Today on the Book More Show, we're talking with real estate coach Eric Thompson, a Real Estate coach based in Colorado and author of Sell More Houses and Have Happy Clients. A book that introduces people to his 'Non-Pushy Selling System'.

With over 30 years of real estate experience, many of those coaching other agents, Eric has some great insights into the challenges they have, the conversations going on in their minds, and the ideas he can share to help get agents to the point of wanting to know more about his tools.

Eric's system, emphasising traits and perspectives agents already have rather than telling them they have to become someone else, is universally applicable, and his book is the perfect tool to introduce this idea, break the typical 'hard-grind' advice, and give people clear next steps toward working with him.

It's a great example of finding a compelling hook and something you can replicate for your business.

SHOW HIGHLIGHTS

1. Eric Thompson, a seasoned real estate coach, discusses the benefits of technology for real estate agents and how it can help bridge the gap between technology and personal connection.

2. He emphasizes the importance of trademarks and offers fresh perspectives on the industry's big personalities.

3. We dive into content creation, marketing, and the importance of repetition and how constraints can be beneficial.

4. We explore how to give people the right tools to help them understand where they are in the journey of resolving their problem.

5. Eric shares his experience of being in the real estate coaching business for over 10 years and how books have become an effective way to capture leads and convert them over time.

6. He tlaks about importance of overcoming the fear of being overly assertive and salesy in real estate selling is highlighted.

7. Eric introduces his unique “Non-Pushy Selling System” as a solution to conquer the fear of being overly assertive and salesy.

8. The influence of books as marketing tools and Eric's journey using them for lead capture is discussed.

9. Eric talks about the power of writing and publishing books and how it can instantly boost credibility.

LINKS 
Eric Thompson- LinkedIn
Eric's Website

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TRANSCRIPT
(AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors)

Stuart: Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Bookmore show. It's Stuart Bell here, and today we've got another great episode. It's talking with Eric Thompson. Eric, how are you doing, buddy?

Eric:  Hey doing great. Thanks so much, stuart, for having me on. I appreciate it.

Stuart: No problem at all. This is going to be a good episode. I'm excited because I've seen the process of the book coming through so far, so I know a little bit of the background, but we haven't had a chance to talk, so why don't you do an introduction for everyone listening and for me outside of the context of the book?

Eric:  Yeah, absolutely, I appreciate it. So I'm a real estate coach. This is my 30th year in real estate. It started pretty much fresh out of college back in the day. I'm a Colorado native, live in Colorado with my amazing family, my wife and two kids. And, yeah, different things I've done in real estate. I've been a real estate agent, been in management, been in leadership, actually owned a real estate brokerage, but all along what I've loved to do is coach agents to help them be successful, have more happy clients, have a more fulfilling career. That's what I focus on and, yeah, and so that's what the book is really about.

Stuart: I was in Breckenridge a few weeks ago and had first-hand experience for the first time of the Colorado effect of everyone, no matter whether they're kind of 26 or 96 or looks like they're 30. You kind of keep on that tradition going of their outdoor life as serving people well, people who use the agency work with in the past and the clients they work with. Is that mainly centered around Colorado? Is that across the country?

 Eric:  Across the country and now I'm lucky enough to have clients and people subscribing to my membership program. From now I can say I'm international. I have clients in Canada, but yeah, I've been able to spread what I do from coast to coast. You know, every time zone in the continental US and now Canada. And so, yeah, it's really it's a fun part of what I do and really such a benefit of technology right that I'm able to reach out and help and interact with and connect with people all over the place. So that's been really fun.

Stuart: It's such a difference, isn't it? Even the last couple of years I mean the real estate we've worked with all the way on the bleeding edge of technology, but the advancement in the last three years, kind of pandemic driven remote working, it really has accelerated the conversation and I think it's created such an opportunity both for you as a other coach of remote agents, but also the agents themselves when they're trying to deal with an increasingly younger group of buying and selling clients. Just that being forced to kind of adopt even a low level of technology just is such an amplifier. Do you see that in the clients that you're working with kind of their adoption of technology, as they don't see it as like a big barrier anymore? It's just another thing to deal with.

