Engaging with potential customers is as much an art as it is a science. You can never really be sure what's going to resonate, or which elements of your message will gain traction. That why one of the best suggestions we can make is to follow a 'lean' approach. Get the first version of your message out there as soon as you can, and then make updates based on real world reactions.
The traditional model of creating a book, investing tens of thousands of dollars and months of time comes at the great expense of needing to get it right first time. That is a huge, unnecessary pressure.
Today I had a great conversation with Mike Mack who took that advice and has just released an updated version of his book Remarkable Service.
Mike is a great guy and truly passionate about helping businesses excel through service. For over 10 years, he's worked with companies large and small to identify and amplify skills within their organizations that distinguish them from the crowd, helping them become Remarkable. In a way, it's this skill of identifying what's working, that helped him take the initial version of his book and amplify the messages resonating with his ideal customers.
This is a great show, especially for anyone holding back from getting started, concerned about getting it absolutely right on the first attempt. You could instead have your message out there before the end of the year starting conversations.
Links:
Titles Workshop: 90MinuteBooks.com/Workshops
Ready to get started: 90MinuteBooks.com/get/started
Interview Shows: 90-Minute Books Author Interviews
Questions/Feedback: Send us an email
Extra Credit Listening: MoreCheeseLessWhiskers.com
Connect with Mike:
MikeMack.ca
LinkedIn
Transcript: Book More Show 043
Stuart:
Hey, everyone. Welcome to another Book More Show. It's Stuart, here with Betsey. Betsey Vaughn, how are you doing?
Betsey:
I'm fantastic. How are you?
Stuart:
Very good. Thank you. Very good. We have a bit of a last-minute change to today's episode, because the Small Business Expo is in Tampa tomorrow. Betsey's going to head across there and fly the 90 Minute flag, as it were, at the event. What we thought was a great opportunity was to use this podcast as an example of thinking about how we're going to use a book internally to address and engage that audience, and then in turn we'll make this recording available to people who come in through that channel, that funnel, and then talk specifically about you guys listening to this, having come in from that event, landing on this landing page, listening to this audio. How you can use a book in your business to create a great lead-getting tool, engage with some clients, and really I think what is a good opportunity is to address kind of that most straightforward and simple way of someone creating a book as a tool.
I know for people listening to the podcast, we've talked about that quite a few times before, but on the one hand, it never hurts to reiterate it, because it's constantly the thing that people misinterpret. But also, we're going to go through a very specific example today, so I think based on the last couple of calls where we've had interviews with previous authors, and Dean was on talking about the three types of book which are very effective, so I think this is going to be a great episode to pull all those recent things together. How does that sound?
Betsey:
Very good. Should be exciting.
Stuart:
Let's start with giving a bit of background on the show itself. Do you want to give a quick intro to what this show was, and where you heard about it, and obviously this is the day before you go, but what you're expecting to see there so far?
Betsey:
Yeah. I found this through someone that I follow on social media. Someone who runs this event. Can we say his name? Should I say his name?
Stuart:
Yeah, yeah. Go for it. I don't think it's a secret.
Betsey:
Bill Walsh. It's sort of his event that he runs, the Small Business Expo. He does several of these throughout the country every few weeks, and brings in great speakers, does his little workshops that are roughly like 45 minutes long. Subject matters, but there's also some are relevant to my business. Some would be relevant to other people's business. Someone who's maybe interested in stocks and things like that, they would be ... There's all sorts of workshops, I guess, to say. There's startup workshops, and marketing, and how to use social media, and things like that, as well as there's some exhibitors that I'm sure I'll pop in and do those as well. There's a lot of opportunities to do some speed networking, which is great I think for that small business owner on a local scale. They're expecting thousands of people to show up at this event, and I guess that's what happens at all of their events.
Stuart:
It does. It does seem to be quite a big event. I think the venue is quite large, and the exhibitor list is quite large, so looking down the schedule when we were talking before, there seems to be ... I think it's 12 events a year, so they've got quite a robust pan, a robust framework for the events, and there's certainly a lot of individual speaking engagements, presentations from stage. It looks like it's going to be a good event.
