Revenue Writers Podcast

with Chris Stanley
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For people who turn words into wealth. www.theflywheel.news

  1. 2d ago

    The Week I Killed Revenue Writers

    Today’s a little bit of a sad day. Mixed emotions for me, because I’m announcing that I’m killing the Revenue Writers Podcast. Before we get too sappy, I’m not going anywhere. Lord willing. The plan is to sunset the name Revenue Writers in exchange for something else. It’s tough on me because I really like the term, but I feel inside of me, and maybe some of you feel it too, that it’s caused a little bit of confusion. Why the name stopped fitting When I say Revenue Writers, what I imagined were people who want to write for a living and generate revenue. That’s accurate. That’s what I want to be. That’s mainly what I am. But when I’m honest about how I’ve built my company, and how I passed my insurance adjuster training company before that, sure, writing is a large part of it. Yet some people, myself included, fight the other things that are needed to actually generate revenue because we want to be known as a writer. While we’re revenue writers, we need to be much more than writers if we want to make money in our business. I feel like I can teach you how to write a book, but that doesn’t necessarily teach you how to make money. Mini-books will always be a core part of what I teach. It’s one of the best formats to start generating revenue quickly and one of the best formats to transfer expertise to build your business. But both mini-books and revenue writing lock me into this concept of writing. I’ve written thirty-one plus books and ghostwritten books for big companies, and that’s still not the whole picture. What I saw when I stopped seeing my business as linear Over the past decade of writing books and building businesses, I started to see a different picture. The simple online business model is literally what I would have written down of how I run my business. But since I wrote Mini Book Flywheel this last year, I’ve started to pivot deeper. Diving into the flywheel is how I get better at what I do as a CEO. I’m trying to understand what I’m actually doing at a more complex level that turns out to be less complex. There are lots of moving parts, things spinning and moving, but it really isn’t rocket science. It’s a few things we’ve got to do. They’re just things we don’t always want to do. We want to just write. Go write another mini-book. That’s fun. But to build a business, you have to build a flywheel. Once I stopped seeing my business as a linear thing, I suddenly felt a lot more peace and clarity about what I needed to do. Flywheel is the glue that puts it all together. It gives me the liberty to talk about podcasts, books, and social media where applicable, all inside a framework that doesn’t feel sporadic. Mini-books are one of the core assets that the flywheel spins around. The names I bought and buried For the domain junkies out there like myself, I went through a few names over the last few weeks and bought a few I didn’t end up needing. * Flywheel Publishing was the working title for a while. Already taken. There’s a publishing company by that name that teaches writing, and I didn’t want to cause confusion, so we’re not going with it. * A few other names were too close to what other people are doing. After a lot of research, I’m pushing the chips in. Moving forward, this podcast will be called the Flywheel Builders Podcast. What Flywheel Builders is This is where we’ll talk about how to build a flywheel and everything related to it. That’s everything in your business. We’ll focus primarily on spinning around your book. If you’re a non-author, you technically could do this with your messaging. But the easiest way to get your messaging right is to write a mini-book, and then that’s your bible on your messaging. Here’s what’s rolling out: * The app, Flywheel Builder. I’m building it to run my own business actively, and I keep refining it until it’s ready for you. It’ll help you run your flywheel, see what’s working and what’s not, and create new things inside of it. I don’t know how soon it’ll see the light of day, but that’s the plan. * The cohort, The Core. We’ll all build a flywheel together. I’ll build mine for my business, you’ll build yours for your business. It’s named The Core because at the center of your flywheel is the core. * The newsletter, The Flywheel. You might have noticed it already updated. Consolidating down on this concept, going all in. Stick around or don’t I get really excited when I look at the flywheel and it starts to make sense how a business actually works. It’s not linear, it isn’t a funnel. Funnels are inside the flywheel, a piece of it, but it’s not linear. If you’re thinking, “I don’t know, you’re going crazy, Chris,” I get it. No problem. We’ll catch you on a different one. But if you’re excited about building a business that spins around your books, where you don’t have to restart every Monday morning with a new concept, a new launch, a new funnel, then stick around. We’re going to build ecosystems, weather patterns that attract customers and keep them in orbit around us until they’re in position and ready to buy. Till next episode, when it’ll be the Flywheel Builders Podcast, keep spinning. Coach Chris This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflywheel.news/subscribe

    The Week I Killed Revenue Writers

  2. Aug 13

    What I tell every person who asks "what book should I write?"

