Mike Capuzzi: Have you ever wondered how small, consistent actions can completely transform your life? Scott Allan, a bestselling author with over 200,000 copies sold worldwide, believes in the power of daily habits to overcome self defeating behavior and build a freedom based lifestyle. In his books like big, relaunch your life and empower your thoughts, Scott shares strategies for mindset mastery and confidence development. Scott, welcome to the show.

Scott Allan: Well, it's great to be here. Thanks for having me on the show.

Mike Capuzzi: Yeah. And it is. What time was it again? Your time right now, Scott, it is.

Scott Allan: 04:30 a.m. Tokyo time.

Mike Capuzzi: 04:30 a.m. Tokyo time. I appreciate that that's. And you're saying that's no big deal for you to get up that early and do a podcast interview, but I am appreciative, and I also just barely touched on a pretty prolific author background that you have. Can you share, Scott, some of your background, the number of books published? Tell us a little bit about, you know, your author background and what you're doing today.

Scott Allan: Sure thing. Yeah. So I am from Canada originally, and I moved to Japan in 98. So I've been here for a little while. And after teaching English for about ten years, I'd say I was ten years into it. I realized, like, now that I've done this, traveled the world, saw a lot of Japan, and I've done all these amazing things. I knew something was still missing, and I realized what it was going way back in the day. One of my goals, ever since I was in junior high school, was to write books and become an author.

Scott Allan: And I had written my first book when I was probably in junior high school. I spent, I remember spending a year just pinning everything out on those yellow legal pads, and I had dozens of them. Anyway, I eventually had stopped doing that. Life became life. I got busy and then just fast forwarding a little bit. Once I was teaching English here for about ten years, I realized what it was like. I need to start writing again. So that's what I did.

Scott Allan: I got a bunch of books on how to write a bunch of books. I read all those books on how to get published and write and everything, and I went through all of them. And then one day I just sat down and started handing out a self help book. And the reason I started with that, I love fiction, by the way, and actually wrote a lot of fiction stuff. But I, I went the self help route because back in the day, those kinds of books really saved my life, like reading books by Tony Robbins and Brian Tracy and just dozens of others. So that was my passion, was just pulling me in that direction. So I would say from 2008 to 2011 or twelve, I just spent years framing content, writing out lots of strategies and just based on my own personal experience and the knowledge that I learned from reading and following so many others. And I think after I had put my, I'd written a book which was about 300,000 words, which meant I had like four books, right, to be honest.

Scott Allan: And I was like, okay, I've got to get a publisher. So I went out and started pitching the book to publishers. You know, just coming up with, you know, I read a book on how to do that and then I started putting the book out there. And I would say around, I think 2012, maybe 2013 was Amazon launched their self publishing platform and after getting a few rejection letters, my goal, my dream was just to get my book published, had my name on it, and I was like, and then it's like, okay, I would have achieved that goal, you know. But once the self publishing platform came around, I thought, I'm just going to do this. So I knew a couple of people in this space who had done it already. I just kind of met them online, like Steve Scott, and there was like a few others back in the day, you know, they were kind of like some of the pioneers who were really successful at it already. And so I reached out to them and they showed me a few things and next thing I knew I had a cover and a book ready and I just started publishing.

Scott Allan: And, you know, it, I think like, the first few books I published weren't like, they weren't great. But the thing is, is like if I held myself back until they were perfect, I probably never would have gotten where I was, you know, so I just got a cover on, you know, on Fiverr. And if you remember, Fiverr was back in the day, everything was $5, so wasn't a great cover. And by, by the way, since then those books have been taken down. You know, they've been all been relaunched and redone and everything. So, you know, I just learned as I went, like, I would get feedback from people and then I would take that feedback and I would make the book better and put it out there. And I still do that to this day. So, but something unexpected did happen.