Betsey:
Yeah. I think so. I've followed a lot of him on social media, and I've looked into him specifically, some of his one-on-one webinars, and his workshop. Bill will be there as well, as is a lot of these other individuals that I see marketing their business, and so I'm really excited about ... I don't do a lot of this kind of thing, but it's in my backyard, so I'm going to go and do some of this. Step outside my comfort zone, and do this. Yeah, so I'm looking forward to it. I think it'll be a good show, and it'll be a lot of opportunity to meet up with some good people. But for people who are listening, TheSmallBusinessExpo.com is the website, and he's in all the major cities throughout the US, so definitely check that out.
Stuart:
Yeah. I think, tying it back into the book process that we have here, and what we talk about doing for the next event. Pretty short notice, as we only heard about it the other day. We're a couple of days out, so there's no opportunity for us to create a book for this particular event, but that's certainly something we're going to do for the next ones. And actually, talking about reusing assets as we have done before, we're going to talk today about the things that we're most likely to create, and the plan will be to use that in other live event forms as well.
My expectation of kind of turning up there is probably like some of the events that I've been to in the past. You'll end up meeting a lot of people, some of whose names you remember, some of them you won't. You'll end up with a lot of business cards. Some of them you'll be able to associate with people, and some of them you won't. I'm guessing that you're going to end up with a bag full of leaflets, and some squishy toys, and maybe a handful of pens.
Betsey:
I'm sure.
Stuart:
That tends to be-
Betsey:
Stress ball. Everybody needs a stress ball, don't they?
Stuart:
Right. Exactly. That tends to be the way it turns out. Did we do ... Maybe I'm crossing the streams on the different podcasts now. Did we do a book with a guy whose company is promotional material? If we didn't, it might have been a More Cheese, Less Whiskers episode I'm thinking about.
Betsey:
Might have been. Yeah.
Stuart:
Yeah. I'm crossing the streams, I think, on the different podcasts. Yeah. That way of standing out in a crowded environment, apart from just kind of personality and making the impression when you do talk to someone, the benefit of writing a book that is valuable to that audience is that it leaves them with something that's more useful. Coming home with a bag full of leaflets is great, and when I've done it in the past, it's usually kind of sat on the side for a couple of days while I've thought about getting around to going back through it and separating out the useful from the not-so-useful, or the relevant from the not-so-relevant. But the great thing about a book in that environment is it is something that sticks out, or stands out, and is more likely to at least get them through and engage with someone who's likely to be a customer, rather than just getting put on the side and missed, and passed over just as another leaflet.
Betsey:
Right. Yeah, exactly. Right.
Stuart:
I was looking through the schedule for the speaking engagements- the presentations, rather- and there's a lot in there about social media marketing, and building a presence. Something about the three biggest opportunities in the real estate markets, and how to make money through stocks. All of that type thing. None of those necessarily resonate with what we're talking about. What I wanted to look for today was A, share with people the thing that we're going to write for the next event, but B, pick one of these things so anyone that's listening to this who had been the event and perhaps heard this talk, it will resonate with them a little bit more as to how you can use a book in your business.
From the list, the one that stood out is one of the morning sessions called Create Income by Preparing Legal Forms. With knowing nothing more about it than just seeing it listed, what I'm assuming is this is a program whereby you can do at home some of the preparation work for certain standard forms, and just become a contractor overnight also doing this type of work. But I think that one stood out because it's a great opportunity to dive into using a book as a lead generation tool, so no matter how great this particular opportunity is, marketing yourself as that service is still a challenge. The fact that you've got a good framework and a system in place is great, but unless people know about it or know that it's a service that they need, I think it's maybe going to be a struggle to get ... Or the struggle to get business is going to be the same as in any other business.
I'm going to use that as the example as we're talking today, just running through the model of the quickest and easiest way to create a book in order to generate business.
