What I Learned About Writing a Book

I’m writing my first book, and the process has been way more humbling and structured than I expected. I walk through the real timeline, the stages I didn’t know existed, and how I’m building “Profit First for Physical Therapists” so practice owners can finally feel in control of their money.

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Hey Physical Therapists! I'm currently writing the book Profit First for Physical Therapists and I'm looking for advanced readers. Go to www.pf4pt.com to join the waitlist and get early access. 

*Intro/outro song credit:
King Around Here by Alex Grohl

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:49

I'm currently in the middle of writing my very first book. And I thought it might be fun to give you a peek behind the curtain because there were a lot of misconceptions that I personally had before going on this adventure about what writing a book would actually be like. So if you are considering writing a book in the near future or down the road, or you're just curious about the idea, this is just an honest look into the things I'm learning as I go, the things I didn't realize before I started, and how this process is actually unfolding so that when you get into it, you have more clarity into what things will look like. My name is Craig, and I'm the owner of Daisy Financial Coaching. Our team is on a mission to make your therapy practice permanently profitable. If you own a solo or group practice,

Why I Started Writing A Book

SPEAKER_00 1:38

we're here to help you build a business that creates more time, makes more money, and serves more people. This is the Therapy Business Podcast. For as long as I can remember, I've always enjoyed writing. When I was in elementary school, I remember uh wanting to be a children's author whenever I grew up and writing uh this book about cobra snakes and illustrated it and uh got sent off to a contest where I got the beautiful award of honorable mention. Uh but after that, I you know I took creative writing classes and journalism classes in in high school and in college, and it's just always been a passion of mine. When I was a touring musician, I carried a spiral notebook with me and I would I would write, whether it was short stories or or potential novels that just never got released or completed. Uh but it's just always been in me. When I started this business, you know, I write newsletters, I write blogs, and so the getting the creative writing piece integrated into what I do on the day-to-day is a lot of fun. And it's been a goal of mine forever, it feels like, to write a book. So when I was approaching the end of last year of 2025, uh my my coach, my business coach, was said, so 2026, you're writing that book, right? And as I laughed, I said, you know, oh, that'd be great. And he's like, No, 2026, you're writing that book. And I was like, you know what? Yeah, 2026, I'm writing that book. And so that's exactly what I did in January. I kicked off this this journey. And so I thought it would be helpful maybe to hear just a really candid conversation of what this process has been like. I want to walk you through kind of what I've learned, that maybe the misconceptions I had to start, and then what I've learned since then. But I also want to give you a timeline of the process because truthfully, I had no idea what was actually involved with writing a book of to get released out there and to be read. In this day and age, you know, I thought it was gonna be quick and easy. I thought this was just gonna be, you know, oh, I love writing. I've been writing on this topic of you know profitability for physical therapists for a long time. And so this will be a piece of cake. And I learned that that was not the case. And I think that's you know, what I was saying is in this day and age with Amazon and self-publishing and being able to, I I could write something and immediately post it to Amazon if I wanted to. In fact, I even had a little ebook that was, I think, less than 50 pages long, probably 20 pages, 20 to 30 pages long, on Amazon for for years. It was telling other coaches, other aspiring financial coaches, some things I did to help kickstart my business. And the the reason I did is because I was getting coaches reaching out to me constantly asking, you know, they were thinking about becoming a financial coach and they're wanting to know, you know, what what I did to kick off my business, to get it going, to get the marketing. And it just got to a point where you know that's not my market. I'm not looking to to get clients of to teach these people how to do it. But at the same time, I can't keep getting on call. As much as I love helping, I don't my calendar was getting so full, I didn't have the capacity to get on calls with people anymore. So I thought, you know what? Why don't I just toss the things I keep telling them into just a PDF and I threw it on Amazon and I sold it for like two dollars, something just very, very low ticket. Um, but it was easy, like it. I mean, I mean, the book itself, no editing, it was truthfully not a great read, other than it gave some good pointers, I think. Uh, and then it was up there for so long that a lot of the stuff in there became outdated, which is why I eventually took it down, is because I just felt like it wasn't even worth the two dollars anymore. Uh, all that to say, it's easier in this day and age to do to just release a book. And so I thought that's how quick and easy it would be. Uh, I'm currently writing Profit First for Physical Therapists. So I've partnered with uh licensed the rights to write this book from Mike McAllowitz, the author of The Original Profit First. He wrote this book for all businesses, teaching them how to be profitable, how to manage your money, and prioritize profitability in a simple, easy to understand way. Now, his touches all industries. And so, since writing that book, uh over a decade ago, other authors have come in and licensed the Profit First brand and written it to different industries. So these are derivatives that are being written for there's there's one for e-commerce, there's one for dentists, there's one for uh photographers, there's there's a one for therapists, mental health therapists. Julie Harris wrote that one, and it's a fantastic book. If you're uh if you have a mental health practice, I highly recommend getting a

