How to Build a Book from Your Podcast Content

This transcript was created using Headliner. It has been copied and pasted but not proofread or edited, so it may contain errors or inaccuracies.

Laura: Welcome to Podcasting for Business Owners. I’m Your host, Laura McRae, a podcast consultant, educator, and self confessed podcast nerd. If you’re thinking of launching a podcast or want to grow the one you have, you’re in the right place. Hold on to your headphones and let’s go. Welcome back to Podcasting for Business Owners, the podcast that helps you share your story, lead your industry and and grow your network through podcasting. I’m, your host, Laura McRae, and in today’s episode, I’m joined by the fabulous Emily Smith, also known as Em. Em is a marketing and AI consultant, educator and coach. And she’s here to share her journey of turning a podcast into a book and turning another book into a podcast. Em first turned her podcast Rewrite youe Story with Emily Smith into a personal development book. Now she’s back with her latest project called Try and Stop Her. It’s a collaborative book featuring 24 women in business across Australia and a brand new podcast to go with it. If you’ve ever wondered how to repurpose your podcast into a book or how a book can inspire your next podcast, you’re in the right place. Em’s sharing her tips, lessons learned, and her own creative process. So stick around. So, hello, Em, and welcome to the show. Hello.

EM: Thank you so much for having me.

Laura: Laura, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do?

EM: It’s interesting when someone asks me this question because I know as we were chatting before, it is quite hard to describe what I do because I do a lot of things. And as you listen more to this episode, you’ll probably be like, yep, she, she does a lot. I am a marketing and AI consultant, educator, and coach. And what I do is I work with women in small business to help them implement great marketing strategies while also using AI to make it even easier and amplify everything that you do.

Laura: So let’s start from the beginning. What inspired you to turn your episodes from Rewrite your story with Emily Smith into your first book?

EM: I’ve always wanted to write a book and I think it just made sense when you’ve recorded a podcast and you know, you plan the episodes right, you take your time, you plan the episodes. And what Rewrite your story with Emily Smith was about was my own story of, you know, childhood trauma into learning skills in order to change my life. And I had recorded them and it became this asset that could be then developed into a book. And this was before, you know, AI and, ah, easy transcription. So I basically Sat down and I listened to, to my podcast with my earphones on at my laptop. And I’d be frantically typing away and kind of adding things in or taking things out because it did need to be beefed out a little bit. But I knew that I wanted to write a book. I wanted to write multiple books, and I had to get started. It was a really easy way to get started. And it wasn’t just like complete, you know, copy, paste across, because speaking versus writing is a very different kind of communication medium. But it was a really good starting point, a really good foundational place to get into a space where I could see the structure of a book and get it out quite quickly.

Laura: That must have been quite a painstaking process though. Or was it easier because you had those episodes in place?

EM: I think I found it easier to start with, but the difficulty was with the way a process for a, podcast is, is that you kind of keep talking about the topic. You, you might bring in more experts, and so you talk about the topic continuously. But a book has to end, and so, you know, essentially you’ve got to close the book at the end. But I needed it to round off. And so I found it really easy to get started, but then really hard to finish it. And so that was probably the harder part.

Laura: So how did you go about doing the end part then? How did you finish it off?

EM: I had to work with a book coach at the time who kind of encouraged me to think that maybe if I had nothing else to write, then it was the end. And so therefore I could just write that kind of summary at the end that is encouraging people to then take action rather than feeling like I have to add more into it. Because a book can be a personal development book doesn’t need to be as long as, like a novel. It can be quite short. And I’m really glad that I did that actually, because I’ve now written more books or I’ve got another book coming next year that I’m like, okay, if I put everything into one book, I can’t learn and develop more in the future. And obviously then I’ve launched more podcasts too.

Laura: Amazing.

So did you repurpose content as it was from your podcast, or did you reframe and refine it to flow with the book?

EM: I definitely used it for structure to help me figure out where I was going to start

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EM: and, you know, what stories I wanted to share. But there was a lot of refining that had to happen because the way you speak and the way you write is very different. But also as you start writing, I think when you type it’s slower than when you are speaking. I mean, if someone can type as fast as they can speak, amazing, that’s quite a credit to them. But for me, it was more about what I wanted to add into it after I had verbalised it and how I could make that really powerful to read. So it is quite different, but it’s also really helpful to have that structure to start with.

