Survived Domestic Violence and Built a Multi-Six-Figure Business as Revenge ft. Janine Hernandez
This week host, Victoria Jenn sits down with her former client, bestselling author, book coach, and domestic violence survivor, Janine Hernandez. Janine shares her incredible journey from overcoming childhood trauma and abuse to building a successful multi-six-figure book publishing business. We talk real strategies behind self-publishing, healing out loud, pitching yourself as a speaker, and building a legacy that impacts generations. Whether you’re curious about writing your own book, scaling your business, or finding the courage to speak your truth, this episode is filled with inspiration, practical advice, and insights into the power of storytelling.
In this episode:
4:47 - Self-Publishing: Freedom And Control
12:50 - Launch Challenges And Successes
24:47 - Decide, Plan, Hire Coach
32:51 - Monetize Books And Expertise
45:02 - Speaking Out Against Abuse
Full Transcript:
What's up everybody? Welcome back to Banking on Cultura. I am your host Victoria Jenn Rodriguez. Really excited to have you guys back here as always. sending you so much amore and love and besitos and all the things. And we're coming to you back with another amazing episode out of our New York City studio. And we have a guest. You know, I love when we have guests. We have a guest. And we have Janine Hernandez, who is an author, best-selling author of multiple books, domestic violence survivor, who has used her story to heal out loud, which I really love and appreciate. She is a book coach that has been recognized by the city of Phoenix and they actually created a day book publishing academy day after you. Correct. Yep. Um you're also a former client of mine which I love who has made some money and some wins and I can't wait to share that with the folks. But first, welcome. Welcome to Bangi Ankura. Thank you for having me. I'm really excited. I'm really This is I feel like long overdue. Yes, it's been some time because how long ago did we work together? Um, right before the pandemic. So, it was like 2020. Pandmic. Yes. So, we've known each other for quite some time. And finally, we have you here on Baking Aultura. So, this is awesome. So, we like to kick things off with some bon. So, give us some some tea. Some bene. Let's see. I have a couple. Okay. Newly engaged and pregnant. We Damn, your rock is blinding me. I just It just caught me in the eye. just caught me in the eye. Um, so that's on the personal front, but as far as business, I am starting to go into the prison systems and speak to some of the inmates and helping them publish their stories. So, this is something I've prayed for for years and finally it is happening. So, I'm super excited. Wow. So, this is for like adults. This is like what kind of prisons? We started off with juvenile uh and my hopes is to get into adults as well. So, wow, that is incredible. So, you said this has been a dream of yours. Yes. So, you've been wanting to go into the prison system for years. Why? Um, I have an uncle that did 15 to life. So, I grew up going to the state penitentiaries on the weekend. It's just it's a part of my upbringing. Okay. And God planted it in my heart about 3 four years ago. And it was one of those things that I didn't take action on. I just kind of prayed on it silently behind the scenes and then it happened. What did you experience when you visited your uncle that made you feel like called to this type of work? I think knowing that everyone Well, I know that everyone has a story. We all go through something and even myself, I went through a lot of childhood trauma and I see like the success and the things that I've been able to overcome and heal and I'm like, they have stories. And to be honest with you, a lot of them reach out to me on social media wanting to write books and I needed an outlet, like a way for me to get in my foot in the door and be able to help them, not just through social media. So yeah. How did that even happen? Like do you go send an email and say, "Hey, I want to work in the prison system." Like how did that happen? I did nothing but pray on it for three years and then one day the right person connected me with someone inside the prison systems and then it happened. Wow. So, um, it was one of those like silent things that you do behind the scenes and then it just came to fruition. That is really cool because you've managed to make an entire business around supporting people to tell their stories and you specifically are an advocate for self-publishing, right? Yes. Why? So, when I was little, I always wanted to publish my own books, but it never made sense to me that you had to go through a traditional publisher and they have the rights to tell you how your book cover should look, what you should write, what your characters should be like. I'm like, that'll make sense. Like, if I wrote it, I want to do whatever I want to do. And ever since I was little, I've always said, I'm going to do it myself. I'm not going to go through these big corporations. And that's what I teach people is learn how to do it yourself. And you retain all of the return on investment for your books. Yeah. I love that. So, did you always start with doing self-publishing work or were you doing something before that? Um, I was in HR, corporate HR for 13 years and then I took the leap of faith in 2018. 2018. Yeah. Okay. And was you what was your first book on? My first book was poetry. It was a book that I wrote when I was 14. Wow. Yeah. Because how many books do you have now? I think nine. Nine books. I stopped counting. I think it's like nine. At nine. Wow. Incredible. Nine. Wow. All right. So, your first book was a poetry book, and then what was your next book? I did a children's book called Feathers in the Sky. Okay. I tapped into children's books. Okay. So, you've done children's books, you've done poetry, you've also done hailing out loud books, right? Because you did a book about your experience with domestic violence, correct? Yeah, I've done a couple of books where I talk more about my personal life and what I've been through and the lessons that I've learned. And yeah, this last one was about domestic violence. What gave you the calling to share something so personal with the world? There's a lot of people that suffer in silence and when I share, I get a lot of people that reach out to me and they tell me, "You're my voice." And so that inspires me to continue to talk about it. I know that there are maybe women or men out there that go through this too, that are afraid, that don't have the courage to go to the police, that don't have the courage to stand up for themselves. And if God tells me to be David and fight Goliath, that's what I'm going to do. And so I just put myself out there and I heal out loud for everyone to see and be vulnerable in the process. So when we connected, this was right before the pandemic. Where