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[Podcast] Boost Your Business with a Short Book (Daniel Hall)

By The Leadpages Team  |  Published Aug 20, 2019  |  Updated Oct 06, 2023
Leadpages Team
By The Leadpages Team
Daniel Hall - Boost Your Business
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Quick take: Gain an instant boost in credibility and demand for your services when you create a short book showcasing your expertise. Find a clear path below.

Each week I sit down with incredible entrepreneurs and marketing minds to bring you inspiring and actionable marketing lessons you can use to start and grow your coaching, consulting, or service-based business. If you love the show, be sure to subscribe above so you don’t miss an episode.

This week I’m bringing you an in-depth conversation with Daniel Hall, a nurse turned lawyer turned entrepreneur. Today, Daniel is a prolific content producer, and in this episode, we discuss the benefits of producing short books for your business that boost your credibility and help you stand out in your market.

Daniel shares some of his favorite methods for producing your book within 90 days, and how to leverage for more revenue in your business.

Transcripts, resources, and top-takeaways are below.

Daniel Hall has published dozens of short books on a wide range or marketing topics. With degrees in nursing and law, he's the co-founder of Best Seller Builders and the host of the Real Fast Results podcast. He calls Austin, Texas home with his wife and 3 sons.

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Top Takeaways

If you’re short on time, here are a few golden nuggets from our conversation and the resources mentioned.

  • A book is better than a business card. People value books and rarely throw them out. It’s easier for prospects to be ready to buy when they’ve read your book.
  • Use your voice. If you're not a fan of writing, create a draft of your book by talking over bullet points from slides or an outline.
  • Hone your message. Teach webinars and speak on podcasts about your topic to develop a clear message that will resonate with your ideal clients.
  • Make a great first impression. Don't skimp out on the cover design. The front AND back of your book will encourage or discourage readers' impression of you.
  • Go beyond your book. The book itself is not the final stage of your business – it's the beginning. Create courses, workshops, and programs based on a deeper dive of what's inside your book.

Resources Mentioned

Get to know Daniel

Bob: Daniel Hall, thank you so much for joining me on this episode of The Lead Generation. It's a real treat to have you on.

Daniel: Hey man, thank you, Bob. It's always a pleasure to basically get to do anything fun with you.

Bob: And you. And it's been a little while and I know that you've been up to some really cool things as always. You're one of the most prolific content creators that I know and genuine marketers who love seeing the impact that you have on your audience. And I'd love to start there. As you look at the different ways you interact with your customer base and your audience, what would you say is a major transformation that you and the work that you do is able to have on your audience?

Daniel: What a great question, and it actually goes right to the heart of the reason why I do what I do. Because primarily, I work with authors and publishers. And for the most part, those people are, well they have messages. Many of them have very, very important messages that would truly help the world, society in general. But for whatever reason, their marketing acumen probably isn't what it should be or what it could be. And although they have great quality books and great messages, for the most part, they don't have the marketing oomph to actually get it out and disseminate that message.

So what gets me up in the morning, what's transformative for me is when I work with an author and/or publisher, they implement what we teach marketing-wise. And by virtue of that, they disseminate their message to a much wider group of people and help them. That is their readers, by virtue of the book. So I feel like not only do I help the author and/or the publisher, but I help all the people that they help by actually implementing what we teach.

Bob: It sounds like an impact pyramid scheme but in a good way.

Daniel: Indeed.

Bob: I love it. So I want to get into some of the juicy bits of how people can use a book and go beyond the book. We're going to be diving mostly into that. But before we do that, I know that there are some people that just don't know who you are yet, and I want to make sure they know a little bit of background without going into too much because there are so many twists and turns of your story.

Daniel: Indeed.

Finding the inner entrepreneur

Bob: What's one thing that you can say about your history before you were an entrepreneur that helped you become an entrepreneur? What was one transitional phase that helps us to get to know you a little bit and gets us to know why is it that you then pursued an entrepreneurial lifestyle?

