Can a short book make a lawyer more credible to clients and to AI?
Michele DeFilippo, founder of 1106 Design, explains why a focused book or booklet builds trust with prospective clients. She and Andrew Colsky walk through writing, editing and publishing models, and the red flags that cost authors control and revenue.
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Brief summary of the show
A book gives prospective clients a calm, no-pressure way to get to know your thinking. Michele DeFilippo, who runs the author services company 1106 Design, explains why a short book or booklet built from the things you already tell clients every day can do more for your credibility than a long one, and why it should pass the "so what" test by starting with a real client problem.
Andrew Colsky and Michele walk through the process from first draft to finished book: what editors do (and why the facts stay yours), how track changes keep the author in control, and how traditional, hybrid and independent publishing differ. Michele shares her red flags, including required print runs and arrangements that take revenue from authors without making an investment.
Andrew connects the book to the bigger picture of being found and chosen. A book supports speaking invitations, speaking creates mentions on other websites, and those mentions build the online credibility that helps AI tools recommend you when a potential client asks.
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What you'll learn
- Why publishing a book can strengthen credibility and professional authority
- How to use the "so what" test to make your book relevant to potential clients
- How to turn everyday professional expertise into useful content
- The differences between a full-length book, a short booklet, and a lead magnet
- Why good editing improves clarity without compromising accuracy
- What to watch for when evaluating hybrid publishing arrangements
- How print-on-demand publishing helps authors maintain control and manage costs
- What the publishing process involves, from editing and cover design to typesetting and proof copies
- How a book can create speaking opportunities and build long-term professional visibility
Full transcript
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Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Welcome back to another episode of Be Picked. This is the podcast for small professional service providers who are interested in building and growing their business. Stop fighting the competition and be the competition. I'm your host, Andrew Colsky. Today we are graced by the the presence of someone who I'm really excited to be speaking with, which is Michele DeFilippo. She is founder of 1106 Design, and we're gonna be talking about books and things today. So, speaking of which, here's what's coming out in January. This is my next book, The AI AIthority Quotient. It's real, it's here. but you can pre-order now on Amazon. But let's let's talk with Michele because she's got a lot of great information for us. So let's start off, Michele, with what is 1106 design? What do you actually do for people?
Michele DeFilippo: Okay, eleven six design is what you could call an author services company. We do everything for authors that publishers do except take money out of their pocket when the book is sold.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: That's a nice plug.
Michele DeFilippo: Mm-hmm.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: So, so you know, with with this particular audience, you know, we talk a lot about how someone can build and grow their business. And a big piece of that is credibility. especially when you're in a professional services business, credibility is really important for you to be getting clients. And we talk about all the different ways that they can do that. We talk about podcasting. Guess what? We're on a podcast. We talk about use of LinkedIn and other things. And then we talk about books. Why are books so important, or maybe they're not that important? What is your take on it?
Michele DeFilippo: Well, my take is that the old fashioned approach, a book or a or a booklet, is a nice way to communicate the important things you want to say to every pr prospective client in a non threatening, non pressured way. I think I don't think I'm alone in feeling like we we've all had enough notifications in junk email and every other high intensity approach and and I think that's bringing back the need for something calmer where people can access your information, not feel like they have to talk to a salesperson right away. Just decide for themselves whether or not they think they'd like to have more of a conversation with you.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And so, you know, I think it might be helpful if we kind of walk through for someone. You're at the very beginning, you have this thought in your head that, you know, maybe a book might be a good thing to help build my credibility. And that's as much as I know about it. What do I do
Michele DeFilippo: Yeah.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: from there? What are the steps that people need to think about going through to get to the final product?
