Today we’re excited to be connecting with Russell Nohelty again. If you haven’t already, we suggest you check out our prior conversation with them here.

Russell , thanks for joining us again. Just to level set a bit for folks who may have missed our last interview together, can you briefly introduce yourself?
I’m a USA Today bestselling author, publisher, and speaker. I run a small publishing company called Wannabe Press that publishes fantasy, sci-fi, and horror comics and novels. I’m probably best known for my work at my publication, The Author Stack, that helps writers navigate the intersection of craft and commerce. I’ve written dozens of books, both fiction and non-fiction, that I think some people like, or at least tell me they like.

Great, so let’s jump into an update on what you have been up to since we last spoke. What can you share with us?
It’s been a wild few years. Back when we last talked in 2020, I co-founded a conference called Writer MBA, released close to 40 books, shuttered by old podcast, started two new podcasts and recorded 100+ episodes of them, built an online publication to close to 50k subscribers, and traveled all over the world. Even though it’s only been a couple years, I feel like a whole different person, with a completely different career, than back then. I mean, we were all locked insides our house in those days, so in a way it really has been a whole different life.

We also want to give folks a chance to get to know you a bit better so we’ve prepared a fun lightning round of questions. Ready?

Favorite Movie: Tuesday

Favorite Book: The Library at Mount Char

Favorite TV Show: The Good Place

Favorite Band or Artist: Halsey

Sweet or Savory: Why not both?

Mountains or Beach: Beach

Favorite Sport (to watch): Soccer

Did you play sports growing up (if so which ones): Not really

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up: Writer.

French Fries or Onion Rings: French Fries

Life is often about tough choices – can you talk to us about your thought process, strategy or philosophy when it comes to making difficult choices or tradeoffs.
My process involves weighing the risks and the possible rewards. So, I am very open to taking big risks if it leads to noteriety or gives me fodder for a book compared to taking small risks that won’t likely lead to any of that. That said, I’m usually working through 5-10 different risk profiles at any one time, and they range from pretty safe to very risky, and I try to blend a bunch of different types together so I create a portfolio that is likely to increase in value over time and have enough success that I will likely win in the end. My business partner is much less risk averse than me, and will only take on risks that have a high likelihood of winning, but I find there isn’t enough asymmetrical ability to win for me to only take safe bets.

There are things, like a conference, that are not very good bets, but have high prestige, that provide high value even if they don’t return high ROI. Since there is not a ton of money in a conference, most people will never ever try one, meaning there is almost no competition. If you built out a risk profile, you would almost always say not to do it, but the simple fact of having a conference means you must be the type of person who owns a conference, and thus you get the prestige that comes with it, as long as you do it well.

You can catapult forward significantly in your career if you find and exploit these types of asymmetrical risks.

Website: https://www.theauthorstack.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noheltyr/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/russell.nohelty.7

Other: https://substack.com/@russellnohelty/

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