I didn't notice on the agenda, as well, there is another couple of sessions, which are Eight Steps to Publishing Success, so we kind of dived into that program a little bit just before we jumped on the call, just to see what that conversation was about. Again, without being there, without seeing that presentation, I think a lot of that focus seems to be on becoming a published author, and the bestseller type approach, which as people who have listened to us talk before, that's not the approach that we come from. We're very much more interested in getting a book in people's hands, in a cost-effective, efficient way, and actually dealing with conversions rather than having a book that kind of makes a thud on the coffee table as you drop it, and costs a lot of money, and takes a lot of time to create. It'll be interesting if you do get a chance to check that out tomorrow, what the main takeaways from that particular event is.
Betsey:
Yeah.
Stuart:
It's always the case ... We saw as well earlier in the week, there was another model, another framework that was, again, talking about publishing, but talking about publishing or writing a book in the sense of the New York Times Bestseller, hardback, heavy duty book that, again, is a lot of time and effort to create. There's definitely a market for that. It's definitely not a bad thing to do if that's what you're trying to achieve, if that's the outcome that you're trying to get, but again, just to reinforce, the print, particularly some of the costs that are involved, really being able to write several smaller books that address single target markets and engage people in a particular way, far more effective from a business outcomes perspective. It gives you the opportunity to cast a wider net and engage with more groups of people in a way that resonates with them, rather than creating a big, traditional hardback book. You put all of the eggs in one basket there.
Betsey:
Very true. I just had that conversation today with a potential client. He said, "I really think I want to write a large book someday." It's that whole ... Back to that page thing. "We have to have so many pages in order to be a real book." He said, "I want to sort of do that more on a national scale, versus this book that I want to do with you all, I'm sort of looking at my business in my immediate state, in my community." I said, "What are you going to do with that big book?"
Stuart:
Right.
Betsey:
"Well, the same thing I'm going to do with the small book." I said, "Okay, so why ... Think about what you just said." He was focused on that big book, and I said, "Maybe you could do the book about Connecticut, which is your home state, and if you're looking at a national level, and you want to be able to be on ..." He was speaking of being on television shows and programs and stuff locally, and then maybe a little nationally. I said, "So instead of writing that big book, just we'll write another book that's exactly like the Connecticut book, but we'll just leave out Connecticut, and we'll just make it more generic, you know? Across the board." He was like, "Oh, but I really want that big book." You know? I was just like-
Stuart:
Yeah, and to me, it feels-
Betsey:
Yeah. You know-
Stuart:
Yeah. Exactly. As long as you're being honest with yourself about why you're doing it, if you're doing it for having the big book because you think that will open some other doors, or hell, even if it's just a vanity play because you want to be able to tell people that that's the book you wrote, then that's fair enough. But don't mistake one for being more effective than the other, in terms of actually converting into business. The return on something that costs you 20 grand is significantly longer than something that costs two grand.
Betsey:
Exactly.
Stuart:
Yeah. It is. I think it's just being honest and real about what the outcomes are. It's not, "Oh, we need to do something, so we should do this." It's, "We need to do something. What is the best thing to do?" That might be the right answer. It's maybe that you're trying to open doors that can only be opened through a very celebrity-based approach, where you do need something that is ... You can demonstrate that it's on a bestseller list somewhere, or that you can physically deliver it in a shock and awe package, to where it needs to have some additional shock and awe about it. But again, it's a very big price and cost difference, and the returns over that are really quite ... It's a much longer return for one versus the other.
Betsey:
Exactly.
Stuart:
We were talking to someone else today, and again, a couple of weeks ago, where both of these people had paid a significant amount of money to get things ghostwritten or worked with editors or writers on a sort of contract basis. There's a number of programs around at the moment where people ... Whether people who run these programs talk you through creating the book, and have some real great advice on what types of things should go in the book, and then how you can use it in a funnel, but it still all comes back to the job of working writer is left to you, and you're kind of given all these pointers and places where you can get help, but all that help is on top of the program that you've already paid for to get the guidance in the first place, and then you've given yourself the job of actually writing it and project managing it, and giving it direction, and bringing all of these things together.
Again, that's one of the key things that I think about the 90 Minute Book program, is the fact that this really is the done for you service. It is just 90 minutes of your time to get it created and in there.
