Ep #205: Behind the Scenes of a Bestseller Book Launch

Hi docs, welcome to The EntreMD Podcast, where it’s all about helping amazing physicians just like you embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on your terms. I’m your host, Dr. Una.

Well, hello, hello, everybody, welcome back. I am super excited about this episode. So I am recording this after the end of the first week of the release of The EntreMD Method book. Amazing book, amazing reviews we’ve had come in. And it was such a beautiful journey, we pushed the book really hard.

I’m so grateful for everyone listening who bought a copy, who shared about it on social media, who convinced friends to get it, who got copies for their friends, who wrote reviews, and all of that. Because you made this a bestselling book. It was a best seller on Amazon, number one bestseller from the day it was released until the end of the first week. As we speak, it is still a number one bestseller in five different categories.

And I was totally, totally blown away. I’m so proud of the book, I’m so proud of the tsunami of change that it’s creating. And I’m so grateful we get to do this together. You are the leaders of the EntreMD movement and together we are going to create a world where doctors are the leaders of the healthcare space inside and outside the exam room. A world where doctors have unprecedented levels of career satisfaction. And a world where doctors have financial freedom. That is what we’re creating.

And the book is really a tool to do that, I call it the $16 MBA for doctors. And that’s exactly what’s going to happen. So at the end of the first week, we stayed on number one bestseller, we had 57 reviews, and all of them were five star reviews, except one. And we had a little over 800 copies sold.

And why am I sharing this with you? Because I live as an example of what is possible for physicians. This is the truth and nothing but the truth. And so I kind of wanted to take you behind the scenes, what I did for this to happen, what the team did.

So that when you want to do something, and for you it may not be a book, it may be you’re launching a podcast, or you are launching a YouTube channel, or a blog, or you’re launching a private practice, or you’re launching a new vertical in your already existing business, or you’re ready to scale, right, and so you’re doing a relaunch.

So there’s so many applications for this, but I really wanted you to get a feel for how we can do this. Because, doctors, we are at a space where like never before we are going to own our voices, we are going to own our results, we are going to own our success, and there are things we need to do to make it happen. Okay?

So I’m going to share with you, actually it’s about 11 things, like this is a full on masterclass, okay? But I guess it’s my gift to the community for all the support, okay? And if you’re here and you’re like, “Man, but I haven’t supported you yet,” once we get off this, go buy your copy, go buy copies for the doctors in your life.

If you’re listening, I have a lot of listeners who are non-physicians, and you’re like, “Wow.” First of all, the book will apply to you so go get your copy. And then you know doctors, right? You put it in their hands too, okay? All right. So let’s get into these things. Let’s get into these 11 things that are part of the best seller book launch plan.

All right, so number one. Number one is I shared about the book the entire time I wrote the book to create awareness. The first mention of the book was not when it went live at all. Okay, so when I picked out the cover, I said, “Hey, you know, I’m owning it. I’m writing a book, it’s coming your way in spring of 2022.”

When I got the cover, I was like, “Beautiful, look at the, cover we chose for the book.” And people were like, “Yay!” And when I finally got it off to the editors, I’m like, “Yeah, the manuscript has gone to the editors and I can’t wait to get it in your hands.”

And so I kept my community aware of the journey. So I did this mostly through social media, so on my Facebook page, and the private Facebook group for EntreMD, and some other groups, you know, just sharing the process. One is to create awareness. And the other, again, is to be an example of what’s possible. Because remember, just by being, just by being you inspire other people, right? And that’s why we live out loud. So that was the first thing.

The second thing is I created a launch team. So now this was closer to when the book was going to be released, I created a launch team. There were 88 people in the group, mostly physicians, 99% physicians. And the people on the launch team had agreed to buy a copy, write a review. and share about it, right? So their social media and then one on one and all of that.

So they’re going to buy a copy, write a review, share it on social media. They got an advanced copy, so they were able to read it before the book was officially released. And so I had that team, and big shout out to the entire team because they went all out, they purchased their copies, they wrote reviews, and they shared about it relentlessly. And I’m so grateful to the entire team. And so if you’re listening and you are on the team, big shout out to you. You’re the real MVPs here. So that’s number two.

