Weekend Favs July 29

Weekend Favs July 29 written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

I don’t go into depth about the finds, but I encourage you to check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from an online source or one I took on the road.

• Free AI Kit – This free tool allows users to generate high-quality images using AI technology. You just need to enter text prompts and the platform will create images effortlessly.
  
• Browse AI – This tool allows you to extract and monitor data from any website fast and easily.
• DALL-E 2 – An AI system that can create realistic images and art from a description in natural language.
  
  

These are my weekend favs; I would love to hear about some of yours – Tweet me @ducttape

If you want to check out more Weekend Favs you can find them here.

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Standing Tall in a Crowded Market: Crafting a Compelling Core Message

Standing Tall in a Crowded Market: Crafting a Compelling Core Message written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

In today's competitive business landscape, standing out from the crowd is crucial to success. Your core marketing message, often referred to as your brand's "unique selling proposition" (USP), is the key to making your business shine. Crafting an effective core message can transform your brand from being just another player in the market to becoming a compelling and sought-after choice for your target audience.

• What is a Core Message? 
• The Power of Differentiation in Your Core Message
• How to Identify Your Core Message?
• How to Create Your Core Message?

1. What is a Core Message?

The core marketing message or your brand's "unique selling proposition" (USP) is essentially your business standout statement. It's your bold declaration about what sets you apart from the competition.

Examples of effective core messages are:

 “Ride, Run, Strengthen, Stretch, and Socialize.”

This core message is succinct and compelling. It directly addresses the problems of busy individuals looking for a comprehensive, flexible fitness solution without giving up their community. With Peloton, customers get a platform that offers a full suite of workout options (ride, run, strengthen, stretch) and a community (socialize) to keep them engaged. The message encompasses what Peloton does and how it addresses the needs and problems of its target audience.

 “I'm Lovin' It.”

This core message conveys the joy and pleasure customers derive from consuming McDonald's food. Too often, people are left unsatisfied with their dining experiences, feeling disappointed by the lack of quality and enjoyment that fast food establishments offer. So with this core message McDonald's directly addresses the problem their customers have of wanting a quick meal without giving up the quality.

Both of these brands have identified a specific problem their customers face and addressed it directly, setting themselves apart from competitors.

2. The Power of Differentiation in Your Core Message

It's a truth that might feel a bit hard to swallow, but here it is: nobody wants what we sell. At least, not really. What they crave is solutions to their problems. And if we, as business leaders, cannot craft a compelling message that highlights our unique ability to solve their most significant challenges, we risk becoming invisible in a crowded marketplace. That's why it's important to understand the art of messaging.

For many businesses, the trap is in attempting to mimic the competition, blending into the industry landscape instead of standing out. The downside? If prospective clients cannot identify a compelling difference between you and the other players, their decision often hinges on one key factor: price. When you fail to distinguish your services or products, you're destined to compete on this level. Check out this article for some ways to avoid competing on price alone.

What Makes Your Brand Unique?

Building trust with your target customer involves more than just highlighting your product range or how long you've been in business. It's about clearly identify their problems and convincingly illustrate your solutions. Lacking a distinct promise or point of differentiation can negatively  affect not only your ability to attract the right clients but also your capacity to recruit top talent. Employees want to be excited about your business, and without a compelling reason that sets your company apart, you may struggle to attract and retain the best.

Download our AI Prompts for Building a Marketing Strategy

This toolkit can help you develop a complete marketing strategy help you identify your core message. It's a step-by-step approach designed to boost your marketing efforts.

Your marketing strategy should be the backbone of your business - a roadmap leading you toward your growth goals. By identifying your core message, ideal customers, creating consistent branding, and tracking your performance, you can start working smarter, not harder.

Get Your Toolkit

3. How to Identify Your Core Message?

The voice of your customers is a gold mine for identifying and understanding your unique selling proposition and what your core message should be.

First, ask yourself these questions:

• What are the significant problems your customers face?
• How does your product/service solve those problems?
• Why should they trust you over your competitors?

Write down the answers and use them to craft a unique and compelling core message.

Next, check your Google, Yelp, or any kind of reviews. The insights you glean from happy customers might surprise you. It's often not about the service you provided or the product itself but about the experience and the problem you solved for them. You might be surprised to find that your customers value simple things - timely responses, courteous staff, and punctual service - often overlooked by many businesses.

