I was asked this question at this Live by Ana Calin 🐝

Here was my response:

Before you think about a topic for your book, I ask my students to my students answer two questions:

1️⃣ What kind of business do I want to build?
2️⃣ Who do I want to serve, and what problem do I want to solve?

Once those two things are clear, everything else becomes obvious.

• The right book topic reveals itself
• The book naturally supports the business
• The business doesn’t feel forced or stitched on later

This is why Week 1 in my cohort, has nothing to do with writing.

We spend the entire week:
– Clarifying the business they want to build
– Identifying the audience they want to serve
– Pinpointing the problem they want to solve

Only then do we shape the book.

Listen to the full talk here:

I didn’t anticipate what was going to happen when I pivoted mid-December.

All through 2025, my focus was clear:
Help Substack writers grow their audience.
Then help them monetise.

Growth first. Money later.
That’s the model most of us are taught.

But as I worked more closely with writers,
a pattern became impossible to ignore.

Most weren’t stuck because they lacked consistency, intelligence, or effort.
They were missing two foundational ingredients:
– Authority.
– Strategy.

They were doing everything “right”:
– Publishing regularly
– Experimenting with formats
– Posting Notes
– Hosting Lives
– Collaborating
And yet…

Growth felt elusive.
Monetisation awkward.

Ideas were scattered across posts, offers, and experiments that didn’t connect.

That’s when it clicked.

You can’t sustainably grow or monetise a newsletter if you don’t know:
• what you want to be known for
• and where all this effort is actually leading

Without that, content becomes noise.
Offers feel forced.
And progress stays accidental.

So in 2026, I decided to address that gap head-on.

I stopped teaching growth tactics in isolation.
And started helping writers build one clear authority asset that anchors everything else.

If you’re writing consistently but still feel unclear about positioning, direction, or monetisation, that’s not a motivation problem.

It’s an authority problem.
Build authority first and then grow and monetise from a place of clarity.

(and everything got clearer)

1️⃣ I stopped waiting until I felt ready.
Clarity doesn’t come before action. It comes from action.

2️⃣ I stopped creating scattered content.
Random posts don’t build authority. A clear point of view does.

3️⃣ I stopped building multiple products.
One strong asset beats five half-finished ideas.

4️⃣ I stopped confusing activity with progress.
Busy looks impressive. Outcomes matter more.

5️⃣ I stopped obsessing over writing more content.
Better positioning beats higher volume.

6️⃣ I stopped underpricing my intellectual property.
Experience compounds. So should its value.

7️⃣ I stopped trying to do everything alone.
Solo is romantic. Working with coaches creates results.

This wasn’t about doing less.
It was about deciding better.

If this made you uncomfortable, good.
That’s usually where the leverage is.

PS: What have you stopped doing this year?

This is where many people get confused.

A business book is about education.
Working with you afterwards is about implementation.

Two very different things.

Your book explains:
• The problem
• The context
• Your way of thinking
• Your framework or process
• Why this approach works

What people pay you for later is:
• Guidance
• Accountability
• Customisation
• Speed
• Support

Once you understand this division, the fear of “giving too much away” disappears.

The book builds trust.
You deliver the transformation.

Most people think a book is the end product.

You write it. You publish it. You hope it sells.

And if it doesn’t? You quietly move on.

That framing is the real problem.

The most powerful books don’t work because they sell thousands of copies. They work because they anchor your authority.

When I wrote my first book, it wasn’t because I felt ready or confident. It was because I was stuck. I had been writing online for years, producing articles, sharing ideas, and showing up consistently, yet nothing seemed to move. No momentum. No authority. No clear direction.

That one book changed how people perceived me almost overnight.

Not because it was perfect. Not because it was brilliant. But because it existed.

A published book does something subtle but profound: it moves you from someone with opinions to someone with a point of view.

And that shift matters.

A book is not the business — It’s the engine.

Here’s the mistake many creators make: they measure a book only by royalties.

But a strategically written book is rarely just about sales.

A book can become:

• the foundation of your newsletter
• the framework behind your coaching or consulting
• the basis for workshops, talks, or cohorts
• the intellectual property you build everything else around

In other words, the book is not the business. It’s the seed.

Everything else grows from it.

Once you’ve written a book, you’re no longer guessing what you’re about. Your message has structure. Your ideas have shape. Your audience understands what problem you solve and why you’re the person to listen to.

That clarity is incredibly hard to achieve through scattered content alone.

Why books accelerate authority

Writing a book forces decisions.

You can’t write 40, 60, or even 150 pages without deciding:

• who this is for
• what problem you’re addressing
• what you believe strongly enough to put your name on

Most creators postpone those decisions for years. A book makes avoidance impossible.

That’s why two people with similar skills can get very different results. One feels interchangeable. The other feels established.

The difference isn’t talent. It’s positioning.

A book signals depth. Commitment. Seriousness.

People don’t just read it, they categorise you differently.

A real opportunity

If you’ve been writing consistently, especially newsletters or long-form content, your book may already exist in fragments.

The work isn’t starting from scratch. It’s compressing with intention.

When done right, one book can become the quiet engine behind your authority, your offers, and your business.

Not louder. Not flashier.

Just solid, strategic, and built to last.

This is exactly what I help coaches, creators and professionals do in my cohort based course.

Enroll here for the next cohort starting from 5 March 2026.