were you in your life? I was shifting. I was um I was an entrepreneur. I was doing onetoone coaching for authors. Um but I had this like little nudge of like you need to be doing something different. One-to-one coaching can be draining. I think I had like 12 clients at one time and especially when they're talking about childhood trauma and writing it, it's a lot. I felt like Dr. Phil. Yeah. And um so right around that time was when I had reached out to you cuz I was like okay I think I need to do something different but I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing. The reason why I'm asking like what was going on in your life at that moment because I find that people hesitate when they get some type of calling when they're like I need help and they either choose to try to figure it out on their own or they just continue to procrastinate. So, was there something that happened where you were like, I don't need to waste time. I need to find a coach. Like, was it something that created a shift for you, or that was just always the thinking? Um, I'm very big on hiring coaches, people that are more successful than I am to teach me what I don't know. So, that's the first thing. But the second thing, I think it's just I needed direction. I knew that I need I needed to shift at my business model, but I didn't know how. And so I was like, well, let me contact Victoria. Um, and then we had our coaching call. So I think that's I was just like, I know what I'm supposed to do, but I don't know how yet. So what I recall from our coaching call where you were looking for coaching around speaking. Yeah, we we actually spoke about two things on that call. So um we were talking about speaking. and I was about to speak at an event, but then also I was um wanting to shift my coaching business from onetoone and you had recommended group coaching. And to be honest with you, when you told me group coaching, I was like, I don't know if that's going to work. I came up with all the exc I gave you all the excuses. Um but I listened to you. We love when they listen. I was like, "Okay, I'll try it." and it worked. So talk about that. Talk about what happened. Um, so what happened for me which was pretty amazing. After our call, I started to go on Facebook groups and I just started talking about my vision. I had a vision. I didn't know how I was going to execute it. So I started talking about my vision and I was telling people that I had a group coaching program that was going to launch in August later that year. And I needed beta testers. I needed someone to go through it at a discounted rate and just give me feedback on what I was creating. And I had about 47 women respond. I had 23 sales calls from that 47. And I closed 11 people and made $21,000 in two days. Wow. And I still can't believe this story. And it was crazy because I didn't have a program yet. So I had two weeks to execute. I had to write, create all of my videos, my curriculum, my workbooks, my like figure everything out. I had to get a system. I didn't know what I was doing, but I had two weeks to figure it out. I was working all day long, and then we launched my group program. I think it was August 1st, 2020. Wow. So, how long was the execution piece? So, we had our call and then how long until you executed and made the 21,000? I think it was a couple months. Um, but I uh as far as execution from when I posted it on Facebook, it was two weeks. Like I I literally made the 21,000 within 48 hours and then I was like, "Oh, oh, I So, what made you wait the couple of months, you know? I'm not sure, but that was right around the time of the pandemic. The we spoke right before the pandemic happened, so there was a lot shifting and um the world was shutting down. So I'm I'm not too sure but I think by July I was like okay I need to do something because the world was shutting down. Everyone was virtual at this point. So there was no one to I can't meet with my clients onetoone anymore. Mhm. I love this. This makes me so happy. I love when women are making money and I love when they execute on their ideas because that's literally where the money lies is in the execution. It's not in your head. It's not in the talking. it's you actually doing the work. But what I really love about this story, and I want to build on it a little bit, is the fact that you went and had these sales calls without actually having anything tangible in place yet. Right. So, talk to me about those conversations and how those sales calls went. Vision. I'm a very big visionary. I know what I want to do in the future and what I'm going to accomplish. And so I sold the vision. This is what we're doing August 1st. All of them knew that it was a new program. And they also knew that I might mess up. It's not going to be perfect. I was going to record from my cell phone. And that was a part of being my beta testing program is you're going to give me feedback and we're going to build this together. You're going to be grandfathered in. And they believed in me and they still believe in me. That first group, they are like my biggest supporters. Wow. I love that. So, how did it go? How did it go when you actually like built the program and you went live? Okay, so that part was a little hard because I was like, "Oh my god, I don't even know how to record. I don't know what I'm doing. I had to buy a ring light. I had to buy a program, a CRM. Like, there was a lot of things I had to do." Um, so I was working very long long nights for about two weeks. Uh, created a curriculum, the the workbook, everything. But we launched and then it was pretty cool. And one of the things that I remember is um when I mailed out because I mail out welcome packets to all of my authors. So they get a t-shirt and a bunch of stuff. And I just had like this line of packages and I'm like I can't believe I did that in two weeks, you know? Yeah. Yeah. That you actually took the idea from your head and executed. So was it at that point where you were like, I'm sold. Group coaching it is. Oh yes. and it just has expanded since. Uh we started off with the original 11. Right now I have helped over 330 authors publish. Wow, that is incredible. I'm so proud of you. Wow, that is so badass. You know, I remember our call and I remember you having I remember you being very like on your [ __ ] You were like, "This is what I need. This is the console I need. what do you got? And I loved it because you were just so like intentional and as a result you were able to make this money. So talk to us about how business is going now. Like how has it grown? Like what does it look like now? It's going good. Originally we had 35 videos in my modules. Right now we have over 80. Like I said we have over 330 authors in the academy. We have multiple number one best-selling authors. a lot. I have lost count, but a lot of my authors have been on the news. I've taught them how to get on the news and