093 - The Truth About Using A Book to Grow Your Business

Fact is many coaches will tell you that a book is the greatest marketing secret for you and your business, but are you writing worthwhile content readers want once they open the pages?

Hey Guys! Nicole Gabriel here, the host of the Let’s Get Your Book Published podcast. I’m back again and dropping more truth bombs! What can I say, but it’s in my blood! After writing 4 books of my own and learning from my mistakes I’m here to help you get it right from the beginning. I know that much of what I say here is not always something you can know until you go through the process of doing this just once so you can see for yourself. But, trust me…once is all you need if you get it right! Of course, it’s so much fun that once you do it once, you’ll want to write multiple books!

I’ve titled this podcast: The Truth About Using A Book to Grow You Business.

First things first, it’s obvious that you need to identify your audience because if someone is going to open those pages they need to be spoken to like you’ve written the book to speak directly to them. When you know your audience you also have some pretty good ideas on how to attract them. Let’s begin by talking about the cover design…

Cover Design
If your cover is not speaking to your audience they may not even be attracted to your book, to you, your content, and they may never even open it. And that means they won’t be engaging with you on any level.

As someone that has been designing books for over a decade, I can tell you that if you come to me not knowing who your audience is, then nothing I do creatively is going to help align you with them. Unless, of course, we work together to focus the creative elements to attract them. If you are speaking to women in particular (which, by the way, are more likely to be book buyers) then, you might want to design the book with colors and images that are pleasing and attractive to the female buyer. Although, a business book should look like a business book. A book needs to be specifically designed for the audience you are trying to attract.

You know, it’s funny, but people have been confused about my book colors and website image for my Let’s Get Your Book Published program. But, I was very deliberate when I designed things the way I did. I can only guess they expected something very girly and pink, as this seems to be the trend these days. But, I’ve studied a lot about colors and I chose what I did for a very good reason. The book, logo, and website use primarily blue and green. The look I chose is pretty gender neutral and designed to have the appearance that it came off busy presses in New York because I didn’t want it to look self-published. It was also designed to be leveraged for all marketing and classroom materials…a simple logo design to identify it is part of the same system. Let me tell you about the colors…

From a commercial point of view, green is associated with wealth, it’s easy for eyes to read, and is used to relax you. Blue creates a sense of trust and security and is often seen with banks and business. Royal blue has the ability to attract specific types of shoppers and change shopping behavior, while navy blue in particular attracts impulse buyers.

From a metaphysical point of view, the color green is associated with the heart, while the color blue is associated with the throat and speaking. I knew I was heart-centered in my message and I was planning on attracting people that also wanted to speak about what they were building - whether that was on stage or in a classroom.

When I designed my book it was very intentional that it would be migrated into the companion online training program and its contents leveraged for the downloadable PDF’s and the same theme of colors and images would be carried over into the podcast and YouTube videos. For me, it was the plan from the minute I started writing…actually before I even started writing!

We could go on about the book cover and it’s importance for your image and attracting your audience, but lets focus on the content and how this works to enhance your business…

If you’ve never written a book before it may seem like a lot to pull together and align everything inside your book with your business, but I assure you this is the greatest thing that you can do for your business. Why? Because this will give you undeniable clarity on every facet of your business. It’s like writing the play book for your business game plan! But, how do you begin?


How A Book Can Enhance Your Business

You have to first identify an end goal. Why do you feel a book is the best choice to enhance your business? Generally a book is the best tool to enhance any of the following for your business:

• Aligns you as a subject matter expert and authority figure for your topic.
• Sets a foundation from which all communication is formed - marketing, social media, YouTube videos, press releases, podcasting, etc.
• Aligns staff, suppliers, clients, etc. with your initiatives and how you do business.
• Defines the functional aspects of your business…identifying all the components to your success…while it helps you identify weakness. (Perhaps these are good case studies to share if you’ve made improvements.)
• Builds a platform for a training program or on-going coaching. This will allow you the opportunity to pick apart pieces from well-defined chapters and plug them into training or coaching modules.
• Creates a baseline for plug-and-play or turn-key systems—kind of a start here mentality. Imagine identifying plug-and-play components that can be used interchangeably for speaking, teaching, training, or if your presence is requested on an interview.
• Identifying your speech. In the speaking world you may get asked if you have a talk. You may have topics, but maybe you’ve never clearly identified your talk. A book gives you the opportunity to layout the mass of your content then pick and choose each bullet point and tailor your speech accordingly.
  
