Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Brett Harris. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Brett, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

It all started by being a creator myself. At nineteen years old, I wrote a book with my twin brother that we were able to get published; it went on to sell well over half a million copies. So I had a lot of young writers asking me how I did this. For a long time, I was coaching them for free.

But when I was newly married, my wife, who was a pre-professional ballerina, got very sick and was bedbound. I needed to figure out a way to provide for us while still being a full time caregiver and taking care of my wife. That led me to start asking the question: what could I do that would give me an income—and also the freedom to be there for the people that are important to me? To put it another way: what value do I have to offer the world?

It may seem obvious to others that my publishing skills and experience had value. But I think we all know that when it comes to our own skills and knowledge, it’s easy to undervalue it. At the time, I was helping someone for free when I realized I needed to be able to support my wife. So I asked the writer I was working with if she would be willing to pay me for my help. I ended up making my first $15,000 from that first client and I helped her make over $100,000 in book deals and sponsorship deals. That was a breakthrough moment for me: what I know could really change someone’s life, and people are happy to pay me to help them in this way. That launched me in the direction of helping writers pursue their dreams, and that’s now grown into multiple programs serving thousands of writers over the years.

Brett, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

After several years of serving hobby and career writers through a membership program, my team and I realized that we needed a program specifically for those who wanted to pursue writing as a career. Many writers think they just need to write well and learn how to publish. But we knew that this wasn’t enough. Writers—and all creatives—need to understand fundamental business skills: how to create something of value, value what you’ve created and then share that value with others in exchange for money.

We launched the Author Conservatory as a college alternative program for young people who really want to pursue writing as a career and learn not only the writing craft and publishing industry skills, but also how to build a business and become an entrepreneur. Our goal is for students to graduate with the skills they need to get published and support themselves financially. Creatives don’t need to settle for a “starving artist” mindset.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

One of my favorite marketing success stories from the students we’ve worked with is a teenager named Hannah. Hannah was working to develop a piano studio business as a way to practice business skills and entrepreneurship through the Author Conservatory. She was in the middle of researching other music teachers in her area, only to get completely overwhelmed as she saw one teacher who’d been teaching for 40 years, another teacher who had degrees from top music schools, and other teachers with specific methods and certifications. As she looked at herself as a young adult, she felt like there was no way she could compete or charge anything close to what these other piano teachers were charging.

What I told her over a coaching call is this: you’re not competing with the Juilliard-trained teacher. You’re not competing with the teacher who’s been teaching for 40 years. If people want that, then they can work with those teachers. Instead, we have to ask: what unique twist do you bring to piano teaching? It’s amazing how all of us often need someone else to help draw that out of us. In that conversation, Hannah was able to step back and realize that part of her unique story was that she was not only trained in classical piano, but she also trained in playing chords for popular music or worship music for church. She could give students a classical foundation while teaching them how to play their favorite songs, whether that would allow them to play as part of a band, a music group, or even for family worship or in a church service.

And as soon as she started talking about this, it was like the light bulb went on. She could immediately see that for some people, it was absolutely appealing to work with a young, fun teacher who could teach you not just a classical foundation, but also how to play your favorite songs. With that insight, she was willing to try to charge just as much as these highly experienced, highly credentialed, highly trained teachers in her area. A few weeks later, she opened up enrollment for her studio and sold out of all her slots within the first week (and even had a waiting list of students who wanted to work with her!).

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I think one of the most common lessons students have had to unlearn is that what they or their family would pay for something is not the same as what other people would be willing to pay. I think we often have this sense that we need to price our goods and our services based on what we or our friends would be willing to pay. But that’s not the case.

I think of our student Juliet, who, in order to support her career as a writer, launched a house cleaning business in her area. Right off the bat, she experienced some price shock from prospective clients within her family and friends who felt that her market standard pricing was way too high. Juliet was really shaken by this.

Then she came to business coaching calls with us to express that fear and question whether this would really work. We were able to encourage her that she needed to work on marketing and finding her ideal clients. Her family and friends didn’t normally hire house cleaners; she needed to find people who actually do so and know what house cleaning is worth. That was a real turning point in Juliet’s life, because she had to trust in the value of what she had to offer, even when being told by family and friends that her time wasn’t worth that much. She didn’t give up. She started marketing outside of her own circles. And soon enough, she started landing clients. These were clients who heard her pricing, didn’t blink, and just asked when she could start. Once she found the right people, they were happy and grateful to pay her what her time was worth.

Today, Juliet is making thousands of dollars a month from her cleaning business. She’s hired employees and she is on track to have a business that can support her as she is launching her writing career. Earlier this year, Juliet made a post in our community just to share business highlights, saying, “I truly can’t believe this is the life I am living. These are the crazy big things I am doing! This is the path I get to walk down!” That’s the power of knowing what you and your time are worth. This kind of insight is a life-changing realization for any person, but especially for a young person with her whole life and career ahead of her.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://authorconservatory.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorconservatory