Knowing Your Audience

"Foreign."

Stuart: Welcome to another episode of the bookmore Show. It's Stuart Bell here and today talking to Betsy Vaughan about single target audiences. So this is a subject that's come up a couple of times before, but not for a while, and we still have the same conversation. So I think it's worth reading, reiterating and diving back into. It turned into some great conversation on some specific examples and really the benefits of picking the single target market to make the most effective book that you can create. It's the first step on the first mindset on the book blueprint scorecard. It's top for a reason. It's the thing that really makes the project much more likely to be successful and be able to get out the door. So, so great episode today. Some good examples that you can kind of take and imagine for your own business and some great pointers on ways of getting a book created that can encourage people to raise their hands and start that tailored conversation that leads towards the outcome that we're after and more leads and more clients. So with that, let's get to it. Betsy Vaughan, Stuart Bell.

Guest: How are you?

Stuart: Good, thank you. How's temper today?

Guest: It's hot. I saw a friend who posted like, first day pictures of their kids in the Midwest and a couple of the girls are wearing, like, sweater, like a sweater, like a pullover sweater. And I wanted to say, like, is it cool enough? Like, are we just trying to be cute? Like, it's just like it's. I can't even. Even the idea of long sleeves right now is too much for me, you know, sweater now.

Stuart: I was just gonna say that sounds blissful, right?

Guest: Yeah, I know we have that. We don't do the heat thing, but we're married to people who like the heat. So I just like, you know. Anyway, so what are we going to talk about today?

Stuart: So today I thought we would talk about single target markets for books. It came up in a conversation I had yesterday and I thought it's not. We haven't talked about it for a little while on the show. So definitely worth reinforcing, I think, particularly where we are at the moment because obviously we're middle of August now. This year it's been very different than anyone expected. But there is the. So there's the opportunity to do things in a way that wouldn't necessarily have sprung to mind or wouldn't have been the most important way of doing things earlier in the year. So I think there's the turn that into book subjects. There's the opportunity to think about okay, what's the most pressing subject? Subject that's within your kind of sphere of influence within your industry, but is different now than six or seven months ago because the industry things that have all stayed the same. There might well be a lot of other information out there, but there's quite possibly some quarantine or economic impact based specifics within your industry or the way things are done, or how people are thinking about things that are different now than they were before. I think that's a good thing to talk about.

Guest: Yeah, I think so. Great.

Stuart: Although clearly I need to articulate in my mind a little bit clearly what I'm trying to say, because that seems a bit of a rambling explanation.

Guest: It'll come out. Don't worry about it. Figure it out.

Stuart: Either that or the show will never air and no one need know.

Guest: There you go.

Stuart: Yeah. So this idea. So the conversation I was having yesterday, was it actually we backed into it because we were talking about single target markets for campaigns and the person, the guy I was talking to was saying the kind of realization dropped of what we were talking about and he correlated it to like a scarcity feeling that other people in the team had got. So we'd for a while been working on dedicating a campaign to a particular funnel. So reaching out to a certain group of people, a subset of people at the top of the funnel, and then the information that we're sharing with them further down by email or pointing them to certain resources was specifically on this subject of this subset of people. And then the call to action that we wanted, we were tailoring that to the subset. And the colleagues of the guy that we were working with, their concern was that it was being too specific, too niche, and they were worried about missing out on all of these other people. So it's definitely a conversation that comes up a few times in that people have a thought that they want to include everything because this, there's this fear and concern about people missing out. I think that's something that you see as well in some of the early conversations that you have with people before they come on board. The kind of questioning calls that people have. That definitely seems to be a theme that comes up more than once.

Guest: Of course. Yeah, you definitely see, you know, I'm trying to think who it was. We had someone who, it was like a homeopathic and it was geared mostly towards women and women. And then that next niche was women over 50 kind of, you know, things. And she was freaking out because she's like, well, I practice with Both. But now I'm trying to decide like, do I just gear this towards women who are, who are over 50 or do I do something with women that are just women in general, you know.

