Before The Bestseller

Alex Strathdee
  • 4.9 (149)
  • Books
  • Updated Weekly

This show is for book lovers and creators who want to go behind the scenes with their favorite authors to hear about how they were able to not just write a book but create a movement. 

  1. 2d ago

    BTB200: Our Advantage in the Age of AI | Ryan Levesque, Return to Real

    For our 200th episode of Before the Bestseller, today’s special guest is Ryan Levesque, founder, seven-time Inc. 5000 CEO, and #1 national bestselling author of Return to Real. Ryan has generated more than $100 million in revenue, and his work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, and Entrepreneur. His experience building businesses has given him a front-row view of how technology is changing the way we work and connect, something he also explores in The Digital Contrarian, his weekly newsletter on business, technology, and where things are headed. We’re living in a time when it’s becoming easier to create almost anything. AI can write, generate ideas, produce content, and give us information in seconds. But as more of what we see starts to look and sound the same, Ryan began asking a different question: What becomes more valuable when artificial becomes everywhere? That question led to Return to Real and the idea that being real might actually become an advantage. Ryan and I talk about what that means for authors and creators, from holding on to your own voice and becoming a better storyteller to creating the kind of human connection technology can’t easily replicate. Along the way, we get into his analog, oxytocin, and contrarian advantages, the “great bifurcation,” and why some of the things that are hardest to scale may become the things worth doing. If you’ve ever wondered whether your voice, your ideas, or even your writing will still matter as AI gets better, listen to this special 200th episode with Ryan Levesque. Get your copy of Return to Real: returntorealbook.com Read and Subscribe to Ryan’s weekly newsletter, The Digital Contrarian: thedigitalcontrarian.com — Subscribe and leave a review. Your support helps more people discover the show, the author and their books.  — Get the popular weekly book marketing 3-2-1 and get access to our Free Amazon Ads course when you subscribe to our newsletter here:  https://getshelflife.com/category/newsletter/ Head to our new website for more content and updates.: www.getshelflife.com If you're interested in connecting further or have any questions, feel free to email me at Alex@getshelflife.com

  2. Sep 28

    BTB199: 1.6M+ Books Sold: Mike Michalowicz on What Makes Books Keep Selling

    Mike Michalowicz is back on Before the Bestseller to talk about his latest book, The Money Habit, and what he’s learned from writing more than ten books and selling roughly 1.6 to 1.7 million copies across his titles. This time, we look beyond the launch itself and into what Mike has learned about writing books that continue to find readers over time. Mike breaks down the framework he uses to think about why some books keep growing while others fade, including how quickly a book delivers value, how deeply it helps the reader, and how easy its ideas are to put into practice. We also talk about writing for a clearly defined audience, building genuine relationships with readers, collaborating with other authors through social selling, and why Mike is leaning further into storytelling as AI changes the way people find and consume information. For authors thinking about the long game, this episode goes beyond getting more attention at launch. Listen to the full conversation to hear how Mike approaches the book itself, the readers behind it, and what can help a book keep spreading long after release. Check out The Money Habit here: https://a.co/d/00icp0op Explore Mike’s other books here: https://mikemichalowicz.com/books/ Learn more about Mike and his work here: www.mikemotorbike.com — Subscribe and leave a review. Your support helps more people discover the show, the author and their books.  — Get the popular weekly book marketing 3-2-1 and get access to our Free Amazon Ads course when you subscribe to our newsletter here:  https://getshelflife.com/category/newsletter/ Head to our new website for more content and updates.: www.getshelflife.com If you're interested in connecting further or have any questions, feel free to email me at Alex@getshelflife.com

  3. Sep 21

    BTB198: From $300K in Debt to The Money Habit with Mike Michalowicz

    We welcome back bestselling author and entrepreneur Mike Michalowicz, whose books have tackled nearly every corner of entrepreneurship, from profitability in the bestselling Profit First, to building a business that can run without you in Clockwork, to standing out in a crowded market with Get Different. After building and selling two multimillion-dollar businesses, Mike turned those experiences into practical systems that entrepreneurs around the world have put to work. Now, for his third appearance on Before the Bestseller, he joins us to talk about his newest book, The Money Habit, and why the way we behave with money may matter just as much as how much we earn.  Mike gets personal about becoming a self-made millionaire, losing it all, falling roughly $300,000 into debt, and the systems that eventually helped him climb back out. We talk about why earning more money doesn't necessarily solve money problems, how small wins can change financial behavior, the hidden cost of subscriptions and credit cards, and why your bank account may be a better tool than another budgeting app. Mike also walks us through the six accounts behind The Money Habit, the four financial seasons, and how a simple system can make money easier to manage, especially when you're managing it with a partner. For anyone who has avoided looking at their numbers, struggled to stick with a budget, or simply wants to make managing money feel less complicated, this conversation offers a different way to think about it. Listen to the episode and hear how Mike built The Money Habit around the way people actually behave with money. Check out The Money Habit here: https://a.co/d/00icp0op Explore Mike’s other books here: https://mikemichalowicz.com/books/ Learn more about Mike and his work here: www.mikemotorbike.com — Subscribe and leave a review. Your support helps more people discover the show, the author and their books.  — Get the popular weekly book marketing 3-2-1 and get access to our Free Amazon Ads course when you subscribe to our newsletter here:  https://getshelflife.com/category/newsletter/ Head to our new website for more content and updates.: www.getshelflife.com If you're interested in connecting further or have any questions, feel free to email me at Alex@getshelflife.com

