-GEOFF WOODS

When Geoff Woods decided to write a book, he had no email list, no high-ticket offers to sell, and roughly 2,000 LinkedIn followers. What he had was expertise. He'd spent more than a decade coaching executives and teaching leadership at the highest level, helping companies grow from millions to multi-billions.

Geoff's challenge wasn't around how to write, but what to write. AI was moving so fast that anything cutting-edge six months earlier was already dated, and his readers were executives who didn't want another breathless AI hype book. They wanted the new technology connected to what they already understood about leadership.

Writing With the Reader in the Room

So before writing a word, we guided Geoff to take his table of contents to more than 200 CEOs. He'd gather 20 of them on a Zoom, survey them, then teach the material. At executive events he'd talk to 50 in a single day. And he listened. When one CEO described the idea as "creating disruptive results without disrupting your organization," Geoff wrote it down. It went into the book.  

Before we sat down to create his manuscript, we ensured the structure and content were a reflection of the book he should write. Using the Author.Inc process, we went from day one to a complete manuscript in just 39 days.

The result was The AI-Driven Leader: Harnessing AI to Make Faster, Smarter Decisions.

Geoff Woods and Charlie Hoehn on the making of The AI-Driven Leader

‍
Geoff had more praise to share on working with Charlie and Author.Inc after watching the video above.
‍

‍
The Flywheel Starts
‍
Before launch, Geoff had already sold 2,000 copies and earned $40,000 in royalties through positioning and the right conversations with the right people.

Three months in, he'd moved 20,000. Print runs of 4,000 were selling through. A partner at a major accounting firm was recommending it to clients. The top executive at Reuters sent it as a holiday gift. Then the CEO of a major household brand reached out to set up a meeting, because of a book by a man who, a year earlier, had no audience at all.

By the end of the first year Geoff sold 100,000 copies, and a business that looked nothing like the one he started with. Geoff describes it as "bear hugging a rocket ship." The flywheel was spinning on its own.
‍

Turning a Book Into a Business

Once the momentum was undeniable, Geoff narrowed his entire company around what the book had started: an executive network for AI-driven leaders, built on demand the book had already proven existed.

He launched a mastermind at $30,000 a seat. His engagements climbed from $50,000 to $100,000. Tony Robbins invited him to open as a keynote speaker, this from someone who had never been paid $10,000 for a talk before he published.

The copies sold were never the focus. The total business the book set in motion dwarfs them, a multiplier of roughly 23x on everything it touched.

What Actually Made the Difference

Geoff never stopped talking to the people he was trying to serve, before the book, during the writing, and long after it shipped. He turned his expertise into an asset, and then he put that asset to work.
‍

‍
Still Climbing

More than a year after launch, the book has not gone quiet. It is still climbing, and companies keep handing it to their teams.

At a leadership session at T-Mobile, copies went to everyone in the room. Then a major publishing house approached Geoff about acquiring the rights. Had he taken the book to a house like that at the start, he would likely have been turned down, or still be working on the manuscript today.
‍

This case study reflects one author’s personal experience. Success varies widely and depends on many factors such as genre, audience size, marketing effort, and timing. While this author achieved a significant outcome, most authors experience different results, and there is no guarantee of similar outcomes.