A truth: Anybody can write a book, but not everybody should. The myth is not determining the value of your story, but rather how do you use your story to build business and serve your clients. Writing a book is more than filling pages with words and opinions. Tune in as Arlene identifies who should write their book and why. She also provides free tips, tools, and tricks to effectively market your book and eventually turn it into an online class. Your goal should be to establish yourself as The Expert and from that, your foundation is built. If you’re still struggling to start or finish your book, this episode is the key you’ve been looking for!
“If you’re in business, you’re an expert. And every expert should write a good, powerful, and profitable business-building tool. A book can build your credibility and also destroy it.” -Arlene Gale
Highlights:
01:01 Should You Write A Book?
07:38 The Right Motivation In Writing A Book
12:04 How to Sell Your Book
14:57 How to Turn Your Book Into An Online Class
15:42 Build the Foundation of Your Marketing Plan
Resources:
Book
Quotes:
02:55 “Everybody can write and publish a book, but it doesn’t mean they should.” -Arlene Gale
09:16 “If you’re a speaker, business coach or a life coach, you are part of the answer to who should write a book.” -Arlene Gale
10:04 “It’s important to understand that when you write your book, you’re not writing all of your processes and your tips and your tricks. You are whetting the appetite of a potential client or client group to hire you to take them beyond what they have learned in the book.” -Arlene Gale
10:41 “The goal in writing a book is to position yourself as the go-to expert.” -Arlene Gale
13:38 “If you wrote a book that didn’t have a good business plan attached to it, your book is not going to sell. If you wait to figure out how to sell your book until after it is written, you’re too late!” -Arlene Gale
16:42 “If you’re in business, you’re an expert. And every expert should write a good, powerful, and profitable business-building tool.” -Arlene Gale
Connect with Arlene:
Arlene Gale is an expert in helping people tell their stories (professional or personal) to build business. She combines decades of business marketing, communicating, and writing expertise to direct clients past damaging business mindsets, myths, and misconceptions toward powerful and profitable business-building success. Arlene is a top-notch business strategist and written content expert. She has helped hundreds of clients, in a variety of industries, earn millions of dollars in business as a result of writing & publishing credibility-building books. She helps clients duplicate these results from start to finish, including writing book proposals earning mainstream publishing contracts before the book is written. If it needs to be written, Arlene can do it, and do it in such a way that it generates income. She has written thousands of feature magazine articles, hundreds of business plans establishing short- and long-term goals, written and produced hundreds of television and radio advertisements, and more.
Transcription:
Arlene Gale: Welcome everybody to this last episode of March Madness, or at least how I define March Madness. My version of March Madness for this month has been to give you free tips, tools, tricks, and all other things that will bust through negative mindsets that keep you from writing your book. These episodes of my version of March Madness are to help address some of the myths that come with writing a book. So as I go into this final episode of my version of March Madness, I want to address the fact that you know, I’ve been, I get a lot of emails from people who find bookwritingbusiness.com, my website, and they say: “People should say that I should write a book. What do you think?” And then they give me a little bit of their story. They tell me: “I want to write a book, should I?” So I get that type of question in a variety of formats and ways from many people.
So I want to talk today in this episode about the myths and mindsets about who should write a book. Because that’s a valid question I think, now that I’ve been reminded from so many listeners that I never really did answer that question to begin with. So let’s do this, we’re going to talk about who should write a book. So let’s start with the fact that with technology that we have in place today, anybody and everybody could write a book, anybody and everybody could take that book and publish it. But should they? Hmm. So ponder that for a minute and let me expand on that.
“Everybody can write and publish a book, but it doesn't mean they should.” -Arlene Gale Click To TweetI get calls from people who tell me, I want to write my story, and this is my story, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I read what their story is. So I will respond with: “Okay, so how do you want to use this story?” And if somebody responds with the, I want to use this story to get back at X, Y, Z people, my response is, no, I’m not the book writing coach for you. I’m just not. So that’s an example of the fact that anybody and everybody can write and publish a book, but it doesn’t mean they should. Because in my opinion, look at the story and ask is this story going to make the world a better place because of the outcome? Is this story going to teach somebody something valuable? Is this story going to fund nonprofits, for example, if it’s a personal story. Is this story that I want to write going to lift people up.
Now I can tell you from my first book faced forward, move forward. My story is about growing up at the hands of an abusive alcoholic, a multigenerational abusive alcoholic, and how religion and culture on the other side of my family was used as a weapon against the women. Yeah, that didn’t sound like a very happy story, does it? And who wants to read that? Not me, except for the fact that the turning point is, okay, I’m 18 years old, I’ve left home, battered, beaten, bruised, and with pretty much nothing to move forward with. So I’m at a point where I gotta figure out what’s next. How do I move forward? How do you live a life 180 degrees differently than anything you’ve ever seen modeled before? So that’s the point of the book. Not to just beat up my parents because I came to the realization that my parents did the best they could with what they knew.