radio and podcasting. So, they have been succeeding on their own, and that just makes me feel great when I see them doing amazing things. Um, we've also, like I said, started to go into the uh the juvenile detention facilities, helping them. Um, we've been tapping into libraries as well, so getting grants from libraries to help uh local authors publish. We've also been going into school system like it's just it's been growing. Wow. Yeah. That is really cool. Just helping people tell their stories. Yeah. So, selfishly. I want to know what made you want to work with me. We interrupt our program to bring you this important message. Ooh, this is really good. You should know about this. So, I don't know about you, but I've been known to procrastinate, especially when things scare the hell out of me. The fear alone would have me stuck, overwhelmed, confused, and all types of self-doubt. And don't even get me started on the imposter syndrome. Okay. Okay. After getting laid off, not once but three times, honey. E, I realized that the security blanket that I made up in my head was just an excuse because I didn't really want to bet on myself. The corporate benefits that had me in that headlock girl, huh, they went out the window once my job decided that they no longer needed me. It turns out that I'll save a whole nickel if I cut your salary completely. The truth is the only security blanket guarantee is the one that you create for yourself. In other words, until you start a business, you will always be at the mercy of a company's headcount and you will never have complete control over your time, which means you'll be renting out your thought leadership and helping build someone else's dream instead of your own. If you've been waiting for a sign, this is it. Don't you think it's time you stop playing small and tap all the way into your powers? Click on the link above or below this video to learn my three-step process. The exact three steps that I took to make the transition from corporate to entrepreneurship. And this is helpful even if you don't know what type of business to start and have only one source of income. And this is absolutely free. It is my gift to you. I want you to win. It's winning season. In fact, what's that? It smells like winning season. Okay. So, tap in and I'll see you inside the training. Let's go. When I when I see someone that is more successful than I am, I'm like, "Okay, I need to listen to what they have to tell me." And I follow lots of different coaches and things like that, but I was seeing the things that you were doing. Um, and I was like, "Okay, I think that she can be someone that can help me." And like I said, we got on the call and you were like, "Do group coaching." And I'm like, you know, I wanted to give you or I did give you excuses as to why that wasn't going to work. And I I could have just not done anything. I could have just been like, "Nah, I don't like that idea." And then kept it moving. But because I trusted you and your expertise and what you you know, your experience in corporate America and then also entrepreneurship, I'm like, "Okay, it doesn't hurt to give it a try." And we got the results. Yeah. We got the results and we built this like multi-layered business model now, which I think is so freaking cool. And you know it's so interesting when you say like when I recommended the group coaching and you were like I don't know like I'm not gonna do it. You know this coaching industry is really interesting because you come across so many different amazing people who have incredible ideas um but also come with a lot of limiting beliefs and also come with a lot of things that they carry into their professional lives that they've experienced personally. And I know for you, you mentioned you had a lot of, you know, childhood trauma. You mentioned the domestic violence, etc. So, I'm assuming that you can come up with any excuse as to like why something can't work or why it's not meant to be or not or or why not you versus somebody else. So, how have you been able to work through some of those things? and and what is some advice you have for our listeners if they're struggling with something that's happened to them in their personal life that is really impacting how they think about themselves professionally. The first thing that I do when I get those thoughts like don't do group coaching or you know I get those negative uh intrusive thoughts is I tell it to shut up. Um because literally it's that little voice in our head that tells us you can't do this and it's like just shut up first. Um, and then I go execute anyways because what I found is that a lot of times those are just our fears, but if if something is telling us not to do it, it's because we probably should be doing it. And so I've I just kind of just go for it. And like I said, if I fail, then what's the worst thing that could happen? I learned a lesson. And um yeah, so most of the time when I'm afraid to do something, I still do it anyways with the fear. Really? Like how? Because people say that they're like, "Oh, you know, I just work through the fear." Like, what does that look like? It's just showing up and just doing it. Like I'll like going into the juvenile detention center the very first day I was like, "Oh, I don't think I could do this." Oh, the you know, I had all so many excuses as to why I should just cancel. You're not qualified. I originally was supposed to go in with another like a partner and he moved. And so I was like, I have to teach these kids by myself. I'm not qualified to do that. I can't do this. And even walking in the first day, I'm like, "Oh, no." Like, "This is just this is not going to work. Let me see if I could come up with some excuse." And as soon as I got there, I was like, "Girl, you supposed to be here. You are more than qualified." And so, it's just doing it with the fear and u pushing yourself because it's so easy to cancel on someone or cancel on a business opportunity because you're afraid. But what happens if you show up? How would your life change? You know, do you think that what you've experienced, like some of the trauma that you experience actually has you show up more fearless? I do think so. I think that I owe it to myself. I owe it to the little girl inside of me. And I also want to make my son proud. And I think of like my legacy, like not not just my son, but I think of his kids that he will have in his future. Like I want them to grow up and be like, "Damn, my grandma was a badass." You know, like, and to leave an imprint for generations where they'll read my books and they'll see the company that I created. And so I think that is what fuels me more than just like me and myself and my ego, you know? Yeah. Okay. So I there's so many things I want to know. I want to know like is it a contract that you have with the prison or like how does that work? Like how do you actually make money? Yeah. So, it