  
  Content is King
  Have you figured it out here that content is king? Your ability to really knock out good content in a book will immensely affect the quality of your image and the output of your end product or service. This isn’t just because you wrote the book but, because you’ve defined every aspect of your business with clarity. Some of this is knowledge you might share in the book and some might be what you table for future enhancements to your business.
  
  And, I have to tell you…some coaches will tell you that just having a book is the key to enhancing your business. But, honestly, what good is that if you aren’t aligned with the content? As well, a book coach might tell you to pour your emotions into the book and make it real, but seriously…this usually isn’t the kind of book that will enhance your professional life! That’s great for a novel or memoire perhaps. This approach will leave you wallowing in the problems of your past. But, when you identify a problem and it’s solution you are stepping into your leadership shoes. When you step up and make yourself accountable by writing a book you’ve just put yourself into a position of providing a value-added solution!
  
  I was chatting with a client the other day about diversity. It was acknowledged that the white man was given special privilege. As a white woman I have a certain level of agreement here, but where I was guiding my client was that acknowledging this problem is a great baseline for the conversation to begin, but let’s work toward identifying a solution. If we got locked into the idea that this is a problem and why it has occurred we could go on arguing indefinitely. But, if this is occurring in the workplace, as my client suggested, then we need to be sure that we are arming everyone with some baseline measurables. Like, let’s say that in order to qualify for a certain position there are educational requirements. Skin color or gender or even sexual preference are not relevant when we can look at the guidelines and determine if the individual is actually qualified for the job. So let’s look at how we can propose a new way of thinking. Because, really, we need to level the playing field with some simple measurables. I like this example because we know it goes far deeper but we do have to propose real and valuable solutions. Now the author of such a book can lay out the steps they’d recommend for making this happen. It can be used in their workplace but, if written with a bit of skill, it can be rolled out as a consulting model to begin a discussion with a larger audience to open up the dialog for change. It’s important for your image and your business to always stay solution-oriented.

On the topic of content, you might hear many coaches and other authors telling you that a book is the greatest marketing secret to get you ahead, but again, let’s be clear that content is still king! This is one of the greatest beefs I have with some coaching models! You’ll hear things like:

• Let’s just get a book done and who cares what’s actually in it!
• It doesn’t matter, no one is going to read it.
• Just write the book to get you on stage!

Let me tell you that some of this is true and many people really won’t read your book, but wouldn’t you feel proud if you put your heart and soul into it and they actually did! And, honestly, much of the time the book is not for your reader. I know that sounds really quite strange, but it’s kinda true. You can’t always count on the fact that people will read it, but wouldn’t it be nice to write the content in such a way that it limits the repetition you have in your day to day? If you have a typical sales pitch you may have to hold onto that for those one-on-one personalized touch points, but once you have a client or while your trying to get a new client, you can simply suggest that they read a particular passage or chapter in your book to enhance or drive home a point that comes up on a regular basis in your business. Since you’ve already recognized it, you’re automatically a seasoned pro and that gains credibility!

In summary, it’s important to write your book with content that you can use personally. It’s  a benefit if someone else reads it finds and finds value. I know that this seems like strange advice when you believe you are writing a book to broaden your reach, but why not also write the content so that it’s a regular reference for you to use as a tool in your daily activities.

I’m available to guide you on the process, serve as an accountability partner, or do the design and layout for your book. Wherever you are at in the process, I’d love to chat with you about how I can help. With that said…as always, wishing you peace, love, and light!