I AM CEO PODCASTPodCEO

IAM771- Founder Helps Authors Get Their Books Done Quickly

Podcast Interview with Judy Weintraub

Judy Weintraub is an accomplished entrepreneur, business executive and attorney and is a bestselling author of The Essentials of Negotiating Effectively and the author of How to Build Successful Business Partnerships. She is the founder of SkillBites, providing book writing and publishing services to help authors get their books done quickly and conveniently. In addition to SkillBites, Judy runs Weintraub Legal Services, providing corporate law services and dispute resolution services.

  • CEO Hack: I use Zoho CEO app
  • CEO Nugget: The more value you can provide to others, the more successful you will be
  • CEO Defined: Be a visionary for your organization, a leader and a team player

Website: https://skillbites.net

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judyweintraub

FULL INTERVIEW

https://youtu.be/xkkmRgWwbXw

Transcript:

Intro 0:02
Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you’ve come to the right place, Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you’re in search of. This is the I am CEO podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29
Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from me. I am CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Judy Weintraub of Skillbites. Judy, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Judy Weintraub 0:40
Thanks so much Gresh. I'm delighted to be here.

Gresham Harkless 0:42
No problem super excited to have you on and before we jumped in, I want to read a little bit more about Judy so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Judy is an accomplished entrepreneur, business executive and attorney and is a bestselling author of The Essentials of Negotiating Effectively and the author of How to Build Successful Business Partnerships. She is the founder of SkillBites, providing book writing and publishing services to help authors get their books done quickly and conveniently. In addition to SkillBites, Judy runs Weintraub Legal Services, providing corporate law services and dispute resolution services.Judy, are you ready to speak to the IAMCEO community?

Judy Weintraub 1:20
I am I'm ready.

Gresham Harkless 1:22
Let's do it. So to kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit and hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. And what led you to start all the awesome things you're doing now?

Judy Weintraub 1:32
Sure, well, I guess I started my CEO journey. Back in 1998, when I decided to leave the company that I was employed at and go out on my own as an attorney, specifically as a mediator and arbitrator. My skill bytes business, I started in 2012. And that evolved, when I wanted to write a book, I wanted to take articles and presentations that I had given and repurpose that materials and it was really valuable, good material, and get more use out of it. And figured that writing a book would be a good way to do that and get it get the messages out to more people. So I went online to try to find a good resource that I could use to make it a lot easier for me to get my book done. And I couldn't find one. So then I reached out to my network, several hundred people. And I had about 66 people get back to me and say, I love what you've decided to do I want to do that, too. So when you find that resource, could you share it with me? So nobody knew of a good resource to use. I also said, you know, if you've used one that you didn't like, let me know. So at least I have some information. Nobody could point to anything. So I decided, Okay, I can self publish my book. I'm smart. All these other people are self publishing. Well, I did, I did it. But it was a lot of work. And I didn't want to have to figure out who to go to for editing or how to get a cover design or any of that stuff. I just wanted. My I wanted to write the book, but I wanted somebody else to take care of all that stuff. After I got my book out about 22 of the people that I reached out to Originally, I sent the book around to everybody and 22 of them came back and said, Could you help me with my book. So I wound up helping them and in the process, I learned how to do things a lot more efficiently. And figured sounds like there's a lot of people out there who need this, this resource. Nobody else that I know, can find it. So there's a market. So I decided to start this business, principally offering the book publishing services to authors to business owners who want to get a book.

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Gresham Harkless 4:06
Nice. I absolutely love that in true entrepreneurial form. If something doesn't create isn't created, you got to create yourself and it sounds like everybody was quietly maybe say he was saying why don't you create this and then he kind of took that mantle and kind of ran with it.

Judy Weintraub 4:21
Mm hmm. So yeah, it's been quite a journey. Nice. Totally different from my legal career.

Gresham Harkless 4:28
Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, I know I read in your bio, kind of having that entrepreneurial taking kind of sounds like, you know, you're able to kind of balance both of those, but it also seems like it might be I'm sure, there's definitely some synergies but probably cultivates different aspects of you as an individual. Definitely. Mm hmm. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to hear a little bit more about skill bias. I know you touched on it a little bit. Could you take us through exactly how that process works? What exactly and who exactly. It helps serve and support.

