For coaches and thought leaders, a book is a massively powerful leveraging tool. Think of it like a ‘marketing’ strategy rather than an end goal. Your book should be near the top of your marketing funnel as an entry-level offering for potential clients.
But the real interesting power that comes from having a book is using it as a marketing too. I often give my book as prizes at other people’s events, and I generate a significant amount of my clients using this avenue. Another option is to give your book to people in the media to help you drum-up media interest.
A book becomes like a super-charged, super-powerful business card. It has weight and authority to it; it backs up the fact that you can do what you say you can do. One copy of your book in the right hands can easily translate into thousands of dollars’ worth of business.
It really positions you as an authority, as a leader in your space. And if you’re looking to get leveraged, it’s an amazing asset to have.
Get yourself READY to write a book
Writing a book, like any kind of creative endeavor, can take as long as you let it.
If you don’t put a cap on how long you’re going to take to write it, it’ll take you forever. I wrote the first draft of my book in just three days. I’d mapped out my unique methodology for my signature course, and I booked myself into a book writing retreat. So I took my course outline and wrote the chapters based around those.
There are, of course, as many ways to write a book as there are people. But I want to share with you my process for getting my outline so you can try it too. This works for so many of my clients who are developing their own group programs, courses, masterminds and even books, so there’s a good chance it’ll work for you too.
Get your Educate model clear
An educate model is how to you take people from A-B. It’s the how you get them to their desired outcome.
Once you’ve got your educate model clear, you have the basis of your book.
How to create your Educate model
I like to use a super high tech system involving … Post-it notes. Get out your Post-it notes. If you don’t have any, then a trip to a stationery supply store is 100 per cent necessary (I mean, who doesn’t love stationery?).
- Write down everything you take your clients through. Every step, exercise, process you can think of that you do.
- Then on a wall or big table sort and arrange the notes. Chunk them into memorable pieces.
- Take photos of the different arrangements. And once you find the one that works, write out your methodology. Use that as the skeleton of your book.
- You might have something like ‘7 Stages of Course Creation’ or the ‘5 Pillars of Presenting’ or something similar.
- And then give yourself a deadline to get it written. Whether it’s going on a book retreat (like I did) or something else.
Once you’ve got your book in your hands, then it becomes much easier to sell it, give it to potential clients, send it out to the media. A book is a great, leveraged way to grow your coaching practice and will help you move more effectively into the one to many space.
Where are you on your path to writing a book? I’d love to know.