From Book to Business: How to Turn Your Message into a Profitable Platform - BM-515

Is your book working as hard as you did to write it? 

Many nonfiction authors publish a strong book… then wonder why income and opportunities don’t follow. This week’s guest, Katrena Friel, reveals what most authors miss when trying to turn a book into a sustainable business. 

Katrena is an award-winning author, TEDx presenter, and creator of a powerful “done-for-you” author growth program. In this conversation, she pulls back the curtain on how successful authors move beyond book sales and build profitable platforms around their expertise. 

We explore what really creates revenue, why mindset often blocks momentum, and how to promote your work without feeling pushy or inauthentic. Katrena also shares her concept of becoming a “multivert” — blending the strengths of introverts and extroverts to create visibility, credibility, and income. 

If your goal is not only to sell books but to build a thriving author business, this episode will shift how you think about your role, your message, and your next move. 

What You’ll Discover: 

• Why book royalties are rarely the main income stream for successful authors
• The seven revenue pathways your book can unlock
• How hidden mindset blocks keep talented authors playing small
• A natural approach to promotion that feels aligned, not salesy
• What it means to become a “multivert” and why it matters
• How to turn your book into a gateway for speaking, programs, and premium opportunities

Your book can be more than a published achievement. It can become the engine that drives your authority, visibility, and income.
 
Tune in now to learn how to step out from behind the pages and build an author platform designed for long-term success.

Here's how to connect with Katrena:

Free discovery session

Website

Email

LinkedIn
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Instagram 

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Transcript

Susan Friedmann [00:00:00]:
Welcome to Book Marketing Mentors, the weekly podcast where you learn proven strategies, tools, ideas and tips from the Masters. Every week I introduce you to a marketing master who will share their expertise to help you market and sell more books. Today my special guest is Katrina Friel. Katrina is known for guiding entrepreneurs toward mastery in their field of excellence. For 25 years she's empowered clients and by drawing on her expertise as an award winning author, sought after speaker and TEDx presenter. She's the creator of the Done for your program, a unique 90 day pathway that transforms dreams into reality by providing a clear structure built around seven streams of income. Katrina is the how many entrepreneurs have been waiting for, bringing the clarity and strategy needed to future proof your business life all the way from down under. Living our tomorrow Katrina, it is a pleasure to welcome you to the show and thank you for being this week's guest, expert and mentor.

Katrena Friel [00:01:15]:
My absolute pleasure, Susan.

Susan Friedmann [00:01:18]:
So what's our tomorrow look like?

Katrena Friel [00:01:20]:
Well, we're still here and that's the main thing.

Susan Friedmann [00:01:23]:
That's good to know. I'm pleased. That's a good way to start. So you're an expert teaching others how to become experts in their field. Let's start off with talking about why do so many talented authors publish a book yet they still struggle to make a living from it? What's your answer to that?

Katrena Friel [00:01:49]:
Well, I just look at the statistics. I remember when I was starting out and I stumbled across the statistic that if you make $5,000 out of your book, you're in the top 1% of authors. I just base the whole business on that concept that having a book is really not where it finishes. It might be the start. You know where you begin, but it's not where you finish. So my belief is that the book opens doors. It's a positioning tool. It does so much of the heavy lifting.

Katrena Friel [00:02:20]:
However, it's not where the money is. The money really is in the seven streams of income. So you've got the book, you've got your speaking, you've got your training, you've got your coaching, you've got your mentoring, you've got your facilitating and you've got your consulting. The money's there, but the book will open all of those doors for you. The problem with authors is that they can be quite introverted and not interested in taking the baby out into the world. And it's so important when you've got a book to take the baby out into the world. Otherwise nobody cares because nobody knows that you even exist. And you're the World's best kept secret.

Katrena Friel [00:03:00]:
So it's around creating that whole ecosystem around you that's important rather than the book in isolation is basically useless.