Betsey:
Right.
Stuart:
With that being said then, let's quickly turn our attention to the two specific examples we want to run through today. That's the book that we're going to write for next time we go to these events, and we can use it in a live environment, and sticking with this preparing legal forms, Create Income Through Preparing Legal Forms, using that as an example of, or a case study of the type of book that you could write to immediately start engaging leads for this business, assuming that this is a new or developing business that you're in.
If you're listening to this, and this isn't your business, then obviously just substitute the specific examples that I'm coming up with for what's relevant for your audience.
Betsey:
Right.
Stuart:
Let's start with the thing that we're going to create for the next one. We've got a good understanding of what some of the common questions are. We've got a very good understanding, and this is, again, one of the key differentiators when talking to us, because on the onboarding process, we're very good at taking what you might have as a broad idea, and really dialing into a subject and a call to action, the steps that are needed between there, in order to create something that really engages someone in the conversion funnel that you're trying to set up, in that kind of conversation that you're trying to have with someone, taking them from a cold prospect to a customer. We're very good at dialing those things in.
For the book that we're trying to create ... The book that we're going to create for these events next time, we've got a pretty good understanding of where people are coming from. We know that they have, on the one hand, got no idea that a book is a plausible or a feasible lead generation tool, because they're coming to it from the point of view of, "A book requires a publishing contract, and all of this time shut away in a dark and dreary room in order to write and create something that can get out there." They may be coming to it from the point of view of they've got an awareness of self-publishing. They know that they should write a book, because it's something that a lot of people are talking about, but they really don't have anything dialed in in terms of what the steps are involved, and certainly not to the extent of how they would go about doing it.
Then there's probably a small group of people who have already investigated some of this. They've maybe started some of these projects before. They've maybe got contacts or friends who have been through a process, either with us potentially, or through some similar organizations, trying to pull this together. Those three groups of people are the ones that we know are out there.
The latter two groups, the ones that have got some awareness already, to a certain degree they've probably done some research, so in terms of engaging a completely cold audience, we're not trying to engage those people as part of this funnel. The people we are trying to reengage with are the ones who are attending, but haven't necessarily thought of a book as a lead generation opportunity in the past. Again, this is just kind of the morning of thinking about how this is going to turn out, so check in in a couple of weeks to see what we end up with. But we're thinking about something around a small business guide to getting all of the leads you need, because we know that the people aren't necessarily going to be looking for something that talks about a book as a lead generation tool, because they might not know that's the answer.
If you remember back a couple of shows ago, we were talking about the difference between a lead generating book and a lead converting book, and the difference there being where the person is in their understanding of it. The people that we're trying to target now at the top of the funnel might not even know a book is a thing to create, rather than 90 Minute Book, as an example, really does a pretty good job of conversing, taking the conversation further, where people know that a book is a good idea. The back cover copy, for example, talks about, "You already know what your book is about. The hard thing is getting it onto the page." That's the next step down.
Betsey:
Cool. Very good. Yeah.
Stuart:
In terms of who we're trying to attract, it's small business owners who are looking to generate more leads. In terms of the information that's in there, we know that the context that we're talking about is using a book as that lead generating tool, so the thing that we'll be writing about is leading towards that as the outcome. What we're going to talk about in the content of the book is the framework, the kind of key pillars that we use of a single target market, so how to dial that in so that when you're doing some outreach, when you're thinking about a particular lead generating funnel, you're speaking to one single target market. We're then going to talk a little bit about how to get people to raise their hands by offering cookies, by making offers that are out there, and in that context, we're going to talk about writing reports, writing guides, giving away small pieces of the program that you've got set up, something that engages people and starts leading them down the conversation.
Then we'll lead on to talk about a book as being the very best way of doing that, because it ticks a lot of the boxes. It allows you to start a conversation by giving something, so it builds reciprocity. It allows you to demonstrate some of your expertise in the content. It allows you to answer some of the questions that your customers have got. You know what those questions are because you're in that business, so you can answer some of those and add value right from the start. Again, hopefully you're starting to get that idea of, "This should be a very simple book to lead people to ... Or a simple way for people to express an interest and raise their hand, by answering some of the questions that are there already."