Daniel: Well, the answer to that question is in a plaque that's hanging up over my desk. You probably can't see it and I know people listening can't see it either, obviously. But what it says is this, and this goes to the heart. It says, "If I had to pick one word to best describe myself, I suppose it would be can't ‘follow orders.’"

Bob: I love it. Can you go a little more in-depth into that?

Daniel: So I'm a contrarian. Not really a contrarian, but I have and I have always had, shall we say, a slight issue with regimented authority. Which is one of the reasons why I think I went to law school because I knew I was as smart as a lot of the folks that irritated me. But now I wanted to figure out a way around them. And that was one of the reasons why I actually went to law school, which is something else I know we haven't talked about yet. But yeah, I went to law school and got the degree. I'm still licensed. And a big part of that and a big reason why I started on this journey in entrepreneurship, was essentially it was the only lifestyle that I could identify that had the best chance at maximum freedom.

Bob: Awesome. So I love this can't follow orders, which means that you can be your own boss and you can help people that do the same.

Daniel: Yeah, exactly.

Stock your library for lifetime learning

Bob: Excellent. And another question I'd love to get into before we get into the tips that we have around building a book is I know that you are not only a prolific content creator, you're also an avid lifetime and lifelong learner. What podcasts or books are you listening to right now that our readers and listeners could really gravitate towards?

Daniel: Funny you should ask that. I tend towards reading lots of more spiritual material and some in a strictly Christian vein, and some in a more new age stuff. So I read a lot of that sort of material. I'm listening right now, I love biographies and autobiographies. So right now I'm listening to an autobiography on Dr. Seuss, and I love the biographies of Walter Isaacson. He does a great job. And of course, the seminal book that changed my life was Dr. Robert Cialdini's book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. So I like to read those sorts of books. Persuasion, psychology, negotiating, books along those lines as well. That gives you enough I think.

Bob: For sure. And many people may know that I'm an avid Dr. Seuss fan as well. Are you reading Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel or are you reading one of the other excellent biographies?

Daniel: It's called Becoming Dr. Seuss by Brian Jay Jones.

Bob: Excellent.

Daniel: I use this really great app that I recommend to you. It's called Libby. And Libby, you can download for free. And then with your local library, you can sign in if they subscribe to it. And you can borrow all kinds of books from that for free. So I dig that. So I do that. Of course, I have the Audible. So I get one credit a month and I'm sure I look through that.

The one that I'm listening to now is called Anatomy of the Spirit by Caroline Myss. Very cool book. I'm enjoying that. I love that kind of stuff. I actually tell that story all the time, how I woke up to the fact that audiobooks were so doggone powerful. It's the conversation that you and I, and I believe Therese, your lovely wife, had over dinner. And I was telling you about this book I wanted Therese to check out. And she says, "Yeah, I'll go get it." Tells you, this is actually before you were married. And she says to you, "Hey, go buy this book." And you're just like, "Yeah sure, no problem."

You pick up the phone and you went to get the audiobook version of this book. And I pause and I'm like, "Oh my gosh, it's not just me that just wants an audiobook." And I think I asked you or I asked Therese, I don't remember which, whose idea was it to get the audiobook, right? I think it was you Bob that says, "I get the audiobook because I know it's the only one that I could actually guarantee I'll consume."

Well, that was like oh my gosh, I just hadn't made that realization until you said it. So I love audiobooks. So here's another one. I'm listening to The Closer's Survival Guide by Grant Cardone. I've got a couple of my client's books that I've listened to in here. Here's another great one. The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene, Unshakeable, Tony Robbins, Sapiens. Great, great read. Oh my God, what a great ... you read that yet Bob?

Bob: I have not yet.

Daniel: Oh my, you would love that book, Bob. Love it. It's such a great book. The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins. Younger Next Year, Verbal Judo, Atomic Habits. Another fabulous book by the way.

Bob: I have read Atomic Habits.

Daniel: That's such a great book. Habit Stacking by CJ Scott. Anyway, I can go on and on. But yeah, I've got lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of books here.

Bob: Excellent. I love the assortments and the range of what you're reading for sure.