Eric:  Yes, absolutely, it's one of the benefits of COVID. Not that we would have wished COVID on that, but Zoom is very normal now. So it's one of the best things that ever happened to the coaching industry and that Zoom is normal, and it's one of the best things that's ever happened to real estate agents and that you're talking to and working with a client who's relocating from another part of the country or another part of the world to your location. It's such a better way to build a relationship with someone and get to know them when you can see them too. So, yeah, absolutely, it's been an amazing benefit.

Stuart: I think maybe for the well anyone in business really, but realtors particularly, because there is that kind of last mile element of at some point it does get very personal but to try and bridge the technology into it so that it's as fast and efficient and effective as possible, because at the end of the day people are used to signing up and clicking one click on their phone to have things completed and not necessarily the reams and reams of paperwork that traditionally go along with real estate, but keeping that right balance of still the personal connection but being facilitated by the technology. It bridges the best of both worlds and I think for people who adopt that and rather than a resistance to it just opens up more opportunities.

Eric:  Absolutely. And related to that, one of the best features of Zoom or things like Zoom is screen share. So when you're coaching, when you have a conversation piece on the screen, have their business plan, have their goal a tool I use in coaching is a scorecard. When you can have that on the screen to be able to talk about that. And then when an agent is talking to a client, to have something like the seller process or the buyer process or something about the market you know market statistics, graphs to be able to share that on the screen. One of my favorite expressions is showing is better than telling, and so when you can use the visuals along with the conversation, it's a really effective way to use Zoom or things like Zoom.

Stuart: I think almost as well it's for their agents. It's almost more of a captive audience. Rather than going and doing a presentation in someone's home where they might be distracted by other things going on or you kind of feel the pressure of having to flick through the material pretty quick and not necessarily dwell on something, but in a Zoom environment you're always going into it with a estimate of how much time you've got, because someone books an appointment at four way period of time and knowing that you can take the time to highlight this particular piece, it's almost in some ways more effective than being in someone's home where I think there is somewhat of a pressure to flip three things and get to the end.

Eric:  Yes, yeah, completely agree, and you can control what they're looking at and you can keep them from flipping ahead. So yeah, that's an interesting one.

Stuart: You feel a little bit rude of turning the page back on someone and say no, not yet, not yet yes.

The clients that you work with in the coaching business. It's funny, I'm sure you hear it all the time but the kind of ah, but my market's different type excuse from people who are kind of resistant or reluctant to get started Bridging out into wider than Colorado and then wider than the US. Is there any elements of kind of bringing people on board and up speed and enthusiastically getting them to the point of saying yes, this is right for me. Has that developed as the footprints developed wider over the years?

Eric:  Yeah, you know, every market has its own nuances, of course, and I do a lot of work actually in resort markets.

Resort markets have their own nuances, but what's consistent I found and this actually relates to the book that I found is a common obstacle, a common challenge for the real estate agent, Like the thing that I've found to be most effective to help them with and fix is a fear of being pushy.

So, regardless of what market they're in a primary market, resort market, a big city, a small town it's what's consistent, what's always the same is that the realtor has some aversion, some fear of being pushing and salesy and corny and used car sales person. You know they don't want to be that way and the reason why they don't want to be that way is because they're a nice person, right, they're a nice, normal person with a really great personality, they have really great relationships, they have a great reputation and they don't want to mess any of that up, right? They don't want to change relationship they have with their friends, they don't want to negatively impact their reputation. So what I figured out is that's really the thing that I can help with and that's commonly the place I start with people and have. Like my whole program is really developed first around that. Let's first overcome that, then get you on your way to having more clients to help.

Stuart: It's interesting, isn't it? A lot of people are interested in the tactics or specific things, but quite often it's an underlying block or something that's preventing them from even if you gave all the tactics and techniques, it's still an underlying psychological or perspective issues. The real holds back.

Eric:  Yes, yeah, yeah, always that translates into the book.

Stuart: So the book is happy clients. Without being pushy, I've got the.

