Did I get your attention with that title? Well Jeff Lazarus got my attention with his new book Listen Like a Dog: And Make Your Mark On The World. Yep, that’s right. Learning how to listen, really listen, the way your dog listens to you, is one of the most important things you can do to improve almost every area of your life. Now you might be thinking, sure, I know, listening. Right. But hold on a second. There is more to listening than just hearing words come out of someone’s mouth, and that is the point of this book and so much of the work that Jeff does.
Let’s start with your dog. Do you have a dog? If you don’t have one right now, have you ever owned a dog in your life? Did you have a family dog growing up? Most of us, especially in the United States, have had at least one significant relationship with Man’s Best Friend at some point in our lives. So what is it that we love so much about dogs that has turned the pet industry into the multi-billion dollar behemoth that it is?
Jeff suggests that one of the things is that we feel truly listened to and heard by our dogs. Dogs not only listen to us with their ears, the are visibly attentive with their whole bodies. They cock their head to the side, twitch their ears, move close to us, cuddle up, and hang on our every sound. Rarely does a dog interrupt when we are talking, unless there is something they desperately have to bark at, like a doorbell or a fire truck going by right at the same moment. Dogs don’t judge us for what we say. They don’t multitask by scrolling through Facebook or play Candy Crush while we are talking to them. Our dogs give us their full, intense, non-judgemental, and undivided attention. Our dogs make us feel like we are the single most important being on the planet to them in that moment. Now just imagine if you were to make someone else feel that exact same way about you. What if your family, your loved ones, and even your clients felt that way about you? How much more successful would you be in your relationships, your career, and your life?
True to form, after this, Jeff Lazarus’ third book, was successfully published (his other two books are called Dogtology: A Humorous Exploration of Man’s Fur-ocious Devotion to Dogs and Catakism: A Humorous Purr-spective on Humankind’s Obsession with Cats), he listened to his friends, family, and customers when they asked how did he do it? How was he able to so successfully write, publish and promote his books? How was he able to get forwards from the likes of Jack Canfield of Chicken Soup for The Soul fame? How was he able to get his self published books picked up by major publishers? And how was he able to leverage his publishing success into even more career success through speaking and coaching?
Jeff’s response to these kinds of questions was to start his new company Branded with Authority. Through this company Jeff helps others to write in a responsible way and get published in the way that makes the most sense for them and their goals. He provides both book coaching services and can act as an author agent as well.
So how does someone know if they are ready to write their book, whether or not they work with Jeff? Jeff gave me several tips to help anyone get started.
- What is the desired outcome for your book? Is it to help grow your business? Is it a memoir to share your story? You have to understand this first, before you can go on to Step 2.
- Dig down deep. Is this a book or a blog? If it is going to be a book, make an outline first. Do you have enough material for a whole book? Are there new areas for exploration that you can dig into further and flesh out? Use the outline for idea generation, explore the info you know well from different perspectives and approaches.
- Create an overview. This is the first section of a book proposal if you decide that traditional publishing is right for you and your book. For this you will need to think about who you are, why you are writing, what is the purpose and goal of your book, are you going to write it yourself or use a ghostwriter and what kind of support will you need to write the book. If you are pitching to traditional publishers you will need this overview with a few chapters and a marketing plan.
- If you already have a manuscript, do a manuscript review for these points:
- Intention: is your intention for the book clear and is it being accomplished by the manuscript?
- Reader: are you keeping your reader in mind? Are you giving them what they need? Are you focused on them or on yourself?
- Business: If this is prescriptive non-fiction, is this a good representation of your business?
- Quality: whether you are going to self-publish or go through a traditional publisher, you want your manuscript to be high end publisher quality. Is it right now?
If you are interested in learning more about Jeff’s Branded with Authority company and author services, you can learn more here. Links for his books are included when each is mentioned above.