Michele DeFilippo: Well, I can put their mind at ease, I hope, by by Encouraging them to just get sit down, start writing out their thoughts in whatever format seems comfortable for them, because what you want to put in this book or in this lead magnet is all the things you've said a thousand times to every prospective customer. So it doesn't have to be high-end literature, okay? It just needs to be what you would say to somebody across the table if you were having coffee together about your business.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Mm-hmm. Okay. And, you know, for people who have who listen to the show regularly will know that what I'm going to say to them about that is we are not interested, and and correct me if I'm wrong, we are not interested in a book that tells us how great and wonderful you are. We are interested in what types of problems do your clients experience and what type of information can you share to help them? Am I on the mark?
Michele DeFilippo: Absolutely. And and that that's true of all marketing, right? But way back when I was working in the advertising agency side of the business, we used to sit around the table and if w when when the copywriters came up with headlines and text for an ad, it always had to pass the so what test. If you read this and you're saying to yourself, so what? You've got to go back to the drawing board and and make it more about the customer, more about what problem they're facing. And that's actually a good place to start when you're writing for for for To turn yourself into a th an AIthority figure, start with a problem that exists in the marketplace. And then you put forth your unique solution to that problem, how you can help the author. Because when people recognize in in reading your piece that, yeah, I've yeah, I've experienced that, you've automatically grabbed them. Yeah.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Yeah, absolutely. so so in in doing that, if someone is thinking about, okay, so if if I'm gonna develop a book and I need to make it about, you know, things are gonna be helpful for my client or potential client, and so on and so forth, are there different types of books for different purposes along those lines? Like what might I want to think about as a first book? maybe more than a first book. Tell me the parameters that I'm working with.
Michele DeFilippo: I would not work worry about the big picture if it's your first attempt. Just do what seems easiest for you. Now, a full length book would be would be good if you are a speaker, let's say, and you're you're selling books at the back of the room because then people have already heard you and and they might want more. if you're just looking for a little booklet to to again make that first outreach to people, then it could be a short booklet like mine back there. It's eighty-eight pages, gives people a brief overview, and if they find that they like it, then they can contact you to learn more.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay. So the the you know shorter book. So yours is 88. I I don't even know how many pages. But 150. so for me, when I wrote this book, I didn't start writing my book with the intention of how long it would be. I started writing it with the with an outline of what's important, what do I feel is important that I need to say and cover. And then as it evolved, it turned into just the hundred and fifty pages.
Michele DeFilippo: Is it?
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Should someone like me be concerned, like, well, maybe if I don't make it longer, I'm not gonna be as authoritative, or am I
Michele DeFilippo: No.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: okay?
Michele DeFilippo: No, you're okay. A bo a book shouldn't be one word longer than it needs to be, right? I mean, we've all we've all read books where the author winds up repeating themselves a lot and that just gets annoying. The int it's funny, the internet has made people less patient with long form material now. We all want our information in short bursts. So books are actually getting shorter over the years. When I started in the business fifty years ago, a book was six hundred pages. Nobody has the patience for that anymore. So so now y your your size book is actually more the norm.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Yeah, yeah. And you know, we're we're not setting out to write a textbook which has to be, you know, high priced and meet sixteen weeks 'cause there's sixty weeks of class and so on and so forth. and like you said, all the fluff and filler and repetition that drove me crazy as a student. give us the information we need, get in, get out, and that's what we're really trying to accomplish. so so somebody, you know well let me put it this way. Let's talk about so writing the book, we have had shows and we've talked about the fact that you can take you know podcast episodes you've done, you can take articles that you've written, you can take cases that you've worked on, whatever, and you can take all that information and use that for the content of what you're developing in a book. And your work really comes in once they have that draft done, right?
Michele DeFilippo: Yeah, it's best if you make the manuscript as good as you know how to make it. It doesn't have to be perfect, so don't start stressing about synonyms or anything like that.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Ha ha ha.
Michele DeFilippo: that that's what editors will do for you. They'll help you organize the book and and take care of all the little, you know, housekeep what I call housekeeping issues in the copy editing process. Now, there is a higher level of editing called developmental editing, but that's really expensive. And actually, most of the time the developmental editor is just gonna send you back to the drawing. drawing board and say you need to do this next. And you can probably do that yourself if you just focus and and just take it one step at a time. That's that's my sense of it. People are usually better writers than they think they are, but you
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Mm-hmm.
