Planning for the Small Business Expo

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Stuart: Welcome to another Book More show. It's Stuart here with Betsy, Betsy Vaughan. How you doing?

Guest: I'm fantastic, how are you?

Stuart: Very good, thank you. Very good. We have a bit of a last minute change to today's episode because the Small Business Expo is in Tampa tomorrow. So Betsy's going to head across there and find, fly the 90 minute flag, as it were, at the event. So what we thought was a great opportunity was to use this podcast as an example of thinking about how we're going to use a book internally to address and engage that audience. And then in turn we'll make this recording available to people who come in through that channel, that funnel, and then talk specifically about you guys listening to this, having come in from that event, landing on this landing page, listening to this audio, how you can use a book in your business to create a great lead getting tool, engage with some clients. And really I think what is a good opportunity is to address kind of that most straightforward and simple way of someone creating a book as a tool. So I know for people listening to the podcast, we've talked about that quite a few times before, but on the one hand it never hurts to reiterate it because it's constantly the thing that people misinterpret. But also we're going to go through a very specific example today. So I think, think based on the last couple of calls where we've had interviews with previous authors and Dean was on talking about the three types of book, which are very effective. So I think this is going to be a great episode to pull all of those recent things together. How does that sound?

Guest: Yeah, good. Should be exciting.

Stuart: So let's start with giving a bit of background on the, on the show itself. So do you want to give a quick intro to what the show was and where you heard about it? And obviously this is the day before you go, but what you expect to, to see there so far?

Guest: Yeah, I think so. I, I found this through someone that I follow on social media, someone who runs this event and let me say his name. Should I say his name?

Stuart: Yeah, yeah, go for it. I don't think it's a secret.

Guest: Yeah. So Bill Walsh, this is sort of his event that he runs a small business expo. He does several of these throughout the country every few weeks, you know, and brings in great speakers for these little workshops that are roughly like 45 minutes long and subject matters, there's also, you know, some are relevant to, to my business, some would be relevant to other people's business. Someone who's Looking at maybe interested in stocks and things like that. They would be, you know, there's all sorts of workshops, I guess to say there's startup workshops and marketing and how to use social media and things like that. And as well as there's some exhibitors that I'm sure I'll pop in and do those as well. But there's a lot of opportunities to do some speed networking which is great, I think for that small business owner on a local scale. You know, they're expecting thousands of people to show up at this event and I guess that's what happens at all of their events.

Stuart: Yeah, big event. I think the venue is quite large and the exhibitor list is quite large. So looking down the schedule when we were talking before, there seems to be sort of, I think it's 12 events a year. So they've got quite a robust pattern, a robust framework for the events now. And there's certainly a lot of individual speaking engagements, presentations from stage. It's, it looks like it's going to be a good event.

Guest: Yeah, I think so. So, and you know, and I followed a lot of him, you know, on social media and I've listened to some of him, specifically some of his, you know, one on one webinars and his, his workshop calls he's done. So you know, Bill will be there as well as a lot of these other individuals that I see marketing, you know, their business. And so I'm really excited about, I don't do a lot of this, this kind of thing, but it's in my backyard. So I am going to go and do some of this step outside my comfort zone and, and do this. So yeah, so I'm looking forward to it. So I think it'll be a good show and it will be a lot of opportunity to meet up with some, with some good people. But he's, you know, for people who are listening, The Small Business Expo.com is the website and he's in all the major cities, you know, throughout the US So definitely check that out.

Stuart: Yeah, so I think turn it back into the book process that we have here and what we're talking about doing for the next event. So pretty short notice. We only heard about it the other day, so we're a couple of days out. So there's no opportunity for us to create a book for this particular event, but that's certainly something we're going to do for the next ones and actually talking about reusing assets as we have done before. We're going to talk today about the thing that we're most likely to create. And the plan will be to use that in other live event forms as well. So my expectation of kind of turning up there is probably like some of the events that I've been to in the past. You'll end up meeting a lot of people, some of whose names you remember, some of them who won't. You'll end up with a lot of business cards, some of them you'll be able to associate with people, and some of them you won't. And I'm guessing that you're going to end up with a bag full of. Full of leaflets and some squishy toys and maybe a handful of pens. And that tends to be.

Guest: Stress ball. Everybody needs a stress ball, right?