Susan Friedmann [00:03:09]:
Yeah. Oh, you're speaking my language. It's my words coming out of your mouth that couldn't be more on target in terms of how I think telling authors they are not going to necessarily get rich on the book. However, they're going to make money, as you say, through speaking, training, coaching, multiple other opportunities where the book is giving you credibility in the marketplace. I love how you said that. Let's talk about the fact that so many authors are in self doubt often when it comes to the book and have a problem sometimes even talking about it. Oh, I've written a book and they sort of lack the confidence. Talk to us more about that because I think there's a lot of sort of some deep mindset work that needs to be addressed.

Katrena Friel [00:04:08]:
Yeah. So I think there's about four psychological issues that are going on for most people. That is self doubt definitely. That's why I did my TED talk on self doubt and how to make it an ally because I wanted to educate people around the fact that we're seeing self doubt in the wrong way and we're not using it for what it's there for. We're using it to disable us and to stop us from moving forward. And that's really not what self doubt is there for. If anyone's interested, jump on and have a little look. See at my 10 minute, I think Ted talk, it's 10 minutes that you won't be wasting.

Katrena Friel [00:04:45]:
I assure you. You'll see self doubt in a very different way. But the four psychological issues people are sort of going around saying to themselves is one is they don't have enough confidence, they're not assertive enough, they've got perfectionism disease and the inability to say no. And so when all of that's working against you, you can see why people are completely unable to move forward. Their mindset is not set up for them to get on with it. And the difference between us and them is that we took action even though we didn't feel like we were ready, even though we didn't feel we were confident, even though we weren't very assert and even though we had loads of self doubt. If you took self doubt out of it, we'd all be arrogant sons of bitches and nobody would like us. So you don't want to remove self doubt, but what we want to do is manage our self doubt correctly so that it doesn't disable us.

Katrena Friel [00:05:50]:
It allows us to still move forward even though we are uncomfortable. And pretty much being an entrepreneur is being uncomfortable most of the time. You've got to get used to it also too. Self doubt actually never goes away. It just is dealt with on another level. At the beginning, you've got self doubt about this, that and the other. And then when you get to the next level, there's self doubt about whole new things. If you go all the way up the ladder to say, someone like Oprah, she's still having self doubt, just about issues we haven't got to yet.

Susan Friedmann [00:06:22]:
Yeah. And she talks about the imposter syndrome that she suffers from. That also that whole idea of perfectionism too. I know, I've been through that and I still often go through it. It's like, oh, it's gotta be perfect. No, get the thing done.

Katrena Friel [00:06:38]:
There's no such thing. Exactly. There's actually no such thing as perfect. Even the universe doesn't think in terms of perfection. It thinks in terms of continuous improvement. And the beauty of self publishing is that the minute you find a little grammar error or a typo or something's gone a little bit askew, you can pull it down, update your book and reload it. It's just fantastic. I mean, back in the day when you had 5,000 copies printed, it's a bit more at risk.

Katrena Friel [00:07:08]:
There's a lot more at risk. Whereas these days with self publishing, it's no big deal, you just fix up the problem the next round.

Susan Friedmann [00:07:17]:
Yeah. And often though, this idea of promoting your book and authors think that just by promoting it means that you're being pushy and salesy. That just makes them feel like it's yucky. They don't want to even go there. Talk to us also about how do you work with your authors when they feel that way?

Katrena Friel [00:07:40]:
To me, it comes down to being authentic. If you're feeling a little bit icky and misaligned and inauthentic, then you really, you haven't quite got yourself together in that sense. Whereas I'm sitting here now talking to you, speaking in my own voice. I'm comfortable with what I'm saying. And I'm actually right in the middle of doing marketing right now. I feel very comfortable. But if you made me do an ad on social media where I had to talk direct to camera and say a script, I suddenly feel really icky and very uncomfortable and would probably have to try and record that about 100 times and it still wouldn't be right. What I've discovered is me shooting from the hip.

Katrena Friel [00:08:29]:
No script is actually better for me. It means I've got nothing to refer to, nothing to hold me back from being myself. And I call this free falling. What I recommend to my clients is getting them really comfortable with free falling and just to trust that the layering of your message has all been developed while you wrote the book. It's part of the rigor of becoming the expert. Is writing your book, proofing your book. It's layering in that level of understanding. And then when we design your speech, it's another level of confidence.