    Hey Revenue Writers, This newsletter edition was first recorded as a podcast and I used AI to turn it into newsletter form. While AI was used to repurpose these are my words… I often write the newsletter first and then record a podcast but this is the reverse order to show you all how you can use AI to create while it still being YOUR ideas, YOUR content, YOUR words. Enjoy, The book that will grow your business I get this question a lot. “What book should I write? What should my book’s topic be? I want to write a book, but I don’t know how to figure out what to make it about.” If you want to build a business around a book, the answer is very different than if you just want to write a book to pass on to your kids. I’ve done both, and I enjoy both. Today I want to talk about how I approach writing a book to start or grow your business. It’s not the only way to do it. It’s how I approach it. Why the book itself isn’t where the money shows up You’re going to think you’re making money because of your books. It’s more of a catalyst. Most people say, “I’m only selling 100 books a month,” or whatever it is. I only make $400 or $500 a month usually on my 8 insurance books’ sales. That’s when it does okay. Most times it goes lower than that. My business, IA Path, has done really well. It made up to $750,000 a year most years, and it’s mainly centered around my books. But the book sales don’t drive the business. And it’s not always leads driving it either. The reason a book is so good at helping you grow your business is because you have to understand your topic to such a degree that it makes you truly an expert. What actually makes someone an expert I have to understand things to the stupidest degree possible. Otherwise I feel like I can’t talk about it or help other people with it. Knowledge is useless. Look at AI. It knows everything.Knowledge is great, but it’s abundant, so your knowledge is not much of an advantage. Your experience is part of your advantage. What makes you truly an expert is if you can replicate the results you’ve had for yourself with other people. You put it together as a package to pass on to somebody, “This is how I got the result. Here’s how you can do it, too.” You make it to where someone else can understand it AND get the same result you did. Now you’re an expert. Books happen to be one way that’s done. You can do it through courses, through presentations. But the most easily transferable form of media that exists is books. Because there’s no video, no audio, it’s text on a page. To make it make sense to somebody else, you have to boil it down to its fundamentals. That’s the power of writing a book. How to know what to write about Once you know what you want to write about, that’s the topic and subject matter you’re going to become an expert in. “But Chris, I can’t just pick random topics.” No, of course not. You have to start where you already have experience, because you can’t prove expertise until you can transfer it to somebody else. Think of a restaurant. You don’t open a restaurant and ask what you want to cook. You ask what you’re already good at cooking. What have you made that was so good people wanted more of? “My mother is Italian. I’ve made Italian food my whole life. My kids ask me to make lasagna every year on my birthday.” That’s probably your category. Wherever your experience lies, that should be one edge of your category. The three things that form your category Once you have your big broad topic, figure out three things: * The person you want to serve. * The problem that person has that you have experience solving. * Your point of view, gained from your experience, of how they should solve that problem. Here’s how it worked for me. I looked at my expertise, “I’m an insurance adjuster by trade, so that’s my big broad topic. But I’m not the best at everything in insurance, so I should help new people. I’ve had friends who wanted to get in the industry and couldn’t because they didn’t know how. So my person is someone who wants to become an adjuster but doesn’t know how.” The problem?When someone wants to accomplish something, what is stopping them? For my person, they found there were experience requirements. So the problem is they want to get in the industry, but there are experience requirements stopping them. They feel trapped in a maze. Then the point of view. Everyone was trying to become an adjuster a certain way, and I had a different way. My point of view was they should get started with auto claims. That’s the experience I had. Other people got started in property. My experience was different than a lot of people’s. Your experience gives you the big category umbrella, and your person, problem, and POV give it its shape. Turn your point of view into a framework With your POV, make it very different from what most people do. If it’s the same as everybody else, dig deeper, because a point of view has to be unique. If it’s the same as everybody else, they can get it with AI. You might be thinking, “Chris, I don’t have a unique point of view.” You probably do. You just don’t realize it. One, it’s unique because of your unique life experiences. Two, to make it truly sound unique, turn that point of view into a framework. Here’s how I do that. I come up with the steps of how I would solve the problem with my point of view. To become an independent adjuster based on my point of view, I interviewed 100 people, drew from my life experiences, and found there were seven steps everybody had to do to get work in this industry. I wrote out the seven steps. That was my unique point of view. No one else had ever said it that way.No one else had ever made it that clear.No one else had my life experiences. Those steps of the framework became my book. The whole process If you want to build a business around a book, or use a book to grow or start one: * Determine the big category you want to be adjacent to. For me it was insurance adjusting. * Determine your person, your problem, and your point of view. * Figure out the unique framework you want to teach people and pass on. To make it transferable from a book, it has to be something that makes sense like a framework. That’s the book you should write. That’s where you should start. Sure, there are other ways to do it. But you want my opinion, that’s what you do. Now go do that process. Spin it up. Until next time, keep spinning. Coach Chris This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflywheel.news/subscribe

    What I tell every person who asks "what book should I write?"

  3. Aug 10

    I built my business backwards for years. Here's the map I wish I'd had.

