Author Hour
Do you wish you could quickly get the best ideas from new books? That's what Author Hour is all about. Each week, we give you the best ideas and stories from a new book, through an in-depth conversation with the author. We cover all types of non-fiction: business, fitness, investing, self-help, and more. Listeners will get an entertaining and useful summary of each book, in a fraction of the time. A must listen for avid readers and aspiring authors.
Episodes
Trust Is Your Currency: Physician Brand Rx with Matthew Ray Scott
On this episode of Author Hour, Matthew Ray Scott joins us to talk about Physician Brand Rx, the book he co-wrote with orthopedic surgeon Dr. Scott Sigmund. Drawing on his background as an Army psychological warfare officer, Matthew explains how patients make decisions under duress, why trust is a surgeon's currency and reputation is their bank account, and why most surgeons are not invisible, just not legible. He shares how an outline drafted on a napkin in a Bentonville pub became a book, why he and Dr. Sigmund chose a book even after building an award-winning podcast, and the Zoom interview method they used to write it in their own voices. Matthew also reflects on publishing his second book with Scribe, what the editorial team taught him about letting silence fill the page, and why imposter syndrome never really stops.For more information on Matthew Ray Scott, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/matthew-scottFor more information on Physician Brand Rx, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/physician-brand-rx
Small Changes, Big Transformation: The Self-Care Dare with Carrie Cox
On this episode of Author Hour, gym owner and former schoolteacher Carrie Cox joins us to talk about her new book, The Self-Care Dare: 25 Habits for Lasting Wellness. What started as daily text messages to members of her Crew Fitness challenge grew into emails, blog posts, and finally a book built around five factors of wellness: mindset, nutrition, fitness, sleep, and connection. Carrie explains why going hard every day is the biggest misconception in fitness, why consistency matters more than choosing the perfect program, why strong connections may matter as much as diet and exercise, and how small, layered habits add up to lasting change. She also shares the writing advice she still follows from her high school speech teacher, why she insisted on writing in the first person plural, and her advice for anyone with a book inside them: just start.For more information on Carrie Cox, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/carrie-coxFor more information on The Self-Care Dare, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/the-self-care-dare
Ron Thurston on Turning Two Books Into a Paid Speaking Business
After more than 30 years leading stores for some of America's biggest brands, Ron Thurston realized no one had ever written a book for the 55 million people who work in retail. So he wrote one. Retail Pride: The Guide to Celebrating Your Accidental Career came out in 2020 and still sells around the world. His second book, Human Pride: Optimizing Your Human Potential in a Digital Job Market, followed in 2025 as AI started to crowd people out of the conversation.In this episode of Author Hour, Ron joins Scribe CEO Travis Stoliker for his third appearance on the show. He lays out his playbook for going from free talks and book giveaways to a represented, paid speaking business: how to ask about budget before naming a fee, how to get bulk book purchases built into an event, and why you're really pitching an experience, not a speech. He also shares his book marketing routine (30 minutes a day on LinkedIn, an email list, and replying to every single message), why he's never handed his engagement off to an assistant or AI, what he tells self-published friends, and why he'd recommend Scribe after going through the process twice.For more information on Ron Thurston, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/ron-thurstonFor more information on Retail Pride, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/retail-prideFor more information on Human Pride, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/human-pride
21 Authors, One Book: How Autobahn Built Rock Your Business With Brandon Pipkin
Rock Your Business: Navigating the Road from $50 Million to $500 Million and Beyond is the offensive follow-up to Rock the Recession, the 2019 book Autobahn Consultants founder Jonathan Slane co-wrote just months before the 2020 shutdown. Where the first book was about protecting a business in a downturn, this one gathers 21 voices from the Autobahn network, from a founder who sold to a Fortune 500 competitor to the former head of a Nike football division, to show business owners how to grow from $50 million to $500 million.In this episode of Author Hour, co-author Brandon Pipkin joins Eric Jorgenson to explain how a book with 21 contributors actually comes together: co-authors interviewed together so they could challenge each other in real time, a single editor shaping it into one coherent voice, and a deliberate decision to skip an AI narrator so every co-author could read their own chapter of the audiobook. Brandon also walks through Autobahn's top-of-funnel playbook, including video boxes for prospects, handwritten notes to 100 VIPs, and a QR code that trades the free audiobook for an email. He closes with honest advice for anyone on the fence: write the book when you can't not write it, make a mess, and get it out of the drawer.For more information on Rock Your Business, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/rock-your-business
How to Market Without Marketing: Scott A. Martin's Groundswell Playbook
What if you could market without marketing? After more than 30 years in marketing, advertising, and strategy, Scott A. Martin set out to solve that "unsolvable problem," and the answer became his book, Groundswell. Built around his formula of build, give, grow, transform, the book now sits at the center of everything Scott does: his consulting firm, his podcast, and his community all share the same name.In this episode, Scott joins Scribe CEO Travis Stoliker to share a complete playbook for marketing a book. He explains why he turned his case studies into a "living book" community, how he uses signed copies, stickers, and a free meet-the-author call to build direct relationships with readers, and why he boosts his own podcast appearances as ads. He also shares the story of how a reader invited him to speak at TEDx, a talk that now has half a million views, and why he believes authors need to stop chasing attention and start building trust.For more information on Scott A. Martin, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/scott-martinFor more information on Groundswell, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/groundswell
Better Than an MBA: How Julie Newman's Book Became Her Strongest Career Lever
Julie Newman wrote Pull Don't Push to fix a message she had watched go wrong at more than 50 Girls in STEM events: well-meaning speakers telling girls they don't belong in STEM, then asking them to join anyway. Her book, written for the educators and outreach coordinators who shape kids' choices, makes the case for "pull" messaging instead, explaining what engineers actually do and why it's one of the most rewarding careers a young person can choose.In this episode of Author Hour, Julie tells Eric Jorgenson how a single frustrating keynote became a book, why she was afraid educators would reject a message that told them they were doing something wrong, and why the opposite happened. She also shares the surprise payoff: the book paid for itself before it was published, landed her a salary increase of more than $60,000 in a single job change, and has helped her average a 15% raise every year since. Julie explains why writing a book with Scribe was better for her career than a master's, an MBA, or a PhD, and why you only need to be a few years ahead of someone to help them.For more information on Julie Newman, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/julie-newmanFor more information on Pull Don't Push, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/pull-dont-push
Chase the Light: Becoming Unbreakable After a Head-On Collision with Cesar Perez
In 2018, Cesar Perez was on the rise. He had acted opposite Daniel Radcliffe in Beast of Burden, filmed with Clint Eastwood, and landed an audition for Venom. He never made it to that audition. On the drive to Savannah, a drunk driver hit him head-on, followed by a semi truck. What came next was five years in and out of hospitals, more than 30 procedures, a traumatic brain injury, and relearning how to breathe, eat, walk, and talk.At his mom's suggestion, Cesar started journaling, typing with only his left hand. Those pages became Chase the Light: The Gruesome Art of Becoming Unbreakable, an Amazon bestseller in its first week. In this episode, Cesar joins Travis Stoliker to talk about how writing helped him heal, why he chose to own the rights to his story, how his book grew into a documentary and a feature film in development, and why he now spends his time being the light for others going through their own life-altering moments.For more information on Cesar Perez, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/cesar-perezFor more information on Chase the Light, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/chase-the-light
Books to the Big Screen: Alec Roth on Adapting an Author’s Story Into Film
Alec Roth grew up in Hollywood — the son of screenwriter Eric Roth, watching his father adapt books into films from a home office — and he’s now doing the same thing from his own side of the table. In this Author Hour conversation with Lex Statzer, Alec talks about what it actually takes to turn a book into a movie, why he believes “great intellectual property, your stories, they win the day, no matter what,” and how a Scribe author’s book landed on his desk and is now becoming a feature film.That book is Candler Cook’s From Underdog to Bulldog, the true story of a walk-on’s improbable journey through big-time college football. Alec explains what made it “the modern Rudy,” why he was drawn to the passion baked into the material, and how he and Candler navigated the delicate work of adapting one person’s real story into a film — “I wanted to make sure that he felt he was telling the story he wants to tell.”Along the way, Alec is candid about the parts of the creative life that every author will recognize: the doubt, the rejection, and the “soft yes” that never materializes. His advice is to believe in the material and keep going — “there’s no one you can’t reach out to.” He’s especially bullish on books as the best raw material for film (“hundreds of pages… you get this world that you get to play off of”), and he closes with an open invitation: if you’re an author with a story, reach out — he’d love to read it and see if it belongs on the silver screen.
