You Launched Your Book. Now What?

“I want to make money from my expertise.” Or, “I’m making a little here and there, but nothing feels consistent.”

I get this question a lot.

And almost every time, what follows isn’t confusion about tools or platforms. It’s confusion about identity.

People start listing everything they could do.

I could coach. I could consult. I could speak. I could write. I could run events. I could start a podcast.

And they’re right. They can do all of those things.

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

This is where comparison quietly hijacks the entire conversation. You look around, see other authors or experts doing six things at once, and assume that’s the model. What you don’t see is the narrowing that happened before the expansion. The years of saying no. The internal clarity that made the visible work coherent.

Comparison isn’t just the thief of joy. It’s the thief of positioning.

And positioning is where all of this actually begins.

Positioning Is Clarity, Not Cleverness

Positioning isn’t a slogan. It isn’t a tagline. It isn’t what you put on your website header.

Positioning is the internal decision that answers one question cleanly for you.

Who is this for, and what problem am I here to solve?

That’s it.

Positioning is clarity.

It’s you deciding, before the market does it for you, what you want to be known for. It’s the difference between being generally capable and being specifically remembered.

This is where authors and experts get stuck because clarity requires commitment. And commitment means letting go.

You have to ask uncomfortable questions.

Do you have a business, or are you trying to build one? Are you a consultant, a coach, a speaker? Maybe all three, fine. But what is the throughline?

What is the theme that connects your talk, your workshop, your writing, and your services? What’s the essence of the work when you strip away the formats?

If you can’t say that in one or two sentences, the market won’t hold you in its mind.

And here’s the real test.

If someone introduces you to a conference organizer, does your work make sense immediately? Does it feel coherent enough to belong on a bigger stage, in a broader room, with people who don’t already know you?

If it only makes sense after a long explanation, it’s not positioned yet.

That doesn’t mean it’s shallow. It means it hasn’t been distilled.

The Internal Brand: Your Compass

This is what brand actually is.

Brand is not colors. Brand is not fonts. Brand is not how you look on a beach with a laptop. Yes, those are very important components of your overall brand and experience.

However, before all that, we need to fully understand the heart of your message.

Brand is your internal compass.

It’s your understanding of:

• Who you are for

• What problem you’re obsessed with

• What lens you bring that others don’t

• What conversation you are advancing

This is where you decide what you say no to. What you repeat relentlessly. What you’re willing to be known for, even if it costs you other opportunities.

Think about someone who is truly immersed in their field.

I have a friend who lives and breathes cybersecurity. This isn’t a side interest. It’s his world. But he didn’t position himself as “someone who knows a lot about cybersecurity.” He positioned himself as a leader in that space.

His writing, his speaking, and his business all reinforce the same idea. He dives deep into cybersecurity through a leadership lens. Systems. Responsibility. Risk. Consequence.

That clarity is why he’s trusted. It’s why large organizations hire him. It’s why he’s seen as a thought leader instead of just another expert.

That’s internal brand.

It becomes the filter for everything. What he talks about. What he ignores. Where he shows up. Who he serves.

Brand lives here first, whether you acknowledge it or not.

And if you don’t define it, the internet will do it for you. Poorly.

Brand Is the Sound Bite People Carry

Here’s the simplest way to understand brand.

Brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.

It’s the shorthand they use. The mental hook they attach you to.

“Oh, that’s the person who helps authors turn books into platforms.” “She’s the one who simplifies really complex ideas.” “He’s like the Michael Jordan of probate law.”

That sentence is brand.

And you don’t get there by doing everything. You get there by owning something.

This is why being esoteric is hard. It requires restraint. Being vague is worse. Vague doesn’t feel deep. It feels forgettable.

Owning a message forces you to let go of things that don’t connect. Ideas that are interesting but distracting. Offers that make money but dilute the signal.

But that discipline is what gives your work weight.

External Marketing: How the Message Travels

Once the internal brand is clear, marketing finally has something to work with.

Marketing is not the heart. Marketing is the amplification.

Marketing is how people hear about you. It’s how your message moves. It’s how other people’s sound bites about you spread.

Marketing isn’t just promotion. It’s the amplification of experience.

Let me give you a concrete example.

Imagine your core business is coaching chefs on how to attract more people to experience their food and get those people to talk about it.

That’s the brand. That’s the heart of the work.

Now look at the marketing.

You host a local event. You give chefs a mic. You let them share their story. You invite locals, food lovers, community members. You create a night that celebrates local restaurants.

That event is marketing, not because people showed up, but because of what happens after. Because of how those chefs experienced you. Because of what they say about you once it’s over.

That experience becomes a story they carry.

At the same time, you run a podcast. You meet new chefs. You tell their stories. You shine a light on their work. That podcast is another amplification channel. Another way your message travels into new circles.

Different mediums. Same message.

Marketing is the set of vehicles that carry your brand outward. The podcast. The event. The review. The interview. The collaboration.

Marketing answers the question: How do more of the right people encounter this work?

Brand answers the question: What is the work, really?

Why Most People Stay Stuck Making “A Little Here and There”

This is where everything collapses if you get it backwards.

If you’re not clear on who you’re for and what you stand for, marketing just spreads confusion faster. No amount of visibility fixes vagueness. It only multiplies it.

That’s why so many people feel stuck making a little money here and there. They’re marketing containers instead of owning an outcome.

Coaching, consulting, speaking, writing, those are delivery mechanisms. They are not the business.

The business is the problem you solve and the transformation you’re known for.

Your website shouldn’t feel like a general store. Your work shouldn’t feel scattered. Everything should be connected and layered, pointing back to the same core idea.

When brand is clear, marketing stops feeling performative. It becomes connective tissue. You’re not inventing messages. You’re expressing the same truth through different experiences.

I made a video around this topic a while back, and I think it's still relevant if you want to check that out here.

And as always, if you need support with your author brand, reach out. I would love to help.

Take good care, smile more

Hussein