Michele DeFilippo: don't have to stress about it. The editor, copy editor will clean it up for you.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Right, right. And and that's the thing, you know, think about your purpose. If you're trying to write a New York Times bestseller and and that's your audience, great, go for it, do all the editing, all take all the time, whatever. If you're busy running a business or running a practice and you're just trying to get the content out because people need it and it's gonna help you, you're not helping yourself by holding off and waiting and editing and double checking. It's just not beneficial.
Michele DeFilippo: That's absolutely right. Yeah.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: So, so okay, so so now let's talk about the actual stuff that you do. So I've written my first draft, I've made it, you know, pretty good. I I think it's okay, but I definitely need another set of eyes on it. I I call you up, I say, Michele, I've got, you know, this book, it's gotta go out. What do I do? What what what's my first step with you?
Michele DeFilippo: Easy peasy. All we need is your manuscript and then we'll have a c a conversation and and decide which services you need and would like. And I'll send you a quote for that and we'll get underway.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Okay, so so let's say I'm an attorney and I write a book and it's covering, you know, some some legal topics, but not in a not in an overwhelming way, you know, just general information, helpful stuff, and I send it over to you and you say, Okay, yeah, we're gonna help edit it. Well, then I start asking myself, Well well if this editor isn't an attorney or they don't do what I do, how are they gonna know what to edit or you know, am I gonna get you know, things changed on me that shouldn't happen. w where do the editors come from? What do they actually do?
Michele DeFilippo: Well, d I hear that all the time actually. Edi and editors cannot possibly be an expert in all subject matters. It's just impossible. But what they are expert in is the language. So what they'll do is point out things that are not clear. The facts are up to you. It it's the author's responsibility to get the facts straight. But how you express those facts, that's where the editor can do great work for you because they can smooth out the writing, fix any mistakes you made and and make it a good reading experience for your end reader.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Mm-hmm. So I what, I'm gonna go back and forth with the editor until I'm comfortable with it?
Michele DeFilippo: Well, the way we do it is the editor edit well, we start with an editorial evaluation where the editor will just give it about And they'll look at the first seventy-five pages or so and get a sense of your writing. And they may come back and say, you know, here's a couple of things that I see about your sentence structure that you could possibly make your sentences shorter or longer or whatever they decide to say, right? And you can go ahead and after that evaluation is make changes to the manuscript as as you see fit. And then for the copy editing stage, what we do is we work in Microsoft Word. you should send us a Word file, and we use track change. so that you would see every change that the editor suggests. Every decision is yours. Of course, we hope you accept the editor's recommendations, but you do not have to. You can accept or reject any change that that you want. And sometimes the editor will make comments and will ask you to elaborate on something or they'll say, you just said this two pages ago. And you just look through all of it at you know, one at a time and decide what you want to do with it.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Mm-hmm. Okay.
Michele DeFilippo: So you're you're always in control, in other words.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Okay, that that's that's important for a lot of people, I'm sure. but tell me this. You know, I can I can picture somebody listening to this and thinking to themselves, well, wait a minute here. I know a guy, because everybody knows a guy, and this guy told me that the only way you put a book out there is don't start writing everything and all that, because you gotta go and you gotta contact a publisher. and give them an idea first and they're gonna tell you that you gotta change your idea. So if you've written stuff, now you're gonna have to go back and rewrite it. And it'll take you years to get this book out. Is this guy right?
Michele DeFilippo: He's right. He's right. That's what that's what publishers do. Now I have to go back in history a little bit if you bear with me, right? Traditional for for most of my career, traditional publishers would buy the rights to produce the manuscript. And since they were going to pay for all of the experts necessary to produce a good book, they would change the manuscript into and shape it into something that they thought would sell, right? And the author had nothing to say about that. You you were finished with the transaction as soon as the the publisher gave you a contract. after that it was their book. Now, in order to recoup their investment, the traditional publisher would keep most of the money from sales on the back end. So they were risking their money in order, you know, nobody can predict whether a book will sell or not, not even these people who were promising authors to be best selling authors. so yeah, so the publisher was risking its money and in return it got the lion's share of the revenue when the book sold because that's fair, right?
