Who is a Thought Leader?
Demonstrated expertise that leads to the expansion of your influence in your business and professional field.
In our bSchool (Book School) program, we start with a rigorous process to find out what motivates you, what drives you and what gets you excited to attack. We help you turn that focus -- your purpose -- into a book topic that can be used as a powerful tool to create opportunities faster... way faster.
Research shows that people who thrive early in their careers engage in deep, substantive projects in college (like writing a book) and have meaningful coaching and mentorship from a faculty member. That's the secret of the bSchool program -- we architect our experience to enable students to thrive and discover a path they may never have known existed.
Our award-winning Book Creators program leverages community-powered writing to design, develop, and write a book. It truly "takes a village" to write a book and so we build that village with you by pairing you with a professional editor, connecting you with fellow writers, and introducing you to author coaches who've already published. It's a simple approach -- Never Write Alone -- that yields remarkable results with more than 70% of authors in the program finishing a publishable draft manuscript in under 7 months (30-40x better than authors who do it on their own).
A person who has a positive reputation of helping others with their knowledge and insight.
A person who leverages their positive reputation to significantly profit from their knowledge and insight.
The Book Creators program was designed by Georgetown Professor and serial entrepreneur Eric Koester. Over a period of ten months (broken up into two five-month parts), participants build a community around their book, people who help, support, coach, and collaborate. The program enables you to create a powerful tool that will transform your trajectory.
USASBE named Creator Institute's bSchool program the most innovative program of 2018. (USASBE is the largest independent, professional, academic organization in the world dedicated to advancing the discipline of entrepreneurship, with over 1000 members from universities and colleges.)
Achieving Your Goals
WHAT IS YOUR DESIRED OUTCOME?
CAREER BOOSTING
William McDonald used his book to land a prestigious job over MBAs and Ivy Leaguers at Lead Edge Capital, a venture capital firm based in New York City. His new bosses saw his ability to gain access to leading startup founders and executives for interviews in his book as an advantage over the competition.
LAUNCH A NEW PRODUCT OR SERVICE
Jaclyn DiGregorio used her book to launch her health and nutrition brand CUSP 365. In connection with the launch of her book, Jaclyn ran a Kickstarter and raised over $20,000 to provide initial capital to launch her business and start her career as an entrepreneur immediately following graduation.
GET PAID TO CONSULT
OR SPEAK
Matthew Busel has a passion for technology but doesn't have a technical background. To land a job at a VR/AR Commerce startup in NYC, Matthew wrote a book on sports and augmented reality and now also writes and consults for professional and college sports teams on the future opportunities for this technology.
CREATE NEW OPPORTUNITIES
Adrian Abrams powerful personal story served as the backdrop for his book. Adrian has inspired other first-generation and low-income college students, and has launched a speaking tour "From Homeless to Dean's List" to take his story directly to the people who can benefit from his methods to thrive in college.
Just the Stats
THE DETAILS BEHIND THE bSCHOOL EXPERIENCE
The Book Creators course is the equivalent of taking two three (3)-credit college/graduate courses over two "semesters."
Each week authors carve out three to five "book hours" to work on their weekly activities including watching pre-recorded lectures, engaging in coached activities, monthly group discussions, and working with a partner or your developmental editor.
You may be able to earn course credit at your home institution through a faculty sponsor.
First draft manuscripts average 26,000 words (~120 pages double spaced). Final books average 33,000 to 40,000 words (~192 to ~240 page book).
Over 80% of participants create a company or entity to supplement the book AND more than 90% of authors earn Best Seller book status in their Amazon category.
Behind our Teaching Model
HOW IN THE WORLD CAN YOU WRITE A BOOK IN 5 MONTHS?
“Have you ever written a paper more than 15 pages long?”
That's the first question we ask students starting out in the bSchool author experience. Not surprisingly about 19 out of 20 say no.
So the next question is usually this:
“How in the world can someone write a 195 page book in four months?”
Great question. We asked it ourselves before we created this program.
We don't say students in the bSchool program "write" a book, we say you create a book.
Why?
The reality is that we've developed our own approach and methodology to enable anyone to create the content for their book (by following our process and a little bit of hard work).
What's our secret?
Well, it's not really a secret, it's just a process. It's a couple key things we do to make the content creation process much more efficient. It's a 4-step process:
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We spend the first month after you've selected your topic helping you "Get Smart" through interviews and research. This process helps you develop the knowledge and the stories to create the content required for the book.
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We teach you how to write in a simple story format -- a process that enables our authors to create compelling and insightful manuscripts that "show" rather than "tell" their readers.
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We utilize our customized approach of Interview Dashboards, Research Dashboards, Story Index and 7-Part Introduction Method to make the process simple and efficient.
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We assign you a developmental editor whose sole job is to help you "develop" your ideas into the stories, lessons and chapters that eventually become your manuscript.
When people think of writing a book, many imagine someone sitting at a typewriter pulling their hair out trying to write every word. That's not how this is. We focus on helping you create the content and turn that content into a great manuscript.
It's create vs. write. Read this blog post about our approach.
The bSchool experience is a week-by-week experience that helps you keep on track without burdening you (or without over-burdening you). Our students tell us the workload is consistent with a typical college course that has writing projects or papers over tests. A few students said it was a little more work, but ending up with an actual book is 100% worth it.
Not everyone is able to create a first (or second) draft manuscript that can be published. Sometimes you'll need more time. If more time is needed, you can delay the publication process until you get something that meets your standard: a book that any prospective employer, partner or investor would be impressed by.
We're probably the first and only course (at least that we've ever heard of) that uses some of the key principles of startups and entrepreneurial methodologies to create a book. Not only will you learn how to create a 190+ page book, you'll also learn how to reimagine your book as a startup product you'll launch. You'll learn how to identify your customer, nail down the problem you're solving and ensure your solution (what you propose in the book) is actually something the customer wants.
Open learning is key. Our course is 100% open and transparent -- everyone in the course posts their assignments publicly in a shared tool (Quip) and feedback is 360 degrees and open for all to see. It truly does take a village to launch a book -- and you'll be a part of a pretty amazing community of other signal authors and mentors.
The Admissions Process
IS THIS A GOOD FIT FOR YOU?
Professor Koester speaks to every author (often multiple times) before beginning a book journey. The core of the program is "Outcome-based writing" -- working on a book that is tied to a personal outcome of the author (more than *just* publishing a book). Authors that express a clear direction for themselves and an idea of how their book could tie into that are good fits.
Most of our students do this program in their teens and 20s (often while in formal education). This program can be a perfect fit focused on developing targeted expertise and credibility.
When we look for a participant who is a good fit, we focus on a couple key things:
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Do you have that entrepreneurial spark (are you a creator/doer)?
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Are you coachable (open to feedback, suggestions and recommendations)?
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Are you someone with aspirations to make a difference?
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Do you have the openness necessarily to tell your story?