Judy Weintraub 4:57
Right. Well, it it's Serves, pretty much anybody wants to get a book done. But my focus is on business owners and professionals who are looking to increase their credibility, their reputation getting out more visible. Using the book as a marketing tool to generate more leads, get speaking engagements, maybe get some, some media exposure and publicity. Doesn't have to be a long book back when I started out, the idea of skill bites was short soundbite type books. But these were skill byte books instead of sound bites, nice, because they're words. And now I branched into doing longer books as well. And I've gotten referrals from people who have written novels and memoirs, and even a few children's books. But principally, my focus is the business book that's going to help somebody grow their business. The services include everything from helping them get the book written, if that's what they need, either with a ghostwriter or book coaching services, to all the post manuscript services, the editing and proofreading, the layout, design, the cover, design, the ISB, and formatting for ebook and print book application and getting on Amazon and other platforms. So the business owner professional doesn't have to do those, they can get their expertise out of their head onto paper, and then hand it off to Skillbites. And we'll handle everything else.

Gresham Harkless 6:42
Yeah, that makes so much sense. I'm sure somebody listening said it trying to write down everything the ISB way. And I think that it helps because as you said, you know, when you're talking about how a lot of times people don't want to go through and do all of those aspects, they just want to write the book, they want to be able to expand their business, or even if they don't have a business be able to kind of tell their story, I imagine as well, too. So being able to kind of have that quote unquote easy button, or somebody that's an expert to kind of lean on is so important,

Judy Weintraub 7:09
right. And unfortunately, there's a lot of mistakes that are easy to make. At every stage of the game, you could be hiring a cover designer, who's a graphic artist, and not really have the expertise on cover designs. You could hire somebody who and that cover designer, or graphic artists might not have the right margins and things that the printer is going to require for the cover. Or getting it up on Amazon, Amazon's got a lot of specifications. So your your entire internal layout and your cover have to meet those specifications. And if you choose the wrong person, it might be really hard to get it up uploaded and getting it on Amazon. It's free to do yourself. But there's ways to do it where your book is more likely to be found. And if you're just uploading and not putting in the right keywords, or the right categories, or things like that, then you've gone to all this effort to get your book done. And then nobody knows where it is.

Gresham Harkless 8:25
Yeah, I often say the name of the game is often being found. And I'm glad you touched on that. Because not only are those things that could happen if you don't necessarily lean on an expert or work with an expert, costly, but they also can take a lot of time those resources that we want to spend on the things that are really going to help move the needle forward. So why you know, have those costly mistakes, or are things that could be avoided when you finally on somebody that knows how exactly to do that.

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Judy Weintraub 8:56
Right? Yep.

Gresham Harkless 8:57
Awesome, awesome. Awesome. So I want to ask you now for what I call your secret sauce, and this could be for you or a combination of your business or your organizations. What do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Judy Weintraub 9:09
I, I think the most special part of what I do is that I focus on the business owner and professional. There are a lot more writing platforms, publishing platforms out there today than there were when I started. There are still very few that really focus on books by business owners. So I want to make it as convenient as possible for a business owner to get a book out there because it can, it can be so powerful for them. But if they have to figure it out on their own, then a few of them are actually going to get their books done. Yeah, it's that that focus on I understand business owners I've been a business owner. And I want to help them because businesses, especially small businesses, they're the motor of the economy, and I really want them to succeed.

Gresham Harkless 10:13
Yeah, absolutely, I definitely appreciate you for doing that. And I think you know, so many times, like I always, a lot of times talk about, you know, the products and services we have, and as a way to, you know, help make the world a better place in HR of our unique ways. And as you kind of talked about, you know, that visibility piece being able to reach and connect and tell and empower, you know, so many more people by writing the book and creating that is a definite platform, not just for you to get your book written, but as you said, is really to serve even more people and be even more of an impact. Awesome, awesome, awesome. So I want to just switch gears a little bit. And I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app or book or a habit that you have. But what's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Judy Weintraub 10:58
I think one of the things that has really helped me has been my CRM, I use Zoho, I'm sure there are other ones out there that are really good. But this allows me to keep track of every touchpoint with everybody that I'm talking to, or emailing or meet on LinkedIn, or, or other social media platforms or whatever.