Stuart: Right.

Guest: And I said, well, you, you have, you know what your practice is, you know, you know who you're going to, who you see the most. So if, if that's what you think that you're drawing, like you have a reputation and community that, that then you know, you could do the 50, but do something, you know, women, women specific health issues. That's, that's pretty, you know, niche because we're talking about women issues, not overall health. So there is, you know, that, that's, it's a target marker on its own that breaking it down to over 50. Yeah, but do you hate to leave all those people, all those other women under 50, you know, could potentially be new patients.

Stuart: And it's an interesting way of looking at it. And even as we're talking now, the, the, the concern about leaving those people behind, depending on the numbers might be a non issue because we're not talking about never addressing that audience, it's just, we're talking about addressing a specific audience first. So in that example, it may well be the case that the number of over 50 year olds that she's working with is so relatively small or the addressable market is so relatively small that it's not worth niching down. And that would be the scenario that I'd say don't go, you don't need to go too far down if the numbers start getting too small. But assuming that that's not the case, if it makes up 40% of the practice, or certainly if it's over 50%, but that's error on the side of caution. Even if it was 40% of the current practice through not having any particular orchestrated means of, of targeting that age group, that's just the way it's naturally happened, then that's quite a spike, that's quite a substantial group that have just naturally come to her with no kind of outward marketing just to that group of people. So if there's, if the assumption is that there more of these people and that that group of people is well and truly worth the effort of the campaign, then it might be worth addressing those people first because the benefit is you can be very specific, not to the exclusion of the other groups, but just for the purpose of this campaign. So a book at the front end and some ads to attract people to it, some emails going out to make people aware that the book's there. The follow on sequence of emails to engage people once they raise their hand asking for the book, maybe some video stuff to back it up and amplify it. Like we were talking in the show last week about amplifying the message, taking some more sections and books, some of the key talking points and amplifying why they're important and why they're important to a 50 plus audience. What the difference is in that group. The overhead of setting up that campaign is relatively small. It's not like we're suggesting spending tens of thousands of dollars on a campaign. This is $3,000 to do a book, another thousand dollars of effort to take the time to make the other assets if that's worthwhile, if the audience is there and can be engaged, then it may well be worth going to that 50 plus set for this particular campaign. Now in six months time it might be worth doing a 30 year old one or it might be worth the. Maybe the. We've kind of exhausted the 50 year old market. Now you just want to do something, cover women in general. So then you step up a level and do a, like a fallback generic one. Because ideally you can imagine a situation where. And again it kind of the devil's in the details always because it could get too granular. But you could have a. Something that addresses 20 and 30 year olds, something that addresses 40 and 50 year olds and something that addresses 60 year old plus. Because those kind of three stages of life where people are in those three stages is probably broadly different. Maybe 50 is the, the threshold. So maybe it's below 50, 50 to 65 or 70 and then above 70 because kind of thinking physiologically if it's a wellness center, physiologically you're very much in three different stages of life at those, at those areas. So the benefit of being specific and granular and going for the target market, as long as the perception is that the audience is there or the assumption is that the audience is there, the benefit is that all of the things that you then follow up with people, all of the campaign assets, all of the opportunities to reach out and engage, you can tailor that message. So writing something that was wellness oriented for. Can you remember one of the, Was it particular treatments that they did or.

Guest: So it was. She did a lot of hormone stuff. So that was. We were trying to decide like because she did a lot for the, the pre. Menopausal. Menopausal, you know, woman. So she did a lot of hormone. What is that?

Stuart: Like HRT type?

Guest: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, right, yeah, a lot of stuff like that she would do.

Stuart: So that across the practice you can imagine that that premenopause treatment hits that very specific age group. I mean you've got a 15 year window. Kind of clearly not my man in

Guest: his 40s, what does he know about premenopathal?

