Hello Modern Authors,

One of the most fascinating trends I'm seeing in modern authorship?

Community-building.

I know it's a trend that is perhaps overhyped in some arenas, but it's something I see more and more uber-successful authors doing, and emerging authors emulating.

Let me say the quiet part out loud:

Most creatives and coaches secretly want to be Guides.

They may start with a handful of 1:1 clients, or a few consulting gigs, or some speaking engagements. They’re good at what they do. They see lives shift in real time.

But deep down? They’re hungry for more.

Not more hours, not more clients, not more speeches. More impact. More scale. More of that Tony Robbins–style presence where thousands of people are moving in unison, living inside your ideas.

Guides are the modern community-builders... recognizing that perhaps now more than ever we are seeking belonging.

But the leap to Guide isn’t easy.

Because Guides don’t just deliver services or share wisdom. They build spaces. They architect communities. They create environments where transformation multiplies... peer to peer, not just expert to client.

And here’s the kicker: if you get it right, it’s one of the most scalable and sustainable author models out there.

From Brendon Burchard’s High Performance Academy to Lewis Howes’ School of Greatness to Tony Robbins’ massive events, their books aren’t the endgame. They’re the entry ticket into ecosystems of belonging.

Welcome to Part 8 of the Profitable Author Series where we've been deconstructing the models behind successful authors from coaches and builders to speakers and teachers. Today we're going to look at one of the stickiest business models for Modern Authors: Guiding a Community.

📖 Your book is the hook.

🧠 Your persona is the system.

💸 And for Guides, the business model is the community.

What is a Guide (like really)?

Guides see the world differently.

Where a Coach asks, “How do I help you?” and a Teacher asks, “How do I explain this?”, a Guide asks:

“How do I create a space where people help each other?”

That’s the defining trait. Guides thrive on curation, connection, and shared identity. They don’t want to be the guru with all the answers: they want to be the convener who builds the room where transformation happens.

And among the modern authors I've studied the Guide may be one of the rarest models... partially because it requires a unique type of person to be a guide, and because it's arduous work to attract a community with a shared belief set.

Books for Guides aren’t just frameworks or stories. They’re invitations. They articulate a movement that makes people say, “I want to be part of that.”

And once the book defines that identity, the business models come alive:

• Cohorts (time-bound, intimate learning groups)
• Memberships (ongoing communities with shared practices)
• Live Events (retreats, summits, masterminds)
• Peer Networks (where members connect more with each other than with you)

The magic is that Guides multiply themselves. A great Guide doesn’t just deliver value directly: they empower others to deliver value inside the system.

That’s why so many successful creators pivot into Guide mode. It’s how Brendon Burchard and Lewis Howes scaled beyond themselves. It’s how Hilary DeCesare built her Relaunch community. It’s how Haley Hoffman Smith turned a college speaking tour into a million-person digital movement.

Guides write books that spark belonging... and then design platforms that keep people inside the circle long after the last page.

Design the Book as the Bridge to Belonging like Hilary DeCesare

Let’s talk about Hilary DeCesare, the force behind ReLaunch! and the ReLaunch Collective. What she teaches us about being a Guide author is simple, yet profound: your book must do more than inspire; it must invite.

When Hilary wrote RELAUNCH! Spark Your Heart to Ignite Your Life, she wasn’t writing a standalone piece of motivation. She was handing out the key to join the “ReLauncher Revolution.” The book introduced the 3HQ™ framework, Head, Heart, Higher Self, not just as a concept, but as a playbook for transformation inside a living community. Readers finish the book, and then pick up the language and tools they use in her cohorts, events, and masterclasses.

The book doesn’t close the journey. It starts it.

I watched strategy call after strategy call with Hilary as she built this ecosystem. She didn’t just write when chapters felt “right.” She mapped what would come next: weekly Power Tools, cohort challenges, verbal rituals (“Pop the Champagne™ Moments”), and an identity, ReLaunchers, that people could carry forward.

The result? She didn’t just publish a book. She galvanized thousands of women worldwide into communities with shared momentum and mutual accountability.

She hosts events, private masterminds, community conferences, and group coaching.

Her Relaunchers see Hilary as their Guide... the reason her community isn't just thriving, but it's growing organically (and fast.)

The take-away for Guide authors: your book must be the bridge to belonging. Design it so people don’t just read it... so they can step inside it.

