Susan Neal published 2 books and created 4 digital products. In today’s training, she will share how she accomplished all of this in just one year.
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Started with a Christian Yoga Class Idea
Shelley: When I see people taking action and accomplishing things it just makes my heart so full. In this episode, I’m going to position the spotlight on one of my member, Susan Neal.
Welcome, Susan!
Susan: Thank you so much, Shelley, for having me.
Shelley: Yes, absolutely!
I met Susan through my sister when I was in Florida. It’s been fun to get to know her better and to really help her accomplish a lot. I’m just going to share a little bit of her bio before we dive in.
Susan Neal is a certified yoga instructor with over 30 years of experience in practicing and teaching yoga. That’s a lot of experience!
As a pursuer of ultimate health, Susan merged her practice of yoga with her spiritual practice of Christianity. She is the founder of Scripture Yoga and she recites theme-based scripture verses during her yoga classes. I think that is so awesome! I love that.
You can learn more about her at ChristianYoga.com.
For this week’s Center Stage Spotlight Training, we’re going to really focus on how Susan published two books and four products in one year.
So Susan, tell us a little bit about how you even got started on this journey.
Susan: How it began is I had a yoga instructor who came to my class. She was Christian and had started a Christian yoga class. But she was having a difficult time doing it.
I realized that I had so much knowledge about it, so I began writing a book. The book had 21 Bible lessons for Christian Yoga classes, or it could be any type of exercise class.
Then I met you and I started following you on your podcast. Then I had written my book and I wanted to publish it. I wanted to self-publish because you get 70% of the proceeds if you self-publish.
Shelley: Yes, on Kindle.
Susan: Yeah. So I joined Author Audience Academy.
Shelley: My sister’s family is really good friends with you and your family. And I specifically remember my sister taking us to your house and you had this table of spread out things. There are several books in process and different products you had created. You’d also already created a DVD at that time.
So, you already had the dream, the passion, and the idea. And when you joined Author Audience Academy, it was just the nuts and bolts of, “How am I going to do this now? How am I going to get this published and out to people?”
So tell us what happened once you joined Author Audience Academy.
Susan: So I joined around Thanksgiving and at first I was like, “Wow, there is so much stuff in here. I should have joined six months ago instead of waiting”. It could have helped me with the writing process.
Shelley: I think that’s a misconception a lot of people have. They’ll even write me, “I’m going to wait until my book is written, then I’ll join.”
You’re not the only one. A lot of people say that. Then when they join they’re like, “Oh, I could have done it this way, or that way.” There’s so much more there.
Susan: Yeah, you really could have helped me. So I wish I had joined earlier.
Sometimes you want to follow someone and see, “Do I sync with this person?”
You would always pray and it was just a great fit because you’re nonfiction and you’re also Christian. So I joined the Academy. And the first thing I did was I went and had my manuscript edited.
Then after the editing, I had it formatted because I had about 90 photographs. So I needed help with putting it in the format. I know you also provide tips on how to format it yourself to save that money for individuals, but I couldn’t do that with all the photographs.
After that, I got my launch date and published my book in May. Initially, I did it on Kindle. But after that, I began working on, “OK, after this I’m going to put it as a print book.” I accomplished that in July.
In between that, I started working on creating the Scripture Yoga Decks, because you kind of say, “You can work on more than one product at a time.”
Power of Repurposing
Shelley: The Scripture Yoga Decks! Were you repurposing some of the images and things you already had from your book?
Susan: Yes!
Shelley: I love repurposing. I love how you can create something one time, and then you can create multiple products. That’s exactly what you’re doing! You created a Kindle book, a print book, and you also created these Yoga Scripture Decks.
Susan: Here is my book Scripture Yoga.
But then inside I have different themes. So I would just take one of the themes out and then photographs from it.
And I put it in a deck.
I got this idea from going to one of your classes. So I have a scripture verse on one side and then a yoga pose on the other.
Shelley: I love it!
Susan: All the photographs have a beautiful picture of a cross in the background.
Shelley: I remember when you were getting those pictures taken and you were like, “Oh my goodness, how perfect is this? There’s a cross in the background!” Yes, I love that.
Have you gotten good feedback about those cards?
Susan: Yes, yes. I think people have a tendency more to buy the books, or I have DVDs too. They seem to buy them more than the decks, but the decks are something that is different.
So I published the book on Scripture Yoga, and then I did the decks with two different themes I took out of the Scripture Yoga book. One was on how to receive God’s peace, and the other one was the Fruit of the Spirit. So I got those done, published, and produced in July.
It was also in July that I was going up to New York to actually speak at a Christian’s Practicing Yoga conference in reference to deal with this. Although I had also already been on many women’s retreats I had spoken at.
Then, in August, you did another Take Action Workshop. This one was about how to make a digital product. So I was like, “OK, I’m going to use what I have out of my second book”. And I published my second book in September. It is called “Yoga for Beginners”.