Laura: Yeah. How do you keep your personality and conversational tone alive in the book? When podcasting is naturally so dynamic and free flowing, whereas a book is more structured?

EM: So the difference is. And one of the strategies I learned with writing is about showing, not telling. So in, podcasting we’re kind of like talking through something. Whereas with writing, because you can’t hear someone’s voice and you can’t hear the tonality and the way they’re saying it, you have to write in a way that shows what you’re trying to tell them. So I would have to add more emotion into it or add in things that describe not how I felt. So it wasn’t like I felt anxious. It would be more like I noticed I was biting my nails. And so it’s showing and describing the scenario. So people can visualise it because they can’t hear you. So they have to be able to almost see it in their head, if that makes sense.

Laura: Yeah. Like the tone of voice and the story behind it, it makes you imagine it more. Yeah.

EM: Yes. Yeah. Well, you think about the best books that you’ve read, even if they are personal development books, you start to see what you’re reading, you start to visualise it, see yourself in it or, you know, see it happening. And that’s what you can do through a podcast, but it’s not as needed because you can use the way you use your voice to emphasise things, but you can’t do that in a book.

Laura: That’s right. Yeah.

And so did turning your podcast into a book shift how you view your podcast content now? Do you approach your episodes differently?

EM: Yeah, it’s an interesting question, because I haven’t. I’ve had two podcasts since then and neither of them have become a book. I think for me, and this is just for me personally, what I want to talk about in a podcast is actually different now to what I want to write a book about. But as you can tell from me having multiple podcasts, I’m also the kind of person that changes. I change my mind all the time. I change my mind as often as I change my underwear. And so like, if you, in five years time look back at the books that I will have written and the podcasts that I would have spoken on, they’re all going to be so different. And so it’s quite hard to put it into one, one theme. I think I do approach episodes differently because I know that I can have just a, ah, casual conversation in an episode, whereas writing. There has to be so much more consideration that goes into writing because every word matters. Not that it doesn’t matter on a podcast, but I feel like podcasts are a little bit more casual. It’s like, it’s like you’re going into someone’s thoughts or listening to someone’s conversation, whereas a book just has a different feeling about it. So they’re completely different processes, even though there can be overlaps.

Laura: So tell us about your new book. Try and Stop her.

EM: Very, exciting. So this book launched a couple of months ago now and it is something that I had been thinking about for a little while. It’s a collaborative book with 24 women in business, one of them being me, 23 other women in business across Australia. And it came about because I’ve seen a lot of these books happen in recent years and I wondered, first of all, can I do that? But second of all, one of my highest values is connection and part of connection is community. For me. I like to create community and I like to create connection amongst that community. And so that’s why I kind of looked at that as a project that would help me to generate that. But I’ve seen in the past that these books have been quite disconnected in their community and that, you know, people don’t even realise who they’re in a book with. They’ve not connected in any other way, apart from the fact they’ve submitted a chapter and they’re in a book. So I wanted to create a process where people were in this book, but they also went through a journey together of writing and got the opportunity to get to know each other on that six month journey. And it becomes more potent that way, it becomes more impactful. And then the actual pages, even though they weren’t allowed to read each other’s chapters until it was all like the final draught, otherwise that everyone would have got up in their heads and gone, oh my gosh, someone’s chapter is better than mine, everyone would want to change it. So I didn’t let them do that. We had Zoom Calls monthly, we had a Facebook group, so we were sharing, you know, what we’re

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EM: working on, what we’re struggling with. And so by the end, when everyone did get the chance to read everyone’s chapters and we did meet in real life at the book launches, there was already a connection there. And so the cohesiveness of the book was there as well. And honestly, it was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. I’m thinking, you know, everyone just writes a chapter. There’s so much that happens when you start writing the same with the podcast, right? When you very first, your first episode you do of a podcast can be so nerve wracking. You listen back to it, you want it to be perfect, and then, you know, over time, the more episodes you do, it gets easier and easier. But I think because all of these women, you know, it’s the first time they were getting published, there was so much that came up for them mindset wise when it came to writing their chapters. And so I didn’t quite anticipate that for some reason. That was a lot of work. But I think because we had this space to work through it together, it meant that the outcome, the book itself is beautiful. It’s amazing. It’s like better than I ever could have imagined.