Stuart: We should maybe start again and leap back to that this episode will never air type thing. So yeah, talking as an idiot then that you've, you've got a certain window that it attracts. But the language they use and the things that you talk about in that group isn't relevant to people who are either younger or older than that. So I mean again, talking as a very non expert, but Lucy is kind of in that educated. She's 48, kind of in the sweet spot coming into this time. We've been together for five or six years. When we were first dating, that was never really a conversation that came up. But even in our conversations it comes up more now than before. So even within that narrow window, the language of a book for a health and wellness facility, the two groups of people are very, very different. And the language and the specificities and that's taken away from, that's just looking at it from the audience perspective, that's kind of taken away the, the solution specific element of it. So even within that age group, the language that's being used, sorry, across the age groups, the language that's being used to target people either above or below that particular age group, the treatment specifically, I'd even drill down a little bit further maybe and make it specifically menopause solution based like answering the questions that are on that patient's mind. So not necessarily talking about one solution, but maybe talking about the symptoms and how to manage the symptoms. Because what we're looking at doing is addressing the, we're looking to start a conversation with people who are thinking these thoughts already. And particularly, particularly this type of subject where there's more than one solution. There's quite a lot of research that could be done if someone was engaged and interested, albeit that not everyone was engaged and interested. I'm sure there's a subset of people who just kind of go through it and just expect what happens.

Guest: Exactly. What you're talking about is our convert was our conversation because I, you know, I just turned 49, so this was probably last year that we had this conversation. And, and that's what I said to her. Like, focus on if, if I'm coming to you, like what are the things that people ask you the most? Like they want to know, you know, and I've been fortunate. Most of my friends are just. Just enough older than me that I've kind of, you know, watched as they've gone through things or are going through things. And, you know, but. So there's that curiosity around it, you know, but most people don't. Like. I think there's so many people just. I have one friend who will. If you say you have a headache, well, it's. She'll tell you why. It's your hormones and it's this and it's your age and exactly what you should do. Like, because she's done everything, as far as the subject is concerned since she was like, 40. And she will. She's done it all. She's seen every, you know, specialist and doctor and every cream you can put and something. You rub your finger the certain way and it helps. I mean, like, every voodoo thing as well. So. But that's what I said. Like, think about those things that people ask you the most. If I'm sitting in front of you, what is it that. That you should be sharing? Like, what are the five things, 10 things, 20, whatever that number is, you know, that. That you could. You could put out there, because that. Your audience, that's what they want to know. That's. And they want. They want to know what to do about. They want to know what to expect, respect. And so that. That is sort of the direction that she and I decided she should go in, you know, was to. And that's not. That's not rocket science. I mean, that's a simple way to think. I don't care if you're in, you know, women's wellness or real estate or financial or whatever, like, what are those things that people want to know or you think that people should know, or the ones that they ask you the