Katrena Friel [00:09:04]:
And then when we design your signature program for $10,000 or $20,000, it's another layer of rigor. And so by the time you actually are out there marketing your book, you're just talking like me right now. It's just completely authentic, it's relaxed, you know your stuff, You've become the expert. And yeah, I think people really get really hung up about what I'm comfortable with and what I'm not comfortable with. You are going to become comfortable with anything that you practice. I say to my clients, look, do it three times and then tell me where are you at with it? But because you've never done something naturally you're not going to be confident on that issue. I like to break down confidence for them. So it's three things just to visualize.

Katrena Friel [00:09:57]:
Now a triangle. The first bit of the triangle is self belief. You've got to believe you can, then you've got to believe it adds value, have some self worth around it and then you've got to be self assured. And when those three things are in balance, you are confident on that issue. What I do as a coach is I will see where does the problem lie. Is it in self belief, Is it in self value or is it in self assurance? And most of the time, 80% of the time it sits in the fact that they do believe they can, they do believe it adds value, but they haven't practiced it enough to get good at it. Really. It's just a matter of practice.

Katrena Friel [00:10:37]:
And I'm 25 years in, so I've been practicing for a long time. But for others who are just starting out, just relax, give yourself a break and have a go. Have a crack and you'll get there about three times you need to do things to sort of see what your natural setting is going to be, which.

Susan Friedmann [00:10:56]:
Isn'T very much really. But as you say, practice makes perfect, even though there is no such thing as perfect. But practicing is what it's all about. I mean, every musician, every athlete, everybody practices. But there are different ways of practicing. And I know through the National Speakers association that first time speakers go out, do gigs, go and speak for free, just go out and speak and speak and speak. And the more you do, the better you're going to get at it. You start getting into your comfort zone, you'll find it, but you got to do it first in order to find what works for you and what doesn't work for you.

Katrena Friel [00:11:39]:
Yeah, I remember this guy very early on in my career said, okay, great, let's do it for the first time really badly. I want you to do the worst case scenario, dreadful, be terrible, let's go. I never forgot it. So I always tell my clients, okay, you're going to record it for me, you're going to send it to me for critiquing. Your first time's going to be absolutely awful. Send it over. And then the second time, bit better. Third recording that they're practicing with me is a little bit better.

Katrena Friel [00:12:09]:
And then they start to refine it. So after the third time, you're sort of comfortable in the seat. And then after about the next few times after that, it's really about refining your message. And what experts do is they make the complex simple. When you start to refine your work and you start to say it in a really straightforward, simple, elegant way, that's when you know you're entering into your expertise. And this is what makes you the expert is by we can say things in a very simple, elegant way, whereas non experts make things very complicated. It's the same with entrepreneurship. When you don't know what you're doing and you don't know what you don't know, being in your own business and being an entrepreneur seems really complicated.

Katrena Friel [00:12:58]:
And, and I suppose it is on the surface, but once you sort of know the important things to focus on and what not to focus on, business ends up becoming actually quite boring. Because you're doing the same thing over and over and over and over and over and again. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. And until you get to that rinse and repeat stage, business does seem a little bit scary. But once you get to rinse and repeat, it actually becomes boring. And that's where entrepreneurs go wrong, is they go, let's make this complicated, let's make this different. Let's walk away from what is successfully working. And so it's crazy anyway, business should be boring.

Susan Friedmann [00:13:43]:
As a creative, I do not like Boredom, to be honest with you. I like to make it interesting and exciting, and I have to do that for myself. If it isn't coming from some outside source. Yes. It's gotta have that creativity side of it. And, yeah, there's something boring all the time in what we do because there are mundane things that we have to do. Yet you still want to enjoy it because it's yours. Oh, my goodness, I love it.

Susan Friedmann [00:14:11]:
I love the fact that I'm my own boss. Yeah.