How a Book Took Cameron Herold's Speaking Fee From $3K to $40K
Cameron Herold never wanted to be an author. As he tells Travis Stoliker, his wife signed him up for a three-book package with Scribe as a birthday present — "You're doing three books with them over the next five years" — because she'd noticed that his first book was landing bigger speaking events and building his credibility. Seven books later (four with Scribe), Cameron has one of the clearest views in the series of what a book actually does for a business.It isn't royalties. Cameron published to establish himself as a thought leader, then watched readers hire him to help implement the very ideas he'd given away for free — paying "$50,000 a year to coach them on the same content that's in the $25 book." His speaking fee climbed from about $3,000 an event before his first book to $40,000 for an in-person keynote today. He walks through the COO Alliance's book-as-lead-magnet funnel in hard numbers: hundreds of free copies mailed a week, an average client signing up within 62 days, a client lifetime value around $14,000. He describes putting his books on a banker's desk to get financed, and carrying three of them into his U.S. green-card interview as "a credibility play."Cameron is just as sharp on quality and voice in the age of AI. He predicts most books will soon be read by an LLM summarizing them for a human — "adapt or die" — but he's adamant that the book itself has to sound like you. He tells the story of reading the first draft of Vivid Vision, calling it up and saying "this sucks, this does not sound like me," and Scribe rewriting the entire book until "it sounds like I'm literally saying it out loud to you right now. They got my voice down. They dialed it." He'd "rather write a hundred-page book that is absolutely me than a 220-page book that's filled with fluff."Along the way: a full free-speaking playbook for new authors, the Simon Sinek story of the agency that passed because he didn't have a book yet, tributes to two friends he brought to Scribe, and a closing reminder that "the death rate is still a hundred percent. Let's enjoy the journey."For more information on Cameron Herold and his books, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/cameron-herold
Creative Cash: Gino Barbaro on Turning One Book Into a Seven-Figure Real Estate Empire
Gino Barbaro joins Travis Stoliker to trace the full arc of a single book — from getting an idea "out of your head and down on paper" to building a seven-figure business on top of it. Once "the pizza guy," Gino and his partner Jake Stenziano left the restaurant and pharmaceutical worlds for multifamily real estate, and after getting "pretty good at what we did," they wrote Creative Cash to teach the seller-financing strategy few investors were using.What followed is one of the clearest book-as-business playbooks Author Hour has captured. Gino explains how the writing process forced them to build the frameworks — the "three pillars of real estate," the "SPY technique" — that turned a book into an entire course. He walks through the exact funnel: Facebook ads driving to a free book download, a CRM nurture sequence, a podcast to warm the lead, and a setter/closer sales team offering coaching, mentorship, and masterminds. He's candid about what worked and what he'd do differently (get more testimonials; don't try to write the first book entirely by yourself).Gino is equally compelling on why a book is worth it beyond revenue. He credits T. Harv Eker's Secrets of the Millionaire Mind with changing the trajectory of his life in 2008, and he now thinks of his own books as "legacy pieces" — something his children and grandchildren can open long after he's gone. "Legacy is not something that you leave behind," he says. "Legacy is something that you activate today." The proof it's working: his 15-year-old daughter is now writing a book of her own.For more information on Gino Barbaro, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/gino-barbaroFor more information on Creative Cash, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/creative-cash
Lies, Damn Lies, and Marketing: Atul Minocha on Fake ROI & the Book That Paid for Itself in 6 Months
Atul Minocha joins Travis Stoliker to talk about Lies, Damn Lies, and Marketing — the book an engineer wrote to fix marketing's trust problem. Atul explains the idea that became the seed of the whole project: "Fake ROI," the chapter (number 14) that argues that demanding an ironclad return on every marketing dollar can actually force good marketers to "make up some numbers" to get funded. From there he unpacks the framework at the book's core — "big M" marketing (strategy, positioning, messaging, pricing) versus "small M" marketing (the logos, ads, trade shows, and podcasts) — and why doing the big M first is what keeps your small M spend from going to waste.He and Travis get into vanity metrics versus action metrics, why Apple's Route 101 billboards make sense even though no one can attribute a single iPhone sale to them, and the timely case for human quality in the age of AI: "there is so much AI slop that it doesn't take much to stand out by just staying away from the AI slop… quality always trumps quantity."Then there's the part every author wants to hear. Atul went into COVID assuming his business would crater — and instead it exploded, the book took off, Forbes and Inc. came calling, and the ~$60,000 he'd budgeted to recover over three to five years came back in six months. "I would have been happy with three to five years," he says, "but… I've stopped doing the math." He's candid, too, about why he chose Scribe, the single piece of positioning advice that stuck with him ("think of one real person, and use that person's real name"), and the encouragement he'd give anyone who's been sitting on a book idea for years: "you just have to sort of get over the hump to get going."For more information on Atul Minocha, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/atul-minochaFor more information on Lies, Damn Lies, and Marketing, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/lies-damned-lies-and-marketing
The Black Sheep Advantage: Dr. Thom LeBeau on Writing the Book You've Put Off for 20 Years
Dr. Thom LeBeau joins Eric Jorgenson to talk about The Black Sheep Advantage — a book he'd been "talking about for 20 years" before he finally sat down to write it. A practicing physician seeing 250 patients a week, Thom describes the very ordinary reason the book kept not happening ("I would start and I would stop") and the very human thing that finally made it happen: a team he didn't want to disappoint, and a standing Friday afternoon he set aside to do the work.Along the way Thom talks about the idea at the book's core — that going against the crowd, being the "black sheep," is an advantage, not a liability — a lesson crystallized in his mid-30s when Domino's founder Tom Monaghan told him to keep doing what he was doing and stop worrying about everyone else. He's candid about the parts that surprised him: that the book has become a "conversation starter" reaching audiences he never intended (his niece wants to use it with neurodivergent patients), that finishing it was "cheaper than therapy" and taught him something about himself, and that publishing has opened a whole "third third" of life — more books, public speaking, a workbook, and an online course.For anyone sitting on a book they've been meaning to write, Thom's advice is simple and hard-won: "just start," get "the right team," and treat it as a step-by-step climb rather than an insurmountable mountain. Or, as he puts it about working with Scribe: "This is what I need — something to help me hold my hand along the way."For more information on Dr. Thom LeBeau, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/thom-lebeauFor more information on The Black Sheep Advantage, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/the-black-sheep-advantage