Scott Allan: I put a few books out there and I just didn't stop, basically, I just didn't stop. You know, I just kept going with it, kept getting more ideas and I kept thinking, oh, what if I wrote a book about da da? And then I sit down and start pinning it out. And, you know, it was pretty good. I would just. My system was easy. I was just like, I'll come out with the, you know, come up with the outline of. I would have, like, a mind map up on my wall with all these sticky notes and you index. Index cards and all these things.

Scott Allan: Now I use AI and stuff like that, which is kind of like, just accelerated the process. But back then, it was all, like, a lot of manual work, right?

Mike Capuzzi: No more. No more yellow legal pads, right?

Scott Allan: No. Well, I still use them for checklists, but, yeah, not really for outlining or writing, I should say. Yeah. But it was just great. I just loved it. Now, at the time, I was still working in my full time job, right? So I was running a business school here in Japan, you know, still had a, had small kids and pets in the highways and everything like that. So I wasn't going to be quitting my full time job anytime soon. And to be honest, I kind of treated my writing thing as a hobby, and I called it a hobby.

Scott Allan: If people ask me, how's that writing thing going? Oh, you know, I'm just, you know, working away at it, you know, put out another book. But I didn't, like, I didn't advertise myself or promote myself, and I wasn't going to be selling anything or marketing because that wasn't my thing either. But I love the creative aspect of it. So I'd say for the first two books, it's just like they were very, they were published very silently because I didn't really tell anyone about it, you know, but as time went by, I actually ended up launching a book. One of them was relaunch your life. I think it was like my fourth or fifth book, maybe. And I wasn't expecting it to really do anything like the other books, but actually started to take off. People started to read it.

Scott Allan: I started to get email, and I thought, wow, this is unexpected. And eventually that book started bringing in more money than my full time job. And that was when I went, this was probably back in 2014, maybe 2015. And that's when I went, hmm, okay. Wasn't expecting this to happen, you know, and. But the thing is, I was still calling my publishing business a hobby. And I don't know, I mean, when your hobby starts to make more money than your actual job, maybe it's time to shift your mindset, right? So that was when I really kicked into gear. Like, I was like, I've got to put more out there, because that just seemed like the thing to do.

Scott Allan: You know, and there were really two paths to take. Like, I could have gone way deeper with the book maybe, and just made more out of it, which I think would have made it more successful, or I could have written more books, and the writer in me just couldn't stop putting out books. So I was always kind. I don't know if it was a distraction, but I was always distracted by the next thing, the next project. Right. You know, and it just kept. Eventually that led to probably getting myself into, you know, kind of a mess where I had too many book projects and I was really distracted. And so every time I launched a book, that book wouldn't get the love that it deserved because I was always on to the next thing.

Scott Allan: So now I've kind of learned my lesson from that. It's like, okay, well, and I'm still putting out books, but it's like, you know, now I'm going back, and I'm actually going back and looking at how I can better monetize these other, the material because the material is still pretty solid. And when I get onto interviews or do workshops, it's the frameworks that I pull from these other books that I never really had a chance to put out there into the marketplace before. So as books, yes, but not as anything more than that.

Mike Capuzzi: So how many books, not even the fiction, just non fiction books, have you published for yourself?

Scott Allan: I haven't published, yeah, I haven't published the fiction books yet. I wrote quite a few, and they're like, so what happened is I am, I was writing fiction for a couple of years, and then I decided to just go the non fiction route. But I had these other non, these other fiction books, and it's like, can't do them both. So I just made a decision to shelf the fiction books for now. Those guys are coming out later, you know, and thing is, I just wasn't expecting things to take off and they just got really busy. But I'd say, yeah, I'm up to about 38 books. I think the 38th one is coming out in the next few weeks. So.

Mike Capuzzi: So on average, you're doing, what, three to four books a year?

Scott Allan: Yes, on average, that would be correct. Including, I haven't done as many box sets as needed. But now I've got at least half a dozen box sets that we're going to be putting out after I launch this next book. And there's one more coming out after that, I'm going to go back and just start to put out the box sets as well. So, because those are just on my back burner, really, because I just kept going with the books of. But, yeah, they're in about 38, 39, approaching 40 books, and right now published in 16 languages, maybe 17.

