Meet Anna David | New York Times bestselling author and book publisher

We had the good fortune of connecting with Anna David and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Anna, do you have a favorite quote or affirmation?
“We get what we want when we stop insisting on it.” It’s from the book Letting Go by the spiritual leader David Hawkins. To me, it’s about having desires but letting go of the results. When we want something specific, inherent in that is the fear that we won’t get it. The universe feels that energy so if we insist on a specific outcome in a situation, we may be actually pushing it away.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I started a business because I’ve been fired from every job I ever had and I was out of options. Because I had written a New York Times bestselling book, people often asked me if I would write their books. I always said no but then one person was insistent that I told him I could hire another writer I knew to write it. He told me that as long as I edited and published it, that would be fine. I’d edited books before but never published one since my own books had always been published by HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster. But I figured out how to publish it and I watched that book make the client, overnight, into an authority. He was suddenly on podcasts, TV shows and stages. Even though I’d had six books published, I had no idea what the right book could do for your career until that first client taught me. Five years later, I run a 7-figure business that has published almost 50 books, many of which have become Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestsellers.

What sets us apart is how painstakingly we create each book. There are other companies out there who do what we do but many clients come to us after having bad experiences with these competitors. I think there’s a philosophy in the entrepreneurial world that CEOs and founders should just put a book out there, quality be damned. I vehemently disagree. A book is a legacy and if you’re going to go to the time and/or expense of putting one out, it should be the highest quality possible.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
My first stop is this hike from Beachwood Market up the hill and then around the side of the mountain overlooking Lake Hollywood. It’s less than a mile to the end of the trail and when you get to the end, you’ll see all the tourists taking pictures in front of the Hollywood sign. Then you walk back, descending into this sliver of paradise smack in the middle of chaos.

I’m also obsessed with a place called Pause on Sycamore in West Hollywood. I do the Contrast Therapy, where you get a room with a sauna and a 40 degree cold plunge in it and go back and forth between the two for an hour. I also love a place called Bodyshape, where you roll out your muscles on an infrared body shaping machine. It’s like exercise and a massage at the same time.

I love the sample sales downtown the last Friday of the month, where you can walk into the LA Mart or Cooper Building with a couple hundred dollars and walk out with a season’s worth of clothing. (Bring cash and your own bags!)

For food, I love L’Antica Pizzeria in Hollywood and, if I’m feeling fancy, Horses. If I’m feeling un-fancy, you can’t beat the chicken at Chicken Republic.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My team at Legacy Launch Pad—Ryan Aliapoulios, Katie Cosgrove, Melanie Schuetz, Kim Kaufman and Onur Aksoy. Running a business is a group effort and putting together an A+ team took years. I had so many bad hires—people who almost sabotaged the business or tried to take what we do and start another business—that I thought maybe there just weren’t any good people out there anymore. Right now I’m blessed to have a team of brilliant, kind, hardworking people. It was worth the previous horrific experiences just to get to them.

Website: www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/anna

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annabdavid/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annabdavid/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/annabdavid

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/annabdavid/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/overannalyze

Other: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Anna-David/author/B001JS0MRI?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Image Credits
Christopher Medak for the photo of me