audio. I would trans-private and I'm watching you chapters for approval. You're not really writing anything.
I'm writing. And last but not least, we have done for you publishing services. So if that's you and you say, listen, I want to write my own book. When I'm done writing, then I'll come and see you for publishing.
And then we take it from Microsoft Word to Bookstitch and Doorstep. OK. And so like, can you give us anything? I do want to answer Chanel's question.
She asks, what are some of the favorite apps to use? She uses Evernote. So do you have any specific apps to use for? I guess I think she's speaking about the speaking into the notes for the book or is it just whatever works for whoever?
No. And honestly, that's not something that I use. I still actually type in my own books. But a lot of people, they're just using a voice recorder in their phone.
And their iPhone, if they download it and they just keep the voice recording, then you can email them and transfer. Some people use like Scribner. They use it. I forget the other one.
But I mean, you really have to be careful with them too. Because if you talk with an accent or you are speaking slang, it's going to make it to the page like that. And then it's going to give you an editor a headache. But yeah.
Got you. So can you talk to me a little bit about, like, all right. So my book is written. I've taken all the advice.
I'm good to go. I've been doing one chapter for 10 weeks. We do it. What is the publishing process?
Like, what does that exactly? Like, what does it even mean for somebody out there who's like, what does it even mean to get your book published? What is published? And I'm glad you asked me that because the way the industry is now, a lot of people think they can just upload their book to Amazon.
And they're like, I'm published? No. So it should be edited at least twice. Sometimes my editors will go through it two or three times.
We do the professional design. Professional company design is not just the front. I have people come to me all the time and they're like, oh, I have a cover. I'm like, let me see it.
No, you have a picture. You don't have a design. It's not formatted properly. And we still got to design the spine and the back cover.
And here's a kicker. You can't even design the back cover until you know how many pages the book is going to be, which we won't know until we get to work in the process. Register in the book with the Library of Congress. What does that mean?
If you want your books to be in libraries, it has to be registered with the Library of Congress. File in the copyright. I tell people I don't file a copyright before the book is edited because it's going to change so much. So people are scared that I'm going to take their work.
And I'm really not because I don't book 23. But they're scared that I'm going to take their manuscript and publish it and do them wrong. So they're like, oh, I already got a copyright. I'm like, you just wasted your money because the book is going to change so much by the time we edit in format, if that's not the final book.
In addition to that, we do the type setting. So that's formatting the interior pages, your headers, footers, interior design. You won't squeaky-lives. You won't roses, whatever it is.
My typesetter will get it done. I upload the e-book to Amazon. I tell my clients, don't sell your paper back book on Amazon because Amazon takes 40% of every sale. So a lot of people out there on social media like, yeah, Amazon, that seller, y'all, that don't mean look at me.
That don't mean nothing but a pockets, not nothing. No, I'm pennies, pennies. So I don't want people to feel like, oh, well, I can't afford her. I don't want to pay her.
I'm just going to upload it to Amazon. You can't. JetBeesos gets 40% of every sale. So it's up to you.
But I tell people, sell your paper back book from your website. Because you recoup 100% of the proceeds. Yes, you have to physically go to the post office and mail the books. But most people want you to sign it anyway.
So if it's coming from Amazon, you can't sign it. What about printing? Like, where are you? Yeah, so we do print on demand.
I use Ingram Spark for the most part. I don't print through Amazon. I've used book, baby. I've used 48-hour books, so I use different printers.
So you find that they're pretty much the same or kind of like, no. No, no. No, each project is different because it's based on the size of the book and page count. So 100-page book is going print way less than 400-page book.
Got you. Yes. So I think it's important for everybody out there to really understand the reason I'm asking these kind of questions is because that's what Inspire Guys people is really about, like, giving you something tangible and practical that you can take. So I hope everybody's listening to the fact they're like, yeah, I think there's the excitement of, yeah, you want to write a book.
