If you blog, podcast, speak, or coach clients, you have an unbelievable amount of content already. Heck, even if you’ve just talked about a topic for several years, you already have content stored away in your mind! Your ideas, stories, and wisdom have already been formed, and those pieces make up a philosophy or a worldview that is uniquely your own.
If you take that content and simply re-shape it a bit, package it into a book, and make it available to the masses on Amazon, your business could immediately jump up to the next level. Let’s talk about how to write a book that will serve your business.
First, simply acknowledge that you have a ton of content!
So many would-be writers spin in figurative circles because they simply refuse to acknowledge that they have something truly unique to say. Here’s a litmus test scenario that will help you see whether you actually do have something worthwhile to say.
Imagine that an acquaintance comes to you and says, “I’m having such a hard time with ________ (fill in the topic that you blog/podcast/speak/coach about). Do you think you could sit down with me for an hour and help me sort out a basic solution?”
Truly, I want you to sit with this scenario for a moment. Whatever your topic, whether it’s business, marketing, health, relationships, or travel arrangements, could you help someone who’s starting from scratch?
I’m betting that you could. And I’m betting that you’d need a heck of a lot more than a one-hour conversation over coffee to get that person to feel like he’s learned all he needs to know about your topic. The amazing thing is that if you actually did have this conversation over coffee, you could actually change this person’s life. Isn’t that a worthwhile investment of an hour?
Now, imagine you could put all that content into a book and changes lives all over the world? If you ask me, that’s a worthy pursuit.
Get over the fear that it’s already been written.
Yes, there are a lot of books out there. Yes, there will be some overlap in what you have to say and what others have had to say in books that are already published.
But I want you to focus on another fact, for just a moment. If you already have a blog, podcast, speaking platform, and coaching service, you are already giving people information that they’ve never heard, and they keep coming back to you! They return to your blog, subscribe to your podcast, refer you to other events to be a speaker, and pay you to coach them. You are already giving people information that they want and that they’re not getting anywhere else.
There’s one more way we can challenge this fear that everything’s already been written. I want you to go to Amazon or the bookstore or the library and try to find every book out there on your topic (that’s been published in the last 10 years). Sift through a pull out the books that most closely resemble the book you want to write. You know, the books where you see the cover and immediately think, “Oh no! See! Someone already wrote my book!” Yep, find those books and read them—every single chapter.
As you’re reading, take notes on what you would say or present differently. For each of these books, search out every story, angle, and piece of advice that you don’t fully agree with and also think of what you would say instead.
I promise you, this is an empowering exercise, and if you truly follow through, you’ll find that the book you would write is actually not like every other book that’s ever been written. I did this myself, when I was writing my book back in 2015. If you want to see the process in action, read this post.
Visualize how your book will help you grow your existing business or platform.
So many people go into writing a book without a real plan or strategy for their book. Now, I wouldn’t go so far as to say you need a full on outline or proposal before you can start writing your first draft. (In fact, many people get stalled out if they try that approach.)
Instead, I would have you think about how your book could help you bring in more clients or speaking gigs or some other desirable outcome. The outcome you’d like to create will help you decide how to narrow your book topic.
Here’s the problem: You know a lot about your topic. Hence all the posts, episodes, and talks! But you can’t dump all that information into a book. You have to select what you’re going to write about, trim down to one area of your topic for the book.
I’d suggest a few ways to think about how you can write a book that will serve your business:
- If you’d like more clients, write a book that actually walks the reader through your one-on-one client system, step-by-step. For instance, if you’re a health coach, walk the reader through every step of the way to getting healthy, from the mindset to the nutrition to the exercise to whatever else the reader would need to know! Give everything away. Don’t hold any of the steps back. When the reader sees what you recommend, the reader who is serious about achieving the end goal of getting healthy will seek you out to work with you, one-on-one.
- If you’ve built a course, workshop, or membership site, use your book to talk about each of the core modules that you typically teach in your content. Use the book almost as an overview or sneak peek of what you think are the most important areas to understand in the topic. Don’t worry about giving too much away! If people are blown away by your book, they’ll eagerly hop into your course, workshop, or membership site.
- If you’d like more speaking gigs, write the book on the exact same topic you’d like to speak on. Imagine your perfect audience, the people you would be most excited to speak to, and write the book specifically for those people. Narrow down as much as you can. A lot of writers make the mistake of going broad, trying to write a book for a very large audience, hoping that someone within that huge audience will resonate with their message. The reality is that those who book speakers look for highly specialized speakers, and you’ll gain instant notoriety in a particular niche if you zero in on them. If you’re looking for a quick turnaround on speaking gigs, it’s better to write several highly-niched books than one broad book.
- If you’re a nonprofit and you’d like more sponsors or donors, write a book that conveys your story, your big “why” behind the founding of your nonprofit, and share as many stories as you can about your nonprofit’s struggles and triumphs. If people come to understand your journey and how you’ve helped others, they’re much more likely to offer to connect with you and support your mission.
So, just spend a little time thinking about the outcome for your business or platform that you’d like to achieve.
Get freaking excited!!!
Yes, I just used three exclamation marks. In a headline. I feel quite intensely about this statement. :)
You have to feel, in the blood coursing through your veins, that this book will be a turning point for your business and platform. You have to feel that your book will make a future possible for you that is exciting, thrilling, and worth sacrificing for. You have to feel that your book is inevitable.
Because writing a book is a heck of a lot of work, and the only way you’re going to see it through is if you have a vision in your head for how your life is going to be different (and so much better!) after you write and publish your book.
Start by acknowledging that you already have a lot of content, then prove to yourself that your book will be different than others, and then visualize how you’ll write a book that will serve your business and platform. Then, get excited!!!