is a contract. Uh, with the prison, it was a week and a half over the summer and then I could do the winter as well, but I'll be nine months pregnant by then, so that probably won't work. Um, but I'll be showing up next year as well. And then I've started to reach out to other local prisons uh to see if I could get my foot in the door, too. Okay, got it. So, is the bulk of your business the group coaching piece? Okay, got it. Yeah. And how do you find people? I do a lot of social media, so a lot of it is organic word of mouth. I was doing running ads at one point as well, but right now everything is organic and word of mouth. How was your experience running ads? It was good. Um, I did get a good return on investment and then like I I did get a lot of leads. Like I ended I think I did it for like three months. I had like 2,000 leads in three months. Um, so a lot of them are warm and they continue to follow up with me. Um, did you hire someone to teach you how to do ads or Yeah, you did. Okay. So it might be something I do in the future again. Yeah. So, do you feel like now you know how to run ads after this person like showed you how to do ads? Oh, okay. You might have to show me how to do ads. I've never really tapped into the whole ads thing. Um, well, I flirted with it, but I I I felt like maybe it didn't I didn't allow it to go on long enough or what, but I saw some traction, but it wasn't like I don't know, maybe I thought I was supposed to get a bigger ROI in a shorter period of time. And then I kind of was like, yeah, you definitely have to give it at least three months to see it do its thing. Okay. And to see if it's even working or not or if you need a pivot. So, how much did you spend on ads? I think I did like 2,000 originally. 2,000. Okay. Yeah. And you feel like that was worth the 2,000 leads you got? Like did you make Well, I had 2,000 leads and I think I made about 15,000 off of that 2,000. Okay. So, for me, it was good. I just I've been focusing my my um like investing in other things. So, I just stopped doing the ads. Yeah. Okay. And your coaching program, is it like one program or is it like multi-tiered like? Yeah. So I have the book publishing academy for writers that want to self-publish their books. Okay. And then I have the published authors academy. This is for authors who have already published and they want to become a speaker attached to their book. So I teach them how to do that but then I also teach them how to build their team. So I have HR background. I teach them the financials, the HR, how to hire people, how to you know do the whole thing and walk away from their corporate job. And then I have a very small audiobook academy. It's for authors that want to do an audio book. Interesting. How long is your programs? Um, so they're not too long. They're about 15 hours each one. And the each video is a different, you know, some are half hour, some are five minutes. So it's like a low ticket program or is it a high? It's high ticket. It is. How much you charge for your program? 5,000 and up. 5,000 and up. Okay. Okay. Interesting. Let's get into some strategies around self-publishing. If someone had a story that they wanted to tell but they didn't know where to start, what would you recommend? The first thing I always tell them is make a decision because a lot of people talk about it and then they never do anything about it. So, you need to decide that this is something that you're going to do. Once you make a decision, write down uh jot down your ideas like what is it that you want to talk about? What are the topics? Who uh what situations in your life do you want to share with the world? And number three, hire a coach because you can try to do it yourself through YouTube University, but it becomes very difficult to piece everything together. So hire someone like me. So are you like an editor or are you like how does it work? I also edit books too. Okay. I have some clients that hire me to edit. Okay. Um but no, so we walk them through the full process. So how to actually write the book, how to get it published, and then we teach them how to launch it. So, how to have have a successful book launch event. And then after that, we teach them marketing and sales, like getting branding, getting on the news, all of that stuff. Oh, interesting. Okay. We're first starting, we're making a decision. Okay. We're making the decision. We're writing the book, right? We're thinking about the stories that we have, but we have so many stories, and we don't know where to start, like which one to go with. What would you recommend? Um, so I would recommend that you create an outline. And what I mean by that is like pick out 10 different topics that you want to talk about. I'll give you an example. For me, I want to talk about my life. So I would talk about my childhood. What happened in my childhood? Then my teenage years, then adult years, and then what happened after I went through the domestic violence situation. And then for each of those topics, you want to create three subtopics. So in my childhood, I grew up going to the state penitentiary with my uncle. I uh lived in New Jersey and I had a really great, you know, childhood. Um I dealt with some abuse in the household. So those are three different topics that can be three different chapters and then continue that kind of dissect it a little bit. Yeah. Okay. Okay. But what if you don't know where you want to start? Like let's say you have these skills or like frameworks that you could share on the professional side, but then you also have this incredible like personal story, but they're two separate things. Like how do you know which one to start with? Um, so I always recommend that you start with the like if you have a framework or like a business one that you do that first because you're going to brand yourself. You want to build your personal brand and then after you do that, you can write the second book. he could always do a second book. And you write more about your personal story because as you build your audience, your people are going to want to get to know you more personally. So you could do both, but I always recommend doing more the light work first and then that heavy like I want to write my story about what I went through. Do that as a second book so that they can get to know you and trust you a little more. Okay. So what would you say to someone who's like everybody in their mama got a book? Like how how do you stand out? How do you actually have success with the book? Because I think I had read something um that there's like tons of books um being written, but there's like a small percentage of people who make bestsellers or make New York Times lists, etc. So, how do you actually like stand out? The first thing I always say is focus on you and stay in your own lane. Because if we sit there and we focus on everybody wrote a book and how am I going to become