Today I'm joined by Dean to talk about the real reasons to write a book.
You already know a book is a great idea for your business, but still, many people get stuck on why it will make a difference and this leads to delay and procrastination getting started.
We talk about the 3 types of books that are the best at getting results:
A lead generation book
A lead conversion book
A blueprint book
Depending on who you're trying to engage (remember the acronym for LEADS, Let's Engage And Do Something), one of these 3 types will get results.
The great news is, they can all be created in just 90-minutes of your time.
This is a great show to help reinforce your original thought 'I want to write a book', and help you take the first step.
'Where They Are' exercise
Links:
Kevin Craig Interview: Ep018: Helping Launch A Coaching Business With Kevin Craig
Ready to get started: Get Started
Interview Shows: 90-Minute Books Author Interviews
Questions/Feedback: Send us an email
Extra Credit Listening: MoreCheeseLessWhiskers.com
Transcript: Book More Show 039
Stuart: Mr. Jackson.
Dean: Well, well, well, Mr. Bell.
Stuart: How are we doing?
Dean: Fantastic. How are you?
Stuart: Very good. Thank you. It is a rather Autumnal October day, but it's really feeling like the middle of November. It's definitely not as warm as Florida over here in North Wales.
Dean: It's perfect in Florida.
Stuart: I used to go to college up in the Lake District, which is kind of relatively outdoorsy. I can always remember the outdoor instructors there saying, "There's no such thing as bad weather. Only the wrong clothes." Sometimes I beg to differ.
Dean: That's so funny. Yeah. That's less clothes here in Florida. It's a perk. I've been thinking about what we could talk about today because I want to maximize my guest appearances on the Book More show.
Stuart: Fantastic.
Dean: That one of the things that people, I think, ask me is what should I use my book for? I think that if I look at it as why you would write a book in the first place, there's a really great case that you could build for at least three purposes for a book. The first is as a lead generation tool. The second is as a lead conversion tool. The third is as a blueprint, a way to establish a working relationship with somebody. A during unit book as we would call it, or to set the stage. I was thinking about it, that we model that and we use three different books for the 90-minute book process, right? We use a lead generation book called The 90-Minute Book, which opens up people's minds to a new possibility of writing a book in 90 minutes and sets the stage for why somebody would want to write a book. Why a 90-minute book is the right type of book to write, meaning, especially as a lead generation tool, the fact that people are going to, 80% or more, make the decision based on the title of the book, the fact that you have a book, and the fact that you have a way for them to get it, that those are the most important things.
It doesn't matter how long or how many pages the book is, all of those things, it's that you capture the essence of the compelling thought in the title of the book. You're basically resonating with what's going on in their mind. Now, in a lot of ways, and I'm seeing this as I'm talking with more people one-on-one or seeing people who come to the Breakthrough blueprint events, and we talk about using books, that in some cases the greatest thing for a book is as a lead conversion tool. If people are generating leads, they're getting options, they're getting new people coming. The lead conversion book is really about imagining that you've got an hour to sit with somebody, or in a group, of your ideal prospects and get all of the things that you would want to say out to that group, knowing that they are listening or receiving that message uninterrupted.
That's where you can ... I always liked the idea of giving people all the evidence that they would need to convince themselves that working with you is the right decision. I say convince themselves, because that's really the truth of how it happens. We often think that we're doing something to convince people, but the most convincing thing we can do is give people the evidence, the information, the access, the thought process, to allow them to come to their own conclusion that this was the right thing to do.
Stuart: It's almost the case I think, that they've already made that decision a lot of times, isn't it? It's just reinforcing or giving them the evidence to give them the sense that they've done enough due diligence to reinforce the decision that's already been made. Or they're certainly on the fence one way or another, on the positive side.
Dean: Right.
Stuart: It's providing enough of that reinforcing evidence to let them complete the thought that they've already had that started with the question in the first place, that got them on the list.
Dean: Yeah. Maybe there's one or two things that are standing in the way. Maybe there's one or two things that people are not yet convinced of. Let's use our example here. You're in contact, and Betsy's in contact with people who are involved in the process of deciding whether a 90-minute book is the right thing for them. In a lot of ways, we're introducing a new thought to them, right? Most of the time, I think people can be convinced that a book is the right thing. I don't think you have to go to far because societally and everything about it tells you that a book is a good thing to have. Then, when you get down to the essence of what are people sort of debating? Or what is the block? People might think ... What would you say would be some of the reasons that people might be reluctant to do a 90-minute book, or resistance, or questions, or something that may block somebody from that? Do you have anything that comes to mind? What would it be?