Number three, I posted about it after the book went live. So this was March 1st, I posted about it every single day. Every single day. I did it twice a day. And so it would be either I would post, you know, “Hey, it’s live.” I would post a review that somebody posted, I would re-share something promotional that somebody posted, and all of that, right?

And so twice a day I was posting, my platforms are Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. I’m not on TikTok per se, and I’m not really on Twitter per se. So I used those three, but I went all out and I was shooting for about twice a day. Instagram, I really used the stories, which is just, you know, pictures of reviews, the book, again re-sharing stories that people had shared and tagged us on. The hashtag for it was EntreMD book. And so I did that. And I did that every single day from the date it was released.

The fourth thing I did was I was a guest on a lot of podcasts. I want to say about 10, maybe six of those went live the week of the release. I have many others that I’ve recorded that will keep going out. And that’s another thing, your book launch, product launch, podcast launch, it’s not weeklong. You want to start with a bang, but you’re going to keep promoting it, right?,

So that’s what I did, so I had 10 podcasts. And so 10 podcasts and I was also a guest in three Facebook groups where the audiences were physicians. And so I went on there, did an interview style thing with the host of the group and then answered questions and all of that, and talked about the book. So that was really good. So I did that in three groups.

And then so one of the groups was Savvy Docs, so big shout out to Dr. Chiagozie Fawole. And the other one was Doctors Out Of Debt, so big shout out to Dr. Caroline Clerisme. And those were some of the ones I did.

And I was on a number of podcasts, like Physician Non Clinical Careers by Dr. John Jurica. The BOSS Podcast Business Of Surgery Series by Dr. Amy Vertrees. I was on The Money Fit MD Podcast by Dr. Latifat Akintade,  The Stress-Free MD Podcast by Dr. Robyn Tiger. And I could go on and on and on, so many different podcasts to get the word out about the book. And so I did that and big shout out to all of them, and you should check out their podcasts too.

All right, so the fifth thing I did is I had a list of 20 physician influencers who would share the book with others. Okay, so I reached out to a number of my friends who have audiences, you know, and they volunteered to share it with their communities as well, which made a huge difference.

Number six, I shared about it in Facebook groups. Now, again, you have listened to my episode about how to show up in Facebook groups. So this is Facebook groups where it would be acceptable, where it would be considered as a value add, not you pitching when you shouldn’t. And so I shared about it in those Facebook groups, I shared about it in the EntreMD Facebook group. Okay, so I did it there.

And then number seven, I emailed my mailing list, my email list, twice about it. Or maybe three times, first to say it’s coming, and then hey, this is the release date. And then the third day, like the Kindle, I had a promotion, the Kindle version was $1.99 for the first week, and I’m like, “That’s about to expire. So I emailed my mailing list about it, so that’s number seven.

Number eight, to the podcast. So The EntreMD Podcast and the Doctors Changing Medicine Podcast. So it had a pre-roll saying, “Hey, you know, this is the book, The EntreMD Method, it’s available for purchase now,” and all of that stuff. So every single episode started off with that so people would know about it.

Number nine, and this is all within one week, mind you. Number nine, I hosted a book signing and I made it loud. So the book came out on March the 1st, which is a Tuesday. And then I did a book signing on March the 5th, which was a Saturday.

And so it was, you know, for local people, I’m thinking. And I was going to have the doctors in Atlanta come in, have a good time, get a book signed, take pictures, all of that. And it was a really, really great event. And I made it loud. I talked about it a lot. I posted pictures as we were getting ready for it and all of that.

Of course, to my shock when we started it, halfway in, not halfway into it, like after the event had just started my two friends, Dr. Latifat Akintade of Money Fit MD and Dr. Chiagozie Fawole of Savvy Docs, they showed up, okay? Dr. Akintade is in California, Dr. Fawole is from New York, and they flew in for the book signing. That was just beyond amazing, beyond amazing. I’m so grateful.