And several decades ago when I was a child, I’m not going to tell you exactly how many decades, but a few decades ago when I was a child, the world was a different place. And the places you could go for help, and the people you could ask for help are different now than they were before. So when I take my story, and the second half of the book says, okay, these are the tools that I used to figure out how I move forward, how I do things differently, things that I never saw modeled. How do I turn my story into something that will give hope to other people, will help provide processes and tools, tips and tricks for overcoming negative self-talk, for not only learning to dream, but how do you implement a plan so you can actually live those dreams? So that’s what I did with my book. If you have a personal story that you can use to inspire or change the world in a positive way, how do you do that? Well, that’s what we work on. But why do you want to do that? Because if you have great goals for making the world a better place to live or for changing the lives of people who are in similar situations because of what you’ve learned, absolutely, you should write a book. You are the who. You should write a book. If you’ve got a system or a process that will help save people’s businesses, you should write a book.
Let me give you an example. I had a client who was an auditor and who was called to go in to help people prepare for audits, professional businesses. So if you have a professional certification or licensing, then you have periodic audits from those professional associations or licensing entities. And this client said to me, you know, I’m so tired of doing this work, because what she said was, she felt this work she was doing was like doing CPR on a business that had already been dead for weeks and they just didn’t know it. That didn’t sound like fun to anybody, does it? But she had great cautionary tales for other businesses. So how do we change her business model so she can use her expertise and write about that in a book? Hmm. Well, how about she starts teaching these same businesses, how to put systems in place, or processes in place so that when an audit comes, it’s not all, Oh, no, the sky is falling, the sky is falling. They enter the auditing process and come out of the auditing process calmly because they are confident about the systems that they’ve had in place. So absolutely, she should write her book. So when you’re talking about if you should write a book, I think the main thing is, what have you learned from your story, whether it’s a personal or professional story that you can use to teach lessons, to help people overcome obstacles or move past barriers. If you can write that story based on your personal expertise or your professional expertise, then yes, you are part of the who should write a book.
But let’s break it down even beyond that. Are you a speaker? If you’re a keynote speaker, don’t you think you could write a book on your speaking topics? Because if you’re a keynote speaker, don’t you have lessons to teach your audience, your customers, your target market? Absolutely. So you need a book. I can tell you that my book is moving forward. The story I just told you about was written that way, because the second part of the book is keynote topics and keynote speeches that I can give, but they’re also workshop topics that I can use for conferences. If you’re a business coach or a life coach, you should have systems, and tools, and tips, and tricks in place that you can put in a book that don’t teach your process, but what the appetite of your potential customer is so that they want to find you and work with you. So if you’re a business coach or a life coach, you should be writing a book. You are part of the answer to who should write a book. And it doesn’t matter if you’re teaching what you’re teaching one-on-one or in workshops. If you are working with clients or even one-on-one, yeah, one-on-one, or workshops, or keynote speaking, or online classes. If you’re in business, you have an expertise that you can provide your clients and your potential clients. So you have answered the question of who should write a book.
“If you're a speaker, business coach or a life coach, you are part of the answer to who should write a book.” -Arlene Gale Click To TweetSo again, if you’re in business, you’re an expert, you probably have a book in you that you need to write. And that’s important, it’s important to understand that when you write your book, you’re not writing your processes, and your tips, and your tricks, you are wetting the appetite of a potential client or client group to hire you to take them beyond what they have learned in the book. It doesn’t mean that the book should be all fluff and nothing that the client learns, that’s absolutely the wrong takeaway from that statement. But it’s not, you’re not putting your coaching program in a book with every single solitary detail in that book. You are positioning yourself, okay. The goal of writing a book is to position yourself as the go-to expert, so you are proving your expertise in writing this book.
“It's important to understand that when you write your book, you're not writing all of your processes and your tips and your tricks. You are whetting the appetite of a potential client or client group to hire you to take them beyond what they… Click To Tweet “The goal in writing a book is to position yourself as the go-to expert.” -Arlene Gale Click To TweetSo we’re going to take a quick break and then when I come back I want to talk about, I get this question a lot too that relates to who should write a book. If you have written a book and it hasn’t sold, why did it not sell, and how can you fix that? Then we’ll talk about that myth and mindset when we come right back.
So welcome back everybody. Today, we’re talking about answering the mindset or addressing the myth of who should write a book. Because as we started with, just because you can write your story or can write a book doesn’t mean you should. What is the end result or the end goal that you’re trying to achieve by writing your story, whether it’s a personal or professional story. So I ended the last segment with asking, have you written a book? And how did it do? Because when I go out and do workshops with business people, and try to teach them a process for writing their book, I don’t teach them just how to write any old book and publish any old book. I want my clients to write and publish a powerful and profitable business building book. And again, that business can be anything. Life coaching, business coaching, being a speaker, being a workshop leader. Maybe you want to tell your story and you’re a CEO or a millionaire who has developed processes, and systems, and tools, and tricks for getting from where you were a few years ago to where you are now. That would be a legacy book, but you’re still teaching and you’re still providing valuable insight and information.