Stuart: most, you know, within that narrow market. Because I think it then gets a bit difficult if you're trying to answer questions too broadly. So if. Exactly the way that you were telling her there's a subject where she has a group of people that she works very well with, wants to continue with that group of people. There are a lot of other people as well, but specifically for this campaign, it's this target market that we're addressing first. So the questions that they are asking and the answers that. And information that you can provide for them that narrows down the scope of the question. So she wouldn't be throwing in there. The most popular question that she gets might be something about Botox or something about teenage Acne or something at completely the other end of the spectrum. But because that's out of scope of this particular group of people, then it allows you to narrow the four or five questions around this particular subject. And knowing or working on the assumption that this group of people are the ones who can help the most to begin with, other groups can come later. But this is a group of people that you can help the most. There's enough of them within the local area that makes it worthwhile. The cost and overhead of setting up a specific campaign is low enough that it's worth the, the reward is well and truly worth the effort. And then because it's dialed into this one group, all of the other things downstream. So the setting up the ad of people that we're trying to reach becomes easier because it's a narrow group. The email follow up sequence becomes easier because it's a specific conversation that you're continuing. Amplifying the message becomes easier because all of the amplification points, all of the emails, all of the things that you talk about build on each other. There's a synergy of the multiple touch points because it's all on the same subject. And as long as that group is big enough, as long as the assumption is that it's worthwhile, then the cost of having a dedicated tailored campaign is low enough that the reward of this group is much more, the overall return on investment of the effort is much more beneficial because it's, it's tailored, it's amplified, it's, it's dialed in. There's far less waste because every action is for the same outcome. You're not having to deal with other stuff. The thought of being specific. You talk about real estate agents and obviously we do a lot of work with Realtors because of the other side of the business. But Realtors targeting people who own lakefront homes or condos or townhouses, or people moving into the area because of job moving, or people downsizing because they're empty nesters. Targeting each of those campaigns to that group on the working assumption that each of those groups is big enough that it's worthwhile is far, far better than having a book that says why should work with a real estate agent? And then just talk about how great real estate agents and oh, what a coincidence, I'm a real estate agent, you should work with me. It's such a. The whole chain from the start through all the steps to the call to action at the end, and the someone coming on board just becomes so much more, so much more amplified. And so much more effective. And the worry about scarcity or missing out or these other people thinking that you can't work with them is a. Apart from the edge cases is just a non subject because everything else that you do, you're the only one that sees all of this campaign. We had this with what we were doing last week. There was something. I can't remember the specific examples, I'm blanking on what the example was. But basically I was talking to the person about. You're the only one that sees behind the scenes and sees all of these elements. So there's a similarity and there's, there's a. It looks very repetitive from your viewpoint of looking at all of these elements but no one else is going to see that. You're the only person that's ever going to see that. So for the wellness spa, if a. And if you write a campaign for menopause solutions for over 50 year old or 50 old women and then a 30 year old woman comes in through the door, you're not going to throw them out and say no, sorry, show me your ID out or we can't help you. The person isn't going to see all of that. They're going to see the other elements. Likewise, if they come in on a later campaign that you set up for 30 year olds talking about Botox or fillers or beauty treatments or anti aging solutions or fitness related mobility things, the way that the person comes in, they're very, they're very. I was going to say they're very isolated to that one particular campaign but that makes again, isolated makes it sound excruciating. It's not so much that they're isolated, it's just that they only see what they see. And honestly, even if they see other things, they're filtering it through their own, their own lens anyway. So even if they were to see some 50 year old related things and they're 30, they're going to look at it three 30 year old eyes. So unless it's fairly overtly exclusionary and you're literally kicking people out, then it's. Yeah, it's such a non issue.

Guest: That's so true.

Stuart: The other thing I think catches people out sometimes is this idea of it's the problem with a book as the person thinking about writing a book. So we so often talk about the benefit is that clients, potential customers, there is a, there's a perceived effort and credibility and authority with a book which is all of the psychological ticks that we want. This is the reason that this is the most effective lead generation thing, asset that you can create. It's because of all of this,

Guest: all

Stuart: of this baggage that comes with it. Baggage which for us is a benefit because it sows the seeds of something in someone else's mind. But as the creator, as the person thinking about doing it, particularly for the first time, because all of this vanishes once you've done it once, but particularly for the first time, people come into the project with the same mindset and perceptions. And the problem there is that it's a resistive force, it causes additional worry or concern. So people think that writing a book is expensive and they think that it takes a long time and they think that it's a pain in the neck because as a, as a, as a customer, as a non creative person, it's just a receiver. That's the assumption and that's why it carries authority with it. So I think a lot of times people think that this is a one shot deal, okay? If I'm going to do this, I want to do it in a way that is as broad a cast a broader net as possible because this is the one and only time that I'm going to do it. And that I think is detrimental to so many people because it takes away from this opportunity to be very tailored and laser focused on a particular group of people. And all of the benefits of the psychological elements of writing, the fact that people think it's difficult and it takes a long time and it's a big hurdle to doing it. And if you've done it, then it must be worthwhile doing because it's such a headache to do that. If you've written a book that talks about how to deal with perimenopausal conditions or how to, I was going to say gracefully go into menopause, but that seems like completely the wrong words. But how to enthusiastically go into menopause

Guest: or embrace your menopause.