So I did a book signing. And, of course, after that shared pictures and all of that. Again, it’s all about creating awareness. Remember, 80% of the people who would love to work with you, who would love to buy your book, who would love to subscribe to your podcast, all of that, they have no idea you exist. And so our job is to keep putting ourselves out there so they can find us, right?

Number 10, I hosted a virtual book signing on the day of release. And that was on Facebook, and I did it on my business page and then shared it to my group and my page and stuff like that. And so I did that, you know, I just got on talked about the book, shared what happened with the book so far, why I wrote it and things like that. So that’s number 10.

Number 11, I tapped on my non-physician friends and families. Now, why did I do that? If we do not fix what is going on in the physician community, we will be facing a health crisis of ridiculous proportions. Ridiculous, right? And so I thought, this is not just a problem that will affect physicians, this is a problem that will affect all of us.

And so I tapped into them for two reasons. One is that business principles are business principles, of course, it is filtered through the lens of a physician and this speech is filtered for physicians, but the principles are the same, right? And so I’m like, you guys own businesses, this will be great for you.

But beyond that I’m like, you have doctors in your life. And I may not be able to reach them, because I don’t know them, they’re not in my circle. But guess who is? You are. And so we call them physician allies. And it’s so beautiful, they put their hashtag physician ally. They are physician allies, and they are putting the book in the hands of other physicians, okay?

And so those were the 11 things that I did. And I did that in the first week to create the result that we saw, okay? Now, I posted about some of these things in the EntreMD Business School, you know, I was going to create a podcast out of it anyway, but I started sharing it there. And I made a statement that I want to tell you, okay, because you might be going, “You shouldn’t take all that.” Or you may be thinking, “If I write a really good book, it will sell itself.”

And so I made a statement, I said, “Writing a book well, makes it a best written book. Selling a book well, makes it a bestselling book.” Okay? And I’m going to say that again, writing a book well, makes it a best written book. Selling a book well, makes it a bestselling book. Don’t confuse the two, okay? Writing it well is not going to make it a best seller, selling it well is not going to make it a best written. All right?

So to do a good book, you want to do both. You want to write to the best of your ability and you want to promote to the best of your ability, right? So if you want to get a book that will get in the hands of people and people will enjoy it, it needs to be written well and sold well. Okay? All right.

So I want you to take a moment to think about it. Like, what is the application for me? Where am I not promoting? Where am I a little entitled thinking, if I have something good, people should just come get it? That’s a little bit of entitlement because that’s not the way this works, okay?

So where am I being a little entitled? Where do I need to put myself out there? Where am I telling myself I’m working too hard, but really I’m not? On my marketing efforts, am I really doing the things that matter? Am I doing the things that are comfortable and leaving the things that are uncomfortable but have the highest return on investment?

Because if you think about it, think about it because you might be saying I know but, right? If you had to share about your book the entire time you were writing it you may have thoughts like, well, that’s just me bragging. Or that’s me talking about myself too much, and that’s bad. And that thought may have stopped you, right?

But what if you don’t let it stop you anymore? What becomes possible for you? You may have reached out to a launch team and said, “Hey, you’ll buy the book, you’ll review the book, you’ll share the book.” And you have to keep encouraging them to do it, and you may start feeling like I’m bothering people, right? And if you allow that thought to sit, it will stop you from building a launch team.

You may think, oh, I’m posting about it twice on social media every day, people are getting annoyed. When is too much, too much? And all of that. Again, that thought will stop you. And remember, only 6 to 12% of the people that are part of your universe, see what you post anyway, right? And so you can’t allow it to stop you.

And the truth of the matter is, I want you to think about your life right now, right now, this moment. There is something, some pain you have right now, that if somebody posted about a book and you saw it, and it was a book that addressed that pain, they will love you forever. So remember, when you’re posting, you’re not posting for the people who will be annoyed and like, I don’t care about this book.

You’re posting for the people who are actually looking for it, but don’t know you exist. Talk to them twice a day. And I’m not saying post twice a day, every day. I’m just saying that you’re going to have to show up a lot and you don’t want that thought to stop you, right?