Shelley: Those of us who are authors, we sit at a desk a lot, so that’s a great book to get those flexibility exercises.
Susan: So then I took a chapter out of it, “Eat to Live”. This is a low carbohydrate, low hypoglycemic, and anti-inflammatory diet. I took that chapter out of my book and created a digital product.
So that’s only $5 for this little digital product, and it’s a great resource for people.
Shelley: Yeah! And I didn’t say this in your bio because there’s so much, but you’re also a nurse. And you have a lot of medical qualifications for what you’re doing. What are your qualifications exactly?
Susan: I’m a registered nurse. I have a Bachelor’s of Science in nursing, a master’s in business administration, and a masters in health science.
Shelley: Yeah. So to those of you listening, she’s not just doing something because “Oh I like yoga.” She has the credentials to go behind it. I was reminded of that when you held up your book.
So you now have two books, the two scripture card decks, and the digital product. Did you create a second digital product?
Creating More Digital Products
Susan: Yes, my second digital product is, “Improvement and Reversal of Alzheimer’s”. There was a study published in June 2016. They had some of these people improved with their learning tasks from 3% to 84% by going on the protocol.
So what I did was I looked at the protocol and what they did with the research. Then I put it into layman’s terminology so they could use it.
Shelley: Exactly.
Susan: Then I did the “First Reporting of Improvement and Reversal of Alzheimer’s and Dementia in the Scientific World”. That’s on my website ChristianYoga.com for people to purchase that.
Shelley: Awesome!
Susan: You can have the link to the real research article. But it’s very difficult to understand.
Shelley: Tell me the bottom line.
Susan: Taking the vitamin B12, eating that “Eat to Live” diet, and taking your vitamin D. There’s like 20 different things to do.
Shelley: So you have now created a variety of ways that you can share your expertise. You can help people, and I know you have even more things and more ideas. You’re definitely a go-getter and you apply it. You put it to use and I love it!
You just recently told me that you went to a speaking engagement, can you tell us a little bit about that?
Susan: It was so exciting! I went to the Blue Lake Christian Writer’s Retreat and taught yoga every morning. I just had an overwhelmingly positive response.
In fact, the director of the retreat just emailed me last night and said that four out of the top ten products were my products.
Shelley: Oh wow! The ones you brought to sell?
Susan: Yes, yes! It was just incredible. It was wonderful. I have done so much and have accomplished so much. This is my second book, “Yoga for Beginners”. I published it on Kindle in September and then in November I did it in print.
Well, you taught us that you can reuse different things in your book. Well, I had spent so much time with five photo sessions working with pictures on the beach.
Shelley: You did a lot of formatting I remember, too. You spent a lot of time.
Susan: Yeah. So I took those 90 pictures and I created a secular book. A secular yoga book versus my first on is a Christian yoga book. So it is for two different audiences.
Everything else in those books are completely different. Yoga for Beginners is how I lost my health and what steps I took to regain it. Then, how I came up with this great diet to maintain health, cognitive ability, and your ideal weight.
Take Action Tip
Shelley: So for those of you listening, as authors and writers, we spend so much time sedentary. I definitely recommend that you check out Susan’s resources, if you’re struggling with your health at all.
As you were talking, I take that one of the tips speaking engagements are one of the places you can sell the most books. You’re seeing that. If you have a venue that you might want to bring Susan in, have her lead the group in flexibility and yoga, things like that. Also, check out her site for that, ChristianYoga.com.
If you also have books, consider stepping out and doing speaking engagements, even if it’s outside of your comfort zone. It can really be a huge impact, and it can be a way to really get the message out to more people.
What do you have for us, Susan, as a take action tip for the listeners today?
Susan: If you have a dream to publish a book join Shelley’s Author Audience Academy. It is well worth it, look what I did! I can’t believe how much I’ve accomplished in one year. From Thanksgiving to Thanksgiving, and it was unbelievable.
I have six products.
Shelley: And now you’re putting them to use! You’re able to go and do these speaking engagements and you have so much to offer them; not only to make money. You’ve invested a lot into this, so you want to be able to earn money from it, but also to help people with their health.
You can get the message to more people, and really just see God use you in even a deeper way.
That’s why I created my very first book! I would be speaking and I’d want something to leave with them to help them to go deeper. That’s exactly what you have now. You have these resources, and people can continue to go through those Yoga exercises and the different eating plans for a long time.
You have no idea how many people you’re going to impact through this. I’m just so excited that you joined and can’t wait to see what God continues to do in your life.
So where is the best way for people to connect with you if they want to find out more or invite you to speak or get your books?
Susan: ChristianYoga.com. All of it’s in there. If you want to contact me to speak or teach a Christian yoga class, please contact me. There’s a contact point for speaking, I’d love to go.
Shelley: It’s such a unique thing. I think it’d be a great asset for any conference, retreat, things like that, even just to have you speak and share your story throughout the retreat.
Thank you so much Susan, and thank you all for joining us for this episode of Author Audience.
I will see you next time!
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