Yeah. We're really trying to speak to it as people who really want to write a book. Like, you really want to get through that process. And don't skip steps because I think what happens is, you know, especially sometimes if you're a person that don't have nothing yet, that's why I like that you talked about.
Earlier, you talked about the fact that like, this ain't just about the money you're getting off a book. That's the $10 a book ain't going to make you rich. It's about the other doors because I think what happens in Asia is when you come from nothing and I've been there, there's a difference between a hungry person doing something and having an idea and a person who's established. And sometimes when you hungry and you starve and I feel you, I get it.
But sometimes you skip steps that end up hurting you in the long run. Right. That's your brand. You're building a brand and you are the brand.
So you can't show up polished and make up and slate. But the book has 10 typos on the back cover and in the first chapter is Jack up. No. Yeah, you don't do that.
I don't do that. Y'all know I get the talking crap. You get the same stuff. I start having visuals.
But I know what you saying, like, you want that consistency. And ultimately, we want to go from start to finish with something good. But look, remember, if anybody who, you know, you're catching this at a certain point, like, Tunisia said earlier, it ain't just about the book. It's about the other streams of income that the book and the opportunities that it brings.
Can you talk a little bit specifically about on the speaking side? How does a person, so let's say today I wrote a book. I'm like, cool, I wrote my book about from Rags the Riches book, right? Yeah.
And somebody reached out to me and they want me to speak somewhere. How do you exactly turn a book into speaking engagement and other things? Are they just going to, should I sit back and just wait for them to kind of the opportunities to float to me? Or is there something I should be doing when my book is finished in a way that I should be marketing or present with my book to create opportunities?
So, yeah, so for my daughter, I'm just going to tell you, she's staying in and I hired a PR company for her, because I can't keep up with all her PR. So she literally has a PR representative right now, pitching her to schools, pitching her to libraries where she can do read alouds. When we pitch her to schools, we ask them to buy a book for every student. So she was at Early Childhood Development Center.
She sold 175 books. They bought it at wholesale price. She still made money and she got to go in and speak and take pictures with the kids. So, I mean, when I tell people with the speaking, it's like, your book is your signature speaking topic.
So, when I go in, I'm asking people, are you asking me to come and speak about writing and publishing? Or are you asking me to come in and talk about overcoming suicidal thoughts, depression, molestation, all of those things? Wow, I love that. And you said to Nyla's team.
Yeah, y'all hear that? And I look at a book. I see you all the time on social media. I'm getting Nyla on this show.
She didn't want to come on with Tunisia because she said Tunisia takes her shine. I'm leaving with Nyla on episode. Oh, listen, if a 10-year-old can do it, let me actually do that from, you know, as a parent, I don't have children yet. And I'm always curious about this with parents.
When your child follows your footsteps, was that something that you encourage her to do? Or did she see you and want to do it? Was she just kind of around that environment? Like, how did a 10-year-old want to become an author in?
I was speaking, she's been on the news speaking. She's kind of confident. Yeah. Yeah.
And I went to book and she was seven. And she actually wrote a part of the book in school as part of an assignment. And I took it and was like, you know, you want to get a published show? I published it for her.
Not knowing three years later, then my year would pick it up and now she's got a national distribution deal. We just got Barnes and Noble to pick it up next. We're going for Target and Walmart. So it's one of those things where it's like, you never know when you're going to strike go.
I've been writing 20 plus years, but she got one book and then boom. But I've done all of that work. I've already blazed the trail. So you're looking at me.
Yeah. And I want people to understand too, like, Tunisia, that's part of the process. You want to write one book or do one thing. And this is why I'm specifically talking to the people who are out there starving because you want to do that one thing and you want it to be your rags, the richest story in that one book.
Basically, we want to go around trying to hit a whole bunch of home runs. But what I really try to encourage people to understand is that this is a process and you got to do it step by step. And look, I didn't have I didn't had music. I didn't been preaching places, speaking places.
I'm in corporate. I got a podcast. I didn't done a fashion, whatever. Like, man, you just got to go through that process and let God work.