Betsey:
Exactly. Yeah. I was just thinking about the small business, because I think sometimes people think, "Oh, I'm too small of a business." You know? "Why would I write a book? Why would I need to write a book?" That maybe we only deal with people that have larger companies, and trying to find the value in it. I think people need to realize that we deal with small businesses. That's what we deal with. We're not dealing with large companies that have ... They may be successful from a financial standpoint, but they're small. They're usually one, two, 10-man shows that typically is our client, you know?
Stuart:
Those people are really where they can add the most value, because they're dealing with ... Most of the time, they're dealing with people in a much more personal way. It's not like a big multi-national that you're just getting through to a call center.
Betsey:
Absolutely.
Stuart:
You're quite often dealing with the business owner or a small group of people.
Betsey:
Right.
Stuart:
Writing something that gives value in a much more personal way, in a conversation that's going to turn out to be pretty personal pretty quick anyway, because you're more likely to deal with those individuals. I always wonder whether it's a confidence thing, when people raise that as a concern, or whether they say, "Oh, I don't know if what I've got to say is valuable." I wonder whether that's just one of those excuses that your brain throws up as kind of that first stumbling block that stops people from doing it.
Betsey:
Right. Right.
Stuart:
Because particularly anyone that's been in business for more than six months, any more than a year, all of the information that you've got in your head, the valuable little tricks and tips of getting the most out of the thing that you're talking about, there's an unbelievably significant amount of information that you have, just that you deal with on a day to day basis, that customers on the outside are desperate for that information.
Betsey:
Exactly. Yeah. It may be. It may be that confidence thing. I think that may be the ... There's always those. I hear people say that a lot. Like, "I don't know what's holding me back. I don't know why I'm afraid."
Stuart:
Right.
Betsey:
I hear that a lot. "I've had this idea for two years." I don't think I've ever met anybody who really has not wanted ... Probably because of the people that I surround myself with, but everybody wants to write a book, you know? They want to write a book. Like, "Someday. Someday." Even myself. I've said that, and here I am. It's always, "Someday." But I hear that a lot from potential clients and new clients.
Stuart:
Well, and I think it comes back to the thing that we talk about in the 90 Minute Book itself. This difference between being an author, not a writer. The concept of the information, the value that you've got in your head, in sharing something, is as an author, it's having the ideas and the frameworks, and the way you describe things, and the help you can provide people, and the fact that you give them value by stopping them from making silly mistakes. All of those things are the keys to being an author.
The keys to being a writer, a writer is more of a job. A discipline in its own right. It's the way that the language is kind of ... The words are crafted onto the page. If your job is as a writer, then you need to be good at writing, and thinking about the seed of an idea, and going off into a dark and dreary room, and staring at a blank page, and all these writer's block type things that you hear about that stop people from doing it. If you're looking to sell a book, then your job is as a writer, and you need to have a discipline around that.
If you're looking to be an author and engage people by giving them value through words that are on the page, that's very separate from being an author. From being a writer, rather.
Betsey:
Writer.
Stuart:
It's just sharing the information, and getting it out of there. I think that's very freeing, when people realize that for the majority of people out there, the fact that a book is a great medium of sharing value and getting into the hands of people who are interested, but you don't have to be a writer. Just getting the words onto the page is way more straightforward than having a ... And this might go back to the page count as well. Having a consistent content that leads people from the title on the front page, the reason that they raised their hand in the first place, the promise of solving a problem, to the call to action on the back page. The next steps, the place that they can learn more. Having a sensible thread taking them from point A to point B is far more straightforward at 50 pages than at 200 pages.
Betsey:
Absolutely.
Stuart:
Having the audience engaged for that period of time, making it a bite-sized thing so that they feel confident that they can achieve this thing, they can get to a successful outcome. Far more achievable at 50 pages than 200 pages, and far less daunting, being sat there at the start of the process thinking, "This is something that I want to get out there and share with the world." Far easier to do in a kind of 50-page book that comprehensively answers one valuable question very deeply than trying to think for two years, "Oh, yeah. I'd really like to do this at some point, but it's just a sprawling project in my mind that we never get started with."