Mike Capuzzi: So, yeah, it's. I mean, when people go to visit your Amazon page, you see all the different languages, lots of review. I mean, yeah, it's the real deal with what you've built and what you've created here. So, Scott, there's so much to unpack here. Box. Tell me a little bit more about. I know what a box set is, but tell me, are you strategically building a box set from scratch, or are you taking existing books and sort of repackaging them into a box set?

Scott Allan: I'm taking the books and packaging them into a box set. The books are the box sets that I put out till now. They are from the. So I have, like, basically, like four or five series of non fiction self help books. Right. So one box set that I'm putting together right now is from my series, the bulletproof mindset mastery series, which has seven books in it currently. And the box set is actually going to have a. Going to do just two books from the box set.

Scott Allan: And so, strategically speaking. Glad you asked me that. I was talking to one of my author friends who's very successful at doing this, Ashley. And I said, like, how do you put the box set? You know, I mean, I would just put the. Put the books together and you put them out there. And I, like, through KDP, by the way. It's not like. It's not like when you walk into a bookstore and they've got the box in a box and it's a real box set, you know, you format them all together and you just put it out there.

Scott Allan: Right. So. But he said, no, you've got to do this. You got to take your. Take four, six books, put them together, and then. And create a free training course around it and then drive people to that box set, using it as a funnel for your business. And I thought, oh, that's. That's what's been missing.

Scott Allan: That's a great idea. So that is the plan moving forward. So I may have to follow up with you on that in the near future, but that's what we're putting together is a group of books that are going to put together into a box set, build training around that, like a free mini course, and then there will be a, like, a signature course for that. So kind of, we're building out the courses now that I probably always wanted to build before. I was just so busy with my feet on the ground, I never really stopped to actually think about the strategy behind how to really monetize. I don't want to use the word monetize. I think, like, optimize it and get it out there so that I can have as many people learning from the material as possible. But.

Mike Capuzzi: Well, I have to say, Scott, we're up to probably close to 240 interviews on this podcast, all nonfiction book authors. I think out of all those authors, you're probably one of the most prolific that I've interviewed. So I've got a lot of questions I want to ask you, focusing on the content for a moment. Are you just getting inspired? Are you being more. Are you being strategic about, like. I know, and I'm sure early on, it was just you were getting the books out. I don't know if you're a little more strategic now about thinking about how this book fits into a mix. Could it be a series, etcetera? But how are you, like, I'm looking at all the books on Amazon.

Mike Capuzzi: How do you know you want to write? Is it just, you want to write a book? Are you doing research? Is the market telling you, or is it just like, I want to write a book on empower your mornings?

Scott Allan: That's a great question. All right, so from a business perspective, if I really want a book to. So I do both, right? So I do the research, and then I will put the book out there. But I've also gone the other way, to be honest, with a lot of the books that I put out there. I just. I did it from. And this isn't something you'd hear from a marketer saying, but I just did it because I wanted to write a book on that topic. Now, it just happens to be that most of the books that I write, like, most of the topics I select are in the self help personal development space because I seen other authors putting out similar books.

Scott Allan: Right? So I'm not copying anybody else and going, oh, he put out a book on self discipline. I should, too. It's like, if I feel like I need to put a book out there on how to overcome procrastination, which I did. I did it because I was struggling with that behavior, and I thought, okay, you know, Brian Tracy's got his eat the frog thing, and so. And so, like, there's, like, all kinds of books on it. So I never really stopped to think, oh, what? You know, who needs another book on that? I just put together a framework, and I. And so I visualize myself. Now strategically speaking, getting onto a stage, or getting onto.

Scott Allan: Into a workshop or on a podcast, and how am I going to teach this framework? So, for me, it's the framework and because that's what people need, is they need the flow. You know, they need to know how to take this and implement it. Otherwise, in every, every chapter has to have a call to action, so to speak. Otherwise people are just going to get bored and put it to the side. And I'm trying to keep the book shorter now rather than longer. Some of my books were a little bit longer than they had to be. So I noticed you have a book on how to put out shorter books. And I actually grabbed that because I need to get that mindset into my flow.