Katrena Friel [00:14:14]:
Yeah. It's like the podcast itself. The podcast itself, the rigor of doing the podcast is rigorous. It's relentless. It's ongoing. It's rinse and repeat over and over and over again. What makes it interesting is each time you have a new guest, a new conversation, it's very creative in the way you ask questions and the way you interact. That's sort of more.

Katrena Friel [00:14:38]:
What I'm talking about is the activity is the same, but the content or the context can be different. And that's what makes business really interesting, is because business is creative. Very, very creative. It's not just the arts that is creative. It's business as well. It's very creative.

Susan Friedmann [00:14:59]:
I love what you said earlier when you said being on this podcast, your marketing and being very focused on why you're doing this. I mean, we're having a conversation, but we're having conversation with a purpose and obviously so people can hear your expertise and learn from the discussion that we're having. One of the things that you and I were talking about prior to coming on the air was about speaking. And you have a great formula, I think. I don't know if you call it a formula, but a methodology when it comes to public speaking, of getting speaking gigs. Talk to us about that.

Katrena Friel [00:15:47]:
Well, I was very intrigued when I started out working with people sort of over the last 25 years is that I found that coaches and authors were more on the introverted side of the fence, and speakers and trainers were on the more, generically speaking, on the extroverted side of the fence. I had this epiphany whereby I can see now why authors and coaches starve is because they weren't able to do extroverted activities and the extroverts were unable to do the introverted activities. What I realized was to be successful in business, you needed to be able to do introverted activities and extroverted activities and become a multivert. Speaking sits on the more extroverted side of the activities. Naturally, authors are going to find that slightly more challenging and outside their comfort.

Susan Friedmann [00:16:54]:
Zone.

Katrena Friel [00:16:54]:
So my job is to train them on how to be a speaker and that gets included in the program. So not only are we writing their book, but we're also teaching them how to speak. We put the whole ecosystem together and speaking's part of that. Whereas extroverts are going to be naturally quite good at the speaking bit, but they're unable to sit down, concentrate, be alone and write their book. We all have our challenges, we all have our strengths and our weaknesses. It doesn't really matter to me. What matters is who cares? You've got to be able to do both sides of the fences. You've got to be able to become a multiverse and yes, write your book, but you've got to take your book out into the world.

Katrena Friel [00:17:38]:
And speaking is one of those things that if you're unable to get out there and educate your market, then nobody cares and you're the world's best kept secret. And that's not the game.

Susan Friedmann [00:17:48]:
That is definitely not the game. I love that word you use, multipurt. I thought there was a multi vertivert.

Katrena Friel [00:17:55]:
Yeah, yeah.

Susan Friedmann [00:17:56]:
Multi vertical.

Katrena Friel [00:17:58]:
Yeah.

Susan Friedmann [00:17:59]:
What changes do you feel an author has to go through in order to stop asking the question, how do I sell more books? And start asking, what can this book make possible?

Katrena Friel [00:18:15]:
Yeah, well, if you think about a book, let's say the profit margin is, say, 20 bucks per book. It costs you 20 bucks or less and you sell it for double whatever the cost price is. You add in a bit of handling and so essentially it's 100% markup, generally speaking, when you're talking retail. So let's just round that cost up to, let's say it's 20 bucks a book. You're going to make after costs. It's a lot of effort, really. Look at what it took you to sell that $1 20 book. It's a lot of effort.

Katrena Friel [00:18:52]:
Whereas the way I see it is I get up and speak. I'm educating my market, I'm educating them about what it is they don't know. And so they go, wow, I never thought about it like that. See yourself up there like a rock star at a rock concert and everybody wants a T shirt after the rock concert. Well, your book is the T shirt. That's the only reason why they run up the back of the room to buy your book, because suddenly it's relevant. Suddenly they understand that there's a gap there and they want to know more. Suddenly you've got $20.