By focusing on these aspects, you can distinguish your business, become a brand people are willing to pay a premium for, and tap into the customer journey's power in your value-based marketing approach.

4. How to Create Your Core Message?

Once you've identified the problems you solve for your customers, it's time to blend an understanding of their needs with your unique solutions to create a persuasive core message.

When you have a handful of ideas, select the top two. These should be easy to spot as they represent the most common and impactful themes you've seen.

Now, sit down and draft your message. Cut out any unnecessary fluff and aim to keep your core message between 5 to 8 words.

Bring your Core Message to Life

The next step is to make it 'live' within your business. It's not just about printing it on your business card or displaying it on your website, but integrating it into your processes and maybe even developing products around it. 

Train your staff. Everyone in your company, from customer service to sales and marketing, should understand and be able to articulate this message.

Use customer testimonials. Leverage the power of social proof by sharing testimonials that reinforce your core message.

A well-crafted core message is the cornerstone of your brand's identity and success. By understanding your customers' needs and aligning your solutions with their challenges, you can create a message that resonates deeply and sets you apart in a competitive market. Remember, it's not just about words on paper; your core message should permeate every aspect of your business, from customer interactions to product development.

Embrace the power of differentiation, leverage customer insights, and confidently communicate your unique value proposition to the world. With a compelling core message at the heart of your marketing strategy, you can build trust, attract the right audience, and propel your business to new heights.

So, get started today and unlock the full potential of your brand with a powerful core message that leaves a lasting impression on your target market.

To start developing your complete marketing plan, Download our AI prompts for building a marketing strategy. Or better yet, work with our team to do the strategizing for you. Book a call with us, and let's grow your business together.

 

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Weekend Favs July 22

Weekend Favs July 22 written by Felipe Orrego read more at Duct Tape Marketing

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

I don’t go into depth about the finds, but I encourage you to check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from an online source or one I took on the road.

• Pictory – This tool creates short high-conversion videos from long form content, complete with stock footage, music, and voiceovers.
  
• Stockimg.ai – An AI image generation tool designed to easily generate AI logos, book covers, posters, and more.
• Rephrase.ai – An AI-powered text-to-video generation platform that eliminates the complexity of video production, enabling you to create professional videos in minutes.
  
  

These are my weekend favs; I would love to hear about some of yours – Tweet me @ducttape

If you want to check out more Weekend Favs you can find them here.

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5-Steps to Attracting Only Dream Clients

5-Steps to Attracting Only Dream Clients written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Craving a solid strategy to reel in profitable clients? You've landed at the right spot. This post will guide you through a strategic rethink of your marketing approach aimed at securing those top-tier clients. Let's set your business on the path to success.

Here are 5 actionable steps small business owners should take to build a more targeted marketing strategy that focuses on the top 20% of their clients:

• Identify your inspirational clients 
• Understand your golden trifecta
• Dig deeper into their challenges and needs
• Start repelling the wrong clients
• Formulate your marketing plan and strategy

1. Identify your inspirational clients

Every client is unique, but the best clients inspire us. As seasoned professionals, we've all had experiences with a range of clients. Some are simply a joy to work with; they appreciate the value we bring, respect our advice, and engage in a genuinely collaborative partnership. They inspire us to do our best work.

Conversely, there are clients who pose more significant challenges. And while these challenges can lead to growth, wouldn't it be wonderful to work primarily with clients who inspire us and contribute significantly to our bottom line?

Avoid the "All Things to All People" Trap

I've found that businesses often unwittingly fall into a trap. It's not a trap they've intentionally walked into - it's more of a pit they've stumbled into. That pit is what I like to call the "all-things-to-all-people" trap. Does that sound familiar?

Being all things to all people can lead to inconsistent engagements, value, and, most importantly, inconsistent profitability. 

Reflect on your past and current client roster, and identify your ideal clients who inspire you the most. They are usually those who appreciate your value, respect your expertise, and engage with you in a collaborative manner. Make a list of these clients and note down the characteristics that make them stand out.

2. Understand your golden trifecta

I'm here to tell you that there's a better way. In fact, there's a strategic way to avoid this trap. It starts with identifying your top 20% of clients, but it's not just about sales volume. We're looking at a bigger picture here - profitability, experience, and referrals. The golden trifecta, if you will.

My experience tells me that the clients who are profitable and refer you to others are likely your top 20%. So, what do we need to know about them? Make a list of…

• Which clients generate the most profit?
• Which clients consistently provide a positive working experience?
• Which clients frequently refer your business to others?

