I met Mark Cuban this Week! · Non-Fiction Author Lab

I met Mark Cuban this Week!

I was at an EO event in LA where Cuban did a fireside chat this past week. I actually got to meet him on the way to the bathroom before he went on stage. :)

The fireside chat was interesting, and I thought I'd share my top five takeaways:

Know what business you're in. Cost Plus Drugs isn't in the drug business; it's in the trust business. Most businesses are in the trust business when you break it down. Your book isn't a product either. It's a trust-building machine for your expertise. Market it like that's true.

2. Trust = transparency divided by self-interest -> his formula. Cost Plus shows customers its actual cost and 15% markup, and that's the whole differentiator. Authors: show your work. Real numbers, real failures. Transparency sells the next thing you offer.

3. There aren't 15 blue links anymore. AI answers the question before anyone clicks. You can't outspend anyone on ads, but you can be the name AI surfaces when someone asks about your topic. That's the new shelf space. And this is why we have a discoverability audit ... so you know where you stand. You can request yours here.

4. Community is the ultimate path for business success. His investment Alyssa's Healthy Cookies does $25 million a year with zero ad spend. All community. Your email list is the author version. Slow to build, impossible to outbid. By the way, I just filmed a video on the amazing ways Kit is helping authors build their email list. Their latest update makes it the best email service you can get imo. New videos are back in August.

5. Two types of people use AI. Those who use it so they don't have to think, and those who use it to learn everything. Be the second type. AI won't write a book worth reading, but it makes you faster at everything around the book.

Which one hit hardest? Drop it in the comments. And if number 3 made you nervous, request the audit. We have book marketing packages that are focused on discoverability. We are taking authors from invisible to discovered with our services.

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I met Mark Cuban this Week!