Must: Dr. Stephen Rue on Turning Your Pain Into Purpose
Dr. Stephen Rue joins Travis Stoliker to talk about Must: Becoming the Person You're Meant to Be — a personal-development book born from profound loss and built around a single idea: that each of us has a "must," a non-negotiable purpose, and that most people stay stuck simply because they don't know where to begin.Stephen opens with the story at the heart of the book — his stepfather's suicide, his mother kneeling on the closet carpet telling an 11-year-old boy, "Stephen, I will never let something like this happen to you again," and the decades of sacrifice that followed. From there the conversation moves through the ideas Must is built on: how the bad things that happen to us don't have to become our identity, why "we choose the level of our suffering from our past," how our blessings sit simultaneously with our moments of suffering, and why fear at the edge of your comfort zone is actually a "clarion call" that you've entered your "must zone."He's candid, too, about the book itself. Asked point-blank about his return on investment with Scribe, Stephen doesn't hedge: "It's a spectacular investment. It's an investment in myself. And it's an investment in my legacy." He describes Scribe as "a team... a family" that "legitimately care," and closes with the clearest advice in the episode for anyone sitting on a book they're afraid to start: go into a room alone, write imperfectly, sign a contract with yourself, "and then contact someone like Scribe" — and start today, not tomorrow.(Note: this episode includes frank discussion of suicide, grief, and childhood trauma; see the sensitive-content flags above before excerpting.)For more information on Dr. Stephen Rue, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/stephen-rueFor more information on Must: Becoming the Person You're Meant to Be, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/must
The Brooklyn Paramount Theatre: Michael Hittman on the Shrine Everyone Walked Past
Dr. Michael Hittman joins Eric Jorgenson to tell the story behind The Brooklyn Paramount Theatre: An Intimate Portrait — and it is unlike most Author Hour conversations. Michael is an anthropologist who spent 46 years teaching at Long Island University, played pickup basketball for half a century in the Paramount's auditorium (the Guinness people once called to confirm it), and hosted 174 jazz radio shows — all, he admits, while barely paying attention to the "shrine" next door. This episode is the story of how he finally saw it.Michael traces the book from its unlikely origins — his anthropological idea that "wisdom sits in places," borrowed from Native American thought — to the library research that "absolutely blew my mind," when he discovered that nearly every major jazz musician in history had played the Brooklyn Paramount. He explains the theater's four faces (film, vaudeville, jazz, rock and roll), the Adolph Zukor empire that built it, the Sonny Rollins bridge that runs through his own family history, and the discoveries that turned a tribute into an investigation: a possible art heist, a point-shaving scandal, and his contrarian theory that Tommy "Jive" Smalls — not Alan Freed — fathered rock and roll. Along the way he's candid about why he wrote it at all: "Nobody put a gun to my head… I just decided I wanted to do a book on the Brooklyn Paramount since it was so neglected." He dedicates the book to his late friend and collaborator, photographer Stuart Fischelson. As Eric puts it, this is exactly "what Scribe lives to do" — help someone who has gone deep down a passionate rabbit hole get a book into the world that says things other books haven't.(Note: this episode contains frank historical discussion, mild profanity, and some pointed personal opinions; see the sensitive-content flags above before excerpting.)For more information on Dr. Michael Hittman, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/michael-hittmanFor more information on The Brooklyn Paramount Theatre: An Intimate Portrait, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/the-brooklyn-paramount-theatre
Sex, Drugs, and Soul: Kristin Birdwell on Writing Through Fear and What a Memoir Sets in Motion
Kristin Birdwell joins Travis Stoliker to talk about Sex, Drugs, and Soul — the memoir she wrote through COVID and published in 2022 — and everything it has set in motion since. Kristin traces the book from its first spark ("I always knew I was going to write a book"), through the writing-coach-and-accountability decision in 2019, to the emotional work of putting grief, abuse, and self-discovery on the page. She's candid about the fear: how she kept going by believing "all things work out for good," by holding onto "the impact that it could potentially have on others," and by being gentle with herself — "gave myself space, ate a lot of dark chocolate." She explains why she chose Scribe over querying agents ("I want this thing... out yesterday") and over DIY uploads she could always spot, and why owning her creative rights mattered with a TV show already in her sights. Then she walks through the unexpected second life of the book: an Amazon bestseller launch, a podcast that grew from "an exercise to use my voice" into 120 episodes, a storytelling-mentor role at South by Southwest, a TV pilot now getting industry advisement, and the messages that mean the most — readers who write to say "I feel like you wrote this for me and my journey with grief." Her advice to anyone sitting where she sat in 2019: "if you have that inkling or desire, it's kind of like our future self whispering to us in the present moment," and "who are you to not share your gifts or story in the world?"For more information on Kristin Birdwell, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/kristin-birdwellFor more information on Sex, Drugs, and Soul, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/sex-drugs-soul
Brand Currency: Steve Susi on Taste, Time, and Why a Human Should Write the Book
Steve Susi joins Travis Stoliker to talk about Brand Currency — the 2019 book that grew out of his years as an executive creative director at Amazon — and where its four currencies stand now that AI has rewritten the rules. Steve traces the thesis back to a standing ovation in Tokyo, where he realized "there's something universal here... What matters most to all people? Money, information, loyalty, and time," and thought, "So let me write a book." He talks about the book's unexpected second life: it launched just before COVID, "actually sold pretty well," drew fan mail he never anticipated, and got picked up for Korean translation — proof that "we're not so different around the world." Then the conversation turns to the question every author is now asking. Steve uses AI every day as a thought partner, but is adamant it "is simply not going to write my book," because "without... enterprise-level instruction, it does not come with encoded discernment, judgment, or taste." He explains why "Taste is the New Oil," how AI "didn't add a fifth currency — it just compressed the original four into a moment," and why, even in a world of instant answers, "you're going to see flesh tone and fingerprints on things more than you ever have."He closes on why the physical book endures: when someone "sees a bookcase full of books, it says, I've invested in this piece of physical matter because it really matters... it's going to be hard to kill. We love touching things."For more information on Steve Susi, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/steve-susiFor more information on Brand Currency: A Former Amazon Exec on Money, Information, Loyalty, and Time, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/brand-currency
Invest Like the Best: Chris Belchamber on The Low-Risk Road to High Returns