Stuart: Exactly. That tends to be the way it turns out. Did we do maybe I'm crossing the streams on the different podcasts now? Did we do a book with a guy whose company is. Is like promotional material? If we didn't, it might have been a more. More Cheese, less Whiskers episode I'm thinking about. Yeah, yeah, I'm crossing the streams, I think on the different podcasts, but. But yeah, that way of standing out in a crowded environment. Apart from just kind of personality and, and making an impression. When you do talk to someone, the benefit of writing a book that is valuable to that audience is that it leaves them with something that's more useful. So coming home with a bag full of leaflets is great. And when I've done it in the past, it's usually kind of sat on the side for a couple of days while I've thought about getting around to going back through and separating out the useful from the not so useful or the relevant from the not so relevant. But the great thing about a book in that environment is it is something that sticks out or stands out and is more likely to at least get thumb through and engage with someone who's likely to be a customer rather than just getting put on the side and missed and passed over. Just as another leaflet.

Guest: Yeah, exactly.

Stuart: I was looking through the schedule for the speaking engagements, the presentations rather, and there's a lot on there about social media marketing and building a presence. Something about the three biggest opportunities in the real estate market and how to make money through stocks, all of that type of thing. None of those necessarily resonate with what we're talking about. What I wanted to look for today was a share with people, the thing that we're going to write for the next event, but B, pick one of these things. So anyone that's listening to this, who had been to the event and perhaps heard this talk, it'll resonate with them a little bit more as to how you can use a book in your business. So from the list, the one that stood out is one of the morning sessions called Create Income by Preparing Legal Forms with knowing nothing more than it, more about it than just seeing it listed. What I'm assuming is this is a program whereby you can do at home some of the preparation work for certain standard forms and just become a contractor or an outsourcer doing this type of work. But I think that one stood out because it's a great opportunity to dive into using a book as a lead generation tool. So no matter how great this particular opportunity is, marketing yourself and as that service is still a challenge, the fact that you've got a good framework and a system in place is great. But unless people know about it and or know that it's a service that they need, I think it's maybe going to be a struggle to get or the struggle to get business is going to be the same as in, in any other business. So I'm going to use that as the example as we're talking today, just running through the model of the quickest and easiest way to create a book in order to generate business.

Guest: Okay,

Stuart: I didn't notice on the agenda as well there is another couple of sessions which are eight steps to publishing success. So we kind of dived into that program a little bit just before we jumped call just to see what that conversation was about. And again, without being there, without seeing that presentation. I think a lot of that focus seems to be on becoming a published author and the best seller type approach, which as people who've listened to us talk before, that's not the approach that we come from. We're very much more interested in getting a book in people's hands in a cost effective, efficient way and actually dealing with conversions rather than having a book that kind of makes a thud on a copy table as you drop it and costs a lot of money and takes a lot of time to create. So it'll be interesting if you do get a chance to check that out tomorrow, what the main takeaways from that particular event is. But it's always the case. We saw as well. Earlier in the week there was another model, another framework that was again talking about publishing, but talking about publishing or writing a book in the sense the New York Times bestseller hardback heavy Duty book. That again, is a lot of time and effort to create and there's definitely a market for that. It's definitely not a bad thing to do if that's what you're trying to achieve, if that's the outcome that you're trying to get. But again, just to reinforce the point that particularly some of the costs that are involved, really being able to write several smaller books that address single target markets and engage people in a particular way, far more effective from a business outcomes perspective, or that gives you the opportunity to cast a wider net and engage with more groups of people in a way that resonates with them, rather than creating a big traditional hardback book that really kind of. You put all of the eggs in. In one basket there.

Guest: Very true. I just had that conversation today with a potential client saying why? Well, he had night. His idea was to. He said, I really think I want to write a large book someday. And, you know, it's that whole page, back to that page thing. We have to have so many pages, you know, it'll just be a real book. So. So he. He said, you know, I wanted to sort of do that more on a national scale versus this, this book that I want to do with you all. I'm sort of looking at my business in my immediate, you know, state in my community. And I said, what are you going to do with that big book?

Stuart: Right.