Daniel: Indeed. I try to be semi well-read. Not as well read as you though Bob. I know that.

Bob: I don't know that.

Daniel: Plus, the other thing that I think is really, really important for folks to emulate is I am always taking somebody's course. So I buy lots of courses online and I get a tremendous amount of value from the courses that I've taken online. And I'm not talking just in business, just other stuff that I'm interested in. Origami, I love Origami. And I love to travel. I love a lot of the courses on Udemy. So I shop around and pick up courses, and probably the vast majority of them go uncompleted. But I do usually start them and get some value from them. And some of them I really like, I really knuckle in and we'll study a long, long term as well. But that's probably like a lot of people.

How to become the authority in your space

Bob: Very true. All right. So we’ve just been talking about all the different books that you've been enjoying that have influenced your life. And that's where I really want to take this conversation next is how can someone who has a business no matter what stage of their business, how can they use their own book in order to become an authority in their space and really drive business to another level? So there's a couple of different places I'd like to take this, but let's start at the beginning.

Let's convince people who are on the phone and listening to this wherever they are, that over the next three months maybe less, let's get a book out. Why is that the case? Why would you make that challenge for people?

Daniel: There is absolutely no doubt and really no arguing the fact. I suppose you could find somebody that would argue, but it just wouldn't be successful, wouldn't be a good argument. That a book that relates somehow to what you do, some solution that you do as part and parcel with your day to day business. If you write a book on that subject matter, there is simply no better business card than a book. It is literally the best business card in the world. And the fact is that when you take the time to actually write the book and do it right, I'm not talking about throwing it together and sending it out into the marketplace with grammatical errors and just looking amateur. Not saying that, I'm saying the opposite of that. But you take the time and you put in the necessary energy to make sure that the book that you put out represents you, your business, and your solutions set admirably. There is no better business card than that.

And, the other thing that escapes a lot of folks is that even if you're not looking to necessarily make the book a bestseller, although that's not terribly difficult to do. The fact that you possess a book in your business when you are at networking events or maybe when you're meeting new people at an event, or maybe you're speaking at an event. There is simply no better thing to be able to hand people than your book. And the main reason why that is true is that – and think about this. How many books have you thrown away?

So for me, the answer is very, very, very few. Even if I had really tangential at best interest in the subject matter of the book, that sits on my shelf. That's the key. It's realizing that while a business card gets tossed frequently, you fill up your drawer full of business cards and every three months or so you dump them.

People will not do that with a book because it is a value-added document. It is a piece of marketing material that is on another level. It is actually on a pedestal in the mind of the person that you're giving it to because it's a book.

Now, if you do take the additional step of endorsing it to them, like, "Hey Bob, great seeing you, enjoy the book, Daniel." And handing that book, that actually adds additional value to the book. Now they'll never give the book away because now it's a lottery ticket hoping that you're going to get really famous one day and they'll say, "I knew you when."

And then there's some people, and this is the other huge reason to write a book in your subject. Where they are truly interested in your solutions, your approach to solutions. They read your book, they resonate so closely with what you say and how you say it. That by the time they pick up the phone to call you, or by the time they go to your landing page to type in their name and email address to get something of yours, they're already sold.

I like to think about books as bees in a hive of prosperity. Because books, you never know where a good book will end up. You just never know. And if it's a really good book, which is what we're telling people to write and put out there, it can open doors for you that you couldn't otherwise open for yourself. The book does that, will do that.

So a myriad of reasons to write and publish a great book. And there are others.

For example, you can put in your own series of offers, free offers so you could generate leads. This is another very important thing that a book can do for you. Once again, that book you're disseminating these books, maybe you're giving them away, maybe you're selling them, or maybe you're doing some combination of both. But the fact is that every single one of them if you do a book right, can serve as a marketing vehicle for you and your business. And by the way, that's the other really crucial thing that you should think about. As marketers, you're a marketer, Bob.