Build Shared Identity Before Authority like Haley Hoffman Smith

Haley Hoffman Smith is the original prototype of a Guide in motion. With her book Her Big Idea, she didn’t just publish a manifesto, she created a banner under which women started identifying themselves. It’s not a “bestseller” label she leaned on; it’s the language of “big idea makers” that she seeded in the pages, and then carried into college stages, communities, and summits.

When Haley launched, she took Her Big Idea on the road... campus by campus. It wasn’t a promotional tour; it was a people hunt. She spoke, gathered, and gave wristbands of identity: “I’m a big idea person.” That identity ignited her million-strong digital presence, the Her Big Idea Fund, and peer accountability structures that evolved far beyond traditional coaching.

She created scholarships to help others launch their big ideas, she build sponsors, and she spoke to her community daily on her social platforms.

What Guides must learn from Haley is this: identity precedes impact. Your book must call out a shared identity that resonates so deeply people carry it into friendships, cool-run responsibilities, and community actions. They don’t say, “I read your book.” They declare, “I’m part of this.”

Haley’s ability to pivot from a well-researched book to a movement demonstrates that authority is only half the equation. What passes the tipping point is when your readers become self-appointed ambassadors, because they feel they belong.

It's even let her launch her Dreamaway community focused on helping members shift from stuck to clarity.

The take-away for Guide authors: your book won't be written by you... it'll be written by us. And that means most guides have a participatory community involved in the book long before it's published. Guides don't take to their communities; they talk with them... and your book must too.

Scale Requires Structure. Lessons from Brendon Burchard, Lewis Howes & Tony Robbins

Part of the reason the Guide is such an attractive model for many moderns authors is because the Guides we've met have likely had a major and emotional impact on us.

Aspiring Guides so often point to their transformative experience at a Tony Robbins Date with Destiny or a Jen Sincero Badass conference. The Guide's impact is real and last.

And being a Guide certainly doesn't require scale to these levels. But if you're pondering it... it certainly can scale. So let’s go big, learning how scale can play into the journey of a Guide.

The guide not only invites and rallies, but also systematizes. Look at three of the heftiest Guide authors on the planet:

• Brendon Burchard, who wrote High Performance Habits and turned it into an academy, courses, cohorts, certification programs, anchored in book-based curriculum.
• Lewis Howes, whose School of Greatness transcended a memoir and became a podcast-driven, summit-backed, membership-rich ecosystem.
• Tony Robbins, whose books like Awaken the Giant Within fueled stadium events, live intensives, and the immersive experiences audiences now expect.

Their shared strategy? The book is the content engine and cultural cornerstone. But the real business, the long-term leverage, comes from structured group experiences: retreats, academies, coaching cohorts, facilitation licenses.

The book gets read. The container gets lived.

As a Guide author, this is your north star: your book must be a curriculum that can live in the world through systems, as books become classrooms, not just coffee-table décor. The difference between a solo coach and a global Guide is distribution embedded in community design.

This isn't to say you should start reserving an NBA arena for your summit tomorrow... but know that most guides do foster the art of in-person connection and collaboration. The Art of Gathering is the necessary skill for a Guide.

If the Book is the Hook, What's the Guide's Business Model?

Guides don’t just deliver inspiration: they deliver belonging. And their revenue models reflect that.

There's a delicate dance in the world of community... monetizing belonging... which is why most Guides offer a variety of ways to become more and more involved.

The most common pathways I see:
• Cohorts & Masterminds. These are the bread and butter. A structured, time-bound program where peers move through the material together, creating accountability and transformation.
• Membership Communities. Subscription models where the book creates shared identity, and the community provides the ongoing transformation.
• Hybrid Models. Pairing live coaching calls, curated resources, and peer connection inside a gated ecosystem.
• Events & Retreats. The book opens the door, the retreat becomes the flagship gathering, and the momentum fuels annual enrollment.
• Digital Communities. More and more, Guides are experimenting with Slack, Circle, or Mighty Networks to create digital “rooms” for their readers.

Notice the pattern: in every model, the book is the spark, but the community is the fire.

How to Write a "Guide Book" That Creates Belonging

One of the most common places Guides start their book journey is with an idea to "tell my story." It's a common spark as people who follow you believe in you... and yet a memoir won't build a community... at least one that lasts.

Liz Gilbert of Eat. Pray. Love. fame spoke about her surprise when that book failed to spark a movement despite its obvious resonance. It's because that book was her story, not our story. It wasn't until she wrote Big Magic that she became a Guide (rather than a Storyteller), helping others see their own path to discover their big magic, just as Liz had.