Laura: Oh, that’s an amazing m. It’s a great way for people to all come together and celebrate together too.

EM: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Laura: And so how will it work? How will the podcast work? Because I know you’re inviting all the authors onto your show. So how’s that working?

EM: So what I’m doing at the moment, instead of it being my show, I’m launching another podcast called the Try and Stop her podcast. But it’s just a series. So, beginning to end. I’ve started it with my intro and talking about exactly what I just shared with you, why I’ve done this, and that’ll be bringing in each of the authors. The reason we decided to do this is because audiobooks for this kind of book is quite challenging. There’s only two ways you can do it. The first way is by getting like someone else to read the whole book so that it’s one person and there’s consistent quality because Audible, you know, Spotify and getting a podcast out there, the quality can be pretty crap actually and still go live. whereas Audible is very, very strict on the quality. So that’s the one first way. And the second way is to get everyone to record. But the quality has to be equal. So we’ve got women across the country, we would all have to go to one place to Record it to make sure that it’s equal. Or I’d have to, like, make sure that everyone has the exact right. Set up for it in their home so that it’s, you know, and it’s just too hard. So I was like, listen to a podcast. And that way, you know, it’s 20 to 30 minutes each episode, and I’m just chatting to each author about, you know, why they decided to. To join the book, why they said yes to do this. Because, some of them actually said, no, no, no, no, no. And then at the last minute went, okay, yes. You know, and so just that story is quite interesting. how they found the writing process and what their biggest lesson is that they want people to take away from their chapter. I mean, that’s kind of the guide of those conversations. But they’re also going into different places as they do.

Laura: It sounds like you’re probably going to batch record them with each of them or how’s that going to work?

EM: I’ve recorded half of them, and then I’ll do like three this week. Because I like the idea of having, you know, people can binge to start. It’s like when you launch a new series of Outlander or something. It’s like, give me the whole series, not just the one episode, please. So three to start with. And then they’ll trickle out over the next five months because there’ll be 26 episodes. I also got our publisher, Kathy, to be on one of the episodes and our event sponsor, Tempo co, the ladies behind that business, to jump on one episode as well, and then that’ll be it. So I’m recording it all. It’ll be recorded by the end of the school holidays, and then it will just roll out. And it’s beautiful content to roll out over until, like, the end of May.

Laura: So they’re each gonna talk about their chapter in the book.

EM: Yeah, yeah. Without giving too much away, obviously, because I also want it to be about the writing process. Because one of the reasons I wanted to do this is because I believe everyone has a book within them. And so when someone does have a podcast, I’m quite often like, have you thought about making your podcast into a book? Because if you have a podcast, you’ve got a message to share, right. And you’ve got content there, so it can be made into a book. And that’s. Yeah. Now a lot of the women in this book next year are going to write their own book, which is really exciting. So I’d say there’ll be maybe almost half of them that have started writing their own book now.

Laura: Wow, that’s great encouragement. And hopefully they’ll start their own podcasts too.

EM: Yeah, exactly. Because, well, the thing is, this is the thing about content, right? A podcast is a great piece of long form content. A book is a great piece of long form content. And so you can use it in so many ways to repurpose. If you like podcasting and that’s like your main thing you do, you can go, right, well, how can that then trickle into all the other areas that I could be doing content and maybe don’t love, but it means I can make it easy.

Laura: What strategies are you using to tie your podcast episode to specific themes or stories from the book?

