The Done for You Publishing Back Story

Lately, I’ve had many people asking me about my back story regarding publishing, so here's the scoop.

Unlike many people I know, it was never my intention to become a writer. Years ago, I was working as a software instructor and I thought that was my direction. At one point, my cousin Marty Waterman, came to visit and offered to teach me freelance writing. I turned it down because I hated the idea of having a lot of paper around.

Fast forward six months. I moved from one city to another. Unfortunately, I didn’t get on well with my boss, who fired me 6 weeks after arriving. I had no prospects and no idea what to do. Two weeks later, Marty came over and offered me the writing training again. With no other prospects, I said “Yes” and that’s where the journey began.

Marty taught me how to find paying magazines, how to do research and create queries that sell. Within a short time, I found success writing about computer graphics and photography.

One of my earliest editors and mentors was David Tanaka. He told me that my greatest strength was writing tutorials and he steered me in that direction.

As I kept marketing, I found a job with Internet.com, and I wound up working for them for 12 years. At one point, I worked for Streaming Media World. While working there, I interviewed over 100 executives from companies all over the world.

After a year, that job ended and I went back to freelancing. One day, I received a call from Scott Clark, the chief editor. He asked me a lot of questions and informed me I’d receive a call later that day about a new job. When he called back, I realized I was now an Associate Editor for Webreference.com. I worked there for five years and I managed a team of writers from all over the world.  

While I was there, I was looking for ways to increase my income and I discovered Internet Marketing. After doing a bit of research, I bought the Protege' program, mentored by Jeff Mulligan. When Jeff realized I was serious, he bent over backward to help me. 

The end result was a joint venture with the Corel Corporation. I wrote an ebook and produced 2 hours of video. It sold over 11,000 copies and I earned over $90K in royalties.

In 2008, my life began falling apart. I lost my editing job in the crash. Worse, I had three vicious bullies in my life. One day, I couldn't take anymore and suffered an emotional collapse. My life continued to disintegrate and a few years later, I became homeless for three months.  

With the help of welfare, I got off the street and regained my health. As I recovered, I found some new clients, worked my tail off, and was able to move out on my own again.

Eight months ago, I went through an incredible transformation, after making a disastrous mistake. It almost forced me into homelessness for the second time.

When I realized what I had done, I stood up and drew an imaginary line on the floor. I declared, "So long as I am of sound mind and sound body, I will never let this happen again.”

Afterwards, I went to my computer, and opened Youtube. I did a search using the keywords, "abundance, prosperity, and NLP.” I found a video on how to move from self-sabotage to abundance. In that video were three major takeaways.

• Turn your shoulds into musts
• Create a Why that makes you cry
• Increase your energy

I immediately implemented all three and my life changed dramatically. Shortly afterward, I met Roland Takaoka, who introduced me to selfless giving. Despite my misgivings, I put it into practice on Google Hangouts on Air and on Blab. I made many friends as a result.

Interspersed with that was meeting Hamish Bayston of Life Beyond Limits. As my coach, Hamish led me through two TimeLine Therapy sessions. One of them ended a 57-year-old trauma due to bullying. It was so powerful that the entire problem dissolved. I wrote “Life After Bullying,” posted it on Amazon, then closed the door on that part of my life.

Around the same time, Leon Henry, one of my friends from Blab, told me he wanted to help me with my business. That led to a phone call where I came up with a way to leverage my writing knowledge in a completely different way.

The result was what I call the ‘Done for You Publishing System.’ In it, I help writers go from zero to published author, quickly, using interviews. Essentially, I help authors develop the chapters for a book, interview them, transcribe the interviews, edit the results and give those to the author. After a bit of back and forth, I create a cover, get some copywriting done and format the book for Kindle, CreateSpace and PDF. It’s that easy.

Questions? Write to me.