Eric:  I just realized it's on the screen the non-pushy selling system.

Stuart: Thank you the non-pushy selling system which in and of itself. We talk about titles a lot but that knowing the audience that it's going to that title is very much does what it says on the tin. It kind of overcomes some objections just in the title itself the name of the program. The approaches he said developed a little bit, but the name of the program and then the name of the book was that something that you had very clearly in mind from the start or did that develop through the process?

Eric:  Well, credit to the help that I'm getting, but my mindset going in is that I wanted to call the book non-pushy selling, and the coaching I got was you know what this is really? A system that you're laying out in the book, and a system is more attractive to someone than just non-pushy selling, because people, what system implies is that the system is going to do a lot of the work for you, right, and the system is going to work and the system is going to generate the friendly referrals that the realtor wants. So that was really good coaching in it. So that you know, the title starts with some more houses have more happy clients the non-pushy selling system. So you know, it's really like the subtitle is in the lead here the non-pushy selling system.

And I, because of my experience in first noticing that objection and challenge in realtors and then figuring out how to help them with that, I really wanted to be known as the non-pushy selling guy, like the guy that helps people with that exact challenge and the person who can unlock that for the realtor. And so then where my mind went was well, I need a book, right, I need a book that says that. And so again, my thought was non-pushy selling would be the title, but the coaching I got was you know what? Let's make it the non-pushy selling system.  

Stuart: It's such a great insight because the whole it's a nuanced difference but it does communicate the benefit and the outcome and the solution within that title element. So not that it's just describing a problem but, as you identified, there's, there's elements in here that will get you the results that you want. So this idea of communicating the promise of the outcome in the title itself or the title and the sub-combination, obviously, but that really makes quite a difference. And then it leads into the whole kind of name it and claim it and the strategic coaches, registering trademarks type approach of really dialing in and claiming this space as your own. There's lots of stales, courses or sales coaches out there, but this particular element, if this resonates with you, then you're the guy to go to.

Eric:  Exactly.

Stuart: The feedback in the dialing in of the, the, this feeling that people have got of not wanting to be pushy. Was that relatively obvious from the start, as soon as you started dealing with people, or was that in itself something that developed over time? For me, it developed over time.

Eric:  Yeah, it was, and I don't remember the exact time it really hit me and it was probably just a slower realization. I don't know if it was like one one big moment, but I think it was just over time. Where, you know, I've had the great fortune to work with a lot of different real estate agents in a lot of different places, a lot of different markets, and this theme kept coming up and it kept coming up with brand new agents, with veterans, with high producers, with people who are trying to get to a high level, like in different markets, different price points, again, resorts, primary. It didn't matter that, that that was the common thing. And people said you know what I got into real estate? Because I love helping people, I love working with people. Real estate is intriguing to me. It's a big transaction in someone's life. I want to help with that. But what they ran into was this super common block of I don't want to be pushy and salesy, I just don't want to be that person, Is it?

Stuart: always something that someone can overcome. It's always a. It's always something that you can reposition it and reframe it so people see it a different way. It's never something that's such a fundamental problem that they can't get over it. Maybe easy for some than others, but is it something that's always overcome?

Eric:  Yes, what I'm convinced of is that my solution works for everyone. Now, whether they choose to use it or not is different, but it where I really work to make sure things that I coach and teach can work for any personality, because most people are normal. You know I have great, you know just great down to earth personalities and what happens in our industry it's interesting is that a lot of times the big personalities are showcased and they have a spotlight on them. You know the people that are on TV, the millionaire real estate agent and on. You know those people are great people but they're not normal and they're not anyone that someone could copy and emulate and try to be like.

You know most people can't be that. And so those people on TV, for example, the reason why they're having their success is because of their enormous personality, and good for them. But that's, it's super unique. And so there's the normal person, the normal personality, saying well, wait a minute, how, how can I be? I can't be that, how can I have that, those kind of results and that success? But I didn't without that personality. So, again, I really work to have coaching and training that that can work for everybody.