What Profit First Means For PTs

SPEAKER_00 6:26

copy of that one because it speaks directly to your industry. And that's what I want to do for physical therapists. I want to take this concept that was general for everybody and speak to and customize it for an industry that is different than every other industry. The challenges that PTs face is different than anybody else. And so managing the finances is gonna look different than somebody who owns a retail shop that might be reading profit first. So that's what led me on this path. I thought, again, I've been writing on this topic forever. So I was like, oh, great, you know, piece of cake, I'll get this knocked out in a couple of months. Um, but truth be told, I've never written a cohesive piece on this that takes the reader from having no idea about this concept of profit first to being able to implement it successfully in their practice. That's the goal of the book. Somebody coming to it is is stressed, frustrated, overwhelmed with their finances. They they feel like this money thing just doesn't come naturally to them, that they're not good with money. And so they come to me that way. And the book here is to teach the goal is to teach you you're being born, you're no one's born good with money. Like it's it's a skill we develop, and here's the tools, and here's the skills that you can use and the system you can use to finally feel like you have control and clarity of the finances. And so by the end of the book, it's something that's in their practice, it's integrated, they're doing it, they're following the process. And so writing a start-to-finish cohesive piece was really challenging. And so it wasn't a couple month process. In fact, I am currently seven months into the process, and by the time the book releases, it will have been about a 14-month, 12 to 14-month long journey. Uh, and truthfully, that's probably pretty quick, uh, all things considered. So bearing that in mind, for those of you, if you're like me and you're thinking about this book thing, not to scare you away from it, but that was a big eye-opener when I sat down to do this because I knew I wanted to do it right. I knew if I put something out there, I wanted it to be quality. I wanted to make sure it was done in a way because this is an important message. And this mission of helping PTs change how they view money and how they manage money and becoming more profitable and loving their business, paying themselves what they deserve. That's so important to me, and it's so needed in that industry that I had to get this right. So, here is the process and the timeline that I've been following, just to give you an idea of what this actually looks like. It's not just sit down, throw some thoughts into a Word document, hit print, and you're all good to go. I went into it with the goal of writing between 40 and 50,000 words. That's gonna be about a hundred and fifty to 200-page book, depending on the the size of the physical book itself. That's what I was aiming for. Uh, I didn't want it to be too, too long. I wanted to be something that somebody could consume quickly, but I also didn't want to skip over important details. And I wanted to expand on the profit first message. I wanted to say, here's the profit first system, but also here's how to possibly pay your PTs, or here's what it should look like at each phase of business, and just start giving different peeks into managing finances beyond just the system, but how can the system help