Scott Allan: Not every book is going to be like 10,000 words, but I do notice the mornings book, by the way, is a shorter book. And it did really well, maybe because of that, but it was also very clear on what it was about, too. That was one of my best selling books. But again, it's like, there are already quite a few books out there on the morning habit and stuff like that. And, you know, however, I've got his morning miracle book, right? So it's like, so. But you know what? I just wanted to do a book on that topic. So a lot of it's driven by my call it passion, but the other. But the other part of me is like, you know, we'll actually go out there and do the research into which keywords are doing well.

Scott Allan: So I'll use, like, publisher rocket and helium ten, and I'll do the research into which keywords are actually getting searched for by, you know, the most and do things like that. And yes, checking the market, too, seeing who's got one of the best selling books selling in what genders. But at the end of the day, I have to come up with I need to write the book that is just kind of like burning inside of me, and that's what I go. So it's kind of a mix of, I have to write this book myself because it's an obsession, but I also want it to sell. So most of the material does appeal to a larger market. And whether or not had I set out with that intention, that's what's happened. Because I've gotten approached by a lot of international publishers who wanted to pick up the books. And this just happened.

Scott Allan: It was not a plan. I just started getting approached by publishers, initially from India way back in the day, and now I have like four. We have five publishers in India alone. Right. Who are just like, they bought all the books basically. Right. And so it's just great to, like, for me, it was just great to, my dream is to go into any country in the world and see my book in the bookstores. Like, no, it wasn't an ego thing.

Scott Allan: I just, like, if the books are getting visibility, that means that like millions of people are reading them, which means millions of people are learning from them and hopefully they're creating that great life that I'm just so obsessed by. You know, as the architect of my own destiny, I want to teach other people how to build that thing.

Mike Capuzzi: Yeah, that's awesome. Gosh, I'm going to forget all the questions I want to ask you now. I should be writing them down. Let me ask you a question. I don't know if it's a sensitive subject or not, but being so prolific, being a true writer, you mentioned AI. Is AI in the future, in your future a content creator or more just a brainstorming sort of tool. But do you see AI? You know where I'm going with that? Interesting.

Scott Allan: I love the topic. Yeah, yeah. No, actually, I mean, I'm using a lot of AI tools right now. Not just chat DBD, not a lot of tools, but I'm using certain tools that are a combination of brainstorming a little bit of the content creation. But keep in mind though, it still has to have that personal touch. Right. So I may use, there's another AI that I'm testing with to do some of the, really, just for the structure. Right.

Scott Allan: The only thing that AI has really done for my business is that I went from spending two weeks on a timeline to creating an outline to now doing it in like an hour. Right. So that's just saved me a lot of time and energy as well. So now there's AI software for creating the audiobooks. So it's saving time. It's also going to be saving money on permission, on production costs, which means I can get more material out there. But I need to be careful of the fact, like it's about the quality as well. So I hear what a lot of people are saying, oh, you know, write a book with ChatGPT and put that out there.

Scott Allan: I'm like, oh no, I think there's.

Mike Capuzzi: A lot of people doing it. Yeah, yeah, I'm squeamish too. I mean, listen, I use AI for content too, but not to that extent. Have you, just out of curiosity, have you created a custom GPT with some of your books? Meaning, you know, you uploaded your book PDF's to private custom GPT and use that now as a basis for brainstorming. Have you tried that?

Scott Allan: Yes, I've been working with that, Ashley. And uploading the PDF's into the book and getting it to create a framework for the coach, the training programs, and things like that. Right.

Mike Capuzzi: Based on your own content is what we're talking about, correct?