Stuart: It is interesting, isn't it? We talk a lot about the job of work or the product of the book. Isn't the book itself? We're not trying to sell copies of the book and that's our career. We're business owners. And the product, the outcome, is a conversation. And the same with the TV show. The product of the TV show is the TV show. They're kind of self-selecting for personalities and the social media problem a little bit. It's very self-fulfilling into that extreme end of the spectrum. But the reason that it has success and traction is because it is the extreme, not necessarily the underlying business. It's kind of the tail wagging the dog rather than the other way around. Which?

is a thanks for most people, the people who you work with and the clients that come to you. How do they find you at the moment, or how do you find them at the moment Prior to any book conversation? What's been the path to them knowing about you and ultimately raising their hand?

Eric:  Yeah, so, as I think about my list, it's been generated a lot through public speaking. I've had a great chance to be in front of a bunch of different groups, all realtors but different paths there. I've had some success with Facebook advertising. I've had success with lead ads and there are other books that I've written, some smaller pocket guide kind of books that I've had as a free download, and again I've had a lot of success through Facebook lead ads Doing that. Also webinars, doing free webinars that's been a big part of my lead generation success. So, yeah, those have been in the different ways. So probably mostly public speaking and Facebook.

Stuart: It's interesting, isn't it, that once you get a message, whether or not it resonates is then a separate thing, I guess. But once you get a message that is easy to tie content to, it's easy to record something. There's a webinar that can live around that kind of slightly bigger world. There's other guides, or other people do white papers. Once you've got that seed, once you know for something, it does make the whole content creation process a lot easier, because you're not going into it wondering every time what am I going to talk about? You know broadly what I'm going to talk about and then it's just the specifics for each occasion. Did you find that to be the case as well? As the message got honed in and dialed in, it became easier to create content.

Eric:  Yes, absolutely Absolutely. And what's funny is that I think that can be countered. I think some people may think, well, once I have that topic, then I'm kind of done, and I've talked about that topic, now I have to jump to a whole new theme. But actually you don't, and I've had that feedback from clientele as well. One example coming to mind is I do some work for an incredible company in Lake Tahoe and do some consulting work with them and a series of training.

And I asked the broker-johner you know, what should I tell? Is there some specific thing you'd like me to talk about? Is there something new that's on the mind of your realtor, some new challenge? And he just said, eric, just keep talking about what you've already been talking about, like they can't hear that enough. So, yeah, it's the repetition. That's where you get the real value right and where people really start to get it. And then, as people, as I got that feedback, I started to think about my own experience and the people that I've learned from, like Dean and like yeah, I've heard the same thing. Or Dan Sullivan, or on and on right, I've heard them say that before, but this time they said it in maybe a slightly new way, or I was now in the right place to hear it in a way that I needed to hear it. So there's nothing. I think sometimes us, as we as coaches, content creators, we get fearful of being repetitive, or we're kind of averse, or we worry about that, and no, I think that just stay with that theme.

Stuart: Yeah, I was just saying to someone yesterday that you're the only person who sees all of your content. Even your most engaged client or listener out is still only consuming a tenth of what you're putting out there. Even if they're listening to everything, it's in the background and they don't quite hear everything and they'll miss an email here or post there. So it's only you as the creator that sees everything, and the other people just see the very small pieces. And, as you say, it's not only that you might say in a slightly different way the tenth time you say it, it's that they're in a different place and here and ready to hear it, which that element of repetition and being out in front of people a lot at every opportunity is really the difference maker between just hoping that you happen to intersect with someone at the right point in time versus always presenting those opportunities to intersect whenever is the right point for them.

Eric:  Yes.

Stuart: There's one of the scorecard the book blueprint scorecard, mindsets is this idea of beneficial constraints. So we talk there both in terms of time frame like putting a constraint on it in terms of actually getting it done, but also a constraint in terms of the breadth and the scope, because if you're trying to include everything, you'll never get around to it. It's much easier to create something that's on message. But also the other element of it is and again this came off in the conversation yesterday if you try and include everything just in the book but you kind of hoping that one tool does all of the work, which is unlikely the majority of people just skim and whether it's 70 pages or 700 pages doesn't really make a meaningful difference. Having that additional content in the email follow-up sequence or in social media that's referring to the book, using the book as the excuse to talk about it, all of that downstream stuff and the scope outside of the book much more effective and efficient than just trying to jam it all in those pages.