    Ever had this happen to you? (or heard of it happening to someone?) Someone tests social post after social post, month after month, maybe year after year. Not anchored to anything in particular. Just throwing things out there to see what sticks. Then something hits. They’re not even sure why. Comments flooding in, DMs stacking up, strangers begging to give them money. And they’ve got nothing to send them. No book.No offer.No product. No core to catch all that attention and turn it into something real.Just a lame “Follow me and be sure to hit the bell icon to get notified.” They don’t have a business that spins around that post... so it dies off. That’s what happens when you build backwards... you chase virality before you build the vehicle. I want to talk about the map that proves it. Over the past few months I’ve been somewhat obsessing about the concept of Flywheels. Last year I wrote a book called Mini Book Flywheel and that is part of why my brain keeps thinking on it. Mini Book Flywheel was my first attempt at explaining how businesses are like Flywheels and how a Mini Book is one of the most powerful ways to spin it. But like many of my books it was just as much exploration/revelation as it was explanation. So I had much more I had to sift through. Let’s dive into this map I keep seeing. I call it the Company Flywheel. Company Flywheel A company flywheel is different from the “Content Flywheel“ I discussed last week. Think of the two flywheels as different views. Content Flywheel is for weekly content planning. While the Company Flywheel is more for big picture strategy for your company. CORE - Category Like all flywheel frameworks I can’t shake the reality that at the core is your Category. If you are a Mexican gourmet chef so much of what is thought about you is pre-determined by the type of food you are cooking. If someone walks into a “Mexican” restaurant we expect certain things... mainly margaritas on the menu and free chips and salsa. You are boxed in, good and bad. You change the category, “I am a pastry chef.” Well the category changed and everything changes. The same goes for us as authors in our own business. If you write about Sales Funnels... you are going to be lumped in to the Funnel Bro’s crowd and inevitably compared to Russell Brunson because he is the category king of funnels. So our author business is VASTLY determined by what category of book/business we decide to write. If you write about how to have great hair... might be a tough sell to sell baseball caps or accounting services. Your category locks you in. CORE ASSETS - Ring 1 Once you’ve decided on your category of business and book you have to now create your core assets. 1. Books 2. Products 3. Customers Without those 3 things it becomes really tough to make your flywheel spin. Books The book is your category in tangible form. It is your Bible... there is hardly a category of religion called Christianity without a Bible. Your book does the same thing. It evangelizes your category. It spreads your vision and mission. It puts you as a leader of the category simply by having written the ‘book on it’. A book also happens to be one of the easiest to promote and transfer from person to person. “Want to know how to save on Taxes? Here you go.” And you hand them your book. Instant answers if they want them. A Substack post, a newsletter, a Youtube video is less permanent. It’s more like a newspaper article. Sure it gets catalogued and does last some time in history, but its nothing like the Bible or Homer’s Odyssey. Books that were passed on verbally then written down onto papyrus, paper, and eventually the printing press. Your book is the greatest evangelizing asset at pulling people deeper into your core. Products Often I’ve had people read my book, Independent Adjuster’s Playbook, and throw down thousands of dollars to hire me as an adjusting mentor. They go to my website click the product and buy. But if I didn’t have the product I’d never get them to be a customer. You have to have products beyond your book to have a business with a spinning flywheel. I wrote extensively about the different ways Mini Book authors can do this in Mini Book Money, so I won’t beat the horse too much. But my 3 favorite products are,- Coaching (1 on 1)- Cohorts (1 to some)- Courses (1 to masses) Typically you start with some form of coaching, whether its a done for you, done with you, or DIY advice. It’s much easier to pull someone from a book into a 1 on 1 relationship than dump them into a digital product. As AI makes creating digital easier and easier the human element of 1 on 1 human interaction will continue to be valued more and more. So don’t snub your nose at 1 on 1. Customers Every thriving business flywheel must have raving superconsumers, AKA customers that love the product and company so much they’ll advocate for it. You can go very far in business just based on word of mouth. But you can’t get word of mouth without finding them and evangelizing them (usually with a book) and getting them to become paying customers through products. I had someone reach out this week telling me “Someone came and looked at my wrecked car and I asked them how I could learn to do what they did. They referred me to you.” Turns out someone who paid me $5k to have me mentor them then turned around told a potentially competitor in their market that I was the way to get started... We have no referral program, no commission, just happy customers referring people who they think we can help over to us. That’s the flywheel core spinning around the category you operate in. CONVERSATIONS - Ring 2 Before someone reads a book or buys a product to become a customer they almost always encounter you and your category through a conversation. I talked some about this last week when I dove into the Content Flywheel. This ring is about engaging with people that have found your category and your content (Ring 3) and want to know more. Typically we engage with them in 1 of 3 ways. 1. Sales (DM’s, Calls, Meetings, Webinar) 2. Newsletter (Email/Substack/etc.)3. Podcast (audio/video) These are the ways we get someone to raise their hand. This isn’t pieces of content, this is company tools to product content and opportunities to talk to people. So yes some overlap from a “Podcast episode” that is spun up from a “newsletter article” but in a company CEO viewpoint we say, “How is the newsletter performing?” We aren’t asking about one issue, we are saying how is the company platform of the newsletter going. What that really means is “How many people are we having actual conversations with?” Whether its your newsletter, podcast, or sales conversations these platforms provide us ways to get people to “buy a book” to learn more. Or to purchase product we introduce to them so they can become customers. CONTENT - Ring 3 This is where most new business owners start, content. Which makes sense. It is what we notice FIRST about a business. But starting with content before you have the category, your core, and your conversations figured out is just plain backwards. Your content is purposeless, aimless, and often worthless if you don’t have a category you are pointing people towards. What is it they are looking for? What are you helping them solve? What is your unique POV of how they can solve it? All of these things are your category and content without a category is noise. Social Your social media channels are there to find new people to have conversations with. Every post carries your category, your POV, your fingerprints on it. People who like what they hear want to engage more. They join your newsletter, listen to your podcast, DM your or sign up to get on a call. This isn’t just about posting anything its about being strategic, knowing what the next steps you want an interested browser to do with your company. Ads Targeting people directly isn’t simply “social content” it is advertising. Advertising can be effective at showing the masses your POV whether its your book, podcast, lead magnet for getting on your newsletter, or a direct outreach to DM, to try and get them to have a conversation with you. But most times social and ads are ultimately directing them to a place that you own... your webpage. Website Your website hosts your lead magnet, a call scheduler or something that brings people into a conversation with you. You’ve moved them from the rented land of social media into your domain. (literally) It is so important to have this as a bridge, even if it isn’t a massive wordpress site, but just a lead magnet page through your email provider. This is your way to know that someone has gone from the outer ring to enter into a conversation with you. The Bridges Here’s what I couldn’t unsee once I saw it. Each ring has a bridge... the one asset that hands a person to the next ring inward. Website bridges Content -> Conversations. Sales bridges Conversations -> Core Assets. Customers bridge your Core Assets -> Category through word of mouth. Belief doesn’t leap from the outer edge to the core. It spirals inward, one bridge at a time. We often focus on one piece, but don’t pay enough attention to if we have all the pieces in place and most importantly if someone can even walk across the bridge. Hope that helps you map out your author business and how to improve it. Keep spinning, Coach Chris The Flywheel is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflywheel.news/subscribe