  4. Sep 14

    BTB197: How Jayson Gaignard Raised $200K on Kickstarter for His Book Launch

    We’re back with Jayson Gaignard, author of Community Made: The Truth About Success and the Relationships That Created It. Jayson is a veteran entrepreneur known for building communities and bringing entrepreneurs together through his invite-only events, with past guests including Tim Ferriss, Marc Ecko, and Dave Asprey. His work has also been featured in Forbes, Lifehacker, and Business Insider. In this episode, Jayson breaks down the strategy behind his Kickstarter campaign and why he chose to build his book launch around relationships rather than reach alone. We talk about using Kickstarter to test audiences, getting books into the hands of the right readers, using bulk orders as a distribution strategy, and building around the idea of 1,000 true fans. He also shares how documenting the writing process helped build support for the book long before he ever asked anyone to buy it. Tune in to hear how he put the ideas behind Community Made into practice and built his book marketing strategy around relationships, community, and getting the right people invested early. Check out Community Made here: https://a.co/d/04ZhFQYJ Learn more about Jayson and his work here: https://www.jaysongaignard.com/ — Subscribe and leave a review. Your support helps more people discover the show, the author and their books.  — Get the popular weekly book marketing 3-2-1 and get access to our Free Amazon Ads course when you subscribe to our newsletter here:  https://getshelflife.com/category/newsletter/ Head to our new website for more content and updates.: www.getshelflife.com If you're interested in connecting further or have any questions, feel free to email me at Alex@getshelflife.com

  5. Sep 7

    BTB196: The Relationships Behind a Successful Book Launch | Jayson Gaignard, Author of Community Made

    Our special guest for today is Jayson Gaignard, a Canadian entrepreneur, author of Community Made: The Truth About Success and the Relationships That Created It, and founder of Mastermind Talks, an invite-only gathering that has brought together people like Tim Ferriss, James Altucher, and Esther Perel. After building a million-dollar ticket business and later finding himself $250,000 in debt, Jason began hosting small, carefully curated dinners that eventually changed the direction of his life and work. In this episode, Jayson and I talk about what it actually takes to build meaningful relationships without turning networking into a transaction. We get into finding the right people, investing in relationships long before you need anything from them, building trust, reaching out cold without immediately making an ask, and why doing genuinely interesting work can open doors over time. Jason also shares what this means for authors, including why trying to build a network right before a book launch is often too late and how years of showing up for people are now playing a major role in the launch of his own book. If you’re an author or creator thinking about how relationships fit into your work, your audience, and eventually your book marketing, this conversation offers a different way to look at networking. Listen to the full episode to hear how Jason built his community one relationship at a time, and why the work you do years before you need help may matter more than the ask itself. Check out Community Made here: https://a.co/d/04ZhFQYJ — Subscribe and leave a review. Your support helps more people discover the show, the author and their books.  — Get the popular weekly book marketing 3-2-1 and get access to our Free Amazon Ads course when you subscribe to our newsletter here:  https://getshelflife.com/category/newsletter/ Head to our new website for more content and updates.: www.getshelflife.com If you're interested in connecting further or have any questions, feel free to email me at Alex@getshelflife.com

