How I Actually Became a Bestselling Author

I launched my book, Borrow Trust, from a decking overlooking a forest just outside Copenhagen. And astoundingly, I became a bestselling author in the process.

Massive thanks to everyone who supported the launch and bought a copy. I really do appreciate it.

Here's how it actually happened.

I didn't get there through tactics

No launch-day tricks. No "10 ways to hit #1" hacks.

I got there by building a loyal audience over years, using one specific framework: tell stories, bring people into your world, and teach them what you're learning as you learn it.

That's it. That's the whole engine.

Why I wrote it

I posted content to make money.

I started a podcast to make money.

I guest on podcasts to make money.

I wrote a book to make money, not to become a bestselling author. So it's optimised for building trust with you, not for PR or status.

It reads like a storybook

If you've picked up a copy of Borrow Trust, you'll have noticed it doesn't read like a business book. It reads like a storybook. Chapter to chapter, it's meant to flow like a novel. Effortless, not effortful.

That's what actually earns attention. Not information, but a world someone wants to stay inside.

My wife reads about 100 books a year, and 90% of them are fiction. I wanted to emulate the flow of those books, as opposed to the 10% that are non-fiction, which just seem harder to get into a flow state reading.

The 11th truth

The last chapter reveals an 11th truth. I could only write it after hundreds of conversations with genuinely successful business owners, distilling what "success" actually means once you strip away the performance of it.

That truth didn't come from a framework. It came from listening. It's not a tactic. It's philosophies that have paid dividends in my own life.

The real lesson

Bestseller status, like revenue, isn't won by optimising for the wrong things, chasing tactic after tactic, trusting people who haven't done what you're trying to do.

It's won by optimising for the right thing: bringing people into your world and giving them a reason to stay.

That's also what the book is really about. Trust decay, and how fast it erodes an audience the moment you stop telling the truth in an interesting way.

Storytelling isn't a soft skill. It's the mechanism. Everything else is downstream of it.

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If you would like to work on this with me 1:1, here is how that works.