I'm a marketer. If you're in business at all, you should be a marketer. But one of the first things that we throw up as marketers, as buyers are our resistance to buying anything. We've been scammed. We've been taken, we've been stolen from. And all these things usually with many people, jade them into, "Here's another conman, here's another scam." But with a book, that resistance is much lower. They're not coming in with their guard up. And if you blow them away with a great quality book that actually helps them, it's not all about you. As a matter of fact, very little of it should be about you. It should be about them and their problems. And how your strategies, your techniques, your solutions could actually make a palpable change in their life. That's what a book can do if you do it right.

And get a bunch of them out there, and you've got this beautiful army that never sleeps, all potentially bringing you new leads, new customers and new adoring fans who just can't wait to get the next thing that you have that comes out. Whether that's the book, whether that's a course, whether that's a new SaaS program or an event. Whatever it is you're doing, a book can sell them into your world. And that's a really, really valuable thing.

Bob: I love that. And there are two things I would like to highlight. So one is here at the end, you just shared, essentially the book is a gateway drug to the rest of what you offer for this core fan base that becomes rabid fans of what it is that you do, and they're much more likely to buy whenever that next thing is. And they're a very informed audience in the process, which is great.

Daniel: Exactly.

Bob: They make better customers, they make better testimonial givers, etc.

Daniel: All of that.

Bob: Then I want to go back a little bit towards the beginning of what you just said, because there's this inherent sense of people who take the time to create a book that solves challenges. That's remarkable. That by that nature, they've elevated their status to people who don't have the book, because they now can put on their profile author of “_____.”

Daniel: Exactly.

Get noticed by industry leaders in a flash

Bob: And when that's on LinkedIn or that's on your website, the number of people that will be more likely to ask you to be on a podcast, to ask you to speak on a stage, to ask you for guest blog posts or anything like that, you've now elevated your credibility as a serious pursuer of your craft. And I think that's super powerful. So I'd like to say that you're not just creating a book. You're creating an author. By spending this time, whether it's again, a few weeks or a couple of months, or a year. Hopefully, it's like I said, about three months is the ideal window in my mind. I don't know how you feel about this, but about three months is about the time that it should take for version one of your book to be created and make an author for yourself, and becomes a marketing machine.

My book is nine years old, and I still get inquiries about it even though I don't really market it. But because I'm the author of something, it helps me out. Obviously working at Leadpages helps too, but this idea of author of Take Action, Revise Later, that's something really powerful.

Daniel: It's super powerful, and sets you apart from anyone else they may be looking at or considering in the hiring game, right? Whether they're hiring you for a coaching gig or whether they're hiring you for an agency, or to buy your product, or to hire you at in their company. Your stock rises by virtue of a well-done book.

And then, of course, there's the other really cool thing that a lot of people don't realize. And it was brought home to me when I did this book several years ago called Erasing Your Criminal Background Legally: The Ultimate Guide To Second Chances. And this was long after I had stopped practicing law. I still do dabble, but I wasn't in the active practice of law at that point. But I had done this kind of work when I was practicing law.

And the really interesting thing I realized from the writing of this book is when I came out with the book, I really wanted to get some great endorsements for the book, some celebrity names to endorse my book. And whereas that would be pretty difficult to do without a book, it's actually pretty easy to do with a book. Such that I ended up getting Professor Alan Dershowitz to give me an endorsement, which was on the cover of the book. I got Geoffrey Fieger to give me an endorsement. He was the guy that represented Jack Kevorkian in every trial that he actually participated in. The only time by the way, the only time Jack Kevorkian actually got convicted is when he was representing himself. So yeah, Geoffrey wasn't representing him at that point.

Anyway, the cool thing is, is that I would have never get these endorsements otherwise. At this point in my life, I'm a simple country lawyer. No one knows me. I don't come from a fancy school. But for the book, right? But for the work and the fact that it really was my level best, what that book is really was my best work or represented my best work at the time. But I got these great endorsements from these legal paragons essentially that would've never come but through the book. If I would've gone to Alan Dershowitz and said, "Hey, I'm running this little practice down here in Corpus Christi, Texas. Can you say something nice about me?" Probably not going to happen.