Guest: Well, the same thing I'm doing with a small book. And I said, so, so, so, okay, so why think about what you just said, you know? And he was focused on that big book. And. And I said, maybe you could do the book about Connecticut, which is your home state, and if you're looking at a national level and you want to be able to be on. He was speaking of being on television shows and programs and stuff locally and then maybe a little nationally. And I said, so instead of writing that big book, we'll write another book that is exactly like the Connecticut book. We'll just leave out Connecticut and we'll just make it more generic, you know, across the board. But he was like, oh, but I really want that big book, you know?

Stuart: And there is. I mean. Yeah, exactly. If there's the. As long as you're being honest about yourself, about why you're doing it, if you're doing it for the. For having the big book, because you think that will open some other doors

Guest: or,

Stuart: I mean, hell, even if it's just a vanity play because you want to be able to tell people that that's the book you wrote, then that's fair enough. But don't, Don't Mistake one for being more effective than the other in terms of actually converting into business. The, the return on something that costs you 20 grand is significantly longer than something that costs two grand. It's yeah, I think it's just being honest and real about what the outcomes are. It's not oh, we need to do something so we should do this. It's we need to do something. What is the best thing to do? And that might be the right answer. It's maybe that you're trying to open doors that can only be opened through a very celebrity based approach where you do need something, you can demonstrate that it's on a bestseller list somewhere or that you physically deliver it in a shock and awe package where it needs to have some additional shock and awe about it. But again, it's a very big price and cost difference and the returns over that are really quite. It's a much longer return for one versus the other. We were talking to someone else today and again a couple of weeks ago where both of these people have paid significant amount of money to get things ghostwritten or worked with editors or writers on a sort of contract basis. There's a number of programs around at the moment where people, where the people who run these programs talk you through creating the book and have some real great advice on what types of things go in the book and then how you can use it in a funnel. But it still all comes back to the job of working writing it is left to you and you kind of given all of these pointers and places where you can get help. But, but all of that help is on top of the program that you've already paid for to get the guidance in the first place. And then you've still got the, you've given yourself the job of actually writing it and project managing it and giving it direction and bringing all of these things together. So again that's one of the key things that I think about the 90 Minute Book program is the fact that this really is the done for you service. It gets is just 90 minutes of your time to get it created and in there.

Guest: Right.

Stuart: So with that being said then let's quickly turn your attention to the two specific examples that we want to run through today. So that's the book that we're going to write next time we're going to write for next time we go to these events. We can use it in a live environment and sticking with this preparing legal forms, creating come through preparing legal forms, using that as an example or a case study of the type of book that you could write to immediately start engaging leads for this business, assuming that this is a new or developing business that you're in. So if you're listening to this and this isn't your business, then obviously just substitute the specific examples that I'm coming up with for what's relevant for your audience. So let's start with the. The thing that we're trying to. We're going to create for the next one. So we've also been doing this for a good few years now. We've got a good understanding of what some of the common questions are. We've got a very good understanding. And this is again one of the differentiate us when talking to us because on the onboarding process, we're very good at taking what you might have as a broad idea and really dialing into a subject and a call to action. The steps that are needed between that in order to create something that really engages someone in the. In the conversion funnel that you're trying to set up in that kind of conversation that you're trying to have with someone taking them from a call prospect to a customer. We're very good at dialing those things in. So for the. The book that we're trying to create, the book that we're going to create for these events next time, we've got a pretty good understanding of where people are coming from. So we know that they have on the one hand, got no idea that a book is a plausible or a feasible lead generation tool because they're coming to it from the point of view of a book requires a publishing contract. All of this time shut away in a darkened room in order to write and create something that can get out there. They may be coming to it from the point of view of they've got an awareness of self publishing. They know that they should write a book because it's something that a lot of people are talking about. But they really don't have anything dialed in in terms of what the steps are involved and certainly not to the extent of how they would go about doing it. And then there's probably a small group of people who have already investigated some of this. They've maybe started some of these projects before. They've maybe got contacts or friends who have been through a process either with us potentially or through some similar organizations trying to pull this together. So those three groups of people are the ones that we know, the latter two groups, the ones that have got some awareness already to a certain degree. They've probably done some research. So in Terms of engaging a completely cold audience. We're not trying to engage those people as part of this funnel. So the people who we are trying to engage with are the ones who are attending but haven't necessarily thought of a book as a lead generating opportunity in the past. So again, this is just kind of the morning of thinking about how this is going to turn out. So check in in a couple of weeks to see what we end up with. But we're thinking about something around a small business guide to getting all of the leads you need. Because we know that the people aren't necessarily going to be looking for something that talks about a book as a lead generation tool because they might not know that's the answer. If you remember back a couple of shows ago, we were talking about the difference between a lead generating book and a lead converting book, and the difference there being where the person is in their understanding of it. So the people that we're trying to target now at the top of the funnel might not even know a book is the thing to create. Rather than the 90 minute book as an example, really does a pretty good job of converting, taking the conversation further, where people know that a book is a good idea. The back cover copy, for example, talks about, you already know what your book is about. The hard thing is getting it onto the page. So that's the next step down.