bestsellers and so and so is doing, you're not staying in your lane. you really have to stay focused. And I hear that a lot like someone will publish a book and then a year later they're like, "Well, I didn't have success." And I will tell them like, "But do you know that it took me 10 years to get to where I am today to be able to say, "I was on the news or I did this or I did that." So, you really just have to run your own race. And with time, if you stay consistent, you will start to see results. It's not going to happen overnight because sometimes people think it's, "Oh, I wrote my book. I'm going to be a bestseller in one day." No, you have to get in the trenches and you have to do the work and you have to be consistent. That's the number one piece. A lot of times I meet people that are like, "Well, I haven't posted on social media in like three weeks." Okay, great. So, how are your people going to know that you even have a book, you know? So, you have to like really stay focused, stay consistent daily, and stay in your own lane. Don't worry about what other people are doing. So, you said you have to do the work. So what are some strategies for someone to have like a successful book launch and it actually be worth it? Yeah. So I would recommend that you have a you create a marketing plan for yourself like a strategic one that you understand like okay this is what I'm going to do three months prior before I launch my book. And that could be I'm going to reach out to news stations. I'm going to try to get on 10 podcasts. I'm going to promote this on social media four times a week. One of the biggest things I recommend is going live. Go live on Facebook, Tik Tok, and Instagram. People love to hear your story and for you to chat with them and just be honest and vulnerable. And sometimes like I used to go live from my bed like I would be eating cereal and I'm like, "Hey guys," you know, just normal. Just be normal and connect with people. Um, but have a plan before your book launch event so that you can have a successful launch. What's in that plan? So, I'm hearing marketing. All right. We want to have a marketing plan. What else? So, also your book launch event, where are you going to host it? Are you going to do in-person or a virtual one? For the in-person one, I recommend an agenda, having an agenda. So, are you going to have uh like someone speaking, hosting your event? Are you going to be reading your book? Who are you going to promote this to? So, there's like a lot of moving pieces. Um are you going to have food at the event? Are you going to sign uh you know do sign? So you recommend that you need a book launch event? Oh you need Oh yes. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And what is the purpose of the book launch event? It's to invite people to come obviously buy some books but then also I invite like community leaders to come and meet me. Um sometimes I give away some books for free. So I'll invite like the mayor. Honestly sometimes I I'll invite celebrities. Like you just want to put yourself out there to anyone and everyone and tell them I have a book. come see it. Okay. Okay. And what about people who have like the bestseller goal? What is your recommendation there? So, I have a bestsellers coach on my team and he helps you create a strategic plan for that. He'll tell you what categories you need to be in and how many books you need to sell within a 24-hour period. And so, as a team, we work together to help you reach that goal. Um, so but having the best sellers is a great accolade because it helps you get more speaking engagements and get noticed more. So, how big is your team? Uh, I have five. You have five people on your team. These are like full-time people or these are like contractors? Contractors. Okay. Has there been a goal for any of your students to end up on like a New York Times bestseller list or anything like that? Or has the goal been get me to be like an Amazon bestseller? Uh, the goal has always been Amazon bestseller. Okay. Okay. Um, New York Times bestseller uh is more for traditional book publishing, not so much self-publishing. And to be quite honest with you, it does cost a lot and you have to know the right people. So, um, a lot of my authors don't have $75,000 just sitting around, you know, or this massive amounts of money to get on to New York Times bestsellers. Wait, you're saying people pay to get on the list? A lot of people do. Yeah. Or they'll pay they'll hire coaches to teach them how to get on it. And so um but it is you and you also need to sell a c like a massive amount of books and they have to be through like um huge um bookstores and like these major corporations. So it mostly works for someone that has traditionally published. Mhm. There aren't really many like self-published authors that make it to the list. No, not that I see. No. Okay. Okay. Interesting. So book sales, what I hear isn't like how you make real money with a book. So how do you make money with a book? Speaking. Speaking. Okay. Speaking. Uh, one of the things that I teach my authors is to reach out to different corporations, schools, organizations, offer to speak and give some books away for free. So you kind of barter with them a little bit. So you're speaking for free and No, no, no. You're speaking, but you give away some books for free. you can say, "Hey, I'll give I'll throw in 25 books for free if you guys will buy an extra 50 uh plus the speaking fee." And so when you do that multiple times a month, you can make your income better than a c, you know, having a nineto-ive job. And so that's what I teach my authors. Also, attaching a course like if you have a like for me, I talk about domestic violence. I could create a course that teaches survivors how to heal from domestic violence. Um, so you can attach a course to it and sell the course with the book. Okay. So you'll be getting payment from the course and for you speaking and speaking and the book. Yeah. Oh, interesting. Uh, any other ways to make money from a book? Uh, I would say those are the top three that I do. Okay. Um, swag, like I sell t-shirts and merchandise and things like that, but I would say speaking is the number one. Okay. Yeah. And what if somebody is like doesn't want to speak? They can go the old-fashioned route, which is like going to book fairs. Okay. I personally don't like to go to book fairs. This is not my thing. But a lot of authors do. They'll go and they'll set up their table and they sell books and you can make a lot of money that way really. Um yeah, like especially if it's a big book fair like you know the big huge one. So bookfest and things like that. You'd be surprised. There's a lot of people that love to read. So, um I say the oldfashioned way because that's like, you know, like actually showing up, setting up the table, all the things. But yeah, what are your thoughts around um people using AI to write books? No, no, no. So, I