The hardest part of writing a book to boost your business often involves determining what you want to say.
Have you ever gotten so close to a typewritten page that the words blur or so close to a painting that you can no longer see the big picture? Getting a little distance (and in some cases putting your glasses back on) helps re-establish that perspective you’d lost. Too bad that’s not as easy when it comes to our own lives.
As we’ve seen in the prior six articles in this series, if you’re writing a book to promote your business, you’re going to be writing about yourself. You’re also going to be writing about a topic you’re super familiar with, so familiar that it’s hard to conceive of how little others know about your area of expertise. Finally, you’re writing from your point of view, which sure isn’t your clients’. That’s why it helps to have someone to talk to.
The other day, I had lunch with my insurance agent, who’s also a friend. She mentioned that she had decided to focus on selling life insurance, but she wasn’t having as much success on that front as she had hoped for.
“I can tell you why I bought my life insurance,” I said. “And it wasn’t for the life insurance.” I went on to explain that since I don’t have a spouse or kids, life insurance wasn’t important to me. But I did want to make sure that I wouldn’t run out of money if I got sick or disabled. So, I invested in long-term care insurance that included a life insurance benefit. If I don’t use the long-term care insurance, my niece and nephew will end up with a tax-free life insurance settlement. “So, it’s a win-win,” I concluded.
My friend looked at me like I’d suddenly donned a purple cow outfit. In all her training and all her years of selling insurance, she’d never thought about life insurance that way. A little more conversation over lunch resulted in a whole new approach to share with her agency team.
That’s the power of chatting with someone who’s not in your field. All too often, we’re so wrapped up in what we do and how we do it that we lose sight of our customers’ experience. Revisiting this in a new way is usually where you’ll find your big idea, along with a herd of smaller ones that are also vital to your overall message.
That’s why I knew that my e-course Boost Your Business with a Book had to be interactive and include several 60- to 90-minute one-on-one Zoom sessions with me. When my writing coach clients and I brainstorm together during their pre-book exploration, we build on each other’s input until we eventually climb to a point that neither of us would have ever reached alone. And we have a good time in the process.
Yup. That’s how you figure out what needs to go into your book and the big idea that will tie all that together and attract readers that you can turn into clients.
So, now that we’re at the end of this series, it’s time to ask you two final questions. Are you ready to boost your business with a book? If yes, then why not make it as easy, fun, and successful as possible?
Sorry, comments are closed for this post.