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Uh-huh, uh-huh.
Michele DeFilippo: Today's publishers, hybrid publisher. They charge the author to produce the book on the front end and then they also take money on the back end. so it doesn't work out too well for authors. Yeah.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Right, right. So all right, so then is there another guy out there that could give me a different way to do this? Because how am I gonna
Michele DeFilippo: Yeah.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: find this, you know, publisher and my god, I hear of everybody getting rejected, rejected, rejected, rejected. I don't want to be rejected.
Michele DeFilippo: Well, i it's not hard to find a publisher today, they're all over the place. But what you have to be aware of is whether or not they're the kind that's gonna charge you on both ends of the transaction or or not. Now there's author services companies like mine. We charge you for the services up front, as we must, but then we help you get set up with print what's called print on demand printing in your accounts so that when a book and we're out of the picture at that point. So when a book is sold, the retailer pays you. The retailer deducts its wholesale discount, the retailer pays pays you, and and then you get the money deposited directly to your bank account. We have no part in that. So
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Mm-hmm. So
Michele DeFilippo: the the difference there can be where some of these middleman publishers are paying authors maybe two or three dollars a book. If you set it up the way I just described, you could get six or eight dollars a book. So it's a significant difference.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Okay. So so the the the marketing and all the other aspects beyond the writing becomes what, my responsibility or what happened?
Michele DeFilippo: Yes, the way the way true independent publishing works is that you are the publisher of the book. You've written the book, you can take off your author hat now now you're running a publishing business. And so yes, everything is is up to you. So but
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: And
Michele DeFilippo: the but you know, some of these these middleman publishers, they're charging you for every service including the marketing. And then they're still taking money out of your pocket. So you have to see what they're offering and be very aware. You know, many of them don't don't reveal the formula of how they work. And authors will just say, Okay, well you're gonna pay me two dollars a book, okay. But but what right do they have to take any of your revenue if they didn't make any investment? That's
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Right.
Michele DeFilippo: the i that's the issue.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Right. Right. And you know, from the purposes of of this show, i.e., how do you build your credibility out there? How do you build an a credible online presence as well as offline presence? The whole purpose in my world, everybody's world is different, but in my world, the purpose of the book is number one, it's helpful. For your clients and potential clients. But more so, the other number one is that it's important for your credibility because when people hear that you wrote the book, there's this something that happens in their mind, which is like, my God, he must be like, you know, the one I must bow down to. He wrote the book. and and there's something psychological that happens there. But the other thing that happens in addition to that is that when you go and now want to speak. at conferences, national conferences. you want to speak at your local chamber of commerce, you want to speak wherever your potential clients are or referral basis is. When you have a talk based upon your book, it gives it a lot more gravitas to be I I I just before this show just got accepted to speak at the American Bar Association at an upcoming meeting on the
Michele DeFilippo: Good.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: topic that I cover. I I don't know for sure, but I would think the fact that I've authored two books on the subject and have done a lot of other stuff on the subject gave me some credibility for them to say, okay, this guy probably knows what he's talking about. You know, he's got it there. So,
Michele DeFilippo: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: you know, and then what happens is now you start getting yourself booked to speak at all these places where your potential clients are, but then all those places that you go to now put up on their websites that we had Andrew Colsky come and speak to us about this topic, so now my online credibility is not just what I'm telling the world, but it's what the world is telling the internet. So this is the way this whole thing works.
Michele DeFilippo: Yeah, and and just like podcasts, and the more you're mentioned, the more the bots realize that you're a credible source and and and now AI will recommend you as a credible source if if your presence is is detailed enough. Yeah.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Uh-huh, uh-huh.