Stuart: Definitely. I think it falls into maybe two or three main categories. There's the general procrastination of knowing it's the right thing to do and people wanting to do it. Certainly in the last couple of weeks even, Betsy and I were talking about it just last week, not on the show but just when we were talking together, about the number of people who have now gotten towards the end of the process, having started just a couple of months ago. But there was a real spike in people saying, "Man, I wish I'd just done this when we were first talking months ago rather than leave it to this procrastination." But I think one of the biggest things, or the other two reasons rather, is A, either the process, there's still some doubt about that time commitment. So although we position it as the 90-minute book, there's still some disbelief that it can be done in that amount of time.
So there's going to be an education gap. But the other one, which is maybe even more ... That the bigger group of people fall into, is people not necessarily seeing it as, "This is a good thing to do, therefore, I should do it." Rather than coming to it from the point of view of, "The outcome of this will be engaging these people, this much extra business," they're not necessarily associating a clear outcome, a clear benefit with the effort, with the work. In a context of a conversion book, I've just been taking notes as we've been talking actually, but maybe one of the things that we're missing is another piece of content, another book that shows them more specifically, almost like Beyond the Book, so we'd provide that as part of the internal program. "Okay, now you've got it, you can do this with it." But maybe bringing that forward in the funnel to show people more, and even case study some of the people that have been using it of the existing customers we've got.
Dean: Part of the thing, like what I would suggest maybe even for some show episodes here, might be some conversations to help brainstorm or go through that process, much like what I do for More Cheese, Less Whiskers, just having it be helping people think through the process of how to find the best place for a book in their mix, you know? How to think through the process of whether it's a right thing for them. You mentioned our book, The 90-Minute Book, there's three books in that series. We have The 90-Minute Book, which introduces the context of what a 90-minute book is and why it makes sense to just get started and to move forward, and to get that first version one of your book out, which you can always go and expand on. I'll talk a little bit more about that in a second, but the idea that we've got The 90-Minute Book to introduce the concept.
Then we have the Preparing For Your 90-Minute Book, which walks people through the process of how to get the most out of the process, thinking through the content, and outlining, and that kind of process. Then we have Beyond the Book, like what to do now that you have your book. Each of those things, we look at them as the appropriate thing to give to people at just the right time. A lot of times people might think, "Well, I get all the leads that I need or want," so the place for a book in their business might be in preparing people to have the best experience with you. Or equipping people to use the experience with you as a catapult to a bigger, better outcome. You get that chance, anytime it would be valuable, to have somebody's full attention for an hour and get all of your best thoughts, all of the things that you might want to say to them, out one time and package them as a book, it's such a time saver for you too.
Stuart: Yeah. I'll link in the show notes, an episode that we did, it might have been over a year ago now, with Kevin Craig, who wrote a book solely for the focus of ... He said it came to him because he was constantly getting people calling up and saying, "Hey, I'd love to take you out for coffee, pick your brains on this subject, or talk about particular points." He wrote the book because he found himself going through, and everyone was asking the same questions, so the book is really just to capture all of those thoughts exactly in the way they were said, not necessarily to a customer audience, but just to ... Not really business partners, but people who he was an influencer of, to a certain degree.
But that has led on to quite an astonishing amount of work, both within the big real estate brokerage company, so both within the organization and then has led on to a coaching type business where he's been asked to speak. Then people have approached him to pick up a one-on-one coaching type opportunities. But it's all about capturing questions that were already happening anyway, think of leading people into that conversion point, into doing business in the best possible way so that not only are they more aware of what you do, but you're more aware of the mindset that they're coming in. It's definitely a multiplier I think.
Dean: Yeah. I think that's it. I like that model of answering the questions that everybody wants to know, and answering the questions that they should be asking but don't even know to ask, and then leading people to what they should do next. I think that alone is such a great structure for creating a book. I did a program years ago, I wrote, "Stop Your Divorce," in 1998 with Homer-Mcdonald, a book that's still selling today, sold millions of dollars of that book. I did a course then called How To Write, Publish, and Sell a Money-Making E-book. In that, one of the exercises that we did was for creating a great outline for the content of the book is to start at the top with a crystal clear articulation of where your audience is right now? What's going on with them? What are they thinking? Who are they? And then at the bottom of the page, and I would use a big drawing tablet page, so I was to brainstorm on it, and at the bottom of the page I would have, "Where do they want to be?" Right?