Setting Word Count And Outlining

SPEAKER_00 9:44

you expand and grow in a financially healthy way? So I wanted to capture all that in a digestible book. So step one was really honing in on what is my target word count. Then I began outlining, and this is I there's a fantastic book called Write a Must Read by AJ Harper. Uh I highly recommend reading it if you're considering writing a book because it goes through a lot of this in there in detail about the importance of these steps. And I um I met with AJ to discuss our book, and that was a key was the outline, spending time outlining this book so that I'm not going in cold. So my outline, uh, I took an Excel sheet and I I just wrote down stories, so just story topics, and I color-coded it. So I was looking for teaching points, statistics, stories, uh what personal stories or case studies, and I put them all in different columns and I color-coded them. And I just started writing down uh every story that I had about myself. I wrote every story that about a client that I might have had, and with the idea that I'm gonna reach out to these people and interview them and get their permission to include them in the book. Um, the teaching points was so critical. Here's what I want people to learn. And I listed all of those, um, supporting points or different things I wanted to be included, and I put all that down on this spreadsheet. Then I mapped out the chapters and I'm thinking, okay, where are people at chapter one, two, three, et cetera? And I started dropping in the teaching points first. And it's going, okay, what do I want to teach in chapter one to make sure that we've got a core foundation? And then I pulled in some stories. What stories will reinforce these teaching points, or what uh statistics or whatever it is will reinforce some of these teaching points. And then chapter two, uh, after they've learned this, what do they need to learn next? And I started dragging and dropping all those things in outlining truthfully. I would say took me probably a couple weeks, uh, two to four weeks, is what I'll plan for your outlining process. Um, because it it takes time, it really does to figure these things out. And again, I had the luxury of I'm licensing a book Profit First that's out there. So I've got the luxury of seeing how other people have structured theirs, and that helped me kind of mine's gonna be structured different than the others, but at the same time, it's how did they do it? And it kind of gave me a good launching point to see what others how others organize their their chapters and different things. So um, I did mine slightly different, but it gave me a good starting point. This is gonna give you the layout and the flow, and then also once you start writing, it gives you something to anchor into. And so when you have writer's block, it's I've got a little box, it's like, okay, today I can story. I can write I can write a story about this. So that's all I'm gonna get done today, uh, versus trying to get this cohesive linear idea that I'm teaching from point A to point Z without any kind of plan. So the outline was truthfully so vital. I don't skip it. I know it takes time, and again, a lot enough time, two, four weeks to do it, uh, so that it's it's gonna make the rest of this process so much easier. Because once I have the outline, then I started my first draft, my rough draft. Uh I uh the advice I was given was right for the trash. So that is uh just get your thoughts, your ideas down on paper. Don't self-edit while you're doing this, don't think too much into it. Just get it down because you'll be able to come back through and self-edit later. So the the first draft, this is where I'm following that that outline process. And this took me about four to six months, um, is what I would allot. I think I came in right in the middle of that, about five months to write my my first draft. Uh, but that's what I would think of. And and it might be longer. And so this there's not a rule of thumb here. If it's depending on what you're writing and how much you've written in the past, how new you are to this, uh, can determine a lot how busy you are. So I had to take an earmark a lot of time off away so that I could focus on writing and scheduling it in. I joined some accountability groups where we would get on calls, turn our cameras on, and spend that hour writing. So I had to really work it into my schedule. And then eventually, because it was taking a long time, I started writing at night so that it wouldn't eat into the work I needed to do for the business. It wouldn't eat into family time. Once the kids went to bed a few nights a week, I would sit down and I would try to write, you know, a X number of words. So the rough draft, four to six months, is roughly what it took me. There's not a good rule of thumb, give it the time it needs. After the rough draft, self-editing. This is a concept I didn't think of. You know, I knew you needed editors. I was okay, so I need to find some editors. I don't know what kinds I need. Um, but before you do that,

Drafting Without Self Editing

SPEAKER_00 15:32

I was told you should self-edit. This is again, because I was writing for the trash, the rough draft is probably not gonna be my best work. And so right now, this is what I'm wrapping up. So as I talk about this process, I'm currently finishing the self-editing phase. I'm gonna be sending it off to a professional editor at the end of this week, and then we'll start that process. But right now I'm self-editing. I'm going through and I am reading each chapter. I'm making sure that things are resonating, that things are making sense. I'm making sure that it's flowing in an organized way that I want it to flow. I'm making sure that stories are written in a way that's hopefully captivating. I'm looking for words I'm reusing a bunch. So I did a search and find on some things, different words. Uh, if I know that I start a lot of sentences with this word, I did a search and find for that. So there's a lot of different tools, different things to look for when you self-edit. Really, the goal here is just to put a tiny bit of polish on it before I hand it over to somebody else to make their job a little bit easier so that they can focus on the important things. Because the first round of professional editing is developmental editing. So the more I can get my self-editing done, then the easier my developmental editor, easier time they'll have. Self-editing a couple weeks, I would say, is is plenty, just depending again on your time. Uh, read one to two chapters a day to just get an idea of how it is, make the tweaks and the adjustments you need. Developmental editing, never heard