Guest: Very good. Yeah.

Stuart: So in terms of who we're trying to attract, it's small business owners who are looking to generate more leads. In terms of the information that's in there. We know that the context that we're talking about is used in a book is that lead generation generating tool. So the thing that we'll be writing about is leading towards that as the outcome. So what we're going to talk about in the content of the book is the framework, the kind of key pillars that we use of a single target market. So how to dial that in. So that when you're doing some outreach, when you're thinking about a particular lead generating funnel, you're trying to target one single, you're speaking to one single target market. We're then going to talk a little bit about how to get people to raise their hands by offering cookies, by making offers that are out there. And in that context we're going to talk about writing reports, writing guides, giving away small pieces of the program that you've got set up something that engages people and starts leading them down the conversation. And then we'll lead on to talk about a book as being the very Best way of doing that because it ticks a lot of the boxes and it allows you to start a conversation by giving something. So it builds reciprocity. It allows you to demonstrate some of your expertise in the content. It allows you to answer some of the questions that your customers have got. You know what those questions are because you're in that business. So you can answer some of those and add value right from the start. So again, hopefully you're starting to get that idea of. This should be a very simple book to lead people to or a simple way for people to express an interest to raise their hand by answering some of the questions that are there already. So.

Guest: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I was just thinking about, you know, the small business because, you know, I think sometimes people think, oh, I'm almost too small of a business, you know, they just, why would I write a book? Why would I need to write a book now that maybe we only deal with people that have larger companies and, you know, that trying to find the value in it. And I just, you know, I think people need to realize that we deal with small businesses. That's what we deal with. We're not dealing with large companies, you know, that have. They may be successful from a financial standpoint, but they're small. It's a. They're, you know, they're usually one to ten, man. Shows that we, that we typically as our client, you know, and that's really

Stuart: where those people are really where they can add the most value because they're dealing with. Most of the time, they're dealing with people in a much more personal way. It's not like a big multinational that you just getting through to call center. You're quite often dealing with business owner or a small group of people. So writing something that gives value in a much more personal way in a conversation that's going to turn out to be pretty personal pretty quick anyway, because you're more likely to deal with those individuals. I always wonder whether it's a confidence thing when people raise that as a concern or whether they say, oh, I don't know if I. If what I've got to say is valuable. I wonder whether that's just one of those excuses that your brain throws up as kind of that first stumbling block that stops people from doing it because particularly anyone that's been in business for more than six months, certainly more than a year, all of the information that you've got in your head, the valuable little tricks and tips of getting the most out of the thing that you're talking about. I mean, there's an unbelievably significant amount of information that you have just that you're dealing with on a day to day basis that customers on the outside are desperate for. For that information.

Guest: Exactly.

Stuart: Yeah.

Guest: It may be, it may be that confidence thing. I think that may just, that may be the. There's always those. There's always those. I hear people say that a lot, like, I don't know what's holding me back. I don't know why I'm, you know, I'm afraid, you know, but I hear that a lot. Like I've. I've had this idea for two years or I don't think I've ever met anybody who really has not wanted that, you know, probably because of the people that I surround myself with. But everybody wants to write a book, you know, they want to write a book like someday, someday, you know, even myself, you know, I've said that and here I am, you know, so. So, you know, but it's always, it's always, it's always someday. But I hear that a lot from, you know, potential clients or new clients, like.