Stuart: Save me from the emails. Yes, how to embrace it. I was trying to think of a positive term that didn't sound going too gracefully. What the hell are you talking about? Yeah, how to embrace it. So if you go to the effort of writing that, then it must be worthwhile writing and there must be a very specific or worthwhile solution at the end of it because someone's gone to the trouble of writing the book about it, which is exactly what we want. We want to talk to and get people to raise their hand, people who are themselves enthusiastic about that outcome or looking for that solution. And then we can present to them through these amplifying emails that reinforce the point that we're trying to make. But where it catches people out, I think, is that then they're resistive to the idea of writing something that is only addressing 10% of their total possible market because they see it as a barrier and see it as a headache and too much of a thing to do 10 times. Whereas in reality, ending up with a suite of books that address each individual element so that you as an individual, create the library of assets that really kind of dominate this market, dominate the industry. I mean, imagine as a Realtor, changing subjects to something kind of marginally bore about. Imagine as a realtor, that you have the suite of five books that is the guide to lakefront homes in your area, the condo buyer's Guide, the How to move into the. What would you call a transplant person? Someone that moves into the area for work. There's a name for it, but I'm blanking. But anyway, imagine having those five books. Each person who comes in through an individual campaign, an individual funnel, is only going to see that one, but if they do see the others, then it just reinforces the fact that you're the expert in the industry. If people walk through the door of the realtor office, assuming anyone walks through the door of an office. And in the future, yeah, imagine that someone sees all of those other elements. The fact that you've got four of the elements talking about things that aren't condos and they're looking to buy a condo, condo, but that's not going to push them away. But the fact that you do have the condo book and that's the only channel that they see, then that is very much going to attract them. So this whole idea of picking that single target market, of being able to talk to people and address their concern and then amplify and reinforce the message and give them some minimum viable commitment, easy steps to take, that just kind of pushes them down or pulls them down the track towards becoming a client. The upside to that far, far, far outweighs any downside because really the. There isn't a downside because you're not putting your hand up to say, okay, I want to do this. And then some, some industry police come out and say, okay, well, you've made a choice. Now you can't pick any other subjects.

Guest: Exactly.