Eric:  Absolutely absolutely.

Stuart: Yeah, let the book be the start and then have all the other pieces of content that queued up as follow-up Right because the point that you made you can say the exact same things in the 10 days of the email afterwards and hopefully by the 10th day it will resonate and someone will say, oh, this is what I need whereas I just might miss it in the first instance, this idea of scope constraint.

then, was there anything as you were creating the content and thinking what should and shouldn't be included? Was it easy to stay on message and on target and not run the risk of scope creep derailing the project a little bit? Was there anything that you initially thought you wanted to include but then eventually didn't include?

Eric:  That wasn't a challenge for me. Only because I had taught this content live and I've taught it in a webinar. I had to benefit it, where I had already organized the content. My fear was that there wasn't enough, and that's probably a common thing with the authors that you come across. Well, this turned into enough pages and why even be able to talk for 90 minutes? And, oh my gosh, it was so smooth.

The process was so seamless, it was so easy and it easily took up 90 minutes with no problem. I loved the process in that you said okay, we have nine chapters and I do some initial writing, and then you create the outline. We have nine chapters and you're just going to talk for 10 minutes on each chapter. I was like, oh my gosh, that makes much sense, that's so easy, I can do that. I can talk about this for 10 minutes, no problem Prompting with questions, and so yeah, it's funny because so many people get caught up.

Stuart: and I guess it's only funny because we've been doing this for 10, 11 years now and you get so used to your own process you forget that other people things can seem like magic tricks, like what you would take as the base level, so I always forget that. People typically are coming in thinking about the end product and thinking about writing in like a school exercise or college exercise in the traditional way of doing it, which is what traditional publishing is. Here's some money up front, lock yourself in the cabin for six months and I expect to see something finished when we let you out. But the whole premise around the outline, that setup stage before you even think about recording that outline stage, is by far the most valuable because it gives it a structure and a framework and a constraints and a roadmap to each individual bite size piece. That makes the bringing together all the elements so much easier.

Eric:  Yes, it was so simple and so brilliant all at the same time. And I didn't understand the 10 minutes per chapter thing until I was told that I was sent the outline. Here you go. Here's based on the initial writing that you sent us. Here's the outline nine chapters. I was like oh great. And then for the interview, she said okay, you're going to talk for 10 minutes for each chapter. And I was like genius, Now I have a roadmap and now that's just an easy way to stay on track. I'm all about frameworks, I'm all about outlines, making things easy, I'm all about plug and play. So the fact that you gave that to me, it just made me feel so comfortable and relaxed and it was easy to flow.

Stuart: That familiar piece that ties in with the scorecard as well, your scorecard for the process itself Giving people tools and techniques, things that they can either well both really conceptualize the idea, but then there's an exercise or a framework or a set of guidelines that they can see themselves progressing or act as reminders that, oh, I'm recognizing this pattern of behavior. Therefore, I know I need to do this piece. When people the book itself obviously is this introduction to the conversation it's more about setting the scene for what people can do and giving them some pointers, rather than the complete solution Only, if nothing else, because the complete solution is bigger than just a book. But this idea of bridging between ideas and tools and tactics, Is that something that's developed over the lifecycle of the program? And what's the feedback that you get from people who are using the system? Do they appreciate those tools as much as the ideas, or is it more the idea that resonates and then they're kind of figuring out for themselves?

Eric:  They appreciate understanding the concept and then being given this, given the solution. This is what we need to overcome and this is how this is exactly how you're going to do it. So I think sometimes people can get frustrated with only hearing theory, like, yeah, that's interesting, but what do I do with that? So I've learned the hard way not to do that, because I love to teach theory, but I figured out to be good also at giving the specific tactic. And then also I find that if it's only tactic and people don't understand how it fits conceptually or the reasoning behind it, there's less likely to implement it. So I found that you have to do both. So here's how I do it.