Michele DeFilippo: I mean if you just make a website and you never you never edit it, you never update it, you know, n you're not gonna be found. There's just too many websites out there. But if your website is active and you're posting a podcast every week or every month or and and you've got a book then and other people are mentioning that book, now you've got credibility.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Right, right. And and that's that's why I say, you know, I'm I'm not writing the book to be a New York Times bestseller. I don't really care to be that right now. Maybe later in my life I will be. R right now I don't care to be that. I care to do what I do. so then let me ask you sort of the next technical question here, which is so I've written this first manuscript, I've I've brought it to you, we've edited it, we get to a point where I'm really comfortable with what the book says. I think it you know, shows my values and and And chose what I want to be saying. I still gotta get cover art. I gotta format the thing properly, which anyone who struggled with trying to format something
Michele DeFilippo: Mm.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: on Microsoft Word is just, you know, it's not an easy task to do. And I don't think I've ever been successful with actually getting it done. I've always had to have someone help me with it because it's just so complicated. W what do you handle those aspects as well?
Michele DeFilippo: Yeah, that's our that's our that's what an author services company like mine does. We ha we can walk you through the whole process and provide all of the services you need, cover design, interior d now real book people don't use Microsoft Word to lay out a book. It's just not it's not the right tool. It it doesn't have the the fine spacing adjustments that are necessary to create good text. So we'll we'll design your book, we'll show you design samples, then we'll typeset your book. following all the rules of book design that nobody knows about but that give us gray hairs, then we'll proofread it from start to finish. And then once everything is approved, we'll start making your ebooks. And at the end of that process, we'll upload your print book and your ebook to the two print on demand platforms that that we recommend. And then then you'll be everything after that is on autopilot and and it's up to you. Yes, to market it and let people know that it's up there on the retailers websites. But direct direct also a way to sell direct to your list. the second print on demand company, Ingram's one is the first one's Ingram Spark, the second one is KDP.com. Ingram Spark has a special program that allows you to sell books without the retailer taking a discount. So It's called a share and sell link. You can go to the Ingram Spark website and p and put that in the search box. And what
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Uh-huh.
Michele DeFilippo: they do is you when we set up your title, we'll generate this link for you. And you can share this link anywhere you want, on your social media, on in your blog, on your website, wherever. People click that link, they check out, they pay for the book. Ingram Spark prints the book and ships it to the buyer. You don't have to lift a finger. They do charge a $350 handling fee, but most people think that's worth it. And you'll get and you'll get charged for the printing. But but you but
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Right. Right. Well
Michele DeFilippo: you won't pay the forty or fifty five percent wholesale discount that a retailer charges.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Yeah, yeah. And again, you know, what's your purpose? Is your purpose to make money off the book or is your purpose to gain credibility and and and not, you know, lose money?
Michele DeFilippo: A a book is the cheapest marketing you can do. Yeah.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Yeah, yeah. Well, l let me let me get some clarification on some of the terminology in case people are not aware. So following through the scenario where I initially was talking about I gotta get a publisher and all these things, and then you s shared that I don't have to do all that. But I also have this impression that if I'm gonna write a book and it's going to, you know, be an official book with a real cover and you know, be a a a big adult book, that Don't I ha I I I would think I have to it just for economies of scale, I'd have to order, you know, boxes and boxes full of these things and store in a garage somewhere.
Michele DeFilippo: No, in fact that's one of the red flags. If you find yourself talking to an independent publishing company or a self publishing company and they tell you you have to order books, that's taking care of them. You do not have to order or print any number of books. most people do want a few for their own distribution, but you do not have to do that. That's just a way for the hybrid publisher to make money.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: So so how does if if you're telling me that they can print a book on demand, that sounds pretty expensive to have to do to print one book?
Michele DeFilippo: Not anymore. I mean this is this is a twenty year old technology and it's been forgotten over the years, but it's all it's all on autopilot. The the order gets ported from Amazon to the book printer and it and it goes out and it gets shipped to the buyer. Yeah.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Mm-hmm. Wow. So so what about all the the little things that we don't think about when we write a book? We gotta have the copyright notice. We gotta have a barcode probably, we gotta have all these other little things that I don't even know to be thinking about. Do you help me with all that?