recommend AI. It's great to help you create the book description, to create your captions, to promote the book. It's great to help you maybe edit something or gather some ideas, but do not use it to write your book. And the reason is is because it goes into the AI metaverse, whatever you want to call it. So I've seen people, two different people input something into AI and it gave them the same exact output. So you don't want that. And then two, I've also edited a lot of books that I can just tell they wrote it with AI. It has no emotion. It has no feeling. I don't feel connected. There's a lot of pieces missing. So I don't recommend it. Hm. Okay. So, we're not using AI to write the book. No, we're not doing that. But you can help. It helps. You can use it to enhance, you know, right? Give you ideas certain parts certain parts. Do you think everyone should have a book? I think everyone has a story. Okay. Everyone has a story to tell. And I want to know all of them. I'm She's Mosa, so I want to I want to read everyone's book. Okay. I tell everybody. I like I think everyone should write a book. Where what is your nationality? Where are you from? Colombian. Colombia. Okay. I like that. All right. If someone is made the decision, they want to write the book. They know what story they want to tell. They've put their outline together. How long on average does it take to write a book? And is there like a certain number of pages people should be thinking about? Yeah, it depends on the type of book that they are writing. So, if you're doing like a memoir, I would recommend like 150 pages. If you're doing like a novel, like fiction, those are like 70 80,000 words. Like they're huge books. Um, so it really just depends on the type of book that you're writing. It also depends on your availability. I've written a book in two weeks, but I've also written a book in like eight months. It depends on how much time you have to actually sit down and write. Once you've actually written the book, it does have to go through editing, which can take, you know, a month or two. And then uh the publishing process is pretty fairly easy when you know what you're doing. Um probably a couple months. Okay. So let's say you're selling your book, it's $30. How much are you getting back from that $30? Like let's say you have it up on Amazon. Like how much are you making? You're probably making about 70% of the $30. Okay. Okay. And if you if you purchase books on your own, let's say you just purchase them in bulk, let's say they are $3 each, um you can sell them for 30. So you're making a profit of $27 per book. Okay. If you don't have a large audience, an email list, but you need people to buy this book, uh how do you get people to buy the book? Any and every which way. I've had some of my authors stand outside of their church to sell books, set up a table outside of Walmart, like uh talking to people, like I said, going live on social media. Tik Tok is huge, too. There's a big book community on Tik Tok of people that are obsessed with books and love books. So, you can sell them on the Tik Tok shop or just promoting it on Tik Tok. Um going to calling schools, local schools, depending on the age group of what you wrote, but you can contact schools. They love local authors. Um, calling the libraries, there's just so many ways. Okay. Okay. So, what is the process uh when you are pitching yourself to speak? So, I have a speaker reel. So, the very first thing that I did was I started speaking at events for free. And this was probably I started about eight years ago speaking at events for free or hosting events for free so that I can get video footage of myself doing it. And then with those events I also got testimonials from the people that hosted it. And so what I did was I created my repertoire, my little database of my videos and my testimonials. I created a speaker reel and then it became so much easier to use that to pitch myself. So, I will if I meet someone or if I just want to pitch cold market someone, I'll either call them or send them an email with my uh speaker like my branding kit, my video um or my website. I also have a speaker website and then I follow up with them or set up a meeting to talk more. Okay. LinkedIn is also great. I've been using LinkedIn. Okay. So, LinkedIn you're getting a lot of folks like with interests. Yeah. Okay. But I like this idea of doing something for free to catch the footage. I think that's super super smart. And a lot of people will be like, "Oh, free?" And it's like, "Is it really free?" Because you're actually getting, you know, this content that you're going to be able to use as a marketing tool to help brand yourself. Unfortunately, at the beginning of your business, you have to do things for free so that you can get the footage and get the testimonials. Because you can sit here and say, "I'm a speaker," but you've never spoke anywhere. So, who's going to hire you? You know, um, plus it helps you practice. I wasn't great at the beginning, so I would tell I would even say that like, hey, can I like introduce one of the speakers at your event? I'm not the best. I'm starting out, but can I and I'm going to have somebody record me. Oh, of course. And then, uh, that's kind of how you practice. Yeah. Yeah. I actually think that's a a really great strategy. Like if you're trying to start speaking and need some practice, offer to introduce whoever this upcoming speaker is. I think that's a great actual strategy. Like you can go to like an events site and see who's speaking and if they don't have an MC or even if they do, you can say, "Hey, I know a lot about this speaker or this speaker, you know, has done XYZ, which is very close-knit to what I'm doing for free. can I come in and just introduce them? I think that's a really good strategy actually because you're actually also getting in front of their audience. Yeah. You're getting connected to the speaker and to the organizer and then depending on how well you do when you do your introduction, they might actually have you come back as a paid speaker. Yeah, that's actually a really good strategy. I've used that as well for other things like um I've collaborated with libraries and the way that I pitch it is we're we're doing a scholarship program. So in a sense I'm doing it for free. I'm giving back to the community. I'm paying for a small portion of what I'm, you know, what we're doing, but it's my way to get my foot in the door. And once I prove to them like we have successfully executed X, Y, and Z, then they hired me every year after that to do, you know, to do the same thing. And so, wait, what's the play with the library? Um, so for example, we did a scholarship program with teen authors. So, we did uh they had to apply to become an author. We did interviews with them and then we've right now we've published uh six so far. But we did it for free the first year. We called it a