EM: Look, I’m a very

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EM: organised, disorganised, organised person, right? I know in my head what I’m going to do, but then when I go to do it, it’s very different. So I have tried to keep these episodes short because I know my audience generally, you know, they don’t have two hours to listen to an episode. So I’ve got those three areas that I want to make sure I cover. And those three areas are why they wanted to be a part of the book. The difficult part, like, which I think is a really important story, you know, like, what did you find difficult about it? What was the hardest thing about writing? And then the final thing is, what’s the key message from your chapter that you want people to take away? And by having that structure, I think it guides the conversation really well. And it does, you know, go off on some tangents. But that way we can at least get those three solid messages out there, which is the ultimate intention of the podcast, is to get people thinking about what would make me say yes to writing a book, what might be difficult, what might I have to overcome. And then also to get them to, you know, if they haven’t already bought the book, go buy the book because you hear a little bit about their story. And now I want to go and read it and get that inspiration from other women.

Laura: What do you find easy? Was it easier to write the book after a, podcast, or is it easier to write the book first and then do the podcast?

EM: I think it’s actually harder to do the podcast afterwards. But they’re completely different books as well. So because the first one was just me, I was only relying on me. Whereas the second book, because it was a collaborative book, doing the podcast means I’m, also working with someone else to make that happen. So I think that’s probably what makes it harder is, you know, scheduling in those interviews, having those interviews, editing those interviews. And that’s probably more what makes it harder. If I had written a book first, I think doing a podcast after writing a book would be super easy. A chapter of a book will take you much longer to prepare for than an episode of a podcast. So if you’ve already got a book, I mean, you want to make it conversational, you’re not just reading straight off the book, but you would be able to then record it in a conversational way. And hey, now you could use AI to help you like write a conversational script from a chapter of your book, which would make it even easier.

Laura: So yeah, you’ve got like the backbone of the, podcast already there, haven’t you, if you’ve got the book already.

EM: I would still, though I think on reflection, I would still do the podcast first. Podcast first, because talking it out, that’s for me though, the way I like to learn and operate. I like to talk out things before I take action. So this is why I love, like I have voice messages on my phone chat GPT, I can voice message as well. And then I develop the writing component. So I think even if I hadn’t done a podcast and then wrote a book, I would have potentially voice messaged ideas to myself and then been writing from there anyway. So it, depends on how you work. Some of the authors in this book as well, they did kind of voice to text while they were thinking and then use that to write. So yeah, I think podcast first for sure.

Laura: So when you did your first podcast, did you know you were going to turn it into a book or did you record the podcast and then think, oh, I could actually turn this into a book?

EM: Yeah, the latter. I recorded the podcast and then I thought, yeah, I could turn this into a book. And it was when I went to like a personal development seminar in the middle of 2021 that, you know, where they were sitting, goals. And I was like, I’ve always wanted to write a book. And. And then I was like, I could use my podcast. And that’s when I committed to doing it because I was there in this moment of like, we’re all making goals and we’re gonna make it happen. And then I told my audience that this book was gonna be out by the end of the year. And so I was like, okay, I’ve got six months.

Laura: So what would you say to someone who’s got a podcast and thinking about writing a book from their podcast if.

EM: You’Re thinking about it, then do it. I mean, I think one of the best things you can do is if you make the decision, tell people about it. Because if you’ve already got a podcast, you’ve got an audience, right? And so they’re listening to you talk, and it’s a natural progression to go, what’s another thing I can do to solidify what I’m learning from them on the podcast? And so then, you know, I became a number one bestseller with that book in 16 hours. And that was because in the podcast, as I was writing, I was talking about the fact that I was writing this book. So if you make that commitment, tell people, because then you’ll have some accountability. I think that’s the biggest problem with writing a book that I see is that if there’s no deadlines and it’s just you, you won’t necessarily get it done because you’ll just keep trying to make it perfect and make it perfect. To make it perfect. And get a book coach or someone, you know, like, this is what these services are for, right? Someone that can back you and go, what support do you need? Because if you’ve never written a book before, you

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EM: don’t know what you don’t know. Same with the podcast. before you started a podcast, you had to learn what do I do to start a podcast? And then how do I manage it and all of that kind of stuff. And in some way you’re going to have to ask for help. So it’s the same for. Same for writing a book.

Laura: Yeah. And I guess with your try and stop her book, there was the accountability there because everyone’s relying on each other because there’s so many different authors.