  4. Jul 27

    How to Make Handmade Content in the Age of AI

    You can’t let AI say your point of view... only slice it. Have you seen all the AI backlash? (or the latest Substack AI detection tool!?!?) Wow, people spend billions convincing us to write with AI and now people are screaming they hate it. People swear they can spot (sometimes smell) AI content a mile away. So for those of us who bought into the vision of AI helping us run our content machines... what are we supposed to do? I wrote a book a few years back called the Simple Online Business Model. It was the basics of what it took to keep a online business going, even as a busy homeschool dad/CEO. I’ve been refining my method for years but as I took time off from posting on social and away from writing newsletters I really tried to get a visual image of how I could run my business. Then it hit me, like a box of rocks (and I’m as dumb as one sometimes), it all made so much sense. So here is the formula I see and how I’m reapproaching content writing for both my businesses so I can “just keep spinning” content up without becoming AI slop. I call it the Content Flywheel. Content Flywheel Using AI or my own well-worn brain, that still works most days, (didn’t fry it totally with Claude and GPT last year… thank God!) I find a topic. The topic is the “Core Content” of my weekly content flywheel. Then out from that topic spins all other content for the week. * Core Content (Ideas) * Conversations (Newsletter/Podcast/Video) * Clips (Posts/Shorts/Carousel/Soundbites) And it piggybacks on the model I laid out for you a couple episodes back of the Business/Company Flywheel. * Core (category/book) * Conversations * Content Someone tuning into your podcast each week is having a conversation with you in their ears. There is an existing relationship. Same with newsletter or YouTube channel. But how does someone typically get into that inner band? Through content. No conversation (even one way) happens if they don’t know you exist. So we use that outer band of the flywheel to pull people into the inner band. Here is what that practically looks like. Core You come up with the idea. Here is what a core idea looks like. (this is a topic I came up with for my adjuster audience) “16,000 Tomorrow vs. 1 Maybe16,000 daily US auto claims against the single predicted major hurricane.” So you do the same for your audience. Come up with a topic idea and hook. That one idea is my content flywheel for a week and its rooted in my own book the Independent Adjuster’s Playbook. Bonus if you find an idea that you can circle that’s from your book you have written or one you are writing. Conversation Next I actually write my newsletter… like type it or talk it.... myself... without AI... back in the stone ages I know. Whether you can chat into a mic with an outline or tip tap on your keyboard determines what works best for you. I’ve done both, took an idea, recorded it, but most times I type it out. Doesn’t matter how, point is YOU do it. This is a conversation you are having with your audience. You can’t outsource this all out to AI. This is where we mess up. We mess up our most important content. The conversation piece to our audience, and we become AI slop. Studies are showing that people pay more for stuff when a human actually makes it. Like “handmade” but for the digital age. So take the time to actually write your content. Now I’m not the only person saying to do this. Ryan Levesque, author of the widely popular book Ask and his upcoming book, Return to Real, practices this same concept. He writes his newsletter, reads it as a podcast, then his team posts content for the week using those as the ingredients. He is championing the idea of “Return to Real” by actually writing your core newsletter and then and only then using AI to do some repurposing. Both Ryan and I, and many others are advocating for humanity in our content. We cannot lose our voice to our AI… so we have to do the hard work to write the Conversation pieces. Once you have your thoughts, your human thoughts, you can use the leverage of AI to create other content truly in your own voice. Clips Once you have your 1000-2000 word Conversation Content (or however long you want to write it) you can use AI to slice and dice and everything nice and be actually reflective of your voice. You did the thinking, you didn’t outsource that, so we can leverage AI like team members to make stuff. * Image post * Carousel * Infographic * Soundbite * Video Clip These pieces of content go out in the world looking for people that will be helped by or resonate with the content. If they like what they see they’ll sign up for a newsletter (usually through a CTA lead magnet) or follow you on YouTube or subscribe to your podcast. That’s when you’ve gotten them into your weekly conversations. They’ll be way more likely to see your content in the future. The job of the conversation content is then to keep pulling them into your Business Flywheel core... to get them to make a purchase. To become a part of the story of your business. Because at the beating heart of every successful business are the people who are raving fans. Your superconsumers. I hope that helps you think about content in a new way. Quit thinking about content in “what should I post on LinkedIn?” The question is what is this weeks “Core Idea?” and “What’s going to help someone and as a result move them closer to a conversation with me?” Write that newsletter, record that podcast, then what to post on LinkedIn, Substack, Instagram, or Facebook becomes a logical conclusion that has your fingerprints all over it... not Claude’s. That’s the whole rule I live by now. Let AI slice it. Never let AI say it. The saying is the human part, the slicing is just packaging Guard the line between the two like your voice depends on it... because it does. Keep spinning. - Coach Chris If you want to learn more about the concept of flywheels and how to build a business with one, check out my book, Mini Book Flywheel: How to Design a Category That Makes Your Business Unforgettable. P.S. Yes, if you were wondering about the screenshots, I’ve been developing a tool around the concept of flywheels… stay tuned... more to come in the coming weeks. P.P.S. Ironic the week I post this I see this as I go to post it. An “AI tool that grades whether it was written by a human or AI”. Ironic. Substack is using AI to judge if it is human or not. But it proves my point! People care if you wrote it or not. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflywheel.news/subscribe