Michele DeFilippo: We we help with all of that. We have a copyright page template that we can send you and that you can modify to suit yourself. We make the barcode as part of the cover design. We we walk you through every step of the process and and all of the decisions are yours. You're always in control. And then we at the end of the process your files are uploaded to the print on demand printers and then that's it. We we're out we're out of the process.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: And I'm I'm not paying royalties to you forever and ever?
Michele DeFilippo: Never. We don't take a penny of your book's money. Yeah.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Wow. So give me an idea in terms of timing. If I come to you with my first, you know, polished manuscript, I'm pretty comfortable with it, but we gotta edit and whatever. How long does it normally take from that point to actually having a book available?
Michele DeFilippo: It depends on the length and complexity of the book, of course, but I would say four months would be a good period to plan on, right? A lot of times the process gets extended because the author keeps making changes along the way.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Uh-huh.
Michele DeFilippo: I could like every business owner, I could tell you stories. We once did 34 cover designs for a physician.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: my gosh. Wow.
Michele DeFilippo: yeah. So it the more you the more you make changes, the slower the process is gonna be. So but if you if you work efficiently and judiciously, four months should be start to finish.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Yeah. Wow. So and I guess, you know, one sort of little quirk or or tip that I've learned, 'cause I've got what five books out now? I I lost track. anyways, what I've learned is that when you write a book, at least for Kindle Direct Publishing, I don't know about the others, you can put up a an ebook ahead of time and make it available for pre-order. Actually, I think you can pre-order the paperback book too. But during that pre-order stage, in case you realize, my God, I I formatted something wrong or I should have added a chapter about, you can go in and make some adjustments because it hasn't actually gone out yet. so if you're, you know, hesitant because you you just want to make sure that you're sure that you're sure, you know, still get it out there on pre-order, you still have time.
Michele DeFilippo: Actually that's changing in in recent months. now now it's becoming a problem to change the file. You can when you set up your pre order, I actually don't recommend pre orders at all. I
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Mm-hmm.
Michele DeFilippo: our our recommendation to authors is just get the book done and upload it to the the retailers and then start telling people I've got a book out there. The pre
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Mm-hmm.
Michele DeFilippo: order the whole pre order process is is is a big complication that in many for many people doesn't doesn't have a purpose. It depends on the size of your list, I suppose. But it's been more difficult lately to upload new files over the existing files once that pre order has been set up. And so now we're advising authors just don't set up your pre order until we're done. You know, until
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Yeah.
Michele DeFilippo: until you're sure that we're done and then then then fine. Then your book will come out, you know, maybe a month later or or Whenever you decide you want that that to be triggered. But
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Uh-huh.
Michele DeFilippo: do it with the please do it with the final version.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Right, right. And and you know, there's w one other thing that I'll share with the audience. So so this book that I'm showing you, if you see there's a little bar across it that says not for sale,
Michele DeFilippo: Mm-hmm.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: not for resale, because this is a an author's draft copy, and I always encourage, you know, myself to make sure that I get one for exactly the reason that I'm going to show you. everything was formatted properly, everything was uploaded properly, everything was done properly, so I thought. Then I get
Michele DeFilippo: Mm-hmm.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: this copy in, and I end up with like table of contents is on the wrong side, it should be over here. So there are some you know print formatting issues that I thought were all resolved. So I encourage you to always get, you know, a pre-order copy because you just don't know what's going to happen with the electronics. It was probably formatted all correctly and everything, you know, before it went up, but something happened. You know how technology is. So
Michele DeFilippo: Yep.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: you should always check.
