Glenn McQueenie's original plan was to write a book for his team members, but it quickly started opening unexpected doors. We dive in to this case study to discover how it happened.

 

Transcript - Book More Show 002

Susan: Good afternoon this is Susan Austin with Stuart Bell. Today we're excited to be here with Glenn McQueenie. Glenn authored a book late last year using our 90-Minute Book and is going to be sharing with us how having a book has impacted his business. Welcome, Glenn.

Glenn: Thanks Susan, I'm so happy to be here.

Susan: Awesome, so what's the response to the book been like, Glenn?

Glenn: You know, it's been crazy, Susan. You never know what to expect when you launch on this. I think once we actually got it published and out, we did a little bit of a book tour. We're really doing more like a Facebook ad, a more person to person approach. We've been able to get almost sixteen-hundred downloads of the book already. What that's done, is it's really just created a completely different business that I wasn't really anticipating. It's like a brand new company has sprung up because I realized that my book Double Your Income directed at real estate agents is that there's just such a gap in the market.

People, they might be happy at their brokerage, they don't want to leave or whatever. They can't get the right coaching. I just discovered in the feedback and when people get to download a relatively short book and read it, they kind of go, "Hey Glenn, I want to be part of your tribe." Then, they start offering, like "Well, what other services do you offer?" It's kind of like I've been back-filling them all along because I thought it was just going to be a book.

Stuart: That's quite interesting. The customers, the community, that is almost driving what you're able to offer them. You say when you started off the idea was just to create a book. What's become of it has really come out of the conversations that you've had that have started from the book.

Glenn: Yeah, it's amazing how many emails I've got back saying, "Hey Glenn, you know, love the book." I think what they love about the book is more of like, that it is a conversation format. Personally, I like to do that myself when I'm reading New Yorker or Vanity Fair, whenever they're doing more of a interview with the celebrity and then you read all the celebrity's answers rather than reading three hundred pages of prose.

That was the feedback I got. It was quick. It was short. Even the book being sixty-seven pages, they would actually commit to reading it because you can read it in about forty-five minutes. It's not like, okay I need to build time. It's another thing I've already got to do in my busy schedule. It just seems like a really cool, easy way to get to the point. I think the way that you guys structured it by saying you know, "Here's the fifteen or sixteen questions," and really the framework that you, I think Susan created and your hold team's created Stuart, of where's your prospect now? Where are they going? What does it look like when they get there?  I think that was just this perfect, easy, blueprint to follow for anyone who's kind of thinking about doing one of these books.

Stuart: Yes, what was it like, the book tour? You mentioned that that was a ... Whether you were getting the book out there to begin with, was that quite a different experience from ... I'm assuming that was something relatively new that you hadn't done before.

Glenn: Yeah, it's so funny because even when you're planning a book tour and then ... The funny thing honestly Stuart, is that people would actually show up with the book. I would bring some of the books, but then they already had the book. Then they'd come up and they'd go, "Hey Glenn, can you sign the book?" I'd be like, "Oh yeah, sure, yeah," which kind of shocked me. It's funny because I've done that to other big authors and lined up to get them to sign. Then people want like your picture taken. It's really funny. They really kind of think you're a really big deal.

I think by doing the book, you're just positioning yourself, you're almost self proclaiming yourself as the expert in that field. When you do that, people will show up. It's like, if you did a book, you must be a big deal and it must be true. The feedback was fantastic. Then, from the tour, we got more and more word of mouth and more and more downloads. Then you get more and more of the coaching side of things, where people are like, "Hey Glenn, do you do coaching?" A lot of times I'd have to say like, "No." At that time I wasn't doing any external coaching. I was just doing more internal coaching at my brokerages.