Here's this thing down, pushy, selling, common objection. This is the problem that it's causing for you. It's keeping you from doing these certain things. And people say, yes, that makes sense, I get it, that's true. And then here's how you solve it. So I have a thing in the book called the architecture of help. So this is how you frame up a conversation with someone that can potentially lead to you helping them with their real estate, and it's just, you know, simple, four-part framework. And so that's how I think about it and that's kind of what I've learned through my coaching and teaching.

Stuart: And particularly I mean specifically for your example, I think for anyone out there being able to give people frameworks or acronyms or things that they can easily like, understanding where they are in the journey.

So they have come across you in some way, either relatively high level in a Facebook account or relatively more detailed. They might have been on a list for a period of time. Now they get into the stage where they want to know more because the problem resonates with them individually. So they're opting in for a copy of the book because they want to start the conversation to resolve this problem, but understanding exactly where they are in the process and giving them enough tools that it makes it feel worthwhile, but either not baiting, switching into something else or being too superficial and not really giving valuable information. But it's the perfect blend frameworks and acronyms and small steps that they can take. It's the perfect blend of positioning it at the right level that this isn't. There is a course, there is coaching, there is more stuff further down the track, but at this point, at this time in this funnel, this is the right information to share with them. It really helps position the right amount of value at the right time that they're developing the relationship and moving forward towards doing something.

Eric:  Yes, absolutely. Something I learned from from Frank Kern, and I know Dean would 100% align with. This is the best way to demonstrate to someone that you can help them is to help them. And when I learned that I'm like, oh my gosh, that is so good and I'm just going to completely run with that. And I know I mean Dean's whole business, 90-minute books everything is built on that same philosophy and it so works. So, yeah, I found it's really valuable to give someone a quick win, like you got to get them, just if you can give them a quick win. And then you now they have momentum and progress and that you know feels good as the coach, as the trainer, and then you've increased the odds that they want to work with you more right.

Stuart: Exactly, and that's actually a great bridge into the kind of the back cover and the call to action in the book. So the next steps that people can take after they've kind of read and consumed and they kind of have that certainty that they're in the right on the right page and going the right direction, bridging people from the content of the book to a next step you probably get an advantage, maybe to some people listening, because you've got quite an established set of attributes, that or assets there already the webinars and their online material and some other supporting material. But once that transition, like what's the first steps that you want them to take after they've read it?

Eric:  Well, I this is another chance to give credit to the process and the coaching that I got, because my thinking going in was okay, I want someone to get the book and then I want them to sign up for one of the four or five day challenges or free master classes that I do, and because that's I found recently, that's that is by far the most effective way for me to market what I do.

But the coaching I got was hey, let's create another little step that in between, just to make it really super easy, really non-threatening for the person they're going to get to know you even more. And so the coaching I got was to create just a checklist, just a one pager, on non-pushy conversation starters, and I was like that's genius, that's so good, so that that that'll be. People will hear about my challenges and the master classes in the book. But, like, the most prominent next step called action will be hey, go to this website to download your just a one pager on non-pushy conversation starters, and then it will be market marketing by master classes and challenges.

Stuart: Right, and that's so. The setup that we have for the back covers this idea of we're trying to meet, meet three groups of people where they are. The tag kickers want a nicer term, needs to think of a nicer term. But those people who are interested, but not interested enough to really raise the hand, so, like that, just go here for more content. Then there's the people who are kind of ready, know they're in the right place but aren't quite ready to jump on board with any real commitment yet. And then the people who are ready, those three groups.

It is such a great job of meeting all the readers where they are, whether they're coming to you from the first time, so they really need a little bit more time to build up that level of credibility or the no-liking trust in order to take a step.

The opportunity at this middle stage to still have an opt-in, to still have people sign up for something. But it seemed very non-committal and very non-threatening. So that's the perfect mix for people who get a copy of the book who haven't downloaded it, so maybe they'd buy it from Amazon or they're giving it from someone else. You don't know who those people are yet, so that's a very easy way to get them on the list. And then, of course, the people who are ready to go in a more meaningful way to go now. I think for most business owners, that idea those three groups of people that's applicable to everyone in every scenario 99.9% of the people who have a copy of the book in the handle on their screen they're going to fall into one of those three camps. And it's such an easy way of pacing out the conversation so that you're not trying to immediately go for the sell. Well, it's the non-pushy way of kind of moving people down the track.