Scott Allan: Yeah. Based on the own content, yeah, yeah. So I'm using it to definitely build outlines for the current books, and then I'll either. So I've written, you know, most of my own books. I'm looking into, you know, I think some of the other publishers that I talked to, they'll, they'll, some of them, I put a lot of books and they haven't written any of them. They've been outsourcing them to ghost writers and stuff like that. And the other day, maybe it doesn't matter who's writing the book, as long as the quality is still there and it's valuable. I mean, James Patterson's known for that, you know, but the amazing thing about his business is, like, he's very open about it, and that's, he built an empire based off of that, you know.

Scott Allan: So I kind of, I like to look at those kind of frameworks that other authors have done. Like, that's interesting. I like that because, again, from a business perspective is like, I can see how that can really accelerate your business. Certain things.

Mike Capuzzi: Yeah. I think you probably could have. You have the opportunity of doing, I don't know if Patterson does it this way, but a lot of, in the fiction world, when they build these empires, and I can think of several authors, Lee Childs, for example, they get so big, first of all, the money isn't being prolific, obviously, in capitalizing, but they bring on co authors. Right? So the co author is doing all the work. You're the brand, which you probably are at this point, and, you know, they're doing all that work.

Scott Allan: So that's an interesting point. So what I did, I would say maybe last year, a couple years ago, I shifted from being. So I am actually outsourcing it to, you know, looking to outsource it to some ghost writers. If I do end up hiring some ghost writers, I'm going to be training them to write just like I do. Just an idea. But the reason for that is to shift my focus from that into doing more of, like, getting onto stages, talking about the frameworks, teaching people. So if I want to continue publishing, can I continue to do that at the pace I'm going and do this over here, and that's just probably maybe no. So I'm looking at ways to make the business bigger just because I just want to grow and get out there in front of me with as many people as I can.

Scott Allan: But you mentioned about the branding, though. That's exactly it. It's like if you build a brand, focus on the brand after that, then you can do these other things, you know, where, you know, that was just my approach to it. Some people did that from the beginning. You know, maybe they were just, you know, I'm just gonna outsource all my material, and I've got all these ideas, and they did that, and they still kind of built their brand from the beginning, maybe through a pen name or something like that.

Mike Capuzzi: Right, right. Yeah. I would say, listen, this is kind of going down a rabbit hole, but I think, I don't know, if it were me and I was working with you, I would probably encourage a guy like you, you, who has such. So much original thought, to keep that sort of pure. I can imagine a guy like you having a ghostwriter if you will. But. But again, maybe bringing on co authors that, again, that, you know, you align with. You guys work together on the message, but they're doing all the work.

Mike Capuzzi: You're still the main. You're still the main, Bill. Right. You're still the main, but you have a couple of those in different niches or different topics that can be pretty interesting.

Scott Allan: Yeah, yeah, we are looking at that. So, yeah, yeah.

Mike Capuzzi: There’s other two. We're running a little short on time, but I want to get through a couple things, so we'll go a little longer, if you don't mind. I know, again, it's early for you. I'd love to hear a bit more about your promotional. I mean, when you have almost 40 books, do you have a promotion engine in place, Scott, a marketing engine, or are you just getting that book out, throwing it out there, and then you're on to the next thing?

Scott Allan: I mean, I used to just kind of get it out there, get a launch team together, you know, set up a bunch of book promotion sites and all that stuff. But now I've had to restructure the way that I'm actually publishing it. So I don't do launch teams so much anymore. They're just, like, way too, like, just not that reliable. Way too hard to manage that. So I'm just using some of their services for getting reviews and stuff like that. But I really rely on my email list, first of all, which I've built up a nice little email list over the years. So that's one thing I'm using.

Scott Allan: Facebook ads. We've been testing that a lot more. And now that we've got the books set up on Shopify, we'll be putting out the books and getting our Shopify crowd on there to promote the books and buy the books first and promote the books and kind of like, from where I'm shifting things the way that I've used to do them before. Yes, I used to just kind of throw them out there. Not, I wouldn't say, like, just randomly. I mean, I. I would use paid ads, Amazon ads, I put tens of thousands of dollars into. I'm not recommending that, I'm just saying this.

