Brad Beer, Physiotherapist, Author & Founder of ‘POGO Physio’ specialises in helping people that like to sweat more than 5 x a week perform at their physical best. (Yes, apparently thousands of those people exist!)

Brad’s repertoire of clients is testament to his immense passion and expertise in his field – his impressive list includes Olympic medalists, World and Australian Champions, explorers, Tour de France cyclists, Australian swim team members, runners, triathletes and an abundance of other top athletes.

With his book ‘You can run pain free. A physio’s 5 step guide to enjoying pain-free and faster running,’ speeding to the number one spot on Amazon last month, Brad fly-kicks into sharing with us his secrets on how to write a bestseller and his top tips for aspiring authors.

YOUR PASSION IS APPARENT IN EVERYTHING YOU DO, WHAT MAKES YOU SO PASSIONATE ABOUT YOUR WORK?

My passion is born out of my own experience. In my late teens my promising professional triathlon career was cut short due to serious injury (bike crash). I relinquished my dream of becoming a professional athlete, battled with physical ailments for 5 years after, and fell into a depression where I was at one stage suicidal.

My experience taught me that injury is greater than ‘skin deep’. It affects a person on so many levels – emotionally, relationally, and psychologically. In particular males who suffer physical injury have their masculinity eroded when injury results in limitations on their physicality.

I truly believe that our communities would be happier places if people were able to perform at their physical best so that they can do the physical things that they love to do in life: run, swim, kick a ball with kids, play golf, go for a bush walk.

YOU’RE NOW A BESTSELLING AUTHOR – HAD YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO WRITE A BOOK?

Yes I had. From the beginning of my physiotherapy career I had planned to write and release a book. The Key Person of Influence program gave me much needed structure, and more so accountability to get it done, turning the dream into a reality. The best-seller status was a surprise, but a great and welcomed one.

Within the athletic population I had developed a following and reputation for helping runners to run pain free and faster, and I had grown frustrated with not being able to help the runners who were needing my help. I knew that my approach and methodology was different and needed to be spread beyond a 1:1 nature (physio: patient inside a consultation) with a wider audience. Writing the book has proved to be the start of my message extending beyond a consulting room.

DID YOU HAVE ANY RESERVATIONS ABOUT WRITING A BOOK?

None at all. Though like any Key Person of Influence or aspiring author, when the wheels are in motion and the course is chartered, a never-ending array of distractions, urgent and important tasks seem to emerge and try to pull you away from sticking to task.

WHAT DO YOU THINK GOES INTO MAKING A GREAT BOOK?

On reflecting on my book’s rise to the top of Amazon for the Running and Jogging category, I believe the success started with getting the foundations in place. Spending time on planning around the central question that the book would answer was pivotal in retrospect. Working early with an editor on refining the manuscript also proved important.

WHAT TIPS DO YOU HAVE FOR ASPIRING AUTHORS?

• Believe that what you have to share is of significance – as my publishing mentor Andrew Griffiths says ‘only you have your own unique set of experiences.’
• Do the heavy lifting in the planning stages, including researching your central question – i.e. is there a market? Is there interest in the topic?
• Commit to accountability partners and a process – the Key Person Of Influence 40 week brand accelerator is built for this.
• Get on all of the Publishing webinars you can – don’t miss any.

WHAT TIPS DO YOU HAVE FOR WRITING A BESTSELLER?

• Belief in the significance of what you are writing and the meaningful problems you are solving.
• Identify your target audience and write the book for them and ‘to them’.
• Find your point of difference inside the market that you are writing for. For example, I wrote to inspire confidence and hope for injured runners that it is possible to enjoy pain free running. I wrote from a perspective of a health professional (physiotherapist) and also my own personal experiences in going from not being able to run 1km to completing numerous marathons and triathlons void of pain.
• Have a physical launch! Beyond the all important celebration and memories that are created, the momentum that a well orchestrated book launch builds is a great way to launch the book.
• Work the book every day and be creative in how the book is marketed.

Tweetable kudos: (copy and paste this to your Twitter.)

Kudos to Author @Brad_Beer for speeding to the Amazon #1 best-seller spot! #kpimethod