Betsey:
Right. The other day I had a conversation with a lady who came on board, and she said, "I've written some pages, and I'm not a writer." It's taken her a long time. She said, "I've worked on these pages for months." And she said, "They're horrible." And she said, "I know they're horrible." I laughed, and I said ... She said, "This is not ..." She said she actually, funny enough, she recorded some of this and had it transcribed, and she said, "It's still horrible." She said, "So I think I'm missing that ..." And I said, "Well, are you wanting to be a writer?" And she said, "No, I just want to get this book published." I said, "Okay. I can't make you a writer, but I can turn you into an author." That's what I said to her.
She came on board, and she was trying to explain. Sometimes things just ... A, if you are not a writer, it's not your gift, it doesn't matter how many pages you write. It's going to confuse you. It's going to confuse the reader. You're not going to have your organized thought. I get that, too, from people. "I have all these pages that I've written, but I need you to organize them." Well, if you don't know your thoughts, I can't organize your thoughts for you.
Stuart:
This isn't a magic wand.
Betsey:
The goal is, get the book out, and start using that tool, regardless of if you're a one-man AC company, or you've got 50 employees. Whatever it is, whatever your goal is, to get that book out. Yes, you're becoming an author. You're not a writer, but you're getting valuable information, like you said, out to your target market. That's the goal.
Stuart:
Yeah. Exactly, and starting the conversation. The whole purpose of it isn't to win a literary prize. The purpose is to start a meaningful conversation with someone. Let's use that as the example for how to help people to get ... How to overcome that. Help people to get something out there that is valuable, is starting the conversation. A lot of this analysis paralysis is around, "Okay, I've got so many ideas, I don't know where to go." Or, "I don't know where to start." Or, "It could be book A over here, or it could be book B over there." And people just never get started. One of the things that we've found success when people fall into this trap is around what we refer to internally as a five by five book. We've mentioned it on a couple of shows before, and I think this one is a great one to use for the preparing legal forms example.
To give people some ... Tripping over my words. To give people something tangible to take away from this episode, what we're talking about here is someone that's ... If you don't have a very strong idea yet on what it should be, but you know that putting some of it out there is going to be valuable, then I think we're going to run through quickly now this five by five outline, and if you've got no other ideas, but you know that a book is a great idea because you know that it will engage people, then I would advise just doing this, and then for the next one, you'll have done one. You've got it under your belt. You've got a lot of the process out of the way, so the next one you might have another single target market that springs to mind in a slightly different framework to pull it all together. If you're stuck thinking, "I need to do something," then go with this five by five framework, and take it from there.
The talk that they're delivering from stage is, Create Income by Preparing Legal Forms. That's obviously a pretty wide spectrum of what legal forms it could be, and some of it is looking for a ... And again, the caveat is, this isn't my field of expertise. I don't know what legal forms they're talking about, so the specific examples might fall down, but the principle still stands. Just swap the words out for your industry. Preparing legal forms could go everything from tax-based filings, company formations, and divorce proceedings, power of attorneys, all of this wide gamut of legal forms that are relatively standardized, but take some time and expertise and discipline just to make sure that they're done in the correct way. The person, although you're delivering the business, they're very similar, because what you're doing is is a different form but similar process. For the person at the other end, it's very different. They're coming to it from a very different perspective. Someone that's filing divorce filings isn't concerned about company formations or trademark agreements.
We talked about choosing the single target market in order to engage people. The suggestion, then, is to pick one of those areas. Group them together if necessary for a couple of different forms, if it makes sense. It might be company formation might be one, or power of attorney, that type of thing might be another one, because there might be a couple of forms that you need to get filed. Visa immigration documents. That might be another area of where a couple of forms are grouped together. Pick the target market based on who the customer is, and then write something that addresses those people.