Stuart: We talk about this. This is the first step in the book blueprint scorecard. So again, if, as you listen to this, you haven't done a scorecard through your own book idea, head over to bookblueprintscore.com and you can follow it through. But this first stage, this selecting a single target audience, this idea of picking the type of people who like intelligently, I'm not just throwing a dart at a board, but intelligently picking the group of people who you want to talk to, starting with that. The reason that it's mindset one and not further down the the list of mindsets is because it's the thing that informs all of the other steps. You can't pick a title or can't pick an effective title without knowing who you're talking to and what the questions and concerns are that they've got going on in their mind. You can't give an effective next step and clear call to action to this particular group of people until you know who they are. Because otherwise you're just going to be too vague and it's going to be too generic. You can't think about beyond the book and the stages that you can amplify and, and engage people further try and get them to identify themselves as five star prospects where they raise their hand and then they engage in conversation and they know what they want and they're willing to ask for help for it. Until you actually know who that audience is and can clearly articulate it, then it's very difficult to do so on the scorecard. The four stages of this idea of selecting a single target audience is starting off knowing that you want to write a book that will help your business, but you don't have an audience in mind. So that's kind of like the lowest level of thinking around this particular mindset. So you can refine it slightly more and say, okay, you know which products and services you want to sell, but you don't have a clear understanding of which customers buy these things. So this is coming to it from you kind of back solving for a solution. This is like, I've got a condo that I want to sell. Let me write a book about condos without really thinking about it. Okay, I know people want to buy condos, so what are the questions that they've got and what answer can I put out there? What question can I put out there that's going to encourage them to raise their hand? So the third level then is taking that the more correct way around. So you know who the clients are and the customers that you want to engage, but you don't have a clear understanding of their motivations or the questions that they've got, the concerns that they have. So this is kind of saying, okay, Well, I know there are condo buyers out there. I'm just going to write something rather than thinking, well, specifically what are their motivations and concerns? And I've got an opportunity to write a book now. What's the most compelling book for them? So in the fourth stage, if you've really taken this idea of picking the single target market to the, to the, to the maximum, then it's having the specific customer group in mind and understanding what their pressing questions or concerns are. And you've also got a compelling story to help them move forward. So this idea of, okay, I know there are condo buyers out there, I know that I've got condos to sell, thinking about those condo buyers. I know that broadly speaking, this is the type of person that they are and this is the type of question that they have. So depending on your area, they might be condo buyers because they're first time buyers. You might be in a downtown area, so they're condo buyers because realistically, that's what the majority of the stock is and that's what workers are interested in. You might be in an area where it's workers coming in for the week, but at weekends they go to a home that's out of the city. So understanding what their concerns are and the questions they've got will impact the subject of the book and the way that you write about it. And then the last point on that fourth stage is you've got a compelling story to tell them. So one of the things that often gets overlooked is this idea of the story that backs up and reinforces the point that you're trying to make. Because Christie, when she's working with people to go through the outline and then in the recording process to create the chapters of the book, will ask questions that kind of elicit the answers from that outline so that your best kind of best answers and the best examples that you've got come out. But sometimes people will just answer factually or they'll talk about the details or the specifics. So oftentimes we'll spend time asking for stories to back it up or examples that back it up because that's what people resonate with a lot. At the end of the day, a lot of the details of what we're writing about are kind of facts that are out there. If I'm talking about selling a condo, apart from talking about the specifics of the area, which will change area to area, the details of what a condo is and buying a condo doesn't change from area to area or to realtor to realtor, but having a story that backs up the fact that I'm trying to think of an example. So let's say condos in this particular area of town are in a big co working space. So this area attracts young professionals, either single or couples without kids. Because it's close to the. A lot of the office spaces, it's close to the co working spaces. There's a lot of restaurants downtown. Everything's walkable, you don't need a car. People working with Jim and Mary, they were looking for a condo over in this side of town. We highlighted this area of town because it ticks all these boxes. And they were able to find the perfect apartment that was five minutes walk from work, that was closed, close to the local bars and restaurants and illustrate with a story because this last element of having those compelling real life examples that reinforce in a way that stirs some emotions and allows people to kind of sympathize or empathize with the stories they can kind of. You're not just telling people the facts, but you're telling people a story that they can put themselves in that position. Then the last stage of. The last stage of this mindset of picking that single target audience is really demonstrating that you understand at a human level the people that you're talking with. And that allows you to really amplify the points that you're making and illustrate the individual pieces of the story. Yes, we're trying to move people through the outline from reason that they asked for the book in the first place through to the call to action at the end. Yes, we're staging those chapters in a way that kind of leads them through. So if they only looked at the table of contents, then they could very easily visualize. Okay, well, I had this question at the beginning and these chapter headings, I know that if I were to read them, they would answer these in even more detail. But here at the bottom is a next step is a call to action that makes sense to. So I'm just going to jump ahead and take that. Yes, we know that the readership rates are low for books, generally speaking, even more so for nonfiction, which is why we're very focused on a book that's achievable, that can be read in one sitting, that kind of jumps through the points in a way that keeps the conversation going, that doesn't give them a whole load of homework. It's not a difficult read. It's an easy, engaging lead. And the way that we achieve that is by illustrating the points with stories that Give some emotional connection and people can put themselves in that position, understanding that there's a next step and a solution and something that's easy for them to do, that will move them towards the outcome that they want. Now, I need to take a breath

Guest: and I had something I was going to say about going back to before all the mess with the dog, going back to something you said about the single target market, picking that first and how it, you know, affects everything. The clients that we have who are not, are not, you know, focused on their single target market are the ones that by the end of the process are struggling. They're struggling. They can't come up with a strong call to action. They can't come up with that, you know, that next plan. When we say, you know, quite often that they, they need to have that in order to really, that to be the first thing they think about. But I think that is the key. Somebody who is, who is laser focused on their, you know, their, their single target market, they don't struggle with that. They don't struggle with the content for the book. They don't. It's a much easier, smoother process. I think for those people, the ones who sort of like, yeah, I want to write a real estate book, that's, that's all they can tell you. The whole process becomes not quite as easy and smooth as it really should be.