The whole other thing, if you send them a really good book and say, "Hey, this is something in your bailiwick, this is your swim lane. You love the idea of pursuing civil liberties and so forth. Can you check out the book? As a matter of fact, here, I've pre-written a draft testimonial for you. If you would like, just check it and send it back," which I think is what he ended up doing. He just checked it and sent it back. But yeah, the point being is that that's another thing that you could do with a book. That's really my point I want to get across here that would never have come otherwise.

Why a short book may be best for you right now

Bob: Awesome. So as people are convinced that they should have a book, what are some of the initial obstacles that they face that might be as many mindsets as reality?

Daniel: The one thing that I would say that is definitely a mindset part of it, the mindset piece, is it's going to be hard and it's going to require lots of work. And that it's going to be not particularly pleasing work, drudgery even. I think this is how a lot of authors think about or would-be authors think about the process of writing a book. And the fact is, is that it doesn't have to be like that. And I do want to address another thing that's part and parcel with answering this question, and that is the length of the book. Lots of people, again going with the mindset think that they've got to write this 300, 400, 500-page book, this Bible of their industry and nothing else will do. When that is just the biggest pile of hooey that I've ever heard of.

Because the fact is, is that people in your target market want, in fact, demand short books. Because they don't have the time either. They're not reading your stuff chances are, for literary enjoyment. They're reading your stuff because you're offering them a solution to their problem, some pain points in their life. And if you can get to that point in your book quickly, even though it maybe 100 pages, 125 pages, 150 pages. Which is really not that difficult to crank out, that's about 40,000 words. 35 to 40,000 words would do you about in my opinion, for the books, these kinds of books would be perfect. So maybe up to 50,000.

But remember, your job is to grab your reader by the throat and bring them into your world by actually helping them. Okay? By not being boring, by actually being entertaining if at all possible. Right? And showing them the light, right? That hey, I've got the answer. You keep reading, you're going to get it. We're going to help move your life along in some way. So that's another really important part of the book.

How to write a book faster

Bob: So let me interrupt real quick and ask you this question, Daniel. So I've got this idea I want to do a book, but the last time I wrote something more than 2,000 words besides one epic blog post was in eighth grade English class and I hated it. So I'm staring at Word or Google Docs and there's this cursor just yelling at me. What are some ways that I can write this book and enjoy it? And it's a pleasurable experience, instead of being intimidated by that blank screen.

Daniel: Yeah, this is one of the reasons why I wrote my book. I wrote a book called Real Fast Writing, which basically answers all of those sorts of questions on how to write fast. But the one thing that I like, and you would be really good at this too, by the way. And if you're a teacher, or you're coach, or a consultant, or a trainer, then this is the way I recommend that you write your book.

You're really good Bob, and I know people listening, I know I'm pretty good at taking two or three words on a slide and riffing off on it. Just like oh yes, this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this. And just keep talking everything you know about that word or phrase and you basically line these up. So basically, what I tell folks if you're already predisposed to liking teaching, being good as a trainer, as a teacher. It basically prepares your book as if it were a class assignment in a college-level class where the teacher has asked you to teach your content. Prepare a PowerPoint, and then teach it.

And then that's exactly what I suggest you do is you prepare a PowerPoint that goes to not every, that's the other thing. Not every potential solution to every possible problem that you could solve. I'm talking about picking one solution for one main problem, that the majority of your target market has. Right? And then doing a PowerPoint presentation that basically takes them through that process, which you then record. Okay? You then record and use a service like temi.com or rev.com, and have that transcribed.

So if you do, for example, an hour, hour and a half, maybe two-hour presentation, that's going to get you really close to having all of the content that you need, already done in a two or three-hour window of time.

Now granted, the prose isn't pristine and it will need help. But, you're not looking at that dastardly blinking cursor that's mocking you with every blink, that hey, why don't you have words on this page? It's not like that. Because you do, you will have lots of words on the page with that. And when you use this particular strategy when you're basically doing a monologue almost, you're just teaching of the slide, you're not answering somebody's questions. The prose that will yield is actually much closer to how it would normally read versus a straight Q&A. Okay? So that's one of the reasons why I like this because it gives you a really pretty clean manuscript that yes, you will have to edit. And then yes, you will have to get it off to a copy editor. That is not negotiable by the way. You must have it copy edited by somebody other than yourself, or your Great Aunt Gertrude. Unless she is a copy editor by trade, you do. Please have a great quality editor.