Here's where they are at the top, and where do they want to be? What's the bigger, better, brighter future that they would love to magically be transported to? Then I would just brainstorm in the center of that with all of the things that somebody would have to know in order to get from where they are to where they want to be. In no particular order, I would just brainstorm all of it, just map it out like cities, or little destinations that they're going to have to go through on the journey from where they are to where they want to be. I would not make it as a list, I would put one over here, and then I would put one over here, I would just start brainstorming words and sentences that would describe the things that they would need to know. Then, I would take a pencil and kind of start mapping the journey from the top, from where they are, to where they want to be with the path of the order of cities that they need to go through to get there. It was such a great way to create an outline and keep all the content within the context of, "Here's where my prospects are, and here's where they want to be.
This space in the middle is all the expertise, and all the knowledge, and all the things that I want to share. I want to tell them about this." If I were doing that outline for our process or for the 90-minute book, which essentially is exactly how I went through that process. Somebody's sitting here on the top, they've got an idea that a book would be a good thing, their preconceived notion that they're going to have to spend months, or a long time, slaving away writing the book, and there's resistance to that. I know that the promised land at the bottom is that they've got a book, they've got a landing page, they've got a completely finished lead generation system for their business. That would be the magic promised land if somebody could just snap their fingers, right? I know that in order to go through from where they are to where they want to be, it starts out with they've got to understand that you really can write a book in 90 minutes. I need to outline our process, I need to prove it by writing a book that took us 90 minutes.
The great thing about The 90-Minute Book is it was written using our exact 90-minute book process. There's crystal clear evidence that it works and that the output is a real book, so they see it and hold it and know that that's evidence there. Then, they got to have a title, they've got to have the content for the book. I know that all of the things that are involved in our Preparing For Your 90-Minute Book and the process that we use. We've got to have all of the content recorded. If you look at the infographic that we show on the 90minutebooks.com website, that shows the whole process, that's essentially what I'm describing, is it's showing exactly how things work.
Stuart: Yeah, I think that's one of the big benefits that people who do get onboard really see, having kind of maybe procrastinated or worried about for, in some cases years leading up to it, but the very quick process that we've got through experience and expertise of helping people pull out those points, feeling that middle ground to say, "Okay, this is what you're trying to achieve with the book, this is the audience that you're thinking of engaging with." Us helping to pull out all of those bits in between, that's really the key difference with, again, trying to help you versus trying to do it yourself. I think you've hit a good point in until people come onboard, they don't get to see or experience that, so it may still be a procrastination point or a lack of...
Dean: Right, and one of the things that blocks people is that in the old world of publishing you were committing, as if you were committing to chiseling the book in stone tablets, that once it's done, it's done forever, right? Or that you couldn't change it, you got to get everything right the first time.
Stuart: It's got to be perfect.
Dean: Yeah, and one level up from chiseling into stone tablets is thinking from the old model that we're going to have a print run of 5,000 copies, or that you've got to do this so your stuck with it. But the reality is we always think and try to convey this to people, that if you think about it as version one of your book, that you think about it that you can very, very quickly, in 90 minutes as a matter of fact, go from, "I've got an idea for a book, I think I resonate with my audience here." If you can get all of the big answers here very quickly and continue to evolve it and get feedback, and work with it, and develop it from there into anything you wanted it to be, right? A bigger book if you want to continue to add to it, or another version. We print, and you get copies. First of all, you get the electronic version, which you can change instantly, but even the print copies, we get them through Create Space where you can print one, or 100, or whatever number you want. You're not bound to it.
Stuart: Yeah, there's no contracts, not getting tied into anything.
Dean: Right. And so that's the way I look at it.
Stuart: It's almost a short term memory. I mean, it's not so long ago that The Lean Startup was one of the top-selling books on Amazon, and the whole premise of that is you as the entrepreneur, as the business owner, cannot tell for sure what's going to be successful. So put something out there and then respond in an agile way, in a fast, in a lean way to what the market feedback is giving you. It's interesting, we see it time and time again, where people get into, well, to use a Strategic Coach term this kind of ... Not applying the 80% model and getting into that kind of increasing resistance of trying to get something perfect, or worrying about trying to get something perfect, that delays the whole thing.
Dean: That's exactly right.
Stuart: Rather than getting something out there, get the feedback, yeah.
Dean: Right. And that's the thing is, you can get to a point where you can test everything and you can tell, especially if you're using it as a lead generation book. If you're going to be using the book as a way to attract new clients, which I believe is one of the very best things you use a book for. The way that you can, when you have a book, get people to raise their hand is very, very valuable. Once you've got a title, and you've got your book, and you've got your landing page, and you've got that all setup to refer people, it really does not matter that the book is 50 pages versus 250 pages. It doesn't matter. If you're not resonating with the title of the book, if you haven't struck a chord, you know it very quickly and you can regroup, readapt, take the same content and test a different title. I mean you know that rather than investing so many extra units of time that it would take to get the book complete before you ever know whether it's something that the audience even resonate with, you know?