Stuart: And the good thing is it's easy to, it's easy to get it dialed in because, you know, it's almost like a fear of commitment or like an analysis paralysis type thing of I don't want to make the wrong decision, so I'm effectively not going to make a decision. I'm just going to try and do it all. And the problem is, just as you said, it makes everything downstream harder. Not that it's impossible, but it just makes it harder. You've got to, every stage further down the track, you've either got to reevaluate and try and be specific on something or, or you've got to decide, okay, should this be in or shouldn't it be in? Or you've got to decide, is this relevant or is it not relevant? Instead of having to pick from two or three things that you could include, you're picking from a limitless supply of things, which makes it more difficult because you've got this kind of paradox of too much choice. There's just, it just slows all of the process down. Again, referring back to the book blueprint scorecard, mindset number eight is beneficial constraints which To a certain degree, it's not really focused so much on the single target market. It's talking about constraints in the constraints of writing. But still this bigger picture idea of beneficial constraints does apply to the subject as well. It is beneficial being specific as long as you've got the only, not even caveat, but the only judgment that you need to put around it is that the audience is big enough that it's worthwhile. And honestly speaking for, I would say for 90% of people, it would be almost impossible to pick too small a market. Because when we think about going back to the, the health spa example, unless this person is in a town of 500 people with no one over the age of 50, then it's. It's picking that group is going to be big enough. The realtor picking any particular type is building type of real estate is going to be a market that's big enough to be addressable. Financial advisors. Picking a particular group, either retirees or people looking for health insurance or working with Social Security or life insurance or college planning, each one of those groups is absolutely going to be big enough to be a good market. It's like the Apple, I think they released some results in the last couple of weeks and their iPhone business is outstandingly huge and it dwarfs all of their other businesses. And sometimes it eclipses like the Mac business because the iPhone business is so big. But the Mac business by itself, any other company would be unbelievably happy to have that business because that business by itself is huge. But just in comparison to everything else that they do, it seems small. So it would be impossible for Apple to pick a business, the music business. I'm trying to think of what their smallest thing could be. The, the watch business, all these things are huge. Now Obviously that's a $2 trillion company, so huge at that scale. But when you think about yourself, I mean, as you're listening to yourself, as you're listening to this, think about your business. How niche would you have to go before we got too small to be relevant? I mean, unless you were picking something that was completely off to the side and not, not non core business, then that's maybe a different subject. But I can't even think of a financial advisor who could pick something that was small enough that would be too small. I mean, okay, so if you're registered in, you're licensed in a state, so that gives you a narrow market. So what's the smallest state, like Rhode Island? Something like that maybe. So you're a financial advisor in Rhode Island. Okay. Of the five or six products that you could pick from which one of them is going to be too small to be a business? None of them. If you dominated that, even the smallest business you could think about, if you dominated it within Rhode island, that would still be an astonishingly good business for you. It's, it's this whole idea of being too specific is really, I think it's just a fear, it's manifest fear manifesting in a particular way of, not of scarcity. The reality is that picking something that is very specific, knowing that in three months time you can always pick another one. It's not like this is your entire career, so there's no scarcity immediately is washed out. Then at the very worst, you'll make the wrong decision and pick the wrong market. And actually that is a terrible market to be in. So then you just move on to the next one. But the benefit of the approach that we're talking about is that this is a few thousand dollars investment, not tens of or hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of investment. It's so funny. I mean, we've said this before on the show, but we've worked with so many people who have gone out on their own to create a book in a more traditional sense or using individual outsourced resources. And there's cost, both in terms of actual money, which runs into the tens of thousands sometimes, and the cost of time, three, four years wasted of not actually getting this out there.