That's when I came up with the whole idea of like, why don't we just see if people want to come to Toronto and do like a Mastermind? I sent out a little note to everybody because now for thirteen or fourteen hundred at the time, people who had downloaded the book and I could easily communicate with them with your kind of backup product, which is the GoGoClients, which is so easy to use. Just sending out, "Hey, I'm thinking about doing a little Mastermind Group Meeting," to fourteen hundred people and almost half of the reply and say, "Yeah, I'd love to do that." This is from all across North America. This isn't just from where I'm based in Toronto, you know?  You'd get results. People would be like, "Well, tell me when because I've got to book a flight." That was the most overwhelming part for me. That's why we've kind of decided to just make it into a smaller group.

Susan: Glenn, for those who are listening who haven't done a book of this type or haven't even heard of a book of this type, could you walk us through ... You said Facebook and you talk about these downloads. Just real quick, talk about how you get this book in the hands of your potential clients.

Glenn: The first way I started was going on my own page on Facebook. I came up with this announcement saying, "It's a secret I've been keeping under wraps for like a month or two. I've actually published a book. I'll give you more details next week." Then, of course you have a whole flurry of people who are like, "Oh my God. That's so great." It's kind of just trying to build your base that way. Then, the week later I kind of made the announcement, "Here's the book and by the way here's the download."

That's what kind of started the whole product. Then, I created the Facebook page. Facebook really gets you every way now because then when you post on your page, they want you to boost your post. They've got a pretty good business going on. I was posting on there. Then I would get more and more people would do it. I didn't really do Google AdWords at the time. It's just not my niche. I really was busy running a bunch of other things. That will be my next platform, starting in a couple weeks will be probably more Google AdWords.

Then, there was a publication in Canada called Real Estate Magazine. They did this story on me about how this top producing real estate agent and coach is giving a book away for free to other realtors. For them, that's a really good story. As, who does that and it breaks up the pattern. When people are reading headlines and it's like, "Realtor Giving His Book Away for Free." They did a big article about why I did it. Then, that resulted in probably seven to nine hundred downloads within about a week or two.

Susan: You wouldn't have had that, they wouldn't have written an article on you without the book, I'm assuming.

Glenn: No, because when you're a book, you're a really big deal. You've got that whole, you must be legit, you know? They love to talk to authors. If you think about radios and TV shows, that's all, a lot of times, they used to do was just interview authors. They're always looking for great content with a great story. When your book is called Double Your Income and they've got a magazine targeting to agents, I mean, people are going to want to have that message.

Susan: Very good, sorry go ahead Stuart.

Stuart: Sorry, I was just going to say, it sounded like when you started the book it was an idea to have it as a local resource, but it's taken on a life of its own in terms of the audience that you've managed to reach. For other people listening to this, maybe coming to it from the same point of view that you were, is there any advice that you'd give to them about how to think about it slightly more strategic or some easy way so they can maybe breach into the book tour? I think you mentioned was to some collaborativereal estate agencies that you worked with. Any other pointers for people on how they might leverage the book outside of just their know group?

Glenn: First of all, I think your book, you should always be thinking about your book is, what is your one hour, not sales spiel, but what's your story in an hour? What's the problem in the world you're trying to solve? What area do you want to be a hero or are you so passionate about that if people asked you to talk about this, you'd love to talk about that for an hour? I think that is your book. I think once you can do that and you get your message out ... The great multiplier of the book is like one hundred thousand people get to have one hour of your time. You only have to do an hour at the beginning in order to get your big platform.

I think, the word of mouth spread on the book. Then, we started to get more and more emails about, is there coaching opportunities? Will you come and speak at our office? Would you come and do this? It just starts to almost grow. It's like the accidental book, I probably should call this thing, you know?

Stuart: Can you share with us sort of what a book has done for your business, Glenn? What has this meant for you?

Glenn: First of all, I think the book was twenty-two hundred dollars to do. I can tell you right now, we've probably gotten a hundred to one return on that, easily, just from the exposure, the coaching, the Mastermind Groups and just, I would say in the last nine months. I think that's the first thing. It's what I would call your great multiplier of your business. It just extends your reach and it's incredible.