Five years after his first Author Hour appearance, Chris Belchamber returns to talk with Travis Stoliker about what has and hasn't changed since he wrote Invest Like the Best — and what he's learned watching the market since. Chris walks through the case for compounding over chasing returns, tells the story of turning down a seat at Long-Term Capital Management in the 1990s, and lays out why he believes gold, not passive equity indexing, has quietly outperformed the S&P 500 since 2000. He also gets candid about Bitcoin, the state of the fiat currency system, and why he believes the average investor is dramatically underserved by the financial industry. Along the way, Chris reflects on what writing Invest Like the Best gave him that he didn't expect: a "lighthouse" that draws in exactly the right clients, and a level of clarity about his own thinking that's only grown more valuable with time.For more information on Chris Belchamber, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/chris-belchamberFor more information on Invest Like the Best: The Low-Risk Road to High Returns, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/invest-like-the-best
Best Team Ever: David Burkus on Turning a Book Into a Speaking Business
David Burkus joins Eric Jorgenson to talk about Best Team Ever: The Surprising Science of High-Performing Teams — his fifth book, and the first he published professionally after four traditional deals. David lays out the math he gives every author weighing the two paths: still write the proposal, and if the traditional offer comes in between $75,000 and $100,000, take the money — but if it’s “20, 25 grand,” that’s not enough to deal with the hassles of signing away your IP. He explains why a traditional proposal is written “for an audience of one,” how his publisher’s push to make his networking book a career book earned him exactly two speaking gigs in the book’s entire history, and why the timeline sealed it: guided author in June 2022, on Amazon everywhere by May 2023. Then he opens up the speaking machine itself — lanes and problems, the caveman test that named Best Team Ever, micro videos that get found, the bureau secret of bringing agents in on deals you already have — and the production system behind five books: six months of research in piles on the floor, 500 to 750 words a day, and “when you write nonfiction, there’s no such thing as writer’s block. There’s just you haven’t researched it enough.” Plus the LinkedIn message from a Lithuanian event planner that turned a book into a homecoming.For more information on David Burkus, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/david-burkusFor more information on Best Team Ever: The Surprising Science of High-Performing Teams, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/best-team-ever
The Venture Capital Alternative: How Matt Moyers Is Fighting for America's Inventors
Matt Moyers joins Eric Jorgenson to talk about The Venture Capital Alternative: A Blueprint for a Better Patent System — a book idea he sat on for the better part of a decade before deciding, in 2023, that "now is the time." Matt explains how a career spent valuing intellectual property — including the Nortel bankruptcy, where a patent portfolio first bid in the hundreds of millions sold for $4.5 billion — showed him the same story on repeat: an inventor commercializes an idea, big tech enters with a competing product built on that invention, and the inventor gets crushed. He walks through the Sonos case, why the IP system in America is "a mess," and his blueprint for IP debt and IP equity as an alternative to venture capital. Then the conversation turns to craft: the Instagram course that got his first draft done in 60 days, the 18 months of editing that followed, the Kaizen 30-minute writing sessions, a dog that got "walked like crazy," and why he shopped a finished draft to publishers everywhere before deciding Scribe's hybrid model — and Scribe's editor — were what he wanted. He's already realized he has three or four more books inside of him.For more information on Matt Moyers, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/matt-moyersFor more information on The Venture Capital Alternative: A Blueprint for a Better Patent System, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/the-venture-capital-alternative
The Passionate Workforce: Nicholas Capman on How Your Employees Really Feel
Nick Capman joins Eric Jorgenson to talk about The Passionate Workforce: How to Create and Maintain Maximum Employee Engagement, the book he wrote from a four-page Word doc called "book notes" that he'd been keeping in Calibri 11. Nick explains the theory behind the book: we all sit on a spectrum from resentment to passion, the same person behaves completely differently at each end, and if you hire the right person, "it's not the employee's responsibility to bring passion. It's the employer's. It's not 50 50." He shares the 15 pillars, the NPS-style assessment his company runs every year — and the news that this past year The FDA Group scored above 9 on every pillar for the first time. Then he gets practical about what a book actually does for a business: the credibility "spoke in the wheel" that turns sales conversations from "I need to see if you're the real deal" into "how can you help me," the copy every employee receives at their 90-day mark, the confetti-filled client box with an engraved bottle of wine and the book ("I wanted to send out my book, but I didn't want to be pretentious"), and the Barnes & Noble signing that drew 60 people because "I said I have a book" — it was as simple as that. Plus: the LinkedIn ad that said everything he'd been thinking, why the finished book had "no fluff," and his marathon advice for anyone still sitting on a book-notes doc of their own.To listen alongside an in depth episode summary, highlights, and full transcript, visit [link for Author Hour episode on Scribe website]For more information on Nick Capman, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/nicholas-capmanFor more information on The Passionate Workforce: How to Create and Maintain Maximum Employee Engagement, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/the-passionate-workforce
Positive Politics: Neil Thanedar on Building a Y Combinator for Politics
Neil Thanedar joins Eric Jorgenson to talk about Positive Politics: A Proven Playbook to Get into Politics, Change Your Life, and Change the World—the book he decided to write in late 2024 and published in 2025, on a thousand words a week. Neil explains why “books are a way to own an idea,” how the story of a 19-year-old who got a C on a paper and turned it into the 27th Amendment proves you don’t need to win an election to change the Constitution, and why he tells founders to pick one bill and run with it. He gets specific about the Scribe process: the book coach who told him chapters one, two, three, four should run four, three, one, two (“And she was right”), why doing it alone might have meant never finishing, and his hiring-a-specialist analogy—publishing a book yourself is like building your own house. Then the payoff: three of the five founders in his first accelerator class found him through his writing, a skeptical VC who said “we don’t need another pundit” got the answer “well, guess what? I’m doing that, too,” and his stretch goal of getting ten new people into politics this year is halfway done after one week in a seven-bedroom Airbnb in D.C.For more information on Neil Thanedar, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/neil-thanedarFor more information on Positive Politics: A Proven Playbook to Get into Politics, Change Your Life, and Change the World, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/positive-politics
Why Is a Verb: Stephen Butler on Turning Purpose into Productivity in the Age of AI
