Recently I had a great conversation with someone who said they wanted to write a book. The problem as they saw it was despite wanting to write a book, they felt that they were being pulled in many other directions.
What about a shorter e-book, an online course, a membership or a retreat?
I asked why not all of them from the book as your blueprint?
This is a common problem. Many people want to write a book, but most never will. The reason is that a book is not essential to them right now.
What do you want to create?
There is a question I ask everyone who comes on a call with me and that is ‘what you want to create in the world?’
What do I mean by that?
I want to create a writing community where people come to write to discover themselves, to grow and become their best selves and to use that learning to write books which impact lives.
I have a dream, goals and a set of actions that I take to make sure that little by little that’s what I am doing. All of my products and services align with that:-
- The Journaling Club is the start of the adventure into writing and finding their best self (not yet launched)
- Book coaching and online courses enable that content to be turned into something that helps these people to impact their world
Who is your ideal client?
To create any community, you have to identify your ideal client, who they are, where they are and what they want. This is easier said than done, but if you create your ideal client profile, and have a clear picture of the outcome or result from your book will give them you are at least one step closer. And of course, this is something that can be constantly tweaked.
What is your message?
Next is having the confidence in your message, the thing you are here to do. We are often plagued by underlying beliefs and demons that stop us from getting what we want. We can be saying one thing but projecting quite another. We need to work on our inner game and change limiting beliefs into can do’s.
What content and why?
We also need content, and by that, I mean not only products and services but words and stuff that we put out there to raise our visibility. A book is one of the best ways I know for raising your visibility and attracting new clients. A book brings a slice of your wisdom into a neat package for your ideal reader to consume and to get RESULTS from.
Why write a book?
Let’s first explore why you ‘should’ write a book and then explore what you can do if this is not feasible or desirable or maybe just not yet.
Why write a book?
- Gives you clarity of your ideas, message, story (brand or personal), process and lets others know what you know and how you can help them
- Demonstrates your authority and credibility
- Raises your visibility
- Helps you to find new clients – people often use a book as a preselection indicator
- Enables you to create other products and services around your ideas
- Enables you to bring your visionary ideas to your community
- Enables you to position the ‘thing’ that you want to revolutionise your industry with
Let’s explore why you shouldn’t write a book
Not writing a book means
- That you can spend more time doing other things that bring value into your business
- You can create other products and services that are more suited to your business or feel easier to develop and deploy
- You can write a blog, which means shorter pieces. You could blog your book
What else can you create if you don’t write a book?
I adore product development, and the reason I start with a book is that it helps me to become clear about my ideas and process. But using those same principles, I can create all kinds of products and services. What I get from a book is a blueprint.
You still need to know:-
- What you want to create in the world
- Who you want to create it for?
- Why they would want it?
- How to sell it?
Let’s assume you know what you want to create and who for. Let’s look at what other products and services you could market and sell.
- Mini-course
- E-book
- Challenge
- Course
- Program (3 or 6 months)
- Coaching methodology/process
How do I create these products and services?
This is a process. Start with what you want to create and then pick one idea that you would like to focus on that will bring you joy for the next 24-36 months.
What questions are my ideal client asking? What can’t they do? What do they want to do? What outcome do they need?
You may be a health coach and you work with menopausal women who are finding it hard to maintain their weight and fight off the hot flushes.
Make a list of 30 questions your ideal client might be asking you.
Create an outline based on the questions and journey you are taking them on.
I’d take the 30 questions, pick 10 which would make great statements and therefore good section, module or chapter headings. Then put three questions under each heading. These are the questions that this chapter answers.
Write a synopsis of each step in the outline.
This gives you clarity. Start with this chapter is about. Follow with why would my client need to know this and then think about how you engage and motivate them. Also, think about what they would get from following your advice and what they wouldn’t get if they didn’t.
Design an e-book based on the synopsis
Now you can create a checklist or 10 rules for [insert your idea]. This then is what people download from your website in return for an email.
Create a mini-course based on the e-book
This can be a cut down version that delivers value and provides a taste of what is to come. It also needs to be designed so that it whets their appetite to dive deeper with a big course or program. A 5 or 7-day challenge is great for this.
Design a 30-day challenge around your course
Now that you have a mini-course, you could tie a 30-day challenge around this or your bigger course. The idea here is that you sell the course which anyone can take as a self-paced product and you can run a live challenge alongside it a few times a year.
Make your big online course
This is your full-on signature course which provides lots of content, a process and support via a Facebook Group. You can tie this in with your live challenges. There is some validity to not creating the course until people are signed up. Then when you know what questions are being asked you can create better content, which you drip feed as you go along.
Extend your course to create a 90-day program
Once you have the course this can easily be translated into a group coaching program, where your clients have live access to you for 12 weeks. You will have group support and my offer some 121 coaching.
Offer your program as a group event or as one to one coaching
Once the group program has been created this can be offered in many different ways.
Your membership group
Now that you have lots of content you can create a portal to keep it all in and a place for your members to know what is going on. This will give you a regular income.
Forgive me for a moment, you now have enough content written and recorded to write a book. You do… When you get your videos captioned you will also have the transcripts. Transcripts are a pain to edit but you do now have content in a process which you could turn into a book, a journal or planner.
You will have templates and other content to weave in that you can repurpose.
I think the key is to choose the one idea, map out the product roadmap and blueprint and then ask what makes sense for you to create first. Only you will know what that is.
So, what’s it to be, write a book or something else?