EM: Yeah. No one wanted to let everyone down. No one wanted to be that person that’s like, ah, I haven’t submitted my chapter. So, yeah, there was definitely a lot of, of that social accountability and wanting to do well for the collective group of people that were contributing the energy to it. So, yeah, I think that helped.

Laura: And, being the AI queen, how have you repurposed your episodes, your books? You’ve probably repurposed the hell out of everything, haven’t you?

EM: Do you know what? Not as well as I could, I think, because I know so much about AI and what’s possible, I know that I could do more, but it’s not that I haven’t done a lot compared to other people. I probably have, yes, repurposed quite a lot. There’s so much you can do with video now to Repurpose and, you know, plug in your episodes and it will come up with a blog post. It will come up with, you know, whatever you need. Your show notes. Podcasting has gotten a lot easier, but at the same time it’s gotten flooded. So you still, you know, you need to do it well. But I think there is even more that can be done. And I’m kind of like, you know, what do they call that analogy? Is it the plumber’s daughter? It’s not the plumber’s daughter. The one that, like, knows all the things but doesn’t necessarily do all the things. I could tell you all the things to do, but I don’t necessarily do them all myself because I am, very good at, ah, creating content. I love creating content of all kinds. But then that means I have this insane bank of content that then there’s too much to do with it, if that makes sense. Whereas I think for many people, they’re the opposite of me. They don’t have as much content, but they want to make the most of it. And so you kind of like need a. You need to milk it, you need to get all of the juice out of that lemon, whereas I probably have too much. And that’s the opposite problem. But that’s okay. I’m happy with that problem in my life.

Laura: Yeah. Problem to have.

EM: Yeah. Yeah. And you know what? It will be cool one day to go back and look at stuff that hasn’t been repurposed and go, look how much things have changed or, you know, repurpose it just to show the development and the learning that’s happened in that time frame.

Laura: That’s great. And hopefully you’ve encouraged some of our listeners to go out there and start a book from their podcast or turn their podcast into a book. Can you let us know how we can connect with you, please?

EM: I really hope that I’ve encouraged some people to reach out to me on Instagram. That’s the best way to connect with me. So it’s herealEm. M. I’m sure you can put it in the show notes so that people can connect. Happy for you to drop into my DMs and ask me questions. Otherwise, go to therealEm.com and you can cheque out a little bit about what I do there. And I. Yeah, I love to connect. As I mentioned, connection is my highest value. So I’m more than happy to have a chat wherever emails or DMs.

Laura: And we look forward to your podcast coming out too.

EM: M. Yes, well, by the time this comes out, the first few episodes should definitely be out for you to listen to.

Laura: And I’ll put links to your books and your podcast and your website and your Instagram links and everything in the show notes. So thank you very much.

EM: Much thank you.

Laura: Wow, what a conversation with Em. I love how she shared her experience of turning a podcast into a book and how she found that starting with a podcast gave her a clear structure to work from. It’s a great, ah, reminder that if you’ve already got a podcast, you’re sitting on a gold mine of content. I also really resonated with what Em said about showing, not telling when it comes to writing. It’s such a valuable skill to translate the personality and energy of your voice into the written word. And her advice about accountability was spot on. Whether it’s writing a book or launching a podcast, having someone to help you stay on track is a total game changer. And remember, if you need accountability to start your podcast, that’s where I can help. All of the business owners I’ve supported to launch their podcast have come to me because they’ve sat on an idea for years and need someone to just give them a push in the right direction, show them the ropes and have that accountability. If you need that accountability, get in touch. I’ll, put my contact details in the show notes. If this episode has inspired you to turn your podcast into a book or even to start a podcast so you can start building that content bank, take Em’s advice and just start. Thank you for listening today. Don’t forget to cheque out the show notes for the links to Em’s books, her new podcast, and how to connect with her on Instagram. And as always, if you’re ready to

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Laura: share your story, lead your industry and grow your network through podcasting, download my free podcast launch Roadmap. The link is in the show notes. If you found value in this podcast, please leave a five star rating and a review would be even better. Your support shows that this is a good show which will attract high profile guests and in turn deliver greater value to you. This podcast is produced and edited by me. Don’t waste your time on editing. Let me help you with your podcast. Cheque out the links in the show notes to get in touch.

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