Eric:  Exactly, you know.

Stuart: Yeah, it's such a great option. And then that ties nicely into the kind of after the book, beyond the book, element of your setup, because then you can introduce them to the whole rest of the world. They're regular emails to keep that edutainment going a little bit and build that relationship more, always presenting people the opportunity to make the next step. You've already got webinar contents and video contents and documented type content. So just the fact that the book very easily slots into the funnel, either at the front end as the lead magnet to begin with, or even later on the process. Someone attends the webinar. They didn't convert immediately, so follow up with them with a copy of the book and say, hey, great, see, on the webinar. We talked a lot about this particular element. We cover that more detail in chapter three here. So I wanted to get you a copy of the book whenever you're ready. Do this piece. It just really sits. The book has an asset, sits so nicely into the funnels that you've got.

Eric:  Yeah, stuart, that's good coaching, I'm gonna make note of that. I love it as a follow-up. I haven't thought about it as a follow-up piece, but that makes complete sense.

Stuart: Right and it's such a it's so difficult. Jumping back to the point you were saying before that most people are who you're having conversation with. For me and for you, they're at the early stage of the conversation and there's a lot more high level stuff or more detailed stuff, more nuanced stuff that you could go into. But the reality is we're really we need to get past this hurdle first, so we spend so much of our time talking about this stuff. But the fact that the book now exists and you've been a client for a period of time and you're already kind of three or four steps down the track, so now we can have these conversations about the more nuanced piece. But you can imagine a it's like a two, three-dimensional chess game of here's all of the assets that you've got and here's some of the big battleship type assets and here's some of the smaller assets. But these big ones, they can really be used in multiple different contexts in different pieces of the funnel and because it's the same subject, they're really just building on each other to.

The webinar reinforces a book. The book reinforces the webinar. The emails can talk about either of them and just drop into bits of the conversation. The social media posts can use it as a a thing in the background of the image. So you kind of got it there, kind of subtly reminding people that it exists.

Now that you've created it, now the fun starts, because you get to plug it into all of these different places yes, yes, excited, yeah yeah, it's easy to get excited about it, and rightly so, I think, because it is something the whole purpose of the company that we started was to kind of democratize.

This process of everyone thinks about a traditional book or a bestseller and all of this kind of million-dollar listing nonsense ended the spectrum which for most people is.

I mean, if any of that happened, then great, it's not a bad thing, but it's an irrelevant distraction to the real job of work of getting it out there and having it as the opportunity to use it when you go speaking at an event to be able to give a copy of the book. It's just an increase if other organizations or the businesses where they might do a lot of face-to-face selling the fact that you can walk in, or even the agents, I mean you can imagine a complete tangent now but you can imagine writing you writing for your agency, you coach book that allows them to demonstrate their expertise or their approach to this is my approach to non-pushy sales, non-pushy real estate, because everyone on both sides of transaction doesn't almost as reluctant to open the door because they don't want to be hit in the face by someone being pushy, but I'm going to sell your house through a non-pushy approach and as part of the package that we're doing, the listing presentation.

Here's the non-pushing book the fact that exists and the fact that it exists in physical format and the fact that someone's giving it to someone else, the fact that it's sharing more value. There's just so many opportunities absolutely it's a detached from whether it's a best seller, whether it's this big versus this big or all of the traditional elements that just don't move the needle as much as some other stuff right, exactly, I, yeah, I just wanted to be known as the non-pushy selling guy.

Eric:  I just I wanted, and so I knew the way to do that was to have a book, and I was lucky in that. I've I had experience having a book before and I so I know what it's like when you hand someone a book. Here's a book that I wrote and it just they're blown away. People are blown away in a very good way. They always say you wrote this. Oh, my god, you wrote this book. Yeah, I wrote that book, and so if anyone listening I need some inspiration to to do this, you know, write the book, like just do it, because there's nothing like handing someone or emailing them a book and telling them that you wrote it. It blows their mind and their and your credibility just goes through the roof.