Stephen Butler joins Travis Stoliker to talk about Why Is a Verb: How Well-Managed Teams Turn Purpose into Productivity—the book he wrote with coauthor Karissa Price after recognizing what McKinsey calls the purpose gap: 85% of senior leaders say they’re living their purpose at work, versus 15% of everyone else. Stephen explains why purpose is a verb, not a whiteboard exercise, a constant cycle of discovery, learning, and impact, and tells the story of the young woman who felt “like a musician who had a great instrument and knew that she knew the music, but couldn’t hear herself play.” Then the conversation goes wide: what a 250-year-old political philosopher can teach us about AI and institutions, why the 2007 financial crisis was a bigger world-historical event than 9/11, what a Blackberry-era law-firm admin can tell us about disruption, and why AI is “much less a cost-cutting story… It’s going to be a growth story.” Along the way, Stephen shares what Scribe’s editors taught him (“the real title of the book is not the title, it’s the subtitle”), how a Marriott CHRO came to write his foreword, and how the book unlocked a door he never knew existed — a funded Bay Area platform company where he’s now head of AI. He closes with the line every publisher wants to hear: “I think the world needs more scribes.”For more information on Why Is a Verb: How Well-Managed Teams Turn Purpose into Productivity, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/why-is-a-verbFor more information on Stephen Butler, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/stephen-butler
Glorious Tension: Why Paul Hobby Offered His Radically Moderate Book to a Divided World
Paul Hobby joins Eric Jorgenson to talk about Glorious Tension: Rediscovering Our Sacred Middle Ground in an Age of Extremism — a book that began as "cathartic COVID era scribblings" and grew into what Eric calls an act of public service. Paul tells the story of finding his grandmother's 1938 speech "in the bowels of the internet" — a speech that gave him chills because you could swap the names and places for today's — and how sophisticated friends convinced him the scribblings were a book. He explains why your brain is built for rabbit holes, the difference between a tribe and a cult, why he keeps a list on his iPhone of things he's been dead wrong about, and his grandmother's rule to always phrase a criticism as a question. Along the way: the speaking invitations the book has opened up, the reader email that arrived out of nowhere the morning of the recording, and why Scribe's fact-checking was rigorous "almost to the point of irritation" — with the result that nobody has ever caught a wrong quote or fact in the book.For more information on Paul Hobby, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/paul-hobbyFor more information on Glorious Tension: Rediscovering Our Sacred Middle Ground in an Age of Extremism, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/glorious-tension
The Adventure Advantage: Mike Boydell on Threshold Moments and Writing Through Change
Mike Boydell built a global consulting practice helping leaders and teams navigate change. Then the pandemic grounded him, and an op-ed picked up by a national newspaper sparked The Adventure Advantage, a book about moving through life with a posture of adventure. In this episode, Mike joins Scribe CEO Travis Stoliker to share why three weeks of writing alone produced only one beautiful paragraph, how Scribe helped him turn scribbles of notes into an actual book, the race to place a finished copy in his dying father's hands, and the emotional threshold every first-time author has to walk through.For more information on Mike Boydell, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/michael-j-boydellFor more information on The Adventure Advantage, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/the-adventure-advantage
Solved in Seven Minutes: How Jim Sholler's Book Saved a Life and Un-Retired the Fixer
Jim Sholler returns to Author Hour to talk with Eric Jorgenson about life four years after publishing Solved in 7: The Power of Disciplined Problem-Solving. Jim tells the story behind the title: after 13 years of failed diagnoses by two of the best hematologists in the world, his problem-solving framework found the source of his wife's rare bleeding disorder in seven minutes. He shares how the book un-retired him, how mentioning it in a job interview helped launch a two-and-a-half-year encore career building a problem management team, and the champagne moment he set for himself when writing it, which came true when a reader used the book to save his father-in-law's life. Along the way: the Ned Johnson "verify the facts" story from Fidelity, why 70 to 90% of problems are solved in fact verification, the six-foot-hoagie method for starting an intimidating book, and the thousand-words-a-day technique that got him from outline to published in nine months.For more information on Jim Sholler, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/jim-shollerFor more information on Solved in 7: The Power of Disciplined Problem-Solving, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/solved-in-7
Building the Fort with Chris Heivly
What do you do when a professor flunks you in freshman English and tells you that you can’t write? If you’re Chris Heivly, you co-found MapQuest, build startup communities around the world, and then write books anyway. On this episode of Author Hour, Chris joins Eric Jorgenson to talk about Build the Fort, his playbook for the economic developers and community builders trying to make their cities better places for entrepreneurs. Chris shares why all the work is in the outline, how a foreword from Brad Feld unlocked testimonials from Steve Case and Richard Florida, the early-morning writing routine that got his manuscript done in under four months, and why three years after launch the book still sells in bulk and keeps him on stages around the world.For more information on Chris Heivly, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/chris-heivlyFor more information on Build the Fort, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/build-the-fort
Drug-Free Crohn's: Hadley Ott on Taking Agency Over Your Health
Diagnosed with Crohn's disease at twelve and told he would be sick for life, Hadley Ott spent more than a decade on feeding tubes, steroids, and biologic drugs before quitting his doctors and medications cold turkey and healing himself through nutrition, fitness, and faith. In this episode, Hadley joins Eric Jorgenson to talk about his book, Drug-Free Crohn's: Overcoming Big Doctors, Big Hospitals, and Big Pharma, the private promise that started it, and how a first-time author with no budget landed talks at Notre Dame and Ole Miss, about 15 podcasts, and local TV, one promotional card and cold pitch at a time.For more information on Hadley Ott, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/hadley-ottFor more information on Drug-Free Crohn's, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/drug-free-crohns
Retiring Right: Smart Steps for Exiting Corporate America with Jake Falcon
After 20 years specializing in retirement planning, Jake Falcon still could not find a single book he trusted enough to hand his clients, so he wrote his own. In this episode of Author Hour, the founder and CEO of Falcon Wealth Advisors joins Scribe Media CEO Travis Stoliker to talk about Retiring Right: Smart Steps for Exiting Corporate America, why the book has become his new business card and website, how a prospect worth five figures a year found him through the audiobook on Spotify with zero advertising, and the podcast-to-book method that turned a self-described talker into an author. Jake also shares his definition of retirement: choosing what you do, when you do it, and with whom you do it.For more information on Jake Falcon, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/jake-falconFor more information on Retiring Right: Smart Steps for Exiting Corporate America, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/retiring-right