  5. Jul 27

    How to Make Handmade Content in the Age of AI Without Losing Your Mind

    You can’t let AI say your point of view... only slice it. Have you seen all the AI backlash? (or the latest Substack AI detection tool!?!?) Wow, people spend billions convincing us to write with AI and now people are screaming they hate it. People swear they can spot (sometimes smell) AI content a mile away. So for those of us who bought into the vision of AI helping us run our content machines... what are we supposed to do? I wrote a book a few years back called the Simple Online Business Model. It was the basics of what it took to keep a online business going, even as a busy homeschool dad/CEO. I’ve been refining my method for years but as I took time off from posting on social and away from writing newsletters I really tried to get a visual image of how I could run my business. Then it hit me, like a box of rocks (and I’m as dumb as one sometimes), it all made so much sense. So here is the formula I see and how I’m reapproaching content writing for both my businesses so I can “just keep spinning” content up without becoming AI slop. I call it the Content Flywheel. Content Flywheel Using AI or my own well-worn brain, that still works most days, (didn’t fry it totally with Claude and GPT last year… thank God!) I find a topic. The topic is the “Core Content” of my weekly content flywheel. Then out from that topic spins all other content for the week. * Core Content (Ideas) * Conversations (Newsletter/Podcast/Video) * Clips (Posts/Shorts/Carousel/Soundbites) And it piggybacks on the model I laid out for you a couple episodes back of the Business/Company Flywheel. * Core (category/book) * Conversations * Content Someone tuning into your podcast each week is having a conversation with you in their ears. There is an existing relationship. Same with newsletter or YouTube channel. But how does someone typically get into that inner band? Through content. No conversation (even one way) happens if they don’t know you exist. So we use that outer band of the flywheel to pull people into the inner band. Here is what that practically looks like. Core You come up with the idea. Here is what a core idea looks like. (this is a topic I came up with for my adjuster audience) “16,000 Tomorrow vs. 1 Maybe16,000 daily US auto claims against the single predicted major hurricane.” So you do the same for your audience. Come up with a topic idea and hook. That one idea is my content flywheel for a week and its rooted in my own book the Independent Adjuster’s Playbook. Bonus if you find an idea that you can circle that’s from your book you have written or one you are writing. Conversation Next I actually write my newsletter… like type it or talk it.... myself... without AI... back in the stone ages I know. Whether you can chat into a mic with an outline or tip tap on your keyboard determines what works best for you. I’ve done both, took an idea, recorded it, but most times I type it out. Doesn’t matter how, point is YOU do it. This is a conversation you are having with your audience. You can’t outsource this all out to AI. This is where we mess up. We mess up our most important content. The conversation piece to our audience, and we become AI slop. Studies are showing that people pay more for stuff when a human actually makes it. Like “handmade” but for the digital age. So take the time to actually write your content. Now I’m not the only person saying to do this. Ryan Levesque, author of the widely popular book Ask and his upcoming book, Return to Real, practices this same concept. He writes his newsletter, reads it as a podcast, then his team posts content for the week using those as the ingredients. He is championing the idea of “Return to Real” by actually writing your core newsletter and then and only then using AI to do some repurposing. Both Ryan and I, and many others are advocating for humanity in our content. We cannot lose our voice to our AI… so we have to do the hard work to write the Conversation pieces. Once you have your thoughts, your human thoughts, you can use the leverage of AI to create other content truly in your own voice. Clips Once you have your 1000-2000 word Conversation Content (or however long you want to write it) you can use AI to slice and dice and everything nice and be actually reflective of your voice. You did the thinking, you didn’t outsource that, so we can leverage AI like team members to make stuff. * Image post * Carousel * Infographic * Soundbite * Video Clip These pieces of content go out in the world looking for people that will be helped by or resonate with the content. If they like what they see they’ll sign up for a newsletter (usually through a CTA lead magnet) or follow you on YouTube or subscribe to your podcast. That’s when you’ve gotten them into your weekly conversations. They’ll be way more likely to see your content in the future. The job of the conversation content is then to keep pulling them into your Business Flywheel core... to get them to make a purchase. To become a part of the story of your business. Because at the beating heart of every successful business are the people who are raving fans. Your superconsumers. I hope that helps you think about content in a new way. Quit thinking about content in “what should I post on LinkedIn?” The question is what is this weeks “Core Idea?” and “What’s going to help someone and as a result move them closer to a conversation with me?” Write that newsletter, record that podcast, then what to post on LinkedIn, Substack, Instagram, or Facebook becomes a logical conclusion that has your fingerprints all over it... not Claude’s. That’s the whole rule I live by now. Let AI slice it. Never let AI say it. The saying is the human part, the slicing is just packaging Guard the line between the two like your voice depends on it... because it does. Keep spinning. - Coach Chris If you want to learn more about the concept of flywheels and how to build a business with one, check out my book, Mini Book Flywheel: How to Design a Category That Makes Your Business Unforgettable. P.S. Yes, if you were wondering about the screenshots, I’ve been developing a tool around the concept of flywheels… stay tuned... more to come in the coming weeks. P.P.S. Ironic the week I post this I see this as I go to post it. An “AI tool that grades whether it was written by a human or AI”. Ironic. Substack is using AI to judge if it is human or not. But it proves my point! People care if you wrote it or not. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflywheel.news/subscribe