The other thing was this Mastermind Group I did, where I just kind of set a price of fifteen hundred dollars a month, sent it out said, "Hey I'm doing it in Toronto, only have space for like ten people," and it filled up right away. It was basically a two day event where you can basically bring in like fifteen thousand dollars in income with really very little cost, right? I held it in my office. We supplied some food.

Then those people, what was so interesting is at the end of that two day event, they were like, "Well Glenn, what's our next step?" I'm like, "I don't know. Do you want to get together again in ninety days?" They're like, "Oh, yeah, we'd love to." You have all these multipliers. Then, because people were flying in from all across Canada for this, they were like, "Hey Glenn, can we book you in the fall to come out and speak and would you do a two day retreat out there?"

Now, you just have a whole bunch of people who are just kind of sharing your news. Also, I've got a platform. Every week I send an email out to seventeen hundred people and everyone thinks I'm sending it directly to them. They always send me little notes that say, "Glenn, thanks for thinking about me. I was just thinking about you." It's this wonderful system I think you guys have set up to build a really nice community that just wants to follow you.

The beautiful thing about you giving them the book for free and them downloading it, there's an option they can opt out right away. My experience is under four percent of the people actually opt out after they download the book. They actually like not only the content of the book, but then the weekly, just add value to them all the time, add value and add value. Just watch how crazy your tribe gets. They'll just start going out and selling you for yourself.

Susan: Couldn't you have done all this without a book, though?

Glenn: Not at all. I don't think so. For years I've taught in different courses around North America. I've done my class called Double Your Income. I've done different courses. A lot of them are just one-offs, right? It's that one hour, two hour entertainment value. It's almost like people sitting at home watching TV and they go, "Oh, that was a great show," and another great show comes on afterwards. Everyone just forgets about the first show.

I think that when you're just out there saying, "Here's my stuff," that one level. It's almost like one level of credibility is, "Hey, I can do this for you," but being a published author, because people are raised believing everything they read must be true, it elevates your status. Now, not only are you trusted authority on your target market, but you're celebrity. It's crazy. Then when you're celebrity ... It's like when you're a commodity, you get paid this amount of money. When you're a specialist you get paid a little bit more. When you start doing your own courses you get paid a bit more. When you're celebrity author, you can charge five, ten, fifteen times what anyone else would charge.

Stuart: I think that's the interesting element. A lot of people talk about why a book's importance is related to it’s size and the mindset of wanting to put all of the information into the book. It's a substantial tomb of information. The point that you just made that people enjoy the conversational element of it because it's accessible, it's the first stage of a journey to get to know you better and work with you closer. People feel like they know you more because you're then delivering additional information to them. When you get to the stage where you're able to offer interaction with you, whether it's coaching or whether it's a particular product or a service that you're offering, there's already that relationship. I'm just saying that the book is the first part, it's the first compelling part of the relationship that then has this additional aura around it of a published author.

You almost don't want to deliver too much on the content because you want to start detracting from some of those benefits. It's no longer accessible or easy to read. It doesn't necessarily make you seem approachable. The way it's structured, the way you structured it to then continue to deliver afterwards, it seems to take a lot of those boxes to start and build that relationship.

Glenn: I couldn't agree more. I think the way the book is structured as a conversation is the number one thing. I would tell anyone because I've seen some books that aren't conversation based, they just wanted to be the printed, almost like they're talking a sermon, is boring. It's not interactive. I think the people who want to do longer books, great, but why not break them into two or three books. Then you can multiply it even more. If you give everything you've got into one book, you've got nothing to follow up on.

I would break it down to, let's do your short message under an hour because people will actually listen to it or read it, which is what you want. You want your message to go out. Then, number two is then you can start just adding value to them week by week. I would respond to everyone who's ever emailed me saying, "Hey Glenn thanks," or, "I really loved your book," or, "I've read it five times," or, "I've dog-eared it," or, "I've highlighted it." I would respond right away saying, "Thank you so much for your kind words," or I'd just pick up the phone and give him a call. Some guy in Texas like going, "Holy, Glenn McQueenie," calling me.