Stuart: Yeah, I couldn't agree more on that whole principle of getting it out there to test in the market before burning all of those units on something is I think one of the biggest missed opportunities that we talk to people about, or people who do eventually come aboard after they've delayed for some time, really kind of regret because that time's passed.
Dean: One of the biggest reasons I'm such an advocate of getting version one out there in actual book form versus getting a transcript and shopping it around to your friends and getting opinions on it is Dan ... Dan Sullivan had a great thing, he said he never tests ideas on non-check writers, which is really a valuable thing, right? Especially never with people he writes a check to.
Stuart: Right.
Dean: The only vote that counts is the person who can write you a check. The reason that I'm such an advocate for getting the book packaged, getting everything ... It's funny how there's a lot of resistance sometimes around, "I'm going to see it right before ... ?" As if it's a commitment. We're not chiseling it in stone, we're sending you 10 copies of the book to have it in a book format that people see it, they know that it's a book, they see that. What you realize is that then removes the need for people who you show something to as a manuscript format, it removes the need for them to feel like they need to suggest something.
Stuart: It's not homework you're giving.
Dean: Like they're adding value to you. "Well, I'm not sure, I think you should do it this way." Or, "I think you should say it this way," or whatever. But when you show somebody something that's a real book, that's going to trigger the things and it's less likely that they have trivial changes or things ... Now they maybe feel like, "Oh, it's already done," and you'll get a whole different opinion. But either way, the voice that really matters is the voice of the people that you are hoping will write you a check, not the people that you write a check to.
Stuart: Exactly. It's this whole concept of the book isn't the product. The book is the tool to share the product with other people.
Dean: Yeah.
Stuart: Yeah, it changes the mindset.
Dean: The truth is, that's really the thing, the fact that you have the book and that people will have a way to get it, and that they can raise their hand and ask for it is really 80% of the job of the book. Once they raise their hand and ask for it, the book has done its job. It's less even important ... Exhibit A, that I always point to, of that is the number of people, hundreds and hundreds of people that we've helped write books right now, that have not actually read The 90-Minute Book. Now that's a shocker, right? But they've seen it, they hold it in their hand, they download it, they ask for it, and they get that sense of it, and then from that makes the decision that it's the right thing to do.
Now, I know that a lot of the people have not read it because of the questions that some of the people ask, or the blocks that some of the people ask, right? Or they'll be convinced that, "Well, The 90-Minute Book isn't an interview?" "Well, look again Buttercup, it is." I mean it's exactly ... The 90-Minute Book that we are using as the flagship, as the lead generator, as everything to start the relationship that we have for people to help them write books, is exactly the product that we are helping them create. There's nothing that's an outlier of that, right? It's exactly following the process.
I recorded, I did a 30 minute brainstorm call with Susan Austin, we recorded for one hour, we went through everything that we would go through with our authors, it was transcribed, it was edited, I worked with Glen, our designer, on the cover of the book, we set it up, put it into Create Space format, got it setup on Create Space, and shipped it to me just exactly the way that we would do with any of our authors, right? It's exactly a product of the process that we are helping people with. That has been the catalyst for all the hundreds of people that we've helped write books, right? We use it to run Facebook Ads to generate new leads for people to download the book, then inviting them to come on a workshop where we can help brainstorm some titles, and then inviting people to have us help them write a 90-minute book. It's exactly modeling the process that we help everybody else do.
Stuart: Yeah, exactly. I think it's the perfect example of the best way, the minimum viable commitment, where you've taken someone from the first step, to the second step, and then there's another process taking them to the third. The work of it is that first example where we had the lead generation type book, and it's really the quintessential example of how effective an 90-minute book can be, and like you said, done in exactly the same way.
Dean: Yeah. That's become a real business, like I said, where we help hundreds of authors. That's my deep thoughts for a Saturday morning.
Stuart: I think that's a perfect place to leave it. Leave people wanting more for the next fun. But hopefully by that point people have listened and realized that if they are having the thought, there's nothing really holding them back, jump on board, and ... Where are we now? The beginning of October, so certainly by the end of the year they can have a funnel out there getting people to raise their hand or helping converting existing leads and really moving the dial on something this meaningful.
Dean: Yeah, that's it.
Stuart: Fantastic. Well, thanks for your time, we'll catch up again in a couple of weeks. For anyone who's listening, dive over to 90minutebooks.com/podcast, get all the show notes that we've got. This is episode 39, so we'll have transcript, and show notes, and some of the links for things that we've talked about. Thanks Dean, we will catch up with you next time.
Dean: Awesome. Thank you. Bye.