And another thing on the idea of doing a PowerPoint, what I suggest you do with that is walk through your process. So break out your process into however many steps it's going to be to get your message across. And then step through it. Step one, you do this. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Step two, you do this. Basically a lot like what we're doing here on this podcast, where we're fleshing out the ideas. Well, that's what you're doing in your book.

The other really cool thing about doing your book in this way is now you've actually got two products. Because you have the recording of the screen and you actually narrating what's on the screen and riffing off on it. So that's actually a course, could be, could be definitely a bonus. Could be something you give away. Going back to having an offer for something to give away as a part of your book. You give away that, that's a perfect thing to give away and it's already done.

So you have that, that you can use in multitudinous ways. And then you have the book too. It's a very, very cool way to do that. And if you need more content than the steps, then the other thing I would say to do is go back and look at all of your FAQs. What are people actually asking you, real people in your business? What are they asking you? Answer those questions in your book. I know that's down and dirty, but you can get a book done very, very quickly in just that way.

Bob: Yeah, I love that. And I remember when I was first introduced to the world of teleseminars back when teleseminars were not webinars or Facebook lives, or anything else like that. The thing that triggered for me was the math of it.

So I'm a decent typist. One of the best classes I took in high school was typing. So I'm in that 90 per minute zone, but I can still speak at 200 to 220. So at least double if not three times faster to say something out loud.

And then the other cool thing I love what you said, you're really calling attention to this need of a copy editor. And anybody who wants to be an author is well served by not only having a copy editor, but somebody who is able to take their ideas and just put a little bit of polish on it. Because they're already outside of your brain. And the trick to having a good book I think is to make sure that it is impactful for other people. And the earlier you can do that and get real feedback, the better.

I'd also love to give this tip for people who are not sure about their book yet, is to do a series of podcast episodes, a couple of webinars, or Facebook lives. Because you already know what you're going to be talking about in your book, but maybe you don't know all the little details. So the combination of what Daniel just said with live experiences where you get the feedback loop going, is basically a draft of your book. Then the next draft is the transcript of you doing it with a little bit more polish and intentionality. And then you hand it off to somebody, and you do your thing for the next two weeks and they come back two weeks later or so. And you've got this nice manuscript to get ready to load up to the right places.

Daniel: Exactly.

Bob: I love this.

Yes, you need a great looking cover

Daniel: So one other thing I wanted to say on this. Let's say that you have done all of that and your book is just sterling. It's gorgeous. It's well done, it's well-edited, it's well written, it moves the reader through, and does everything good books should do.

The next thing, the next big problem that I see authors have is they will just spend very little money on the cover. And I want to make sure I'm really clear on this. This is a pivotal point, okay? Your book cover is more important than what's actually in the book. Not as important, it's more important. For this reason. Because if your book looks like it belongs on the New York Times bestseller list next to other books in the same genre on that list. The sale of the book will be so much easier. And it's the instantaneous representation of you when somebody sees that cover.

So make sure, it's like the reason why you subscribe to Leadpages, right? They look beautiful, right? Make sure that what you're putting out there, that you've put all this time, effort, energy, and money into a book. Don't cheap out on the cover. Spend 500, $1,000. Get somebody that is not only used to doing covers for a book like yours, but is actually used to doing covers for a book like yours that has also done New York Times bestselling covers for books like yours.

You could find those, you could figure that out. You could actually look in most covers. If you look on the first page, it'll actually say who the cover designer is, and then it's just a matter of finding them, looking them up on LinkedIn or online somewhere, and finding them. They're find-able. They're in business to design book covers.

