ASP 53: Hal Elrod on Turning Your Book into a Massive Community

“When you live your life in alignment with a purpose that is centered on selflessly adding value for others, opportunities become abundant and your life becomes fulfilled.” – Hal Elrod

“Hal Elrod died at age 20. After being hit head-on by a drunk driver at 70 mph, he died for 6 minutes, broke 11 bones, and was told by doctors that he would never walk again. Not only did he walk, he ran a 52-mile ultra-marathon, became a hall of fame business achiever, an international keynote speaker, and #1 bestselling author of The Miracle Morning, which is one of the highest rated books on Amazon with over 1,300 five-star reviews.”

He and Steve Scott recently published The Miracle Morning for Writers which has remained at #1 bestseller status since it was launched.

Hal you have such a compelling and inspirational personal story of survival and reinvention.

Can you tell our listeners the story of what exactly happened with the accident when you were 20 and how it led to the Miracle Morning and your extraordinary success?

Hal Elrod considers his accident as his “first rock-bottom.” He bounced back from it through acceptance, not wasting his energy on wishing it didn’t happen, but deciding to be happy instead.

But it was his “second rock-bottom” that led him to write The Miracle Morning series. The 2008 financial crises led to the loss of half of everything he worked hard for. He went into deep depression. A friend advised him to do some research on what successful people do.

He realized that successful people all follow a morning routine. He then shared this with clients and it started from there. It took him almost three years to write the book, and when he published it, it just took off.

Did you do anything in particular to promote the book?

Hal has done over 200 podcast interviews since the book was published. He also formed a launch team. He also offered the two first chapters for free.

At this point I know your business is so big that you have plenty of people to support you, but for those just beginning their book biz, what are the most important things to focus on?

Surround yourself with the right people. Your circle of influence is the single most important factor for success and happiness. If you surround yourself with millionaires, you’ll eventually become a millionaire. Identify the type of people you want to emulate, people who will elevate your thinking.

You have built an entire movement around your original Miracle Morning book and have written or co-written a variety of MM books. How did that evolve and what was your thinking behind it?

The Facebook community (The Miracle Morning Community) started with Hal and one friend. That’s it. Now it has over 50,000 members form more than 50 countries.

You can also join The Miracle Morning for Writers community.

3 Tips to Building a Self-Sustaining Community:

  1. Create a special invitation to join the community in your book (both at the beginning and at the end), website, blog post or email.
  2. Create a pinned post in your Facebook group with simple steps to get started. Give two steps: (1) Post something related to your content. (2) Encourage them to comment on someone else’s post.
  3. Engage daily.

Beyond the books, Hal speaks and coaches. He also organizes the annual Best Year Ever.

What makes The Miracle Morning different from other books?

It changes someone’s daily behavior permanently.

It continues to enhance someone’s life long after they read the book, so people keep talking about.

Did you always know you wanted to write even before your accident?

Writing doesn’t come easy for Hal. He has written one book before The Miracle Morning. He wrote TMM out of responsibility.

Give us a quick synopsis of the concepts behind The Miracle Morning and the importance of a morning routine.

In our Authority Pub course, we really drive home how important it is to pick a viable niche and then go deep with that niche with a variety of related book topics to build a catalog. Do you think you can exhaust your niche, and if so, at what point would you start with another one?

If you hadn’t had the car accident at age 20, how do you think your life would be different?

Hal wanted to be The Greatest Manager in his previous company’s history.

But he’d always wanted to be able to impact people’s lives positively. He believes he’d still arrive at where he is now.

Turn your idea into a bestselling book!

Download your free copy of The Bestseller Checklist at APChecklist.com. Learn the 46 steps we personally follow when self-publishing our bestsellers.

Looking for a supportive community of writers and authors?

Be an Authority and join the Authority Self-Publishing Facebook group.

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