Katrena Friel [00:19:32]:
But that's not really what I'm Interested in. When I come off the stage, I want them to fill in the form for a free discovery session. If I get their details for a free discovery session, I'm able then to continue the education from the keynote to the free discovery session. And from there they get to decide whether I'm a good fit for them and I get to decide whether you're a good fit for me. And together we go into the signature program and get on with the actual work. Because hearing me in 45 minute speech and reading a $20 book really isn't going to be where the transformation happens. The transformation happens in the signature program. You don't give away the farm in your book for $20.

Katrena Friel [00:20:23]:
You give away the farm in your signature program. It's a progression and that's why you need the book, the keynote speech, the free discovery session, and then that becomes your funnel to sell in the program. The transformational program. Speaking is a means to an end, to make them go from I don't care, I don't know, it doesn't bother me to oh my God, I've got a gap. I desperately want to fill that gap. And this is the next teacher for me. Yeah, naturally, out of that they might buy a T shirt in the rock concert, they might not. Doesn't really matter.

Katrena Friel [00:21:02]:
It's the actual gathering of the data, the collecting of the cream that really, really matters. Not whether they gave you $20 or.

Susan Friedmann [00:21:10]:
Not and that they want more of you. Yes, you talk about it like a T shirt and a rock concert, which I absolutely love. I talk it like your book is like a souvenir that they want to walk away with a part of you. This book is like, you know, when you go on vacation, you always pick up a souvenir to remind you of the experience. So the same, your book takes the place of that. However, I want everybody in the audience to have a copy of the book. You're selling 300 copies of the book and not just one or two at the back of the room. That's my philosophy.

Susan Friedmann [00:21:46]:
Let's talk more about how our listeners can find out more about your program and how to contact you.

Katrena Friel [00:21:56]:
The website is becomingtheexpert.com jump on there you can download a free checklist which will give you the list of all the things you need to do or have to create that ecosystem. And there is the opportunity, if you want to, to have a free discovery session. Of course we've talked about the importance of that and for me just to go a little bit deeper with you so that you can get real clarity on what that ecosystem could look like and what you could be selling for $20,000 as opposed to $20. And so if you want that, there's no obligation. Obviously, you'll get a lot of value out of that one hour that I can never get back from my life. So it's a generous opportunity to sit with somebody that's been doing this for 25 years. And, yeah, let's just get some clarity, get some direction for 20, 26, and then, yeah, if we want to work together, great. If not, you can walk away with lots and lots of value.

Katrena Friel [00:22:55]:
I promise.

Susan Friedmann [00:22:56]:
That's fabulous. And I know. I mean, you've already shared some incredible value. And as you know, Katrina, we always have our guests leave our listeners with a golden nugget. What's yours?

Katrena Friel [00:23:10]:
Oh, it's my favorite saying. It's in my book. If not you, then who? If not now, then when?

Susan Friedmann [00:23:18]:
Yeah, I love that. It's a famous, famous saying. Yes.  You just don't want to leave it to others. It's just like the saying. I believe you're the only one who can really market your book, because people always say to me, oh, will you market my book for me? No. It's like, this is your baby.

Susan Friedmann [00:23:39]:
You've got to feed it, you've got to nurture it. You've got to look after it and help it grow. I can't do that for you, and nor can you. It's like, yeah, let's help you along the way, but not necessarily do it for you, because you've got to learn how to do it. Even though you may feel that icky. I don't have the confidence to do this. Yes, you do.

Katrena Friel [00:24:05]:
Just practice.

Susan Friedmann [00:24:06]:
Just practice, practice, practice. That's what it's all about. I love that. It's all about practice. Thank you. Well, Katrina, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and listeners. If your book isn't selling the way you want it to expect it to, lets you and I jump on a quick call together  to brainstorm ways to ramp up those sales. Because you've invested a whole lot of time, money, and energy, and it's time you got the return you were hoping for.
So go to bookmarketingbrainstorm.com to schedule your free call. And in the meantime, I hope this powerful interview sparks some ideas you can use to sell more books. Until next week, here's wishing you much book and author marketing success.

Here's how to connect with Katrena:

Free discovery session

Website

Email

LinkedIn
FaceBook
Instagram