Laura Pestronk is a self-employed entrepreneur and successful publisher and currently lives in Manhattan, New York City.
Initially, she worked as a presenter for trade shows selling vehicles, showcasing technologies, or speaking on medical innovations.
And just like many of us, her life took a sharp turn when COVID-19 hit and forced her to reconsider her career path.
Now she runs a successful low-content business, looking to incorporate high-content in there, and is branching out to look for more insights to enhance her business strategies.
New Avenues
Just like many of us, the pandemic also brought Laura into uncharted waters of idleness and confusion.
However, the pandemic presented itself as an opportunity for her and she decided she needed a change of pace, especially to reevaluate her goals and career.
Thanks to one of her friends whose life was transformed vastly by Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Laura could start her journey.
As a result, in 2015, her journey set sailed, even if it had its inconsistencies. At first, Laura viewed publishing as a side hustle and started to develop her skills by beginning to build her low-content brand with planners.
Flash forward to 2019, and now her attention was directed to focusing on the untapped potential of low-content books. Next thing she knew, she has a brand and dedication entirely towards her publishing business, which has clearly proven to be incredibly rewarding.
Low-Content
A brief overview, low content books are known for having very minimal textual content but a high reliance on design, layout, and interactiveness. Examples include: picture books, coloring books, journals, planners, etc.
This was Laura’s turning point, COVID hit and now she found herself treating publishing as her day job, and her business really took off.
“What was incredible about this transition was the profit. It felt like Christmas every month,” Laura reflects. This massive surge lasted about five months providing her with the hope and inspiration she needed to permanently pursue this venture.
Furthering her success in low-content books, Laura established a brand, create a website, and even develop a growing Facebook community.
She was seeing profits ranging from $7500 to 9000 per month and just this year alone, her consistency and education paid off as she reached the six-figure mark in annual revenue.
Expanding Horizons
However, Laura did experience her share of obstacles. Limited knowledge about design, a constrained budget, and always spending considerable time experimenting, she confessed were her biggest struggles.
Clearly, with the right mindset she successfully overcame those all and thrived.
Later on through extensive research, Laura came to know Sean and Royalty Hero through his YouTube channel. Now, she is keen on diversifying her business further by incorporating high-content books into her portfolio.
She is still primarily producing low-content books, but Laura is also wearing the hat of the student and is embarking on a learning journey with Royalty Hero, to grasp everything she can about the high-content world.
Now her vision is to continue on her pace of publishing at least two books per month, and strike a balance between high and low-content publications, which she is determined can and will offer a comprehensive pathway to further sustain her success.
In her words, “Maybe in the future, I will try out different low content avenues and build another brand, we’ll see.”
Reflection
Looking back at her previous lifestyle, Laura describes the stress from the constant travel and exhaustion that came with it. It was far from the glitz and glam she thought it was.
“I was never home, and I didn’t feel centered or felt I really grasped my being,” Laura shares.
Amazon helped her escape that, her profitable leap that initially felt like a ‘crazy dream’.
With determination, she proved that dream to be a fruitful reality. Accomplishing this, instilled in Laura, the confidence to quit her job and finally treat her publishing business as a full-time endeavor.
Advice
For those venturing into the publishing world fresh, Laura’s biggest piece of advice is to never lose sight of time management.
She organizes her day into manageable chunks, assuring each task is given the right amount of attention, and creates a detailed to-do list, this way pressure is instantly off your shoulders.
Laura tells, “Start with small chunks so you don’t have too much pressure. Make a to-do list of every single thing, block out everything, even if it’s as small as replying to followers or texting mom back.”
She further insists on working in two-hour intervals, followed by short breaks where you finish those very small to-do tasks. Her best approach to boosting productivity.
Her biggest life lesson throughout this entire journey is simply that, “it takes time.”
Success didn’t come overnight, but once she took her business in publishing seriously, results naturally followed. Once she made a routine, a schedule, and treated this venture no different than a day job, the profits followed her all the way.
Going Forward
Laura Pestronk’s journey only proves even more the potential of low-content books and how they can significantly contribute to your success, even in the matter of earning 6-figures.
Remember, if you don’t have the funds or capacity, then start with low content, gradually build your funds, and then go into high content, and watch the passive income you just naturally built.
This is a story that demonstrates the power of resilience, adaptation, and the constat pursuit of learning.
Diversifying your portfolio with low-content books and treating this journey as a full-time job only confirms the fruits of your hard work, just like it did for Laura.