Healing Hacks: Bringing Your Body Back to Nature with Ian Hart
After getting seriously ill in 2009, health and fitness professional Ian Hart spent years figuring out how to heal his own body naturally, and then found himself telling that story over and over to anyone who needed it. Writing a book was the way to stop repeating it. In this episode of Author Hour, Ian joins Scribe Media CEO Travis Stoliker to talk about Healing Hacks: Bring Your Body Back to Nature, how Wim Hof came to write the foreword overnight, launching a book from the Costa Rican jungle at the start of the pandemic, why writing your first book is “the tuition to get to the next level,” and what a human story offers that AI-generated content never will.For more information on Ian Hart, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/ian-hartFor more information on Healing Hacks: Bring Your Body Back to Nature, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/healing-hacks
Money Mind: Beyond Speculation with Brayden Sutton
Brayden Sutton spent over 15 years learning the markets the hard way, with no inheritance, no formal training, and no industry connections. On this episode of Author Hour, he tells Eric Jorgenson how a mentor's suggestion to write a manual for his 18 year old grandson turned a decade-old manuscript into Money Mind: Beyond Speculation, a Canadian bestseller that has brought ultra high net worth investors into his fund, earned endorsements from billionaires, and reshaped his professional identity. Brayden shares why he needed a coach, accountability, and a timeline to get the book done, what it means to act like a bank instead of an individual investor, and why the return on a book goes far beyond sales.For more information on Brayden Sutton, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/brayden-suttonFor more information on Money Mind: Beyond Speculation, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/money-mind
From Hopeless to Purpose: Army Veteran Devin Fish on Answering the Hard Questions
What does it look like to go from suicidal ideation to self-published author in fewer than four years? Devin Fish, a ten-year Army veteran and former career counselor, joins Eric Jorgenson to talk about his memoir Answering the Hard Questions: I Almost Ended My Story Too Soon. Devin shares how growing up in one of the most dangerous cities in America, watching both parents battle addiction, and surviving a hospitalization for suicidal ideations in 2019 ultimately became the raw material for a book he wrote in a war zone. He talks about finding his editor through David Goggins, how Scribe Media's chief editor pushed him to put his real story back in, and why the act of writing the book transformed him as much as any of the events in it.For more information on Devin Fish, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/devin-fishFor more information on Answering the Hard Questions, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/answering-the-hard-questions
Teaching Kids to Live Without You: Yarona Boster on Unspoken Signals
In this episode of Author Hour, Eric Jorgenson sits down with Yarona Boster, author of Unspoken Signals, to explore what it truly means to raise a resilient child.Yarona draws on nearly two decades of early childhood development, psychology, and coaching to make a provocative argument: a parent's real job isn't to protect their children at all costs, it's to give them the tools to thrive without them.She shares the personal losses that shaped the book, breaks down the three core pillars every human needs to function (connection, autonomy, and competency), and explains why most of what we call communication is happening beneath the surface, in signals we're sending before we even have words for them.She also offers candid, practical advice for aspiring authors on trusting your vision, filtering the noise of too many voices, and finding support that guides without controlling.For more information on Yarona Boster, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/yarona-bosterFor more information on Unspoken Signals, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/unspoken-signals
Mario Simonyan: How He Never Ran a Book Ad and Still Distributed 10,000 Copies
Mario Simonyan built one of the most specialized law firms in the country, helping e-commerce brands fight off IP infringers and unauthorized sellers. In this episode, he shares how publishing At the Corner of IP and Amazon transformed his business development strategy, replacing disposable cold outreach with something prospects actually hold on to. Mario breaks down his exact playbook: cold mail campaigns with a book inside, sales consultations where his team references specific chapters, and conference giveaways that generate warm inbound leads weeks later. Four years and nearly 10,000 copies later, he has zero regrets and is already planning his second book with Scribe.For more information on Mario Simonyan, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/mario-simonyanFor more information on Mario's book, At the Corner of IP and Amazon, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/on-the-corner-of-ip-and-amazon
MyLinh Shattan on How West Point Shaped Two Generations
MyLinh Shattan grew up between two cultures, an Irish American father and a Vietnamese mother, both storytellers.She went to West Point as one of the first women to graduate, then spent decades writing, teaching, and serving. When her oldest daughter decided West Point was the only place for her, MyLinh couldn't sleep. That fear became the engine for her memoir, Raising Athena, published by Scribe Media with an audiobook releasing July 7th, the 50th anniversary of women at West Point and the 250th anniversary of the United States.In this conversation, MyLinh and Eric discuss the decade-long writing process, the workshop model that sharpened her craft, what it means to be a mother in a family where all three children serve, and why she believes the widening civil-military gap is one of America's most urgent blind spots.To listen alongside an in depth episode summary, highlights, and full transcript, visit https://scribemedia.com/author-hour/episode/mylinh-shattan-on-how-west-point-shaped-two-generationsFor more information on MyLinh Shattan, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/mylinh-shattanFor more information on Raising Athena, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/raising-athena
Harris Nydick on How Writing a 401(k) Book Became His Firm's Best Business Card
Harris Nydick has been in financial planning since the early eighties, when he was part of one of the first financial planning training classes at a major Manhattan firm. Over the next few decades, he built a specialty in 401(k) and 403(b) plans, and after carrying a book idea in his head for 10 years, he finally sat down on weekends to write it. The result was Common Financial Sense, a plain-English guide to 401(k) investing for working people who are smart but simply don't want to think about this stuff. On this episode, Harris talks about the unexpected ROI of his book, how he got the father of the 401(k) to write the introduction, the orange Sharpie trick that changed how he wrote, and why signing every copy has kept his books off eBay for years. For more information on Harris Nydick, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/harris-nydickFor more information on Common Financial Sense, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/common-financial-sense-simple-strategies-for-successful-401k-403b-retirement-plan-investing
S. Gale Bleth: How a Retired Crime Prevention Officer Made Decades of Safety Expertise a Bestseller