  6. Jul 16

    My Business Finally Makes Sense Again: The 3 Layers of a Flywheel

    Hey Revenue Writers, Every business needs a system that finds customers, brings them into your orbit, and solidifies you as the right product. Most people think of this process as sales funnels. Usually goes something like this. → Awareness → Interest → Decision → Contact → Sell or → Social Media → Lead Magnet → Sales Page → Order Bump → Upsell → Downsell You get the idea. But here is a graphic to make sure you feel how crazy it can feel. The Flywheel is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This shows the two extremes I see funnels take. * Over simplification (it never feels that clean and straightlined) * Over complication (see all that swirling going on inside the image?) Sales funnels always felt like I was missing a piece of the puzzel. I learned sales funnels from Russell Brunson. Best in the biz at funnels. But I never could make sense of how his whole ecosystem worked with his funnels. I understood sales page funnels but then people got dumped into something he never could explain. The messy backend of swirling nonsense. So I started looking at my own business and how ti worked. Rarely was it → Lead Magnet → Sales Page → Sale. It was months or years from someone raising their hand as interested to spending $$$ with me. When they spent they’d jump straight to the $5000 package. So sales funnels don’t fully explain how that works. That always bugged me. Slowly I began to realize a funnel is for a single moment in time, or a compressed moment in time. It’s the checkout process. But the messy backend? The ambiguous blog that actually made Russell Brunson and so many online marketers successful wasn’t the checkout page of their sales funnel. It was their flywheel. While a funnel looks and acts like a tornado, it spins up fast, pulls people in, spits them out, bada bing, bada boom. Flywheels are like hurricanes. Still pulling people in, but at a much slower speed. In nature hurricanes last 10x longer than tornadoes so this is the weather system, the business ecosystem that drives our businesses. But I wanted to explain it clearer than I ever had. It’s the invisible force behind the drawing of your customers into orbit around you and keeping them in orbit around you until they are ready to buy. Having been running an online business for 10+ years I try really hard to simplify everything… for me. Because I get overwhelmed if my white board or notebook gets too complicated. Today I want to peel back what makes a flywheel spin and what the layers of the flywheel is actually made up to make it practically to you and your business. 3 Layers of a Business Flywheel I wrote a book called “Mini Book Flywheel: How to Design a Category That Makes Your Business Unforgettable” and in there I break down a flywheel, but it was still too complicated. (see below, I was so close, yet so far) This past week I’ve started building Flywheel Publishing, the first flywheel builder that I know of. While building it I had an epiphany… basically a re-realization and an idea for simplification. There are 3 layers to a flywheel. * Category * Conversations * Content Ahhh much simpler and they are all “C’s” so, that makes me happy. Let’s look at these 3 layers quickly. For those that read Mini Book Writing or Mini Book Model you’ll know I like to break things down into 3 points and 3 subpoints. So yes, the 3 layers are my points and now they’ll each have 3 subpoints. (this is a very meta teaching moment) Category When building your category there are only 3 things you have to do. (only being very tongue and cheek) * Name your category * Frame your category * Claim your category Claim Your Category This is the basis for your Flywheel. Ryan Levesque calls it being a Category of 1. Even if you don’t invent the next Uber category, you still need unique positioning, a way for people to understand what category you sit in. Being intentional about this is so important. I’m not a self publishing guy. I was the Mini Book guy I wasn’t an insurance instructor. I was the auto guy. So first you have to name what category you belong to. This is know as languaging and its harder than it sounds. I’ve spun and spun and spun around the idea of mini books, smart publishing, category publishing… then WHAM… flywheel publishing hit me. There is a lot to languaging a category but one you have named your category you can begin to… Frame Your Category Think of this are you core framework. Uber set the stage of how ridesharing worked. Users have an app, they request a ride, it looks like this. The drivers get set up like this. They get a notification. blah blah blah. The blueprint for the category the framework of how it all worked was decided and now you can’t imagine a ridesharing app looking or working any other way. As authors we do this through written frameworks (like the one I’m diong right now). I’m framing what an author flywheel is made up of. That’s me framing the category of an author flywheel. Claim Your Category Claiming your category is becoming known as the king or queen of it. (according to Category Pirates 🏴‍☠️ it often results in earning up to 76% of the market share) My favorite way to stake a claim is with a… mini book. 5000 - 15,000 words that define your category and show you have expertise in it. Then the rest of what I’ll lay out moving forward is the process of continually “claiming” your category. Conversations Once your category starts spinning you will start off first with direct conversations with people. This could be, * DM (direct message) * Sales calls * Newsletter emails * Events * etc. This is how you get moving in the early days. When you want to go to the masses to find more people to have conversations you move to layer 3. Content This is what most people think about when they want to get their flywheel spinning. Content. * Social Media Posts * Blog Posts * Podcasts * Video * Website * etc. But if you start with content you are missing the big opportunity! Why Category → Conversations → Content is the Right Order Your category and the problem it solves fuels your conversations and makes you attack the problem for people you want to serve. That inspires conversations and shows people you care. Those conversations bring up questions which spins up valuable content ideas. When you follow this pattern growing your business gets so much easier. Can’t wait to hear your feedback Coach Chris The Flywheel is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflywheel.news/subscribe

  7. Jan 5

    Why People Aren’t Buying from You Yet + How to Save 50% on the First Ever Smart Book