Guest: And I think, you know, a lot of times the time aspect wasted is far worse than the money aspect wasted, you know. Yeah, I, we do hear that quite often.

Stuart: Well, and the thing is that doing this the second time once, even if you went into this, I mean, not recommending this is the way of going, but even if you recognize it went into this thinking that the first one's going to be a write off, the first one's just going to be a practice. I mean, how many times in the rest of life, how many times do you, you do something hoping that the first time is going to be the perfect time? I mean, you wouldn't bake a cake for a big event and then just try and wing it on the day you wouldn't try and pass an exam without doing a few practice ones first? I mean, again, not them suggesting this is a way of doing it, because I think your first version of writing a book in a way that we suggest, which is both time and cost effective is definitely a useful asset, but understanding that the second time you do it, it's going to be even easier and even better then. Yeah, it's just crazy. And just as you said, picking that single target market to be very specific with just makes the whole process easier and faster and more likely that it's going to happen.

Guest: Exactly. Wow.

Stuart: Alrighty. Well, yeah, I think we've probably beaten that to death. If people haven't heard us talk about single target markets before or been on a call with either you or me where we've kind of hammered it home, then hopefully this. This has reinforced it a little bit. But really, I think the takeaway is that it is the most effective thing that you can do to make the project easier to complete and more successful in its outcome because it makes everything easier to get going and get creative. And then the person who you end up talking with, it's a more specifically tailored conversation, which makes it more effective. There we go.

Guest: There we go. There we have it.

Stuart: Anything else to add? I feel like I talked a lot again there. Sorry.

Guest: No, no, it was all right. That was off dealing with. With stuff as you were talking. So either you have children or dogs around, I don't know, interrupt things. So.

Stuart: But I kind of schedule these things. It's beneficial for my schedule when the. The kids are out of the house. But maybe you need to schedule

Guest: this one. Yeah. For the dog. He doesn't go to the office very often. He did go yesterday with his dad to the office and he came home. He's. He's got a sore foot now. He ran loose. His leash was chasing him. It was a whole scene. I can't. And you know where Mike's office is? It's on a busy bus. Busy street. And I said, that is my fear that the dog is going to get out and get lost on the street and get hit by a car. And so I said, I just don't know that you could take him anymore, which. Because today I was like. He said, you want me to take him? And I said, well, I don't think so, you know, exactly. So it works far better when we record these things later in the afternoon and I hide away upstairs and he comes and sits on the bed beside me and doesn't make a peep, you know, so we'll have to remember that for next time. So. Yeah, I think you just want some attention as well. So sweet.

Stuart: Next time.

Guest: Exactly. So. All right, well, good. That was good conversation.

Stuart: Fantastic. Well, thank you for your time as always and thank you for everyone listening. This is going to be episode 110, so head over to. I almost said hello to book bleeping. I'm jumping ahead. Head over to 90minutebooks.com forward/podcast or follow the podcast links on the menu at the top. And this is episode 110. We'll put the transcript of the show in there. So sometimes it's easier to scan through the transcript rather than look to find a particular spot in the in the audio. So head over to there for the show notes Book Blueprint Score we mentioned in the episode. So really, if you haven't headed over there yet to complete your own book blueprint, then definitely do that because that will give you a very clear indication across the eight mindsets of those outcomes elements that are already very strong and those that can be dialed up a little bit to make your first version of the book the best it can possibly be. I mean, we talked before about the first version not necessarily being the the best out of the gate, but if you've got any doubt about it, then following through on the Book Blueprint score and completing that for yourself is really going to help you dial in all of those elements just to make sure that it is the best possible version it can be and done and kind of hit it out of the park on the first attempt. So with that, thank you, Betsy. We'll catch you up again next week. Thank you. Everyone listening, stay safe, wear a mask and we will catch you in the next one.

Guest: Take care.