If you’re writing as a Guide, you can’t just write a book that explains your ideas or tells your story.

You need to write a book that readers feel part of.

Here’s how:

1. Design for shared identity. Give readers a name (“Modern Authors,” “Big Idea Makers,” "Relaunchers," “Second Brain Builders”). Identity builds tribe.
2. Create interaction loops. Include reflection prompts, discussion questions, or group challenges. The book itself becomes a conversation starter.
3. Seed the community early. Don’t wait for the book to launch. Use beta readers, early forums, and sneak previews to create an insider circle.
4. Map the path from solo → social. Show how a reader can apply insights alone, then invite them into a group context where results accelerate.

A Guide’s book is never the finish line.

It’s the onboarding portal.

Pitfalls Most Guide Authors Face

After working with hundreds of Guide-oriented authors, I’ve spotted the three most common traps:

• Trap 1: Too much guru, not enough guide. They position themselves as the hero, instead of the facilitator. Result? The book feels self-promotional, not communal.
• Trap 2: No structured journey. A community without milestones is just noise. The book has to lay out stages of growth so readers can self-identify and progress.
• Trap 3: Over-engineering the tech. Authors think they need an app, platform, or fancy digital hub. They don’t. They need clarity, a shared mission, and a simple container where readers connect.

Guides succeed when they resist the urge to make it about them, and instead design the book as an invitation into a collective experience.

Let’s ground this with examples:

• Hilary DeCesare. Her book Relaunch! wasn’t just about personal reinvention. It was the entry point into her community, “The Relaunch Co.” Every reader who resonates with her 3HQ framework gets funneled into programs and masterminds. Her book creates instant alignment and belonging.
• Haley Hoffman Smith. Her debut, Her Big Idea, started as a speaking tour across college campuses. But the book was more than content... it was a rally cry. That rally cry evolved into an online movement of over a million followers, feeding into masterminds, coaching, and communities.
• Brendon Burchard. His books like High Performance Habits became the curriculum for global programs. The book wasn’t just read, it became a certification path, with thousands using it as a guidepost for transformation.
• Lewis Howes. His School of Greatness book paralleled his podcast, creating a cultural identity his audience could buy into. His work proves that belonging beats broadcasting.
• Tony Robbins. The archetypal Guide. Awaken the Giant Within didn’t just inspire, it served as the bible for the events, seminars, and communities that millions joined.

The common thread? These authors didn’t just write about what they knew. They wrote books that invited people into a shared journey, then built ecosystems where that identity could thrive.

Final Thoughts on Guide-Authors

When I work with Guide authors, I use one ruthless filter:

✅ Does the book define a shared identity?
✅ Does it include conversation prompts, not just content?
✅ Does it offer a clear journey (stages, milestones, or levels)?
✅ Is the author positioned as the facilitator, not the hero?
✅ Does the back half of the book naturally point to community or collective action?
✅ Are there clear pathways from book → cohort → community?

If the answer is yes, you’ve built more than a bool: you’ve built a movement starter.

Here’s the truth: not everyone should be a Guide.

It’s hard work to hold space, to create communities, to design experiences that scale. Most authors default to “teacher mode” because it’s safer. But if you’re wired for connection, if you thrive when facilitating groups, if you feel alive when people discover strength together... then the Guide path might be yours.

And if it is, your book is more than a manuscript. It’s a manifesto. It’s the gateway. It’s the glue that bonds strangers into peers and peers into movements.

Hilary, Haley, Brendon, Lewis, Tony. Different niches, different voices, but the same truth: their books built tribes, not just readerships.

📖 Your book is the hook.
🧠 Your persona is the system.
💸 Your business model is the result.

If you’re dreaming of building a book that launches not just readers, but a community… this is the playbook.

Happy Guiding (and Writing), y’all.

Eric

⸻

🟦 This is Part 8 of a 10-Part Series on The Profitable Author. In the coming weeks, we’ll be diving into the Storyteller and the Catalyst, breaking down exactly how each persona uses their book as a profit engine and growth system.

📬 Subscribe at www.modernauthorguide.com to get the rest.

🟩 Want help designing a book that elevates your community platform?

Reply and let’s talk. Or grab 15-minutes... I'd love to chat: https://go.oncehub.com/ManuscriptsBookTopicChatf​