Our Story

A personal letter from Dave Thompson.

Hi friend,

My name is Dave Thompson, and I am the founder of Inspirational Book Writers.

At IBW, we believe our words can change the world.

As leaders, if we don’t speak up, if we don’t share the magic, the know-how, the wisdom inside of us, then as Wayne Dwyer says, we will die with the music still inside us.

It’s so important that you share your message with the world.

You’ve got a big mission.

You see the problems out there. You see the people hurting through lack of knowledge, lack of a compelling vision, lack of know-how, lack of consciousness, and you have the gold to help them!

Of course, when I say ‘you’ve got the gold’, I’m referring to the unique talent, skills, knowledge, methodology, modality, principles, tactics, strategy or stories (or a combination of all of the above) that you’ve gained or been blessed with – this is the unique gold that we want to capture in your book.

Throughout human history, books have stood the test of time as humanity’s primary way of passing down wisdom.

This is your opportunity to contribute to humanity’s evolution, while simulatenously taking your authority, crediblity, influence, income and impact in your industry to a whole new level. Your inspirational, best-selling book is your golden handshake, that will open doors to whereever you want to go. Whether that means using your book to attract high-ticket clients, selling bulk copies internationally as you speak on different stages around the world, or as grass-roots as your book making an impact on your local community – I have seen it time and again – books have the power to take you where you want to go.

If you are a revolutionary change-maker, creative transformational rebel, a passionate, dynamic, intelligent, tapped in, connected entrepreneur, speaker, coach or inspiring human with a game-changing story, set of ideas or methodology, framework, or tools that people need to hear – you have come to the right place.

We pride ourselves on our level of personal care for your book.

We care about your masterpiece like it was our own. Backed by an all-star team of world class and certified; coaches, consultants, experts and support throughout every step.

This is not just a process, it’s a transformational experience that will reveal a new reality for you and your business.

The IBW Story…

It was January of 2014, and I was living in Melbourne, Australia. I’d been in my own business, coaching for about 2 years, having left my law job back in 2011. I’d built up my client base, I had a number of one on one clients who were getting great results and…

I was looking around, asking myself “What’s the next step? The next level? What will help me grow and expand in the coaching industry?”

It was suggested to me that I write a book.

The idea immediately resonated with me and rang true. I started looking around for ways to write the book. Some people created audio books, some people transcribed from voice notes and wrote it that way. I decided to try it. One afternoon I dictated about 15,000 words but to be honest, it was a mess. Dictating the audio into a book really didn’t work for me because my ideas came out all jumbled and when I received the transcription back it required SO MUCH EDITING that it defeated the purpose. I felt deflated.

I started looking for other methods, when I came across the Tim Ferris book, ‘The 4 Hour Work Week’. He talks about Parkinson’s Law and the Pareto Principle – that the task will grow or shrink depending on the time and space allocated for it.

So I thought to myself,

What if I gave myself a set period of time to write this book?

Dane Tomas, founder of The Spiral

1000 copies in the first 48 hours and my practitioner training sold out 6 months in advance. There’s no question that publishing well-positioned books is REALLY good for business.

Michele Jones, founder of Live Your Best Life

For anyone looking to achieve their lifelong dream to write a book and to tell your story, I highly recommend the Inspirational Book Writers Retreat to bring your creation to life.

I was busy… running my business, coaching clients and I really didn’t have 3 or 6 months to sit in a hut in Bali and write my memoirs.

I could however spare a week. I decided I would give myself Monday to Friday, and I would eliminate all distractions. My schedule was to go walking in the Melbourne Botanical Gardens from 8am to 4pm. I took no money, no food, no phone… so I could purely focus on writing. I also knew that the natural environment would work well for me as like most people, I write better in nature.

Every morning I woke up, took out my notebook, started walking in the gardens and when inspiration struck I would write. I’d then get up, keep walking and repeat. To my surprise, it was finished by Thursday! (This may have had something to do with knowing there was great surf forecast for Friday).

I also didn’t want to take forever to get it published. I’d just created this thing, I was excited and wanted to keep the momentum going! I looked into the industry and the only options I could find were a 6, 12 or 18 month turn around. I’m a fast moving, innovative, entrepreneur… “there had to be another solution”, I thought. I decided I would get it done as fast as I could at the highest quality possible. The other thing I knew was that if I waited too long, I would procrastinate.

I had no idea where to start. I turned to one of my friends who said to me, “Dave – you just need to ask yourself the question, what do I need next?”. This proved to be the genesis for me to build the publishing process without getting overwhelmed.

As I soon discovered, book publishing has hundreds of small, tiny details, none of which are particularly difficult, but all of which must be completed in the right sequence. I don’t know whether I am a sucker for details or that something higher was creating this process but I set about learning all the micro-details about how to publish a book. I have an obsessive personality and soon enough I knew everything about how to publish a quality book. There were certainly some headaches down in the depth of learning the details though!

Once I understood the process, my interest was in finding quality people to help me. I didn’t want my book to look like a crappy throw together, I wanted something that was professional and of a quality standard that could proudly sit alongside the best in the business.

This is where the idea for IBW began to emerge.

When I launched my first book in early March of 2014, I only expected to sell a few copies. I ordered 10 books and thought “I’ll be doing good if I sell 10 books!”

Within 60 days I’d sold 500 copies! I was blown away, I had readers in 8 countries, people were posting on their facebook about the book and taking photos with it, recommending it to their friends! People were placing bulk orders for their workplaces – 10, 25, even 100 copies for one organisation! I could see and feel my profile being uplifted. In the 2 months following, I started getting an influx of enquiries, even more clients, clients who wanted to pay up front and get started right away. Profile up! Income up! Visibility UP!

To be honest I would have been really happy with that… I had no concept of what was about to be unleashed from one very special conversation – the birth of IBW.

A very close friend of mine, Michelle Jones, who is a leadership coach in Australia and Asia, came up to me and said Dave,

“I’ve been wanting to write my book for 7 years and you are telling me you wrote this in less than a week and had it published 6 weeks later???”

“I want you to teach me that.”

In that moment I realised people had a need, a problem, a difficulty and I had created a very unique way to solve that problem.

I had been wanting to take people away on retreat for 12 months but I didn’t know what we would do when we got there.

In that moment, time stood still, and it all became clear…

We are going on retreat to write books.

Someone pass me a coconut. 🥥

From 2014-2019, we ran 20 book retreats in Australia and Hawaii.

Since then, Inspirational Book Writers has expanded our services to help people from all over the world and at all stages of the book writing journey. Since 2020, we have expanded to offer our services to clients in 15 countries around the world. Our Online Book Writing Accelerator program is renowned for helping you get your book done in as little as 4 days. Our signature program Write Publish Launch includes the expert guidance and support to produce a high quality book you are proud of, while launching it to #1 Amazon Best Seller and beyond. If you’re just getting started and need direction on your message and structure, we offer the Book Map Game Plan session, to kick your book off on the right foot.

I look forward to seeing your book out in the world, bringing you great authority and influence, and making a big impact for others.

Big coconut high fives,

Dave Thompson

Founder – Inspirational Book Writers