Stuart: Well, and I think it comes back to the thing that we talk about in the 90 minute book itself and this difference between being an author, not a writer. The concept of the information, the value that you've got in your head in sharing something is as an author, it's having the ideas and the frameworks and the way you describe things and the help you can provide people and the fact that you give them value by stopping him for making silly mistakes. All of those things are the keys to being an author. The keys to being a writer. A writer is more of a job, a discipline in its own right. It's the way that the language is kind of. The words are crafted onto the page. So if your job is as a writer, then you need to be good at writing and thinking about the seed of an idea and going off into a darkened room and staring at a blank page. And on all of these writer's block type things that you hear about that stop people from doing it. If you're looking to sell a book, then your job is as a writer and you need to have a discipline around that if you're looking to be an author and engage people by giving them value through words that are on the page. That's very separate from being an author, from being a writer, rather, rather than. It's just sharing the information and getting out there. And I think that's very freeing when people realize that for the majority of people out there, the fact that a book is a great medium of sharing value and getting into the hands of people who are interested, but you don't have to be a writer. Just getting the words onto the page is way more straightforward than having a. And this might go back to the page count as well. Having a consistent content that leads people from the title on the front page, the reason that they raised their hand in the first place, the promise of solving a problem, to the call to action on the back page, the next steps, the place that they can learn more. Having a sensible thread taking them from point A to point B is far more straightforward at 50 pages than at 200 pages.

Guest: Absolutely.

Stuart: Having that audience engaged for that period of time, making it a bite sized thing so that they feel confident that they can, they can achieve this thing, they can get to a successful outcome. Far more achievable at 50 pages than 200 pages. And far less daunting being sat there at the start of the process thinking that this is something that I want to get out there and share with the world. Far easier to do in a kind of 50 page book that comprehensively answers one valuable question very deeply than trying to think for two years. Oh, yeah, I'd really like to do this at some point, but it's just a sprawling project in my mind that we never get started with.

Guest: Right. You say, I had a conversation with a lady who came on board and she said, I've written some pages and I'm not a writer. And so it's taken her long time. She said I've worked on this, these pages for months. And she said they're horrible. And she said I know they're horrible. And I laughed, you know, and I said, she said this is not. And she said, she actually, funny enough, she recorded some of this and had it transcribed. And she said it's still horrible. And she said, and she said I think I'm missing that. And I said, well, are you wanting to be a writer? And she said, no, I just want to get this book published. And I said, okay, that I, I can, I can't make you a writer, but I can turn you into an author. And that's what I said to her, you know, so, so. And she came on board and she decided to explain, you know, sometimes things just, you know, hey, if you are not a writer, it's not your gift. It doesn't matter how many pages you write. It's. It's just gonna, it's gonna confuse you. It's gonna Confuse the reader. You're not gonna have your organized thought. And I get that too from people. I have all these pages that I've written, but I need you to organize them. Well, if you don't know your thoughts, I can't organize. And the goal is get the book out and start using that tool. Regardless. You're a one man AC company or you've got 50 employees, whatever it is, whatever your goal is to get that book out. Yes, you're becoming an author, you're not a writer, but you're getting valuable information, like you said, out to your target market. And that's. That's it. That's the goal.