If you had to be a guest on 10 podcasts, you could have all kinds of thoughts around that. There are not 10 podcasts, I don’t want to ask them about them, what if they say no? Right? What if I don’t know what to say? And all of that, those thoughts could have stopped you. It could have stopped you.

You could have decided I don’t want to do a virtual launch, they’ve heard enough about it. I don’t want to do a book signing, what if nobody comes? I don’t want to talk to non-physicians, they may say it doesn’t matter to them. There’s so many things that could be thought about this.

But if you would dare the fears, if you look for alternate thoughts that will serve you, then you’ll be able to really, really promote what you do. Which is what is required for you to go from best kept secret to household name. Nobody really accidentally gets there, okay?

Now, having said that, I want to ask you to do three things with the EntreMD Method book, okay? Three things, the first thing is I want you to buy the book. If you haven’t bought it yet, I want you to buy the book. Why? I wrote this book because we did not get a business education. We don’t have the time to spend two more years in an MBA, and we don’t have another six figure education budget for an MBA, right?

And so I wrote a book that is full of classics, these are things that worked decades ago. These are things that will work decades from now. I broke it down to the simplest, like how can I go from I’m just a doctor, I don’t really know business, to somebody who is like, I got this off the floor, it’s set up to be profitable. And I know how to market it as the professional physician I am and all of that, right? It’s set up that way, so I call it the $16 MBA for physicians. I want you to get your MBA, okay? So that’s the first thing, buy the book.

The second thing is, be an example. Be an example. One of the things that’s happening in the physician community is that we do not have enough examples of what is possible. So when doctors find themselves stuck, they think that’s the only way it can be. When doctors find themselves not being able to build profitable businesses, they feel that’s the way it should be. They can’t build a great team, they feel that’s the way it should be.

The more of us who are examples of what is possible, the more we normalize this new reality for physicians, okay? So this is a responsibility of every physician. Be an example of what is possible. And so what that means is don’t just get the book, but then read the book. Don’t just read the book, but read it to do something different, okay? You may not be able to take all the steps, but there’s one step, two steps, three steps that you can say, “Okay, I’m going to do this.” Start from that.

Every time somebody launches a podcast, they’re an example of what’s possible. Launch a business, example. Someone is like, “Yay! I hit seven figures in revenue.” When we do that we are changing the narrative, when we negotiate like a boss in our jobs. So that’s what we need, we need examples, okay? examples of what is possible.

So number one, buy the book. Number two, be an example. Number three, buy the book for someone else, okay? Big shout out, there’s so many people, even at the book signing, who came in who bought 10 copies, there are people who bought 20 copies. There were people who are going to buy for their residency program, the doctors in there, so many things. Buy copies for the doctors in your life, okay?

Why? Because the real goal of the EntreMD Method book is not just about book sales, it’s not just about book reviews, it’s not just about number one bestseller on Amazon. These are all means to an end. The end is to change the narrative for physicians. The end is to give 100,000 doctors a business education. The end of it is to change the narrative for the physician community.

We are done having no autonomy, we are done having businesses that don’t work, we are done believing the lie that we’re not good businesspeople, we’re not good with money, we can’t do that. No, we’re done with all of that. This is a new day, this is a new era, and this is the vehicle to do that.

So I want to invite you to be a part of this movement. Buy your book, be the example, and buy the book for others, okay? And together, we’re going to create that whole new reality. I’m so excited about it, I cannot wait for us to look back on this time and say, “My goodness, do you remember the time when doctors had to go through that?” Because we are changing that, okay?

So thank you so much for listening. Share this episode, and I will see you on the very next episode.

Hey, if you love listening to the EntreMD Podcast, I want to invite you to join EntreMD On Demand. It is my signature subscription program that gives you access to a library of business courses designed to help you do one thing as a physician entrepreneur, and that is to thrive. Just head out to on entremd.com/ondemand. And I’d love to have you join us. See you on the inside.