S. Gale Bleth spent decades teaching personal safety to students, employees, and community members—but it wasn't until her nieces started leaving for college that she finally wrote the book she'd been putting off for years.In this episode, Gale shares how she turned a 12-hour self-defense course into a character-driven, story-based safety playbook for young adults, what the AWARE method is and why it covers 90% of personal safety, and how her book hit #1 on Amazon within two days of launch.She also talks about finding Scribe, working with her editor Candace to bring the book to life, and why she believes A.W.A.R.E. belongs in every college orientation program in the country.For more information on S. Gale Bleth, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/gale-blethFor more information on A.W.A.R.E., visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/aware
From Walk-On to the Big Screen: How Candler Cook's Book Changed His Career and Started a Movie
What happens when a book you wrote to inspire strangers ends up transforming your own life?In this episode, Eric sits down with Candler Cook, author of From Underdog to Bulldog, to talk about the unexpected and remarkable doors his book has opened since he published it seven years ago.Candler shares how a fraternity alumni email connected him with his now-CEO, how his personal story attracted a film production company, and why reaching the right 1,000 people matters more than chasing a bestseller list.He also opens up about working with Scribe, what it felt like to get a 6-out-of-10 first draft across the finish line, and what he'd tell anyone sitting on a book idea right now.To listen alongside an in depth episode summary, highlights, and full transcript, visit https://scribemedia.com/author-hour/episode/from-walk-on-to-the-big-screen-how-candler-cook-s-book-changed-his-career-and-stFor more information on Candler Cook, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/candler-cookFor more information on From Underdog to Bulldog, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/from-underdog-to-bulldog
Rachel A. Williamson on Turning 30 Years of Store Operations Experience into a Bestselling Book
Rachel Williamson spent 30 years leading retail operations at some of the biggest brands in the industry — from Bath & Body Works to Ann Taylor — before launching her consulting firm and writing Running Great Stores, a 30-day implementation guide for store managers and district managers.In this episode, Rachel talks with Eric Jorgenson about how she finally committed to the book, the creative process that got it done in two focused months, and the hands-on marketing playbook she built from scratch — custom shipping envelopes, branded ribbon, Mini Cooper keychains, and personalized book signings — that turned a first-time author into an Amazon #1 bestseller and opened doors to new clients, speaking engagements, and a chance encounter with a Fortune 500 CEO.To listen alongside an in depth episode summary, highlights, and full transcript, visit https://scribemedia.com/author-hour/episode/rachel-a-williamson-on-turning-30-years-of-store-operations-experience-into-a-be
Gui Costin: Two Books, Two Dakotaisms, and the Greatest Authentic Hack of All Time
Gui Costin, founder and CEO of Dakota, joins Eric Jorgenson to talk about writing two books with Scribe—The Dakota Way and Be Kind—and why he now calls authoring “the single best thing I’ve ever done for the business and for people.”Gui walks through the procrastination and self-doubt that nearly stalled his first Scribe book, the “world-class ghostwriter” who got him through it, and the Dakotaisms (“turn your brain off,” “throw your hat over the wall”) that finally pushed the book over the line. He explains how Dakota uses signed copies at every live event, why a book makes you a subject matter expert and an authority rather than a salesperson, and how showing up on LinkedIn pays off in unexpected ways, including a 20-years-no-contact college teammate who somehow knew his Starbucks order.The episode closes with Gui’s blunt advice to any CEO on the fence: figure out what you’re passionate about, call Scribe, and turn your brain off.To listen alongside an in depth episode summary, highlights, and full transcript, visit https://scribemedia.com/author-hour/episode/gui-costin-two-books-two-dakotaisms-and-the-greatest-authentic-hack-of-all-timeFor more information on Gui Costin, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/gui-costinFor more information on The Dakota Way, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/the-dakota-way
Deneen Allen: How a Reluctant Author Turned 25 Years of Tourism Expertise Into a Book
On this episode of Author Hour, Eric Jorgenson sits down with Deneen Allen, founder of FireCircle and creator of the 5x5 Method, to talk about her new book The FireCircle 5x5 Method.Deneen spent 25 years building tourism and hospitality businesses across Canada before distilling that expertise into a digital program, and resisting her team's push to put it in book form for three years.In this conversation, she shares why she finally said yes, how the book now functions as both a marketing tool and a companion guidebook to her digital program, the "secret code" funnel she built to convert readers into FireCircle members, and why she now wishes she'd written it sooner.A candid, useful conversation for any operator weighing whether their expertise belongs in a book.To listen alongside an in depth episode summary, highlights, and full transcript, visit https://scribemedia.com/author-hour/episode/deneen-allen-how-a-reluctant-author-turned-25-years-of-tourism-expertise-into-a-
It Really Is All About Relationships: Eddy Arriola
On this episode of Author Hour, host Eric Jorgenson sits down with entrepreneur, banker, and first-time author Eddy Arriola to talk about his new book, It's All About Relationships.Eddy shares the story of his sold-out launch event at Books and Books, the Miami independent bookstore he has loved since he was old enough to drive, and the unexpected ways readers have responded, including a Cornell donor who ordered 50 personalized copies for the lacrosse team.He reflects on the discipline of writing alone, the choice to publish with Scribe, and the magic of putting his old high school history teacher up on stage with him at the launch.For any leader who has ever thought about writing a book, this conversation is a master class in why the hard road is the right one.To listen alongside an in depth episode summary, highlights, and full transcript, visit https://scribemedia.com/author-hour/episode/it-really-is-all-about-relationships-eddy-arriolaFor more information on Eddy Arriola, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/eddy-arriolaFor more information on It's All About Relationships, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/its-all-about-relationships
There'll Never Be a Right Time: Dr. Richard Harris on White Coat, Heavy Soul
Dr. Richard Harris joins Eric Jorgenson roughly six weeks after the release of White Coat, Heavy Soul, and three weeks after the audiobook went live, to walk through how the book got written, why he left the traditional hospital system for direct primary care, and the unexpected goodness already showing up.Dr. Harris wrote the manuscript in 12-hour days for three months after his son's traumatic birth, leaning on eight years of stage-tested speaking material to sequence the story. He explains why he chose Scribe's hybrid publishing model ("the number one decision I made was I wanted full autonomy"), the moment a retired-judge family friend in small-town Indiana started handing the book to strangers, and why his real two-year hope is one full-circle moment: a kid telling him they became a doctor because of the book.The episode closes on a now-recurring Author Hour insight: the book is a tailwind on everything else you ever do, plus a five-star Scribe review and an admission that book two is already in the works.To listen alongside an in depth episode summary, highlights, and full transcript, visit https://scribemedia.com/author-hour/episode/there-ll-never-be-a-right-time-dr-richard-harris-on-white-coat-heavy-soulFor more information on Richard Harris, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/richard-harris