    Hey Revenue Writers, We are 3 days away from Mini Book Flywheel officially being released on Amazon. (I know you all have read the original drafts months ago) But this manuscript has been overhauled, massively changed, for the better. The editor I worked with, Blaise, is top notch at making this book finally make sense. The book is now broken into two parts, PART 1: The 3 Reasons Your Business is Still ForgettablePART 2: 4 Qualities of Memorable Businesses and How to Create them with a Mini Book Flywheel One thing I realized a day before finalizing the manuscript was… the big problem we all face. Belief Breakdown. In the book I describe it like this, “Let me guess: You’ve tried to grow your business by building sales funnels, running promotions, creating content, or spinning up new offers every month… But nothing seems to stick. You feel like you’re doing everything right, but no one remembers you. You’ve got the skill. You’ve got the heart. But your business? Still invisible. That’s what I call the Belief Breakdown. You know you can help people, but the market doesn’t believe you yet.” The book tackles three symptoms of Belief Breakdown in Part 1.1. Credibility Crisis - no trust (That’s the chapter in this post)2. Tornado Trap - no momentum3. Identity Invisibility - no memory All 3 of those lead and are a result of Belief Breakdown. Heads Up - Why You Might Want to Buy the eBook I mentioned it previously, but I’m launching Mini Book Flywheel as the first ever Smart Book. This will be a book that is interactive, integrated, inspiration, and informational all on one screen. Problem is… I can’t do that inside of Amazon. I’ll be selling the Smart Book separate form Amazon but anyone that buys the Amazon eBook (or already pre-ordered it) will have a code in the book to save 50% off the Smart Book edition. So if you haven’t reserved your copy of Mini Book Flywheel you’ll see a huge savings for the Smart Book. Alright, here is this weeks finalized chapter, audiobook, and video that I’ll be using inside the Smart Book. The Credibility Crisis “No one trusts you.” That’s how I felt in 2017. I was six months into my online business, helping independent insurance adjusters learn how to inspect damaged vehicles. People in my space that were on LinkedIn didn’t like it. I had a lot of haters and doubters. “Who are YOU to give advice?” “What’s your adjuster license number?” “Have you even done this job?” “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.” One CEO even tried to gently deliver what he thought was an obvious truth: “Listen, I don’t think you can make a living doing this.” He proposed a different path for my life. Each comment cut deeper than I expected. My confidence? Shattered. I was having a Credibility Crisis and it’s the first problem most of us face in our businesses. It’s the first fracture in the Belief Breakdown: when people don’t trust you yet, belief can’t begin to form. Luckily, I was hard-headed enough to keep talking anyway. I launched the Independent Adjuster Podcast. I rolled out courses and offers, even though most of them flopped. The only progress I made was when I answered questions one-on-one for anyone who asked. That took time and didn’t make me any money. But it gave me exactly the raw material that I needed: it told me what questions people needed answers to. So I used those questions to write The Independent Adjuster’s Playbook, a Mini Book that would ultimately turn my business around. That first year, I only made $25,000 and by almost anyone’s honest assessment, I probably should have quit. But then something strange happened. People said, “I’ve been listening to you for months and finally had the money to buy.” Industry leaders started asking for my opinion and advice. Other companies in our space began calling me “The Auto Guy.” Now, 8+ years later, people still buy my $5,000+ certification and say, “I’ve been on your email list for years. I’m finally ready.” At some point it dawned on me that by writing the Independent Adjusters Playbook, I had something I could build my business around. I had a Belief Flywheel. All of the energy that I had put into the business finally had a place to go in the book. That book started the flywheel turning, and now it just keeps turning on its own, energizing my business even when I’m not actively promoting it. That’s what makes a flywheel so powerful. Flywheels are almost as old as human history. Ancient Egyptian potters used them for throwing ceramics: they realized that if you start a big heavy wheel turning, it will keep spinning while you’re working on your pot. It stores the energy in movement so you can use it later. In a car it works the same way. The starter motor engages the flywheel to turn the engine from a dead stop. Once the engine fires, the flywheel’s stored momentum helps keep everything rotating smoothly so the engine doesn’t stall when the car is at a stand still. When you’re dealing with the credibility crisis, you’re like the starter turning the flywheel. The results don’t show up right away. But once the flywheel starts turning, it keeps people in your orbit. It’s a gravity field that pulls someone from stranger, to subscriber, to superfan. It’s a belief loop that spins until someone says, “I trust you. Let’s go.” That’s when the machine really takes off. I didn’t set out to build a Belief Flywheel. But I’m glad I didn’t quit in those early days when everything felt impossible. Because the flywheel grew. Stripe Revenue: 2017 → $23,000 2018 → $51,000 2019 → $141,000 2020 → $266,000 2022 → $500,000 2023 → $750,000 It was slow. It was messy. It was invisible. Until it wasn’t. That’s the power of a flywheel. It compounds belief until the momentum becomes unstoppable. Escaping the Credibility Crisis A Credibility Crisis doesn’t kill your business because you’re wrong. It kills your business because you quit before people have time to believe. I almost quit, but I didn’t. Kept spinning. Kept publishing. Kept showing up. Kept putting my energy into the flywheel. That’s what turns strangers into believers. Doubters into buyers. Lurkers into lifelong customers. And in our world, belief is the difference between a business that thrives and one that dies. Because belief creates reputation. Reputation creates revenue. And revenue builds the business you were born to lead. It doesn’t matter what kind of business you are in, you need belief. Belief in you. Belief in your product. Belief in your category. Because if people believe you can help them, they’ll remember you, and turn to you for help when they need it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflywheel.news/subscribe

    Why People Aren’t Buying from You Yet + How to Save 50% on the First Ever Smart Book