Michele DeFilippo: yeah, we d we tell people all the time don't don't activate distribution until you've checked a printed proof and you've held it in your hands. There's a there's an old joke in publishing that as soon as you examine the first copy of your book, it will automatically open to the f the page with the typo on it.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Well, but that's exactly the whole purpose of reviewing it. So I
Michele DeFilippo: Yes, yes.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: agree with you there. excuse me. Okay, so we're basically at the end of our time here, but let me ask you this. In the the the people that you have worked with to help them get these books out there, in general, would you say that they report to you that it's been an okay experience getting a book out there, a good experience, or do they share with you that they've really benefited, you know, and and you know, we're we want to be honest with everybody. Is it worth your time to create the book?
Michele DeFilippo: most authors we work with love us. We've we've got more than two hundred and sixty five star reviews on our website. We're recommended experts at Ingram Spark and also at the Alliance of Independent Authors. So we have a great reputation. you know, the unfortunately there's a lot of stories out there from companies who don't treat authors right, and that's actually why I'm doing these podcasts. I I would much rather hide in my office but but I just decided in my old age I have to get out there and start pushing back on this a little bit because it's not right.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Right. Great. Well, you know, it's it's a it's a great resource. I'm glad that we're able to share it with people, but in order to share the resource, how would people find you if they wanted to come to you to get all this work done?
Michele DeFilippo: great. You could go to eleven sixdesign dot com and you can download my little free book in PDF form right there. And you
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Mm-hmm.
Michele DeFilippo: can click the button that says request a consultation. My salesman Ben will call you and we will have a nice conversation. We will not pressure you, we'll just gather information to see if we're a good fit with you. And then I'll send a proposal. And we will not spam your inbox and send you four hundred emails after that, I promise. We don't do business that way.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: That on that promise alone, if you only knew what I've been dealing with was famine email, on that promise alone
Michele DeFilippo: I know.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: I'll hire you just so I don't get your emails.
Michele DeFilippo: No, I mean Ben will follow up a few times of course, but no, I I don't I hate that, you know, all of a sudden now we're back to having to delete spam twenty times a day. It's ridiculo it's
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Right, right.
Michele DeFilippo: ridiculous.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Yeah, well, you know, the the the new tact is everybody has their email address and then they have their real email address. And
Michele DeFilippo: Ha ha.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: so the email address is one that I have that I'm never gonna look at 'cause it's just spam. you gotta you gotta figure it out somehow, you know. but let me
Michele DeFilippo: Yep, that's a that's a good tactic.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: let me get some clarification. You said the website is eleven sixdesign dot com, is that what you said?
Michele DeFilippo: Correct.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: Is that actually the numbers 1106 the worddesign.com? Okay. Okay,
Michele DeFilippo: Correct, correct. One more one word.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: perfect. All right. Well, with that, I I encourage you if you're listening and you really want to build your credibility. There's so much that a book will bring you. And I'm gonna be honest with you, as I have written my books, the research that I had to do to be able to write it, I learned a lot about my own business just by doing the research to write my own book.
Michele DeFilippo: Mm-hmm.
Andrew Colsky JD, LPC: So there's that benefit. There's the benefit of being the author and having a book, and there's the benefit of helping it get you out there to speaking engagements, credibility in front of clients, and ultimately the online credibility that helps to build your presence on the web so that ultimately when AI is getting that question from the potential client, you come up as the answer because you're the credible one. With that, we've got to close out our show today. We will see you all. well, I was gonna say next week we're actually we've had so much demand for this podcast, we're actually doing two episodes a week now. And I should say we've got a new live show every Wednesday at 2 30 p.m. on LinkedIn Live and YouTube Live. We bring you the absolute cutting edge information on how to be found by AI and what you need to do there. And if you just kind of want to find out where you stand so that you can decide. How to increase your chances of being visible on the web. Go to getyouraq.com. Answer 20 questions free. Get a free report. It'll tell you your strengths and weaknesses and it'll give you a starting point. So with all these resources, you should be able to build a successful, thriving business. And we look forward to helping you do that. Michele, thank you so much for your time and thank you for joining us today.
Michele DeFilippo: Thank you for having me.
Left of Trust
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