The five by five model talks about finding the five most common questions that people ask on a particular subject, and then thinking about the five better questions that they should be asking, but they perhaps don't know they should be asking. For example, let's stick with the company formation documents. Someone looking to file or create a LLC at home might be asking a particular set of questions, and particularly if you've been in business for any amount of time, you're going to know what those questions are. We get the same questions asked of us over and over again, which is why you hear us reply to them on the podcast so often, because we keep getting them. But we know what those common questions are, so answering those in the book, knowing that people filing a company formation paperwork always have these same issues, because it's the most confusing piece of it.
Starting with that, you're probably going to intersect with questions that were already going on in their mind already, so people were already looking for these answers. If you're in a position where you don't know what those questions are, Google around on the forums, or searching for ... Even using Google's auto-complete as you start typing something in, it'll come up with commonly asked questions. Finding what those five common questions are is a great way of intersecting with what they're currently thinking.
The purpose of the ... As you're writing the answers, or addressing those issues in the book, is to answer those things as completely as possible. You don't want to be saying to somebody you're going to answer the five most common questions and then just say, "Really, if you want an answer to these questions, you're going to have to contact me." There are always caveats and there are always exceptions, and there's always a level of detail that you can't go into, because every case is different. But answering them at a generic level, as comprehensively as possible, adds value.
On the back of that, you probably know five questions that it makes more sense for them to ask, so using us as an example, we quite often get questions of, "How long will the book be?" Well, we know that the length of it really doesn't make any difference to whether it's compelling or not. We try and get people to ask the question of, "Which group of people are you trying to address? What target market are you trying to address?" Get people to focus on the title, and the value, and the specificity there. We know that's a much more valuable question in terms of having a book as a lead generating tool than, "How many pages is it?"
If you're preparing legal forms, almost certainly similar situations come up. They're asking a particular technical question, but probably a question about the general approach or the outcome is going to be more valuable. The five questions that they are asking, the five questions that they should be asking.
Betsey:
Should be asking.
Stuart:
And then we augment that, or we add to that towards the end by then saying, "Okay, what are the five action steps?" Someone requesting a book about preparing legal forms for company formation, here are the five questions people typically ask, and here are the answers. Here are the questions that you should be asking in order to get the best out of this process, and here are the next five action steps. That might be just reminding people to go to a third-party source and make sure they do an additional filing. It might be, "Once the filing's submitted, give it a certain amount of time and then go to this particular place to check that it was accepted and prepared correctly." It might be, "When the confirmation comes back, double check this information to make sure that it's recorded correctly." Or it might be something completely unrelated, to say, "Well, because you're creating this company filing, you'll also probably need to do this employee assistance filing." Or, "You might need to register some health and safety things at the same time." Or, "You might need to make sure that you register a trademark at the same time."
All of these elements that you know as the expert also come into play. Give people five specific action steps that are very related to what they're searching for, but really give them something tangible that they can do. Then the closing part of the book, the what they should do next, is really then lead them towards a further conversation with you. You've answered their initial questions, but there's almost always, particularly for a consulting type role, or you're adding value to them by sharing kind of additional things that they can do. Closing the book with a call to action to the next step, the next kind of minimum viable commitment step to move them forward in their journey is a great way of closing it and offering more value, so the book itself has answered the question on the cover.
Whatever title you choose, make sure that you've answered that. It's given them value by really kind of going deep into the things that they think they needed to know, added additional value by adding things or pointing them in directions that they might not have realized that they needed, and then giving them some very specific action steps so that even if they did nothing else, just having that book adds as much value as possible to where they are on the journey. Because even if they're not ready to do business with you today, if you've added that value and you keep in touch with them over the long game, then it's likely that ... Or it's guaranteed that a larger number of those people will actually want to do something six months, 12 months, 18 months down the track than just today, so starting off the conversation on good footing. Giving value is the best way of creating that connection to begin with. Getting them to raise their hand in the first place as being even broadly interested, and then starting a conversation that will lead on.