Scott Allan: That's what I did. I got really successful with the ads until Amazon makes changes in their algorithm and then they don't work anymore. But I did a lot of that, and sometimes I probably did too much of it, but now I'm more like front facing. I want to be out there in front of people talking about the book. So for me, it's like the launch is just like I used to think, oh, it's like two weeks of a launch and then we're done and onto the next thing. And that's how I used to treat every book. Now I look at every book, it's like, it's the one year launch. I'm going to be out there doing as many podcasts as I can, working with ad platforms don't do bookmark anymore, really, but, you know, Facebook and Amazon ads to a certain extent, and social media.

Scott Allan: So for a long time, I wasn't really on social media strategically doing this. Now I'm more on, like, LinkedIn and Instagram. Yeah, I guess so. I don't really want to be, but I'm on Instagram. But LinkedIn is the place where I just love hanging out more. And actually, I've met a lot of people through LinkedIn, people who want to do podcast interviews, people who, publishers who want to do international deals with me. So to me, like, that's the place where I'm putting up my posts and getting more active on there. So again, building out more like a long term plan and for the, like, the marketing pieces that we can have.

Scott Allan: Yes, bigger lunches, but also having, you know, like, building bigger pillars for that book. Like, within that one year, you gotta make a lot of shifts. And that's like this. Like, if you don't, then you just end up doing the same stuff you've always done. Well, that becomes outdated, and then next thing you know, you're kind of out of business, so.

Mike Capuzzi: Yep. For sure. For sure. Well, Scott, as we get ready to wrap up here, I don't think there's anyone better suited to answer this question, but I'd love to hear. You're on the author Factor podcast. Right. And that's about the special thing, the special impact it means to be a nonfiction book author. What has the author factor meant to you? And I don't care if it's about you personally, about the lives you're changing.

Mike Capuzzi: Tell me about the impact, being a book author.

Scott Allan: Yeah. So when I started out, my goal at the time was really just to publish a book, and, like I said, have my name on it and go there. I'm finally achieved my life time dream of being an author, and that was really the goal. But as time progressed and I got better at this, I realized that wasn't actually the goal. What happened is that it's who I became on the journey, becoming an author, putting out these books. Every time I wrote a book, I felt like, and I still do, I feel like I grow from that. I grow internally. I become a better.

Scott Allan: My character gets better, and my mindset gets more focused. So it was really all about that. Um, to me, like, just, like, publishing the book or putting out a product, that's not the goal anymore. The goal is actually to become a great human being and being able to provide this content to the world. So I guess what I'm saying is, like, Zig Ziggler said this. It's not like, it's not the goal that matters is who you become along the way. Right. And to me, I, like, that's what the publishing journey has been for me, is, like, it's who I've become along the way.

Scott Allan: That's been the most exciting piece. And it wasn't until I woke, I think I'd woken up to that maybe, like, five or six years later, or maybe it, like, just coming out of COVID I don't remember what it was. I was like, ah, you know, that's. That's what this has done for me. You know, it's actually made me this kind of person, which, you know, is really exciting because it means, like. Like, I think the only question is, like, how far can I go, right?

Mike Capuzzi: So that's awesome. That is awesome. Well, Scott, how can our listeners learn more about you? Where do you recommend they go? Check out all your books.

Scott Allan: Sure. So I'd recommend going to scottylandbooks.com we just, we finally, it took a lot of work, a lot of time to set this up. We got our store set up there on Shopify, and all the books are selling direct. We're going to have the course platform is launching in a couple of months. So really excited about that. And of course, they can always go to Amazon, check out the books there. But if they want to go to Google, they can probably find podcast interviews and things like that. People can reach out to me@scottallenkotilandpublishing.com.

Scott Allan: dot they can send a direct message anytime.

Mike Capuzzi: Well, Scott, thank you very much. I know you got your whole day ahead of you again. Appreciate this and congratulations and all the success.

Scott Allan: Thanks for having me on the show. It's been a great conversation.