My book did not make me rich. It made me known.

A payment landed in my bank account recently for a book I wrote almost a decade ago.

It wasn’t a royalty payment. It came from the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society because schools, colleges and universities had legally photocopied extracts from my book.

It made me smile because, that book has probably generated more income through photocopying rights than it ever has through royalties. That might sound disappointing to some people, but I see it very differently.

Too many business owners judge the success of a book by how many copies it sells. I think that is the wrong measure entirely. My first book never made me wealthy, but it changed the trajectory of my business in ways I could never have predicted. Looking back now, I can draw a direct line from writing that first manuscript to the business I run today.

When I wrote From Learner to Earner, I wasn’t thinking about building a personal brand. I was running an employability business and wanted to share practical advice with students and graduates making the transition into the workplace. It was simply a way of packaging what I would learned over the years into something people could return to long after I would left the room.

What I did not appreciate at the time was that I wasn’t just writing a book. I was creating an asset.

The day after publication I knew exactly the same amount as I had the day before, yet people saw me differently. Journalists became more interested in my opinions. Event organisers viewed me as someone with recognised expertise. Prospective clients arrived at meetings already feeling they knew how I thought because they’d spent time with my ideas before we would ever shaken hands.

The book hadn’t changed my knowledge. It had changed how visible that knowledge was. There are thousands of brilliant business owners who are exceptional at what they do but remain largely invisible outside their own networks. They assume that if they are good enough, opportunities will eventually find them. Sometimes they do but more often, they do not.

Writing a book gave people a reason to notice me. It created credibility before I would even walked into the room and opened conversations that simply would not have happened otherwise. Better quality clients followed, speaking invitations increased and media opportunities became more frequent. None of that happened because someone had checked the bestseller lists. It happened because I would demonstrated my expertise in a way that people could hold in their hands.

The biggest misconception about business books is that they are products. I do not think they are. I think they are one of the most valuable marketing assets a founder can create.

Unlike a social media post that disappears within hours or a presentation that is forgotten after the event, a book has an incredibly long lifespan. My first one is almost ten years old and it is still generating income through photocopying licences. More importantly, it is still opening doors.

Even today, books form part of many of my speaking engagements. It is not unusual for boxes of books to arrive at a venue before I do so every delegate leaves with a copy. The keynote lasts an hour. The book stays on their desk for weeks, months or sometimes years. It reinforces the message, reminds people who you are and often creates conversations long after the event has finished.

Writing the book also had an unexpected effect on me personally. It forced me to think more clearly. It is easy to believe you understand your subject until you have to explain it over 40,000 words. Suddenly the gaps in your thinking become obvious. You have to organise your ideas, challenge your own assumptions and decide what you genuinely believe rather than what you have always repeated.

That process made me a better communicator, a better speaker and ultimately a better business owner.

Whenever someone asks me whether they should write a book, I encourage them to stop worrying about whether it will sell thousands of copies and instead ask three different questions.

What do you want to become known for?

Who do you want to read it?

What conversations do you want it to start?

The answers to those questions will shape a far more valuable book than obsessing over rankings or royalties ever will.

Of course, writing a book is not easy. Every founder I know has a list of reasons why now is not the right time. Client work comes first. Emails need answering. There are proposals to send, invoices to chase and teams to lead. The manuscript quietly slips to the bottom of the list and another year passes.

I have been there. That is one of the reasons we now run writing retreats. Time is often the biggest barrier rather than talent. Giving yourself permission to step away from the day-to-day and focus solely on your book can unlock months of progress in just a few days.

The same thing happened with publishing. Over the years, more and more people asked me how I would done it. They weren’t short of ideas or experience. They simply did not know how to turn everything in their heads into a book they were proud of. Some explored traditional publishing. Others considered self-publishing but found the process overwhelming.

Those conversations eventually led to the launch of Moja Publishing. It wasn’t something I would planned when I wrote my first book. It grew naturally because I could see the impact a book had made on my own business and wanted to help other founders experience the same thing.

If you’d told me when I sat down to write that first manuscript that it would eventually lead to a publishing business, writing retreats and countless opportunities to work with brilliant entrepreneurs, I would not have believed you.

That is why I always encourage business owners to think differently about writing a book. Do not write one because you want to call yourself an author. Do not write one because you think it will make you rich. Write one because it captures your expertise, shares your thinking and creates opportunities that do not exist today.

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