I think that's a great place-
Betsey:
That's great. I think that the five by five, just simplifying it. The five by five, you know? Just that was a great explanation as far as the how and the why. I think it's very simple for anybody who listens to be like, "Oh, okay. That makes complete sense." It really is that simple, how you just sort of broke it all down for people, you know?
Stuart:
Yeah, and I think there's always an effort of ... There's always a desire to over-complicate things. I think if you've got a good idea for a book in your mind, then crack on and get that out there as quickly as possible, and from our perspective, the 90 Minute Book process is the easiest way to get it out there. If you don't, but you're aware that a book is a great way of creating a tool to engage people, then using the five by five framework is a way of adding value into that target market that you're particularly trying to attract in the quickest and easiest way.
Betsey:
Right.
Stuart:
Realistically, getting that out there, generating two years worth of business with that first book ... I mean, just to mention the returns that you're going to get from that effort, rather than thinking about it for two years, and then deciding to do something else. Just the feedback that you're going to get on the first version will make a second book, or even the second version of the first book, so much more valuable than just sitting on your hands and not doing it because there's some degree of analysis paralysis and not getting around to it.
Betsey:
Right. Right. That's great.
Stuart:
I think we have, looking at the clock, we have well and truly blown past our usual 30 minutes.
Betsey:
Yeah, well, it happens.
Stuart:
But I think that adds good value at the end, and some specific actions.
Betsey:
Right.
Stuart:
We're on the 25th of October now. The event is on the 26th. Over the next couple of weeks, we're going to bring this book together so that people will have it in hand to use for the next expo, or the next event that we go to. If you're listening to this because you've come to this page from the expo itself, then we'll update this page as soon as we've got that book in hand, so you can see what the outcome of this conversation is. For everyone else that's listening to the podcast who's part of the normal feed, then we'll be sure to, again, put an update show out as soon as we've got this created. But I think being able to quickly and simply put something out there that helps people get this five by five framework in mind helps small business owners create all of the leads they need through this simple tool. Hopefully this will be a great example, not only to add value to people who read it, but great example to you listening to this as a way of quickly being able to create something that gets out there, engages an audience of the people that we're trying to target, adds value, and then starts the conversation that leads to an outcome down the track.
Betsey:
Awesome. Looking forward to it, and I look forward to sort of the followup in a couple of weeks, to see how things have turned out, and how the book worked.
Stuart:
Yeah. Let's definitely do that. We'll do a followup show on the book itself, and a followup show on the event. We'll line both of those up together, and touch base.
Betsey:
Very good.
Stuart:
I think anyone that's listening, then, just in the last couple of seconds before my voice gives out completely, if you head over to 90MinuteBooks.com/Podcast for the show notes, and we'll make sure that we've got links to everything, and we'll update them as we go forward with the book, as it gets finalized. We have, in a couple of weeks' time, we've got an interview with Mike Mack, who wrote a book with us 18 months ago, and then has just recently published an update to it, so that's a great example of starting off with the version one, but then leading into a version two based on the feedback that you gained from version one. It's a really great conversation, talking to Mike about how he got that first book out there, but then the real useful, and in some ways surprising, feedback that he got internally in order to do those updates.
Betsey:
I'm looking forward to that. I haven't heard it yet, but I'm looking forward to it. We're working really closely with Mike on this, so I'm looking forward to hearing that one. I think that'll be good, just knowing him and his personality, you know? I look forward to it.
Stuart:
Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. It was a real good recording. As I say, everyone, head over to 90MinuteBooks.com/Podcast. This is going to be episode 42, so check out the show notes there. If you want to shoot us a question or you've got any questions about the five by five process you want to dive into a bit more, just shoot us an email to Support@90MinuteBooks or Podcast@90MinuteBooks and we'll pick those up. If this has inspired you just to get started and to get your book out there before the end of the year now, we could have it completed, then head over to 90MinuteBooks.com and follow the "get started" links, and we'll be here waiting to take you through the process and get it completed for you.
Betsey:
Yup. Take care.
Stuart:
Thanks for your time again, Betsey.
Betsey:
Always a pleasure.
Stuart:
No problem, and we'll catch everyone in the next show.