  8. 12/29/2025

    First Look at the First Ever Smart Book + Introduction Chapter

    Hey Revenue Writers, Hope your Christmas was AMAZING. I’ve been steadily working to make Mini Book Flywheel the very first ever Smart Book. You can see the screenshot below of what I’ve created so you don’t have to switch screens or stop listening to switch from reading the text, to filling out the workbook, to talking with the AI version of me (Coach) so you can speed up the time from inspiration to implementation in your business. See some examples of what it looks like below. Scrolled down further…. (Workbook Selected) A Smart Book combines text, audio, video, workbook, and AI all in one screen so implementation is easy. My goal is to make Mini Book Flywheel not for readers, but for users. For people to apply the principles and change their business and lives. How I’m Building the Smart Book I won’t give away too many secrets yet, but the goal for me is to make YOU (founding members of this Substack) to be able to create a Smart Book just like me as soon as I release my own. I won’t have a separate platform you have to pay monthly or that you have to post your Smart Book too. (not yet, maybe one day I’ll offer it if its helpful) I’ve built it in a way that makes implementation of a Smart Book work ANYWHERE, on any platform, for anyone. So you aren’t held hostage to me or anyone else to develop your own Smart Book. Why You Might Want to Create a Smart Book and Not Just an Ebook or Physical Book Smart Books are a new type of product. While people expect to pay $10 or less for an eBook a Smart Book provides interaction and integration as well as inspiration and information. This means you can charge more for it. While I’m the guinea pig (I’ll share results as I have them) I’ll be publishing an eBook & physical book on Amazon but inside it upselling to a Smart Book for 10x the cost. It’s closer to the value people would see in a course. (but in my mind more helpful and freaking different!) This isn’t watch hours of videos, it’s listen/read the book and apply it with help from an AI trained on this immediately on the same page. It’s flush it out in real time without getting distracted. The value of getting the 95% of people who read a nonfiction book but don’t do anything, to move and get a result with your book, is INFINITELY more valuable than an eBook. Alright, I’m excited, but I’ll talk with you all later, for now enjoy the video/audio of the Introduction that I’m using in the Smart Book. Enjoy the first chapter of Mini Book Flywheel. Happy spinning. Introduction: From Forgotten to Unforgettable For the last few years, I’ve run my business from a sailboat, writing on the deck, anchored in the Florida Keys, kids splashing in the water nearby. The business generates over $700K a year in revenue, and I work fewer hours than ever, supported by a small, high-performing team. Sounds like a dream, right? But here’s the truth: this didn’t happen because of ads, funnels, or some secret sales hack. It happened because of one tiny, powerful, almost-overlooked idea… A flywheel. And at the center of that flywheel? A Mini Book. I accidentally became what I call a Revenue Writer. A Revenue Writer is someone who uses writing as the primary engine of their business. Not a dancing monkey on Tiktok or someone walking the endless content treadmill to chase likes or build an audience, but a writer who uses writing to create trust, clarify a point of view, and of course generate, revenue through belief instead of pressure. When I first published The Independent Adjuster’s Playbook, which was my first ever Mini Book, in 2017, I wasn’t focused on trying to build a brand or become an authority. I wasn’t trying to become a Revenue Writer. I was just trying to answer the same questions people kept asking me that I was sick of repeating. But something unexpected happened: that little book became the gravitational center of everything else. People started calling me “The Auto Guy.” Partners referred clients without incentives. Sales started coming in weeks, months, even years after they’d heard my offer. And I stopped chasing attention…because attention started chasing me. That’s when I realized what I’d accidentally built: A Flywheel. The Problem Let me guess: You’ve tried to grow your business by building sales funnels, running promotions, creating content, or spinning up new offers every month… But nothing seems to stick. You feel like you’re doing everything right, but no one remembers you. You’ve got the skill. You’ve got the heart. But your business? Still invisible. That’s what I call the Credibility Crisis. You know you can help people, but the market doesn’t believe you yet. And in a world flooded with fake gurus and funnel bros, your audience is skeptical and they should be. Sales funnels try to extract value. But Flywheels? They create belief. They create value. And when you use a Mini Book as the center of your flywheel, everything changes. The Promise: Build a Brand People Remember (Even When You’re Not Around) This book is the sixth part of my Mini Book Revenue Series, a framework for turning your ideas into a full-stack business. Here’s the formula to create a Revenue Machine through being a Revenue Writer: * Your Niche is the chassis * Your Mini Book is the engine * Marketing is the transmission * Products are the wheels * Your Brand is the body * Community is the fuel * Metrics are the dashboard This book focuses on the body, your brand, and how to make it unforgettable by creating a flywheel, specifically, a Belief Flywheel built on a Mini Book. I’ll show you how to build a business that keeps growing, even when you’re offline. Even when you’re on a sailboat (or wherever your dream life takes you). What You’ll Learn In this book, you’ll learn: * Why sales funnels only work when trust already exists * The difference between funnels and flywheels, and why one disappears fast while the other compounds for years * How to position your Mini Book as the core of your category, not just a piece of content * The 3 types of Revenue Writers and how each can use a Mini Book to build belief * How to use your book to create a Mini Book Flywheel that spins out content, conversations, and customers * Why Mini Books are the clearest, fastest way to define your POV, name your category, and make your business unforgettable What to Expect This book is short. It’s actionable. It’s not just about writing, it’s about building. The first part of the book is diagnosing where you are stuck at. Each chapter in the second part of the book tackles one an aspect of your flywheel and gives you tools to start applying it right away. This isn’t theory. It’s a blueprint. And I know it works because I’ve built my entire business on it. If you’ve ever felt invisible… If your content gets ignored… If your sales depend on constant output and hustle… Then this book will give you something better: a system that builds belief and revenue over time and a brand people trust, even when you’re not in the room. Let’s get your flywheel spinning. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflywheel.news/subscribe

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About

For people who turn words into wealth. www.theflywheel.news

Information

  • Creator
    with Chris Stanley
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    24
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Chris Stanley
  • Show Website
    Revenue Writers Podcast