Stuart: Exactly. And starting the conversation, the whole purpose of it isn't to win a literary prize. The purpose is to start a meaningful conversation with someone. I think the. Let's move on then and use that as the example for how to help people to get, how to overcome that. Help people to get something out there that is valuable is starting the conversation. So a lot of this analysis paralysis is around, okay, I've got so many ideas, I don't know where to go or I don't know where to start. Or it could be book A over here, or it could be book B over there. And people just never get started. So one of the things that we found success when people fall into this trap is around what we refer to internally as like a five by five book. So we've mentioned it on a couple of shows before and I think this one is a great one to use for the preparing legal forms example. So to give someone. People some tripping over my words. To give people something tangible to take away from this episode. What we're talking about here is someone that's. If you don't have a very strong idea yet on what it should be, but you know that putting something out there is going to be valuable, then I think the next. We're going to run through quickly now this five by five outline. And, and if you've got no other ideas but you know that a book is a great idea because you know that it will engage people, then I would advise just doing this and then for the next one you'll have done one, you've got it out under your belt, you've got a lot of the process out of the way. So the next one you might have another single target market that springs to mind and a slightly different framework to pull it all together. But if you're stuck thinking I need to do something then, then go with this five by five framework and take it from there. So the talk that they're delivering from stage is creating income by preparing legal forms. So that's obviously a pretty wide spectrum of what legal forms it could be. And someone that's looking for a. And again, the caveat is this isn't my field of expertise. I don't know what legal forms they're talking about. So the specific examples might fall down, but the principles still stand. So just swap the words out for your industry. So preparing legal forms could go everything from tax based filings, company formations, divorce proceedings, power of attorneys, all of this wide gamut of legal forms that are relatively standardized, but take some time and expertise and discipline just to make sure that they're done in the correct way. The person, although for you, delivering the business, they're very similar because what you're doing is a different form but a similar process. For the person at the other end, it's a very different. They're coming to it from a very different perspective. Someone that's filing divorce filings isn't concerned about company formations or trademark agreements. So we talked about choosing a single target market in order to engage people. The suggestion then is to pick one of those areas, group them together if necessary for a couple of different forms, if it makes sense. So it might be company formation, might be one, or power of attorney, that type of thing might be another one because there might be a couple of forms that you need to get filed, visa, immigration documents, that might be another area where a couple of forms are grouped together. So pick the target market based on who the customer is and then write something that addresses those people. So the five by five model talks about finding the five questions that the five most common questions that people ask on a particular subject and then thinking about the five most the five better questions that they should be asking, but they perhaps don't know they should be asking. So for example, let's stick with the company formation documents. Someone looking to file or create a LLC at home might be asking a particular set of questions. And particularly if you've been in business for any amount of time, you're going to know what those questions are. We get the same questions asked of us over and over again, which is why, which is why you hear us talk about on the podcast so often, because we keep getting them, but we know what those common questions are. So answering those in the book, knowing that people creating a, filing a company formation paperwork always have these same issues because it's the most confusing piece of it. Starting with that, you're probably going to intersect with questions that are already going on in their mind already. So people are already looking for these answers. If you're in a position where you don't know what those questions are googling around on forums or searching for, even using Google's autocomplete, as you start typing something in, it will come up with the commonly asked questions. So finding what those five common questions are is a great way of intersecting with what they're currently thinking. The purpose of the, as you write in the answers or addressing those issues in the book is to answer those things as completely as possible. You don't want to be saying to someone that you're going to answer the five most common questions and then just saying that, really, if you want an answer to these questions, you're going to have to contact me. There are always caveats and there are always exceptions and there's always a level of detail that you can't go into because every case is different. But answering them at a generic level as comprehensively as possible ants value on the back of that you probably know five questions that it makes more sense for them to ask. So using us as an example, we quite often get questions of how long will the book be? Well, we know that the length of it really doesn't make any difference to whether it's compelling or not. So we try and get people to ask the question of which group of people are you trying to address? What target market are you trying to address? Get people to focus on the title and the, and the value and the specificity there. We know that's a much more valuable question in terms of having a book as a lead generation tool than how many pages is it if you prepare in legal forms, it's almost certainly similar situations come up. They're asking a particular technical question, but probably a question about the general approach or the outcome is going to be more valuable. So the five questions that they are asking, the five questions that they should be asking, and then we augment that or we add to that towards the end by then saying, okay, what are the five action steps? So someone requesting a book about preparing a legal form, about preparing legal forms for company formation. Here are the five questions people typically ask and here are the answers. Here are the questions that you should be asking in order to get the best out of this process. And here are the next five action steps that might be just reminding people to go to a third party source and make sure they do an additional filing. It might be once the filings submitted, give it a certain amount of time and then go to this particular place to check that it was accepted and prepared correctly. It might be when the confirmation comes back, double check this information to make sure that it's recorded correctly. Or it might be something completely unrelated to say, okay, well, because you're creating this company filing, you also probably need to do this employee assistance filing. Or you might need to register some health and safety things at the same time, or you might need to make sure that you register a trademark at the same time. All of these elements that you know as the expert also come into play. Give people five specific action steps that are very related to what they're searching for, but really give them something tangible that they can do. Then the closing part of the book, what they should do next is really then lead them towards a further conversation with you. So you've answered their initial questions, but there's always, almost always, particularly if in a consulting type role, or you're adding value to them by sharing kind of additional things that they can do. Closing the book with a call to action. So the next step, the next kind of minimum viable commitment step to move them forward in the journey is a great way of closing it and offering more value. So the book itself has answered the question on the COVID Whatever the title you choose, make sure that you've answered that it's given them value by really kind of going deep into the things that they think they needed to know, added additional value by adding things or pointing them in directions that they might not have realized that they needed, and then giving them some very specific, specific action steps so that even if they did nothing else, just having that book adds as much value as possible to where they are on the journey. Because even if they're not ready to do business with you today, if you've added that value and you keep in touch with them over the long game, then it's likely that or it's guaranteed that a larger number of those people are likely to want to do something 6 months, 12 months, 80 months down the track than just today. So starting off the conversation on a, on a good footing, giving value is the best way of creating that connection to begin with. Getting them to raise their hand in the first place as being even broadly interested, and then starting a conversation that will, that will lead on. So I think that's a great place.