The Editing Stack You Actually Need

SPEAKER_00 17:08

of it before this process. I just thought all editors were like, their job was to make sure words were spelled correctly. And so what I've learned is there are three to four different types of editors that that you likely need uh in this process, and I would recommend doing so that way, again, if you're gonna put your your thoughts out there, if you're gonna put your book out in the world for people to consume, we want to make sure that it is the best it can be. And I I have known this process of profit first for physical therapists for so long that I can't look at it through the lens fully of somebody who's never heard of it before. And so a development or developmental editor's job is to come in and make sure it is organized in the right way, make sure that it flows, make sure that it is easy to follow. They might say, hey, this story or this teaching point might be better in this chapter, or they might flip-flop a few things. So developmental editing, two to four weeks is what I would consider probably accurate. Um, my developmental editor is, I think, on a three-week timeline was their estimated timeline. So for I landed at 45,000 words. So just depending on the number of words and the developmental editor and what all they're doing for you. On top of that, you want to allot another two to four weeks for you to make the changes. So the developmental editor is gonna come in and most likely are going to write some recommended changes, some different thoughts, ideas, ways to restructure. And so you're gonna go in and actually make those changes. So taking and allotting yourself time to do that before you move on to the next round of editing. Sometimes it might even be possible that they want to have a second round of developmental editing. If there are so many changes to your book that are needed, you might need to go back through developmental editing again. So just bearing all that in mind, and also the cost of all this is something to be considering. And I'm not gonna throw numbers out there because it's it's really hard to pinpoint the varying rates of what editors charge. And truthfully, um, I don't want to speak to what that is because I don't, that's not my expertise. I don't know what that realm would be. Uh, but as you research and interview people, just knowing it's gonna be an investment of thousands of dollars to get your book fully edited correctly. All right, so developmental editing. You get it, you make the adjustments, it flows, it's structured perfectly. Next would be copy and line editing. So sometimes this can be done all at once with the same editor. This is how your sentences are structured. This is making sure that the it really is polishing the flow of your writing. So it's again, how are we structuring these sentences? How are we using the same sentence starters over and over again? A copy editor is gonna be more at the sentence and word level, they're gonna fix grammar, spelling, it makes sure things are consistent. So if if you've been using numbers throughout the book, are you writing the numbers as a word? Are you writing it as the written number form? Uh, if am I spelling things the same way every time? So that's what they're gonna be looking for in your book. So a line editor is gonna be more on that flow and clarity level of how are these sentences, how do they read? How do the paragraphs read? Um, they might tighten things up or make some suggestions for tightening paragraphs that might be rambling or just making sure, or cutting sentences that are unnecessary. That's where a line editor comes in. And so a lot of times, again, this can be one person who's doing both at the same time, they kind of go hand in hand, but there's there's a lot to there's a lot of value and benefit to hiring two different people. So I'm currently interviewing copy and lining line editors. I've already hired a developmental editor. Again, like I said, I'm gonna that's gonna be shipped off to them at the end of this week, and then I'll be during that time, I'm gonna be finalizing who I'm gonna hire for copy line editing. So I'm not sure yet if I'm gonna do two different people yet, or just one person to do both at the same time. Two to four weeks for this, again, depending on the number of words in your book, and then I would another two to four weeks to make adjustments, and then of course, possible second round. So if there was a lot of tweaks and adjustments, if you just want another review, somebody look or for them to look over it again, yeah. Usually that's cheaper and faster because they've already read it, but that's something to keep in mind that you might need to do. All right, so the next level after all those that editing is proofreading. So this is the final piece. This is somebody going through and actually reading to make sure that on a word level everything is spelled correctly, that it is there's no typos, that everything is locked in. They're not reshaping sentences, they are literally going in and making sure that again, typos, double spaces, uh punctuation, making sure that's correct, uh looking for just weird line breaks. I don't know. So the it's really just down to that element of just making sure that on a word level that we are set and ready to go, that the punctuation, that the the spelling is all locked in and and perfect. So that's a proofreader's job. Uh I would again say probably two to four weeks is a good thing to a lot for them to do this work. Um, and then you're gonna go in and make the adjustments uh if they don't make them for you. Um that's always a possibility. So but I usually would say still allot yourself some time to make those edits too. After proofreading, um, while all that's happening, and and once you have that proof, the final copy, you've gotten the proofreading, you've made the edits completed, then we need to get some book design done. Now you can start this process earlier while it's going through editing if you want to get the cover design complete. Uh, but the interior design is a thing I again, I no clue. I just thought you just hit Microsoft Word. This is a book. The little paperclip pops up and looks like you're writing a book. I am. Can you make it look like one? No, it's uh Design is actually um really important, especially if you have graphics and charts inside your book, which I will uh making sure that it's cohesive, that the chapter titles look good. You can get creative in here if you want it to be visually appealing, and if you want super fancy things done, you can work with a book designer to help do this. They will also help format it so that it it reads well on a paperback or hardcover, and then also on an ebook, so that are gonna be in different formats, different structures, so that it I've had those books on Kindle before where they're just super wonky, uh, where pages are a paragraph gets cut in half on one page and then it continues on the next, even though there's you know half a page of blank space. So they're gonna make sure that those things don't happen and that it's legible, readable, uh, no matter the format. So book design uh for me, so uh it's hard for me to speak to the timeline because with licensing profit first, I have the book cover completed already. Uh really um I'm gonna be doing the the interior design here at the end. And so