Bob: And they don't put their credit in the book for vanity, they do it for more business. And there's two points I'd like to add to this. One is you mentioned the 120, 150 pages. The big thing that triggers for me is to make sure you have enough pages in your books so that the cover has a spine that has words on it, right? Because there are too many people that put out 60 pages, 80-page books that are this business card bookie idea, but they have no spine. So there's no visibility on a shelf to you as a recognized author.

And then the second thing would be the cover is not just the front, it's also the back. So don't forget to have a good copy on the back because if you do wind up in a bookstore or you wind up in a person's space where you're handing it to them, what do they do? They look at the cover, but they almost immediately go to the back cover and they look at who is this book for? Who endorsed it, what am I going to get from reading this book?

The reality is, let's be honest, Daniel. Half the people, might be generous, are not going to read the book who get the book. But they're going to have the sensation of your credibility and what you can do for them by reading the front and back cover of the book.

Daniel: Exactly.

Bob: And if you do your job right, then maybe 75% of the people do read the book or so. But the reality is the cover, I think you're very spot on here, is the important thing to get right in the book.

Daniel: Make sure you do that.

Bob: That's an important step.

Daniel: Yup. Super important.

Go beyond the book for bigger results

Bob: So I'd like to get one last series of tips here before we wrap up because the book is not the destination, right? We've been talking along this way that the book is the thing. But in reality, we're Jedi mind tricking you into its step one of many steps. So there are many things, but let's just talk maybe the top two or three things that you would say are important to go beyond the book to really make the book turns into a business growing, a business-boosting marketing device.

Daniel: Sure. So this is in addition to the things I've already talked about, which is having at least one and probably several offers built-in, in your book for something. And it should probably be something for free that they can get by getting onto your email list. And yes, I still love email. I don't think it's going anywhere anytime soon. And it's the one medium that I believe you control, unlike social media for example. You could air, then you can get kicked off for whatever reasons. And this has happened, by the way, I actually have a course on Udemy about how to get your account back. So I've helped people to do that. So don't think that it can't happen to you because you can have somebody complain, and Facebook or YouTube decide this person does not deserve an account and pull your account.

So have your own way of connecting with your community, your fans. And email is probably the best thing out there that is scalable. So you should be using your book to do that for sure, at a minimum. And Leadpages is a great place to send people because they're so high converting pages as well. So that's another reason why you shouldn't be afraid of it. If you listen to this podcast, you've got a great place to very pristine, very professionally done place to do that. So there's that.

The other thing that I would say as well is to start thinking about other ways of packaging your knowledge that does not require your time. Okay? So far through this interview, we've contemplated the idea that we're wanting to generate leads, new people into our world by and through the book, which is great. You definitely can and should do that. But I'd like to take your thinking up yet another level and have you start thinking about how you could leverage your knowledge, your skill set, such that it does not require any more of your time. Okay? So what am I talking about here?

Specifically, I'm contemplating here a course of some kind. Maybe it's a $300, $500, $1,000, $2,000 course. But it's more than the book. It may have related material, but it's that and so, so much more. And in addition to that, it allows people who probably couldn't otherwise afford you to get your expertise. Obviously they can get it through the book, but lots of times that's not enough. It's one thing to be able to read a book and then actually go and implement it. And it's a whole other thing if you have a course that has step by step tutorial videos, click here, do this. Click here and do all this stuff. It makes it so much easier and more consumable.

And importantly, you are helping more people. Going back to our whole thesis of this, what's transformative about having the book and what's transformative about having your business. Well, this is yet another way to help people that may not otherwise be able to afford you. And in addition to that, for those people that can afford you, they may start with a course. But oh my gosh, this guy really, really knows. Or this person really, really knows what they're talking about. Yes, I want to hire them. I want their $25,000 whatever. Mastermind, or coaching, or something, whatever your offer is. So yeah, be thinking about how to leverage your time. That would be the next level.