scholarship program. So they jumped on it. They're like, "Oh, of of course we want you to come in." And then the second year what we did was we pitched them a proposal. Well, this year we need, you know, we need some funds. And they were more than happy to give us the funds because we had already proven ourselves the first year. So, I am all for doing stuff for free at the beginning if it's going to get your foot in the door and it's going to give you the testimonials that you need and the video footage that you need. Okay, hold on a second. So, when you approached the library to do this scholarship program, who is finding the students? You or them or uh both? We we did like a press release. We reached out to the schools, the local middle schools and high schools and uh had the kids apply. Who paid for the press release? I did. Okay. So, you're doing it for free and you're also investing some money into this thing, too, in order for you to get the footage and get your foot in the door, etc. Okay. Knowing that it's going to pivot, right? Right. Right. Right. Like there's a strategy to it. Yeah. I always say if you're going to do something for free, you got to make sure there's an actual strategy to it or else it doesn't make sense. Yeah. Like it has to make sense if you're doing anything for free. So, I want to talk about this notion of healing out loud and doing it publicly. Talk to us about that decision and what made you decide that you wanted to do it publicly and like what did that look like? We interrupt our program to bring you this important message. Ooh, this is really good. You should know about this. So, I don't know about you, but I've been known to procrastinate, especially when things scare the hell out of me. The fear alone would have me stuck, overwhelmed, confused, and all types of self-doubt. 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Click on the link above or below this video to learn my three-step process, the exact three steps that I took to make the transition from corporate to entrepreneurship. And this is helpful even if you don't know what type of business to start and have only one source of income. And this is absolutely free. It is my gift to you. I want you to win. It's winning season. In fact, what's that? It smells like winning season. Okay, so tap in and I'll see you inside the training. Let's go. Yeah. So, I went through a domestic violence relationship about two years ago. It was the worst experience I had ever been through. And during that time, I was manipulated and I was told that I couldn't speak up. I couldn't share my story for various different reasons of manipulation. And after I honestly, I went through like 50 sessions of therapy, I realized that I am a very powerful person. I do have a voice. I can speak up and it is my obligation and my duty to um not only report abusers to the police but to speak up and share my story because it's going to help so many other people. So I saw it more as like I I have to do this. I was called to do this, right? Like I'm not someone that's just going to sit behind the scenes and just like not talk about it. No, we're going to talk about it. And um and so it took me down this like journey of uh writing the book, but I also went um public with my story with a nonprofit that advocates for domestic violence. I was able to go on the news and talk with the news station about domestic violence. I did many podcasts and speaking engagements on it. So, it just it opened a lot of doors, but it also allowed me to just be vulnerable with my audience of like domestic violence can happen to anyone. And um you might look at me on social media and think, "Oh, she has it all together." But no, I was really going through it behind the scenes. And I feel like the more vulnerable and open that I am with my audience, the more that they trust me to help them share their stories with their books. So that's kind of what fueled me. And I do think that there was a layer there too of like again going back to the legacy part of like I don't want the generational trauma to continue in my family and I have to be the one to stop it. So this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to heal out loud. I'm going to share. And um I hope that like my son and his kids and their kids don't go through what I went through. So that's interesting because like in the Latino community specifically uh we are we are taught to kind of put on the facade that everything is okay everything is under control you know everything is you know peaches and cream and that's not necessarily the case and um abuse happens a lot in the Latino community. Uh so what are your thoughts on that? It's definitely something that's been passed down generation to generation. It also could be a cultural thing and it's really unfortunate because um we are told to keep it a secret. Don't say anything. You know, you're going to make the family look bad. And I think that it is our responsibility to change that dynamic. like we don't have to do that anymore. We should speak up. We should like I will point the finger and say so and so did that. That wasn't right. I don't want to do that again or I don't want that to happen again for my kids. Um, I just think that we we have entered like this new era where people are not staying quiet anymore. And um, it's it unfortunately comes with having to cut people off that might be in your family or in the Hispanic community. Um, creating very strong boundaries with people, letting them know what you accept and what you don't accept. And it takes a lot of conditioning too, right? Some people might be okay with it and some might not like it, you know, cuz it's different. This is how we've always done it as a c, you know, as a society in the Hispanic community. But it's like you have to do you have to do it differently. What is your advice? Because I know there's tons of girls and possibly boys too in the community who are suffering in silence and who don't know how to actually talk about it. Yeah. I think it really comes down to like do what's right for you and your intuition. I knew that for me that I was going to do my best to understand my childhood and the things that I went through and me specifically I went and I had conversations with specific people because I'm like I was 5 years old when this happened. I need you to break it down for me in detail of what happened and why. That was the first step. The second thing I would say is you are an adult now. Like I am an adult and so you don't treat me as a child. I don't have to keep a secret for you anymore. I don't have to be quiet. I get to share my experience. I mean, and it's been great for me. But a lot of people might not have that experience. They might have family members that will shun them. They won't invite them to events anymore. It might cause friction. But I want you to know that it's okay because you're a change maker. You're