That's what you want to do I think. The only reason I did it is because I'm passionate. When people call and say, "Thank you so much. It made a difference in my life," or, "It changed this," or, "I have a question about this." I'm like all over it. I'm all over it because it makes me feel good. That's why I'm doing the book.

Susan: What do you think the financial impact of this book is over a five year place? Any way to project that?

Glenn: Well, I have to tell you Susan, as of July 1st, I'm actually going to start doing a book a quarter, right now. That's the new goal. I've kind of set this goal that, I think if I did a book a quarter over the next six or seven years, that would be twenty-five books. I think that would be really fun. I'm going to be leveraging now ... I'm going to create businesses based on a book, but that will run without me, if that makes sense. I'm going to do a book on the twelve secrets to getting the most money for your home in, you know, you name the city. Then, everyone who downloads the book will communicate with them. Anyone who wants to sell their house in Toronto or that city, I'll just refer that business over to them.

It's a great lead generator for you. There's a lot of different targets that I want to get into and a lot of different things I want to say. I want to talk about building wealth. I want to talk about getting more freedom, spending more time doing stuff that's really energizing. There's lots of different messages I want to get out. I think the book is just a really neat platform to do it. I think my next book, the simple one would be basically Double Your Income Part Two. Now you've already got a tribe. Now you bring in all your new learning and all the feedback you got. Then, bring it back out to the market.

Susan: I'm going to ask the question again. What do you think the financial impact of the book is going to be?

Glenn: This could be whatever you want. I don't think it'd be very difficult to make a million dollars a year on this book. I don't think that would be a problem at all.

Susan: Interesting.

Glenn: If you think about it, if you scaled up your Masterminds, you got twenty people at fifteen thousand dollars a pop, or fifteen hundred dollars a pop. You wouldn't have to do that many of them. The other thing, which really seems to be bubbling up now is ... I've already hired two other coaches to help me with this right now. I've got one group of agents under a hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars in gross commissions. They get coached by this guy because he doubled his income last year when I was coaching him. Then, I've got another group that's kind of one twenty five to six hundred and that's being taught by another lady because she doubled her income while I was coaching her. Then, I do more of the teams.

I think you can now do different books like; So You're New in Real Estate, How to Get off to a Real Quick Start, How to Build Your First Team in Real Estate, How to Leverage a Team, How to Build Wealth, How to Buy Your First Investment Property in Phoenix. There's no end to where this can go. I think quite easily you could easily scale this, too. To answer your question, in five years you could make five million dollars no problem.

Susan: Wow, impressive.

Stuart: I think the interesting thing is, when you started, not all of this was clear. It wasn't the plan to make a million a year from a book. As the audience has grown and as the opportunities have revealed themselves, that is quite an achievable target now. It's really interesting that all of this wasn't orchestrated around a particular end goal, but it's organically grown into something must larger than perhaps we initially realized.

Glenn: Yeah, well it's funny because what do you look at first? You look at the cost, twenty-two hundred dollars. I always thought that was cheap. A lot of people would look at that and kind of go, "That's a lot of money." I'm like, "Wow, you guys should charge more." I didn't say that, you know what I mean?

Stuart: Just not for repeat authors.

Glenn: Then you talk to other people, and I'm in strategic coaching in Toronto. I know a lot of people there. There was one girl, who, I think it was Lisa Sassevich or something. I can't remember. She did a launch where she gave her book as a download free on Kindle. She had twenty-six thousand downloads in five days, or six days. Did you guys hear about that at all?

Susan: We did.

Glenn: Did she do her book through you guys?

Susan: Yes, she did and as a matter of fact, Kindle is an option for you too Glenn, if you're interested.

Glenn: Yeah, we should ...