Raising your prices just got easier

Bob: I love that. And I want to speak for just a second about the mindset that some of you listening to this might have right now when you heard some of the numbers Daniel just said. Because I know that there are coaches and consultants who break into the industry of whatever field that they're in, and they're taught by their certification program or they're taught by whoever mentored them to become a coach or a consultant, that you are now in the 100 to $500 per hour or per package zone. And a lot of people start there and then eventually they learn that hey, they can charge more than that. And then hey, they can charge more than that. And what I want to have you think on, just do mental gymnastics here for a second, is what if you skipped the five-year journey most coaches take in raising their prices up? And think about the impact you can have when you do work with people individually. Take what Daniel just said to heart and think to yourself what kind of value do I need to channel and to share in a packaged version of myself $4,000 or for $2,000 so that it makes it more likely for me to command the higher level contracts, the higher level coaching programs.

And all of this, funny enough is predicated on something else Daniel's just said earlier on in this interview, which is the book is the gateway drug, right? And yes you could right now take somebody else's course about creating courses and think that you're going to make a 1,000 or $2,000 course out of the gate. And what most people find, and Daniel correct me if you have overwhelming evidence the contrary, is that it will be crickets. People buying your 1,000 or $2,000 course when you don't have some form of credibility leading up to that. But you put a book in front of that, the likelihood of you being able to sell this on-demand package version of you skyrockets.

Daniel: Absolutely.

Bob: So it all comes together in a beautiful, beautiful way.

Daniel: That is a profound observation, Bob. Because it really highlights what we've been saying all along. And that's essential that people get to know you through your book. They make judgments about whether you could help them or not or whether you know what you're talking about. All those come through your book. And some people are going to buy your book or get your book and read it and think this person isn't worth it. Great. Fine. I know I'm not for everyone on the planet, so you should be glad that you could weed those people out before you have to waste any time with them, right? Because your time is limited.

That's the only commodity that you don't ever get back. So that's one of the reasons why I do encourage you to really think about how can I leverage my expertise so I could disseminate it and get it in the hands of more people. Not only will you make more money. Because as we all know, right Bob, that the amount of money you make is commensurate with the amount of value you're bringing into your marketplace. It's on par. So the more value you're bringing to the table, the more money you're going to make. And the cool thing about the book is that it opens the kimono and shows people that you've got lots of value. They can make that decision by themselves by virtue of what you wrote in the book.

Connect with Daniel

Bob: Very good. So we've been talking with Daniel Hall from realfastresults.com. Daniel, I know that you can help people besides just them listening to your podcast and other tips and so forth. As we wrap up today's conversation, tell us a little bit about what people can find over at bestsellervideo.com.

Daniel: So I realize that folks listening to this may be interested in, least I hope you're interested in if you've gotten this far in the interview. In writing a book and actually doing it right. And if you are interested in doing yourself, you're all into DIY, do it yourself marketing. Then check out realfastresults.com. That's my podcast and it's all for folks just like you, authors, and publishers, and people that want to be publishers and authors of books.

On the other hand, if you are an executive or you are looking for done-for-you book marketing, because we didn't even really talk about book marketing, not really. We started in on it, but there's so much more to actually get your book out, get it into bookstores, get into libraries, get proper reviews for the book. All of that. And so, so much more including public relations and a variety of other things that we do at an agency called Best Seller Builders.

And if you're interested in us doing your book marketing for you, then we have a video for you that explains the program. It's free to go watch at bestsellervideo.com. And there's a little application there if you do like the program. We have had great success with many of the authors that we've helped through that program. We take all of the burdens off of you and we take it on. We have a staff of about seven people that do various things for each ... including, by the way, we have a Roku television channel that we feature our clients on. It's Book Lovers TV. If you have Roku and you have not checked out that channel, check it out. Book Lovers TV.

Bob: Awesome. Well, Daniel, this was chock-full of some really good ideas and strategies towards getting the first book out of the head and onto the shelves, virtual or real. And I can't wait to review this again but also see what you're up to next at realfastresults.com. I will say those of you that go check out Daniel's podcasts, go back to October 2016. There was a really good interview that he and I did, that you might want to pay attention to. Well Daniel, thank you so much for being on this week's episode.

Daniel: Thank you so much for the opportunity. It is a pleasure as always.

The Lead Generation podcast

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Daniel Hall - Boost Your Business
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