COACHES AND SPEAKERS · By Steve Gordon, Founder, Million Dollar Author · 7 min read · Updated 2026
Every coach says they're different. Buyers compare them on price anyway.
When everyone in your field makes the same promise, prospects can't tell you apart. Here's what happened when a few coaches and speakers put their best thinking in a book, where prospects could see it.
Picture someone looking for a coach.
It's late. She has three tabs open. Three coaches, three websites.
The first one promises transformation. So does the second. The third promises "real, lasting transformation."
All three have a nice headshot. All three have a few kind words from past clients. All three offer a free call.
She can't tell them apart. So she does what most of us do when we can't tell things apart.
She looks at the price.
If you coach or speak for a living, you've been one of those tabs. Maybe the one that lost.
That doesn't mean you weren't good. You may have been the best of the three. She just had no way to see it from a website. The only way she'd find out how you think is to hire you first.
So price decides.
A book changes what she can see before she ever picks up the phone. These are a few of our clients who found that out.
No more "can you do it cheaper?"
One of our clients, Chris Cornelison, is a keynote speaker. He wrote a book called Superculture.
Before the book, the people Chris talked to kept asking him to come down on his price. After it, they asked something else. Did he have room on his calendar?
So he doubled his keynote fees. Nobody pushed back. Within three months, Coca-Cola was a client.
Then something happened that I think matters even more for coaches and speakers.
The work started coming to him. Chris got booked out from people reaching out on their own, and he wasn't doing any marketing to get there.
Jimmy wrote two books. Then he came back.
One of our clients, Jimmy Huber, is a business coach. He's written two books with us.
The first was The MSP Sales Blueprint: A Guide for Logical Thinkers Who Hate Selling. The second, Running Hot: Escape the Grind to Build the Business and Life You Actually Want, came out in 2026.
Jimmy left us a review. This is how he put it:
"I wrote 2 books with Million Dollar Author and the process fit my personality perfectly. Jami was fantastic at helping me get all the thoughts in my head into an organized, readable work of art (times 2!)."
"All the thoughts in my head."
That's where every coach's best work lives. You say it out loud to clients all week long. Getting it onto the page, in order, is a different job.
The part of Jimmy's story I like best comes after the books. He's now working with me on his podcast, so the show brings people to his coaching program and works hand in hand with the books.
The books were step one. Now he's building on them.
"The author effect"
One of our clients, Amy Worley, is a consultant. She's also a licensed lawyer. Her book is The Confidence Advantage: Optimizing Privacy, Cybersecurity and AI Governance for Growth.
Amy has always been a writer. But she hadn't thought about a business book until I reached out to her.
She wrote this one herself, with our training and our team behind her. She had a first draft in about six weeks.
And she didn't wait for the book to come out before she used it. While she was still writing, she followed our plan for marketing a book before it's published. That meant posting about it on LinkedIn as it came together.
About two weeks in, she sent us this note:
"Sometimes it's nice to hear that you know what you're doing. I posted this yesterday, as per your suggestion. In 24 hours it had 3,302 impressions. My posts have generated 15 interviews so far and I have 5 testimonials gathered."
All of that, from a book that wasn't finished yet.
Then the book came out and went to work.
Amy has used it to get on podcasts and webinars. She's been invited to give keynotes. She started a Substack. And she's working on her second book.
She calls it the "author effect." In her words:
"It is amazing how your perceived credibility changes when you write a book. If you're on the fence, just do it."
One reader, one room
One of our clients, Roger Sitkins, is a consultant and speaker. He wrote Best Version Possible with Brent Kelly.
People had told Roger for years that he should write a book. He never found a way to do it that felt easy. Then he heard me on a podcast.
After the book came out, one reader liked it so much that he bought 300 copies for his group and brought Roger in to give the keynote.
Roger's verdict:
"It's a bazillion-percent return on investment."
I've never heard anyone else put it quite that way.
What a speaker does with a book
When you speak, the talk ends as you walk off the stage. A book goes home with the audience.
One of our clients, Mike Koenigs, is a speaker who has written 19 books. He needed a new one for a big event that was 23 days away. Our team had it at the printer in 13 days.
What Mike did next is worth copying.
The event was Peter Diamandis's Abundance360. The day before it started, hundreds of hardcovers were waiting at his hotel. The book went live on Amazon at the same time, so the people in that room could buy it on the spot.
You don't need a big conference to do this. Bring your book to every talk. The people who liked what you said get to take your thinking home with them.
Coaches see the same thing.
One of our clients, Katie Molumby, is a health coach. She wrote Purposeful Health. Before the book, she was always the one reaching out to prospects. Now most of them reach out to her. She's also been a guest on 8 podcasts.
A book works even when nobody opens it. One of mine sat on a man's nightstand, unread, for more than two years. He saw the cover every night. Then he got on a call with me and asked how we could work together. I tell that story, and how my first book started this company, here.
What it takes
Now for the practical part.
Some of the clients on this page, like Amy, wrote their own books with our coaching. Most of the owners we work with would rather not. If that's you, you won't write a word.
You'll spend about eight hours talking with us in the first week. Then 12 to 15 hours over the next few months reading drafts and telling us what to change. About 90 days, start to finish.
For most of the experts we talk to, one to three new clients cover the whole cost.
And we guarantee it. If you sell a service at $10,000 or more and complete 80% of the launch steps, you'll earn your investment back within 90 days of publishing. If you don't, I keep working with you until you do.
We've never had to.
One more thing. Most publishers and ghostwriters stop once the book is printed. We build the marketing around it, and we build it for the way coaches and speakers win clients.
Is this a fit for you?
This works best if:
- You run an established practice with a team behind you
- A new client is worth $10,000 or more to you
- You're great at what you do, and too many prospects can't see it yet
It's not a fit if you're just starting out, or if you want a book for the shelf with no plan to use it.
If that sounds like you, book a 20-minute call with my team. They'll learn about your business, your clients, and the work you want more of. After that, you'll meet with one of our book strategists.
By the end, you'll know:
- Whether a book will help your business right now
- What your book should be about
- How it could make you the leader in your market
- What new clients it could bring in, and what they'd be worth to you
- How to put it to work so it brings in clients fast
If a book isn't right for you yet, we'll tell you that too.
The next time someone has three coaches open in three tabs, give her something the other two don't have. A book with your name on the cover.
And if you speak, it keeps working after the room empties out.
Steve "after the applause" Gordon
P.S. Chris Cornelison went from fielding discount requests to a booked-out calendar. This is how he put it: "What I thought I was buying was a finished book. What I bought was a new level jumpstart to my career." The first step is a 20-minute call. Book your 20-minute call