Guest: I think, you know, I think that the five by five, just simplifying it, the five by five, you know, just that was, was a great explanation on sort of the how and the why and I think that was, it's very simple for anybody who's listening to be like, oh, okay, that makes complete sense. You know, it really is that simple how you just sort of broke it all down for people, you know.

Stuart: Yeah. And I think there's always a, there's always an effort of, well, there's always a desire to over complicate. I think if you've got a good idea for a book in your mind, then crack on and get that out there as quickly as possible. And from us, from our perspective, the nine minute book process is the easiest way to get it out there. If you don't, but you're aware that a book is a great way of creating a tool to engage people, then using the five by five framework is a way of adding value into that target market that you're particularly trying to attract in the quickest and easiest way. And realistically getting that out to, they're generating two years worth of business with that first book. I mean just imagine the returns that you're going to get from that effort rather than thinking about it for two years and then deciding to do something else. I mean just the feedback that you're going to get on the first version will make a second book or even the second version of the, of the first book so much more valuable than just sitting on your hands and, and not doing it because there's some degree of analysis paralysis and not getting around to it.

Guest: Right, right. That's great.

Stuart: So I think we have, looking at the clock, we have well and truly blown past our usual 30 minutes, but good value at the, at the end and some specific actions. We're on the 25th of October now. The, the event is on the 26th. Over the next couple of weeks we're going to bring this book together so that people can, that will have it in hand to use for the next expo or the next event that we go to. So if you're listening to this because you've come to this page from the Expo itself, then we'll update this page as soon as we've got that book in hand so you can see what the outcome of this conversation is for everyone else that's listening to the podcast as part of the normal feed, then we'll be sure to again put an update show out as soon as we've got this created. But I think being able to quickly and simply put something out there that helps people get this five by five framework in mind helps create small business owners create all of the leads they need through this simple tool. Hopefully this will be a great example not only to add value to people who read it, but great example to you. Listening to this as a way of quickly being able to create something that gets out there, engages an audience of the people that we're trying to target, adds value and then starts the conversation that leads to an outcome down the track.

Guest: Awesome. Looking forward to it. And I look forward to the sort of the follow up in a couple of weeks to see how things have turned out. And

Stuart: yeah, let's definitely do that. We'll do a follow up show on the book itself and a follow up show on the event. So we'll wrap both of those up together and touch base. I think any. Anyone that's listening. Then just in the last couple of seconds before my voice gives out completely. If you head over to 90minutebooks.com podcast for the show notes and we'll make sure that we've got links to everything and we'll update them as we go forward with the book as it gets finalized. We have in a couple of weeks time we've got an interview with Mike Mack who wrote a book with us 18 months ago and then is just recently published an update to it. So that's a great example of starting off with the version one, but then leading into a version two based on the feedback that he gained from version one. It's really great conversation talking to Mike about how he got that first book out there, but then the real useful and in some ways surprising feedback that he got internally in order to do those updates.

Guest: So I'm looking forward to that. I haven't, haven't heard it yet, but I'm looking forward to it. We're having worked really, really closely with Mike on this, so looking forward to hearing that one. I think that'll be good just knowing him and his personality, you know. So I look forward to it.

Stuart: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it was a real good recording. So as I say, everyone head over to 90minutebooks.com podcast. This is going to be episode 42, so check out the show notes there if you want to shoot us a question or you've got any questions questions about the 5x5 process. You want to dive into a bit more, just shoot us an email to support at 90 minute books or podcasts at 90 minute books and we'll pick those up. And if this has inspired you just to get started and get your book out there before the end of the year now we could have it completed. Then head over to 90minutebooks.com and follow the get started links, and we'll be here waiting to take you through the process and get it completed for you. So thanks for Betsy.

Guest: Always a pleasure.

Stuart: No problem. And we'll catch everyone in the next show.