Stuart: Yeah, it's funny, I like to say. We've been doing this for 10, 10 years now. 10, 11 years now. Time goes fast and almost from the start, all the way through, we've described the company is a real marketing company. We're not a publishing company. We just coincidentally stumbled on the fact that books are the most effective way to capture leads in the first place and then convert leads over time. But even from the start it there was still a feeling of the magic of this is going to wear off. This is a point in time where a book has an outsized credibility impact compared with the effort that we know it takes to create it, because there is effort but it's a relatively known quantity. But even 10 years later that effect.

There was a podcast that will probably be maybe five before this one podcast with Paul Ross. He said exactly the same thing. So he's a podiatrist, he's written a couple of books. The latest one was my damn toe hurts, but he was saying exactly the same. He'll have people come into the office, sometimes with the copy of the book and we'll quote back to him the things that he said, or they'll come into the office and not know that he's the actual doctor they'll be seeing and they'll say oh, I've read your book. You're the person that wrote the book, so that same experience that you've had is across the board and it's definitely something that is makes the whole project. It's the cream on the top of the project. If that didn't happen, it would still be worthwhile doing, but the fact that it does happen is kind of in a tangible boost. It's almost difficult to quantify, but it definitely puts a glow around the whole thing and yes it's quite magical.

 Eric:  Yeah, it is magical. Yeah, I learned from a gentleman named Adam Witte several years ago that if we all want to be an authority on a topic and the way to be an authority is to be an author, Like the root word of authority is author, and that's just really hit home for me. And again I've watched it happen. I wrote a book called the real estate agents guide to getting your act together, and so it's just a fun book to hand people and again they're just. They always say wait, you wrote this. Then you almost become like a celebrity.

Stuart: So, on the one hand, it's kind of it makes you kind of a couple of little things I did and then, on the other hand, you're thinking, yeah, I did, why is that so unbelievable? Right, this is why I love about doing these podcasts with people, because it really gets the real stories out and the we can say it to people. But it's not the same as hearing it first hand from people and, regardless of whether people work with us or do it by themselves or work with someone else, the opportunity that people have got to get this asset out there and the fact that it's so disproportionately benefit compared with the time and money and investment into doing it. It's one of the I truly believe it's one of the best things that you can do, because it's just got so much. There's so many opportunities to leverage it.

Eric:  Yes, I couldn't agree more. Yeah, my pleasure.

Stuart: I want to make sure that people got opportunity to follow along with your journey a little bit more and get a copy of the book and find out more about what you do. So what's a great place for people to go to to follow the Eric story and keep abreast of what's going on so they can?

Eric:  get the book, and I'm expecting the book will be be ready on this website by the time. This is public, non pushy selling bookcom. By the way, I was really excited to get that URL. And then my website is inspire, perform, profit, calm. Inspire, perform, profit, calm. More about me, and then that's also where people can find out about the master classes and challenges that I do for free for realtors. So that's in that.

Stuart: Fantastic and there's a wealth of information over there, so definitely recommend people check that out. We'll make sure we put the links in the show notes as well, so if people are on the move and miss that, then just look for the link either in the podcast player or on the website where the episode is up will put links straight to those places.

Eric:  Right.

Stuart: Eric, it's been fantastic. I know the books just about to come out, so this podcast is. I think we're maybe 10 days or so away from releasing this, so there's a deadline on getting the website up. It'll be great to check back in in six or seven months and then see how it's been going and just feedback with people what the what the responses been and what the lessons have been and maybe some of the marketing campaigns you've done with the book once it's been created. Check back in and see how that's gone.

Eric:  I'd be happy to more than happy to Fantastic.

Stuart: Well, thanks again for your time. It's been a real pleasure. Everyone, as always, thanks for listening. Check out the show notes and we'll catch you in the next one.

Eric:  Thanks so much.