Gresham Harkless 11:29
Awesome. So now I want to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice, it might be something you would tell a client or if you have to do a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

Judy Weintraub 11:41
the more value that you can provide to others, the more successful you'll be, I'm talking to somebody, I'm going to find out what challenges are they currently facing, it could have absolutely nothing to do with whether they're interested in writing a book or not. It could be COVID related, it could be sales related, or family related or whatever. Let me hear what your issues are. And maybe I can refer you to somebody who can help. Maybe I have some ideas for you. Maybe I can't, and I'll say gee, that's, that's really too bad. I can provide some empathy. But if you can provide value to others, then you're going to be successful.

Gresham Harkless 12:27
Yeah, absolutely. And I usually always say kind of at the heart of entrepreneurship is all about kind of solving problems being a value in so many different ways. As you said, sometimes it's directly Oh, this is the service I provide. But maybe it's not that maybe it's the connection to somebody else. Maybe it's the landing gear or the empathy that you're talking about as well. Awesome, awesome. Awesome. So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote unquote, CEOs on the show. So Judy, what does being a CEO mean to you?

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Judy Weintraub 12:57
To me, being the CEO is the visionary. It's more than just a visionary. But the key component is having the vision of the organization and where you want it to go. And then being able to determine the strategy for implementing to get it to where you want to go. And then to have that go down into the organization so that everybody is aligned with what they need to do in order to get you at the company where it needs to go.

Gresham Harkless 13:36
Yeah, absolutely. Stephen Covey always says begin with the end in mind. And when you have that vision, and you can kind of work backwards, you understand, like you said, the strategy related to yourself, but also, as you mentioned, to those team members as well to help them make sure like kind of that rowboats all going in the right direction, and people aren't kind of being stranded and going in circles.

Judy Weintraub 13:55
Right? Yeah, it's, you know, I rode crew for a little bit. If you've got people who aren't in sync, the boat doesn't go. Exactly, exactly everybody in sync with the Coxon so that your boats gonna fly over the water.

Gresham Harkless 14:14
Exactly.

Judy Weintraub 14:15
You got to do with your business.

Gresham Harkless 14:16
Mm hmm, absolutely. You got to have that vision, you got to go down and drill down into all those aspects of it to make sure you get to where you need to be so

Judy Weintraub 14:24
surely not the CEO. It's got to be a leader. It's got to be a visionary. It's got to be a team player. I mean, there's a lot of things that CEO has to be, but I think it really starts with having that vision.

Gresham Harkless 14:35
Mm hmm. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Everything kind of trickles down from there. So truly appreciate that definition in that perspective, and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and listeners know and of course how best they can get a hold of you getting copies of your books and find out about all the awesome things you're working on.

Judy Weintraub 14:56
Well, thank you so much. I want to let your listeners know That if they have any interest in writing a book, they can reach me, Judy at skillbites.net. And that's S,K, I, l, l, b, i, t, e, s .net. Or they can give me a call my phone numbers on the website, which is skillbites.net. I do have some courses for people who want to do things themselves, the course on book writing, and so on. Okay, once the manuscript is done, what do you do now, so the publishing, promotion, and leveraging of the book. So those are good resources for people and less expensive. So it's definitely affordable. And I'm happy to talk to anybody who wants to reach out to me and see if I can help you.

Gresham Harkless 15:55
Nice. Well, I truly appreciate that, again, God, we will have the links and information in the show notes as well too, so that everybody can follow up with you. But I definitely appreciate you reminding us of the power that you know, writing a book and creating a book can have if we promoted and execute that strategy, that vision in the right way that we kind of talked about as well, too. So I think it's something we all need to remind ourselves though, so I appreciate that and I hope you have a great rest of the day.

Outro 16:20
Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at IAMCEO.CO. I am CEO is not just a phrase, it’s a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and everywhere you listen to podcasts. Subscribe and leave us a five-star rating. Grab CEO gear a www.CEOgear.co This has been the I AM CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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Mercy - CBNation Team

This is a post from a CBNation team member. CBNation is a Business to Business (B2B) Brand. We are focused on increasing the success rate. We create content and information focusing on increasing the visibility of and providing resources for CEOs, entrepreneurs and business owners. CBNation consists of blogs(CEOBlogNation.com), podcasts, (CEOPodcasts.com) and videos (CBNation.tv). CBNation is proudly powered by Blue16 Media.

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