doing something different for your family lineage. And sometimes you have to be the black sheep and do something against the grain of like what you were conditioned to do. And so my advice, me personally, is do it anyways. um speak up and not allow people in your family or your community to um you know hold you back or silence you. But I also am very empathetic and I have grace for people that are just not there yet. So do it at your own pace. And as you heal parts of you, you will feel more comfortable standing up for yourself. You know, it does get passed on generation to generation. So, what are your thoughts about like to those family members who tell you, "No, don't talk about it. Like, we shouldn't talk about it. I don't want to hear about it." Like, how should people like handle themselves in that situation? Yeah, it's unfortunate. Um, we cannot control other people. The only thing we can control is ourselves. So, if they don't want to hear about it, they don't have to. But that doesn't mean that I as an adult that can make my own decisions is not going to talk about it. You can either respect it or not. And unfortunately that might come with someone cutting you off. But you have to be okay with I am doing this for myself. I'm doing this for the child inside of me and my children. Because ultimately I think I realized in my personal life is that the only person I have a responsibility to is my son and me. That's my family, right? Everyone else is extended family. Parents, siblings, cousins. The only person that I'm responsible for is my child and me. And so, if I have to make a decision to go a different way because you don't understand and you don't want to understand where I'm coming from, then that's okay. But I know that it takes a lot of strength. And I mean, it took me 50 sessions of therapy, you know what I mean? So like um I do recommend that people get help while they are going through this process. Did you decide to go to therapy while you were still in the situation or after the situation? I was in therapy during the situation and I went because I had um uh intrusive thoughts of unalivving myself during that time and I thought he would make me feel very crazy like in my mind um with the manipulation and gaslighting. So I went to therapy because I was like I need you to diagnose me with something diagnose me with bipolar whatever it might be because there's something wrong with me. and she looked at me and she said, "There's nothing wrong with you. You're just in a domestic violence relationship and you need to leave." She's like, "Well, I can't tell you to leave, but that's what you know what's happening." Um, and then I did start to go after I left the situation, that's when I started to go I did 50 sessions non-stop because I not only had to discover why I was what happened in that relationship and heal from that, but I wanted to understand how did I even allow that cuz I allowed it. How did I get there? What conditioning from my childhood uh made me get to a situation like this? What? And then I started to even dig deeper like what happened in my childhood like why how does it all tie together and so yeah interesting. Okay. Because also in the community we have people who have uh negative thoughts around therapy and feel like there is something wrong with them if they're going to seek out therapy. So, what would be your advice to them? It is okay. Um, I would say find a therapist that works for you. I had to go through two or three different therapists for me to decide we just don't vibe. We don't, you know, she's just not the right fit for me. Um, until I found the right therapist. And when I found the right therapist, it was a lot easier for me to understand what I went through. And as far as like there's something wrong with me, there's nothing wrong with you. You just have gone through some things and you have to heal from some things. And in therapy, like I realize it's okay to to say, "Hey, like I I need help, right? I'm going through this. I feel really crazy right now from what happened." Um there's a lot of things that you have to like go through and process and dig deeper in. And so it's okay. Um, you just have to find the right person to talk to. What were some of like your things like how did you assess the therapist? Like was it a gut feeling or was it like they had to have a certain amount of years of experience? Like how did you go through your assessment process? Well, because I was dealing with um a situation where I was going to the police. I went and did multiple police reports. I was going public with my story. I wanted someone that had extensive domestic violence background. I'm also very spiritual. I have a very big relationship with God. So, someone that could understand me when I talk about spiritual things. Um, I'm very intuitive and I can like So, I'm very intuitive. So, I just wanted someone that understood me. And I did have some therapists that just were very blah, you know? So, I was like, "Next one, next." Uh, you just have to find the right fit. It's like a friendship. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your story and for coming on the show and for being a stellar client that takes what she hears and runs with it and makes a whole business around it. Like that's crazy. That is crazy. This is the power of coaching. Like you might have still been doing one-on-one coaching, driving yourself crazy. I know. Imagine probably not making as much money, right? Unless you're charging each client $50,000 a pop, which is unrealistic a little bit. Um, unless you're going through I mean, not that it's unrealistic because there are people out here charging 50K for one-on-one coaching, but you would be limited in how much you could do cuz you're only one person. Yep. Um, so thank you. Thank you for taking the advice and for executing against the advice. Um because it it means that I'm I'm doing God's work out here. You are. You are. So, thank you so much. Um tell the people where they can hear about you, where they can connect with you. Um so, you can find me on janinehernandez.com. That's my website. And then I'm always on Instagram and Tik Tok. It's BookPublishingAcademy or Janinehernandez_. All right. All right, y'all. Thank you so much for joining us today. As always, if you appreciated today's episode, if you think that someone in your community could benefit from listening to today's episode, please share it with them. Uh, leave us your feedback. We always love to hear back from you and let us know if there's someone else we should have on the show. Like, we want to hear from you, y'all. So, definitely make sure to leave your reviews and I'll see you in the next episode. Bye. Hey guys, if you enjoyed this video, I'm pretty sure you're going to love the next one. So, make sure to click right here and tap in to the next episode.
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