Design Marketing Self Publishing Audiobook

SPEAKER_00 24:47

that was estimated around two weeks or so. So I put two to four weeks. I think for every step of the editing process, you have two to four weeks that you need to be allotting for that. And so, luckily on this one, there's really not anything you have to make adjustments to, they're doing the design work for you. Uh, now you might want revisions, and that that's something to discuss when that time comes, if you need it. But um, so thinking through your cover designs and then interior design was something again I just never thought of. So that I already have that person hired and booked and ready. They're gonna be waiting for it a few months from now once I get through all these other stages. And so starting to find somebody and getting them maybe started on the the cover design while your book is in developmental or copy editing or proofreading is not a bad idea. So getting ahead of that is probably gonna be helpful. Plus, maybe even sooner than that, getting a cover design so that you can start marketing sooner. Because that was the other piece of advice that was given to me is marketing while you're still writing. Get this book out there, get info about this book out there before you're finished. That's why I'm talking about it now, right now. I have a landing page for it, um, which I'll link in the show notes for those who are PTs out there who, or if you know a PT who might benefit from this, we have a quiz on our website now where we're starting to collect email addresses so that when we are getting closer to launch, we can notify people when it's time for pre-orders, all of those things, but starting to get that groundwork done. I'm starting to do podcast interviews on other shows to start talking about my book, I've booked conferences, different elements to get out there and and just get the word on the street that this is coming next year, so that when the launch happens, a lot of the groundwork is done, and I'm not waiting until 30 to 60 days before it releases to start talking about it, right? So, all of those steps. There's there's more to it uh that I've definitely glossed over, such as you know, if you're self-editing or sorry, self-publishing, or if you're going through an official publisher, that's a world um I'm self-publishing, so the going through another publisher is a world I'm not super familiar with, so I don't want to speak to it. Um, if you're self-publishing, you're in charge of where you're gonna upload it so that it gets wide released. You're in charge of getting the ISBN, the codes for the the back of the book, all these different things, and then that's for each format. So if you have paperback, ebook, hardcover, you need a different one. Audiobook, you need a different one. Um, audiobook is another step in the process. Speaking of as recording your audiobook ahead of time, uh, in this day and age, if you're writing a book, I highly recommend doing an audiobook. Uh, and even if you don't like the sound of your own voice, I I personally like hearing the author read it over a hired actor or voice actor. Uh, but you know, there's nothing wrong with it if you decide to hire a voice actor. But all these things are things to consider that while it's in that editing process, after copy and line editing, when you pretty much have the book ready to go, you can probably start your audiobook. If you want to wait for proofreading to be done before you record it, that's fine. But your the book is gonna be structured. Remember, proofreaders are just going in there, maybe fixing spelling or double words or punctuation. The structure and the flow of the paragraphs are set after that line in copy editing. All right, that's what I've learned. Yeah, I'm by in no means an expert on this. I just happen to be in the weeds and in the trenches right now with writing. Uh, it has been the most fun, humbling, frustrating, overwhelming process I've ever gone through. I have zero regrets doing it. Uh, I am incredibly excited, but there are days where I sat down to write and I felt like, man, I am crushing it. And then there are days where I sat down to write and I felt like this is hot garbage. Who's gonna want to read this? And that's been a process I've just had to embrace and really lean into. And truthfully, it's been a lot of fun. And I recommend doing it. So get out there. If you're thinking about writing a book, I'm gonna link to the Write a Must Read book by AJ Harper, it's a great place to start. Um, but write your book. Get out there, just take the steps, do it right. I'm happy to answer any questions about my learning experience through this process. Uh, but get out there and write your own book. Thanks for joining us on the Therapy Business Podcast. Be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a practice owner that you may know. If your practice needs help getting organized with finances or just growing your practice, head to therapybusinesspod.com to learn how we can help.