75 Books a Month: How Michael Erath Built a Three-Book Author Ecosystem at Next Level Growth
Michael Erath joins Eric Jorgenson to walk through eight years and three Scribe-published books as the centerpiece of a 9-person coaching firm. Michael's first book, Rise, was a personal memoir about a business partner who embezzled half a million dollars and the marriage strain that followed; readers still reach out years later to share their own versions of the story. By his third book, The Five Obsessions of Elite Organizations, Michael had pivoted from a ghostwriter to writing every word himself with a Scribe coach, rerecorded his Audible himself in Scribe's studio, and built an AI clone as a funnel companion. He breaks down concrete numbers for the first time on Author Hour: 75 to 100 books mailed per month, ~$16 landed cost per book, an audiobook he calls the legacy artifact his great-grandkids will hear, and the line he gives to anyone considering authorship — "if your goal in writing a book is to retire on book sales, it's probably not going to happen." The episode closes on Eric's max for the editing phase: craftsmanship has no deadline.To listen alongside an in depth episode summary, highlights, and full transcript, visit https://scribemedia.com/author-hour/episode/75-books-a-month-how-michael-erath-built-a-three-book-author-ecosystem-at-next-lFor more information on Michael Erath and his books, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/michael-erath
Soul Satisfaction: Dr. Laura Brown Turned a Book on Gut Health Into a Five-Year Compounding Asset
Dr. Laura M. Brown, ND joins Eric Jorgenson to talk about Beyond Digestion: How GUT Health Connects to Your Mind, Body, and Soul, her book on the science and stories of gut health. Five years after publishing through Scribe, Dr. Brown breaks down the long-term ROI of authorship for a service business: a podcast tour she built herself across North America, new patients who arrive already pre-educated, MD referrals, public health speaking invitations, and a reader who quietly lost 40 pounds before they ever met. She also shares why she chose Scribe's editorial process over a true DIY route, how she frames the book as "$20 for 20 hours with me" to prospective patients, and what she'd tell anyone who's had a book sitting on their list for years. The episode lands on the phrase that gives this conversation its name: soul satisfaction.To listen alongside an in depth episode summary, highlights, and full transcript, visit https://scribemedia.com/author-hour/episode/soul-satisfaction-dr-laura-brown-turned-a-book-on-gut-health-into-a-five-year-co
Doctor Incorporated: Tod Stillson on the Book That Catalyzed a 6,000-Member Community
In this episode of Author Hour, Eric Jorgenson sits down with Dr. Tod Stillson, MD, a family physician in rural America and the author of Doctor Incorporated. Tod shares how a single book about transitioning from employed physician to independent contractor became a catalyst for the Physician Entrepreneur Academy, now nearly 6,000 members strong, a six-figure coaching business, and ChatterX, a multi-million dollar on-demand urgent care telemedicine company. Tod talks about working with the Scribe team, the perfectionism that keeps most doctors from writing, and why he sees a book less as a product and more as an igniter for everything that comes next.
Why Every Campaign Needs a Book: Jon Henderson on Running for Governor of California
Independent California gubernatorial candidate Jon Henderson joins Eric Jorgenson to talk about how a financial planner who'd never been on social media ended up writing California 2.0, a 22-chapter plan for "the politically homeless," and why the book, not a campaign speech, is the only thing he believes can carry his ideas into the long-term conversation. Jon shares how he mailed 100 copies to key influencers and to the moderators of the upcoming CNN debate, why permanence is the real value of a book, his case for blockchain voting, blind trusts for lawmakers, and his belief that California needs a "purple" governor to bring the all-star team to the table. A first for the Author Hour podcast: an interview with a sitting candidate for governor.To listen alongside an in depth episode summary, highlights, and full transcript, visit https://scribemedia.com/author-hour/episode/why-every-campaign-needs-a-book-jon-henderson-on-running-for-governor-of-califor
Matt Shoup: How One Book Unlocked Five-Figure Speaking Gigs
Matt Shoup got fired from a corporate banking job, knocked on doors painting houses, and accidentally became a speaker and author. In this episode, he breaks down how publishing Painted Baby with Scribe unlocked his first five-figure speaking gig... and then another, and then another. He shares how a story about a paint sprayer exploding next to a baby became the most powerful sales tool his painting company has ever used, why his DIY first book was "laid out like crap," and what changed when he finally did it right. Plus: the letter he got from an inmate in Florida who found his content 10 years after he posted it and mostly forgot about it.If you've been sitting on a book idea, this one's for you.To listen alongside an in depth episode summary, highlights, and full transcript, visit https://scribemedia.com/author-hour/episode/matt-shoup-how-one-book-unlocked-five-figure-speaking-gigsFor more information on Matt Shoup, visit https://scribemedia.com/authors/matt-shoupFor more information on Painted Baby, visit https://scribemedia.com/published-books/painted-baby
Kyle Thiermann: Everyone Should Interview Their Parents
Join Eric Jorgenson on Author Hour as he sits down with Kyle Thiermann, author of One Last Question Before You Go. In this interview, Kyle shares the inspiring origin story of his book—how interviewing his parents and exploring family relationships became the heart of his memoir and guide for others. Discover: How Kyle turned a simple conversation with his father into a book idea that "wouldn't go away" Why interviewing your parents can act like an "empathy drug" and transform relationships The challenges and rewards of writing about family, healing, and uncomfortable truths Tips for aspiring authors on creating meaningful, lasting work/ If you've ever wanted to write a book that changes lives—yours and others—this episode is packed with insight, inspiration, and practical guidance. Keywords: Kyle Thiermann, One Last Question Before You Go, Author Hour, Eric Jorgenson, memoir writing, family interviews, how to write a book, healing relationships through writing, book inspiration, Scribe Media
Choose Your Universe: Robin Jelinek
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Craig Stanland: Helping One Person And Reaching Thousands
In this powerful interview, Craig Stanland opens up about his extraordinary journey—from being arrested by the FBI and serving time in federal prison, to finding healing and purpose through writing his bestselling book, Blank Canvas. Craig shares raw and honest moments of hitting rock bottom, battling shame, and how writing 186 pages in prison became his lifeline. Hear how one man's story of fraud, loss, and redemption turned into a beacon of hope for others struggling with their own darkest moments. If you've ever felt stuck, lost, or afraid to share your story, Craig's journey will inspire you to take that first step and turn your pain into purpose. Don't miss this emotional conversation about the transformative power of vulnerability and storytelling. 👉 Listen now to discover how writing can change your life — one true sentence at a time.