  6. Aug 31

    BTB195: How Mark Wolynn Sold 3 Million Copies of It Didn’t Start With You

    Last episode, we talked with Mark Wolynn about the ideas behind It Didn’t Start With You. This time, we’re talking about what happened after he wrote it and how the book eventually sold more than 3 million copies. Mark takes us back to the beginning, from spending nine years developing the material and nearly self-publishing the book to landing an agent and a traditional publishing deal. But when the book launched in 2016, it didn’t immediately take off. We talk about what helped it build momentum over the years, including podcast interviews, influencers sharing the book with their audiences, TikTok and word of mouth, and the personal things Mark did along the way, like answering readers one-on-one and walking into bookstores to sign copies. We also get into why he believes deeply knowing your subject and writing from lived experience played such an important role in the book’s longevity. If you’re building something you believe in but the results aren’t happening as quickly as you hoped, Mark’s journey offers an interesting look at what can happen when you stay close to your work, your readers, and the reason you wrote the book in the first place. Listen to the full conversation to hear how It Didn’t Start With You grew from a slow launch into a book that continues to find new readers years later. Learn more about Mark and his work at markwolynn.com. You can also check out his book and workbook here: https://a.co/d/0aoZXZU6 — Subscribe and leave a review. Your support helps more people discover the show, the author and their books.  — Get the popular weekly book marketing 3-2-1 and get access to our Free Amazon Ads course when you subscribe to our newsletter here:  https://getshelflife.com/category/newsletter/ Head to our new website for more content and updates.: www.getshelflife.com If you're interested in connecting further or have any questions, feel free to email me at Alex@getshelflife.com

  7. Aug 24

    BTB194: Can Trauma Be Passed Down Through Generations? | Mark Wolynn, Author of It Didn’t Start With You (3M+ Copies Sold)

    Our very special guest today is a leading expert in the field of inherited family trauma, the director of The Family Constellation Institute, and the creator of The Core Language Approach. He has taught at institutions including the University of Pittsburgh, the Western Psychiatric Institute, The Omega Institute, and the California Institute of Integral Studies. I’m joined by Mark Wolynn, author of the international bestseller It Didn’t Start With You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle, which has sold more than 3 million copies worldwide and has been translated into 41 languages. The book has received recognition well beyond its sales. It Didn’t Start With You won the 2016 Nautilus Book Award in Psychology and was a finalist for the 2016 Books for a Better Life Award. More recently, it was named one of The New York Times’ 5 Books on Healing from Trauma in 2025 and one of Oprah Daily’s 10 Best Trauma Books of 2023. In our conversation, Mark takes us back to his early thirties, when he began losing his vision and eventually traveled the world looking for answers. That journey brought him back to his own family and became the foundation for much of his work. We talk about the science behind inherited and generational trauma, how experiences within a family can continue to affect later generations, and the role our earliest attachment experiences can play in the way we experience safety, fear, and relationships. Mark also walks us through his Core Language Approach and how certain fears, reactions, and patterns can give us clues about where to look within our family history. Before we talk with Mark about how It Didn’t Start With You reached millions of readers, we wanted to understand the story, research, and experiences behind the book itself. Listen to my conversation with Mark Wolynn to hear how his own search for answers eventually became a book that continues to reach readers around the world. Learn more about Mark and his work at markwolynn.com. You can also check out his book and workbook here: https://a.co/d/0aoZXZU6 — Subscribe and leave a review. Your support helps more people discover the show, the author and their books.  — Get the popular weekly book marketing 3-2-1 and get access to our Free Amazon Ads course when you subscribe to our newsletter here:  https://getshelflife.com/category/newsletter/ Head to our new website for more content and updates.: www.getshelflife.com If you're interested in connecting further or have any questions, feel free to email me at Alex@getshelflife.com

  8. Aug 17

    BTB193: How To Build Your Book Marketing Strategy: Sell More, Waste Less | Ed Rush’s Top Gun Author Live 2026

    This final episode of our four-part series from Ed Rush’s Top Gun Author event in Dallas brings everything together. Instead of focusing on another guest interview, I walk through the framework we use at Shelf Life to turn book marketing ideas into an actual plan. The goal is simple: know what you’re going to do before launch, during launch week, and long after the initial excitement wears off. We break down how to take inventory of the marketing assets you already have, set a specific goal for how many readers you want to reach, choose the right marketing tools, and assign realistic targets to each one. From there, I show how to build a 24-week marketing roadmap by working backward from launch week and forward into the months that follow. We also get practical about building your first 100 email subscribers, creating content people actually want to read, using Amazon ads and influencers strategically, and why book marketing should start much earlier than launch day. If book marketing has ever felt like a pile of disconnected tactics, this episode is about turning those pieces into a plan you can actually follow. Listen to the final part of the series and start building a book marketing blueprint around your goals, your resources, and the readers you want to reach. — Subscribe and leave a review. Your support helps more people discover the show, the author and their books.  — Get the popular weekly book marketing 3-2-1 and get access to our Free Amazon Ads course when you subscribe to our newsletter here:  https://getshelflife.com/category/newsletter/ Head to our new website for more content and updates.: www.getshelflife.com If you're interested in connecting further or have any questions, feel free to email me at Alex@getshelflife.com

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About

This show is for book lovers and creators who want to go behind the scenes with their favorite authors to hear about how they were able to not just write a book but create a movement. 

Information

  • Creator
    Alex Strathdee
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    252
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Before The Bestseller
  • Show Website
    Before The Bestseller

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