Stuart: It brings an interesting point. We were talking just before we started recording about the challenge between online and offline sales. Offline, there's the problem of engaging that audience. People may have a copy of the book but you don't necessarily have any way of capturing those details. Kindle kind of falls into that gap of, it's an Amazon sale, but on a digital platform that effectively goes to an offline or a disconnected device.  I think Lisa's example, there was an audience, it was a bonus so they were able to capture the details in another way, which is a great idea for people who have the opportunity. I think for anyone else listening who's looking at offline sales with the physical book itself, or any of these platforms where you don't necessarily get to capture the details.

A lot of the conversation that we've had today has been talking about the book as the beginning of a conversation that you can then carry on elsewhere. It's good for people to remember, that's a challenge sometimes in other platforms unless you use it in another way. Deliver the physical book as a bonus to people that you've already got the details, you're already in conversation with. That's a nice additional thing. You don't need to worry about the lead capture at that point.

Susan: Yeah, let me highlight just real quick. I want to just restate what Stuart just mentioned. The authors that are all excited about selling the book on Amazon or in this case, Kindle, that's great, but Glenn, your success has not been a result of any Amazon books sales, if I'm not mistaken. It's strictly from the give away the book for free, excuse me, in exchange for their email address.

Glenn: Exactly, I couldn't agree more. I was just about to say that, Stuart, too. It's funny, when people actually have your book physically, you're sad about it. I know, weird right? You're like, "Oh no, that's what I want, everyone to have my book." It's like, no because then they're gone, you know? I love your thought there Susan about what if you want, it just gave me a great idea actually. What if I wanted to really give a gift back to my tribe now. I could go buy the books myself, right, through CreateSpace. I know they're very inexpensive. I could even send them to some of my key advocated signed. I know I give them away, like at our Mastermind I gave everybody a copy of the book and they were all thrilled.

Yeah, people should never have anyone buy their book or download it from Kindle or ITunes. Then, they're gone. Everything I have is because of the tribe. The whole idea is just to keep building up the tribe. My goal is to get up to five thousand downloads as quickly as possible and then get to ten thousand. Then, I think the big thing and I think hopefully for listeners, if they can understand this is, you can actually start doing very high scalable coaching when you have a couple hundred or a thousand people who want to join you for a very small fee to do like a weekly phone-in coaching program.

What people don't realize is that if you charge them a thousand a year times a hundred people, that's a hundred thousand dollars or a thousand people, that's a million dollars for the same fifty-two one hour phone calls. I think that's the big thing I think for your listeners is, you just get scale. Never in the history, I don't believe, never in the history of mankind have we ever been able to scale out like this and dominate a market for basically a very little fee.

Susan: Very good.

Stuart: Fantastic.

Susan: Let's wrap it up here, Glenn. We want to thank you for this. You've been very gracious of your time and we appreciate that. Is there anything that you would like to share before we sign off?

Glenn: Just, don't procrastinate. Order 90-Minute Books. Get going. Stop thinking about it. It's going to be perfect. Everyone in your life will think you're a really big deal. That's it.

Susan: Stuart, any final words?

Stuart: I think it's fantastic. I mean, as we hear more and more stories of people having quite transformative experiences from the books in a number of different ways. Glenn's examples particularly in a number of perhaps unexpected ways, it's really quite special to be part of that journey and the success that people are having. Yeah, looking forward to hearing more in the coming weeks.

Glenn: Thank you to your team. You guys have been amazing. Your team's spectacular. They really did make this a very easy process for everyone, especially for me. I'm very impulsive and not that good at following any rules.  So the fact we got it out, it was quite a miracle.

Susan: I just want to say, when Glenn first reached out to us, he literally, the book, I remember the conversation was, he just wanted to do a book so he could hand it off to his team. That was originally the thought process, right? He's got some people he wants to hand the book to them. I don't think he had this vision of where this was going to go all. It really was a result of getting the book out and actually seeing how the audience responded to it.  I love it.

Glenn: Yeah, it's been awesome.