But let’s say you’ve already written that book. So then I would ask you this question, because I get these questions all the time. I wrote this book, but it didn’t build my business. It didn’t sell. It didn’t help me grow my business by either getting me more bookings or getting me more clients. And everybody’s writing books and they say their books are doing really well. Why did mine not do well? What can I do differently? Well, if you wrote a book that didn’t have a good business to plan attached to it, then yeah, your book’s not gonna sell. And I’ve worked with people who’ve written two, or three, or 10 books before they started working with me, and never wrote a book before that used the process that I used and that actually ended up bringing in business. So that’s the key, if you have to write your book so that it’s benefit rich for your target market. But that sounds like such an easy thing to do, but it’s really not, if you don’t understand who your target market is. It’s key that you understand the variety of levels that need to be understood about who your target market is. It’s key, and not knowing that is why people write and publish books that don’t sell.
“If you wrote a book that didn't have a good business plan attached to it, your book is not going to sell. If you wait to figure out how to sell your book until after it is written, you’re too late!” -Arlene Gale Click To TweetIf you’ve written a book and it did well, and it’s bringing in new clients, and maybe, let’s say your business has gotten stagnant and you’re ready to take it to a new level, or let’s say you’ve got on-on-one clients that are so deep that you’re working more hours than want to work and you really need to do group coaching or online coaching. If you’ve got a book that is selling well and has grown your target market, how then do you take that book and turn it to an online class? Because there’s a system and process for doing that too. It’s all about the marketing. And even people who have already written books, I can take you to the next level. I can help your business grow and expand to far beyond one-on-one coaching, by writing an online course that incorporates your tips, tools, and techniques that you should have written in your book. But if you got a book that hasn’t sold and hasn’t grown your business, you don’t want to turn that book into an online class, that’s silly. So who should write a book? And what should a book do for you? And how should it grow your business? Are all really important questions that you should answer before you ever start writing your book. Because if you wait to market and sell your book, it’s too late. Those questions need to be part of your foundational marketing plan before you ever start writing in your book.
So really, I guess we’ve stumbled across a second myth is that woman, now maybe it is the same myth, who should write a book? You should write a book if you’ve got something to say that’s going to help people, and you should write it in such a way that it is going to sell. And there are tools, and tips, and tricks for doing that. So anyway, I feel like I’m running in circles here trying to give you the same wisdom over, and over, and over again. So let me wrap this up by saying, if you’re in business, you’re an expert, and every expert should write a good book, a powerful and profitable business building tool. And it doesn’t matter if you’re new to business because I can help you write a book that will lay out the foundation for your business too, because the book is just part of your marketing plan. The book is just part of your branding. So you could start with the book and then lay out the rest of the business from there. Or if you’ve been in business a long time and you have a lot of tools, and tips, and tricks, and there’s so much information that’s just — creating noise and spinning in your head. Figuring out what you write first is key, and knowing the marketplace for making that decision is also important, it’s also key.
“If you're in business, you're an expert. And every expert should write a good, powerful, and profitable business-building tool.” -Arlene Gale Click To TweetSo I’ve given you a lot to think about it, about when it comes to answering the question, who should write a book? And specifically, should you write your book? So I invite you to connect with me on bookwritingbusiness.com, you can listen to all of March Madness if you go to arlenegale.com, and Gale is G-A-L-E, I’ve somehow figured out that Gale can be spelled a half a dozen ways or more, but you can go to arlenegale.com and listen to my podcast, and learn about my market thing. Or go to bookwritingbusiness.com and see the services that I provide. And in this day and age when we’re under travel restrictions, and group gathering restrictions, and all other worries and concerns, and let’s say you’re quarantined or you’re stuck at home because of what’s happening around you in your community, this is a great time to write your book. So send me an email at arlene@bookwritingbusiness.com. Because I’m in the process of picking five or six people who can send me an email that tells me what your story is, and why you want to write your book, what are you going to do with your book? And then I’ll send you a link so that we can do a free initial consultation. And all of this leads to an online course that will absolutely help you write your book.
So do all of those things. Connect with me on social media, on Facebook, it’s Book Writing Business. I’m on LinkedIn, Arlene Gale. Instagram, Arlene Gale. Twitter, Arlene_Gale. So there’s no shortage of ways to connect with me. So I hope you will connect to me if you have answered the question, who should write a book? And raised your hand and said, me, me, me, me, me, me, me. I absolutely, positively want to help you with that. So connect with me and potentially become part of this select group of people for a special online Book Writing Business class that I am going to start soon, as soon as I fill this class, and it’s going to be an online class with lots of hands on coaching and expertise.
With that said, I’m going to leave you with this thought. Don’t let the world dictate your story. Be mindful of the stories that you tell yourself about what is or is not possible for you. Specifically, if people have told you that you should write your story and you don’t know where to start or how to start, let me help you. Because you get to choose how you write your story, how you live your story every single day. So if the answer to who should write a book is you, connect with me because it doesn’t matter the scars, or the wounds, or what you’ve learned along the way that has made you become an expert in that topic, you absolutely should write a powerful and profitable business building book based on your story.