Download our AI Prompts for Building a Marketing Strategy

This toolkit can help you develop a complete marketing strategy to attract your best customers. It's a step-by-step approach designed to boost your marketing efforts, enhance customer retention, increase online visibility, and improve ROI.

Your marketing strategy should be the backbone of your business - a roadmap leading you toward your growth goals. By identifying your ideal customers, creating consistent branding, and tracking your performance, you can start working smarter, not harder.

Get Your Toolkit

3. Dig deeper into their challenges and needs

Once you've identified your top clients, the next step is to understand them better. What challenges do they face? What problems are they trying to solve? Why did they choose your business over your competitors? The answers to these questions can give you valuable insights into what attracts these clients to your business.

4. Start repelling the wrong clients

The beauty of this approach is that it allows you to refine your marketing strategy. You're not just attracting more clients - you're attracting the right clients. This simple shift can instantly make your business more profitable, reduce the amount of work you're chasing, and even help you repel the clients that aren't a good fit for your business. Yes, that's right - sometimes repelling clients can be a good thing.

Trying to be everything to everyone confuses everyone - including you and your team. It doesn't attract the right clients, and it makes it challenging to create a predictable customer journey with your marketing. It's difficult to understand the behaviors that attract the right clients and even more challenging to retain clients and get referrals unless you're working with the right people.

The bottom line is, working with the wrong client, working with an unprofitable client, or a client that you've underpriced and therefore can't deliver value to, isn't just frustrating - it's costing you more than it's worth.

With a clear understanding of what attracts your top clients, you now need to refine your marketing messages to attract more of these clients and repel the wrong ones. Your marketing messages should communicate the unique value you provide that addresses your top clients' specific challenges and needs. This doesn't necessarily mean turning away business but rather focusing your energy and resources on attracting clients that are the best fit for your business. Following these 5 rules, can help you attract the right clients to scale your business.

5. Formulate your marketing plan and strategy

As a part of your marketing strategy, I invite you to take some time to identify the top 20% of your clients. It's a simple but powerful exercise. What you might find is that this select group of clients would happily do more business with you - in fact, some might even do ten times more business with you. There's a huge potential for growth and building momentum with these clients, compared to the occasional one-off projects or clients who just stumbled upon you.

Use the insights gained from the above steps to shape your marketing strategy. The strategy should aim to attract more of your top 20% clients. Consider the marketing channels they use, the type of content they engage with, and the language and tone that resonates with them. Also, remember to adjust your pricing if necessary to reflect the value you're providing.

Remember, this process is iterative. As your business grows and evolves, so too will your top 20% clients. Regularly revisit these steps to ensure your marketing strategy remains focused on attracting the most profitable and satisfying clients for your business.

 

I understand that developing a complete marketing plan can be overwhelming, but we're here to help. You can download our AI Prompts for Developing a Comprehensive Marketing Strategy. Better yet, if you'd rather we handle the strategizing for you, book a call with us.

At the end of the day, your marketing strategy is not just about getting clients; it's about attracting the right clients. And those right clients? They're the ones who will drive your business forward, contribute to its growth, and genuinely value what you do.

Let's stop being all things to all people and start being everything to the right people.

 

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Weekend Favs July 15

Weekend Favs July 15 written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

I don’t go into depth about the finds, but I encourage you to check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from an online source or one I took on the road.

• Elai.io – An SaaS platform that helps you build customized AI videos with a presenter in minutes from just text.
  
• Poe – Poe is a platform that lets people ask questions, get instant answers, and have back-and-forth conversations with a range of AI bots such as ChatGPT, GPT-4, Claude, etc.
• Beethoven.ai – This platform uses advanced AI music generation techniques to compose unique mood-based music to suit every part of your videos or podcasts.
  
  

These are my weekend favs; I would love to hear about some of yours – Tweet me @ducttape

If you want to check out more Weekend Favs you can find them here.

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Weekend Favs July 8

Weekend Favs July 8 written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

I don’t go into depth about the finds, but I encourage you to check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from an online source or one I took on the road.

• MapDeduce – This web-based tool offers free document analysis by summarizing complex documents, providing suggested questions, and allowing users to upload PDFs to receive concise summaries and get specific questions answered, ultimately  boosting productivity and streamlining workflow.
  
• Wordtune – This free platform offers AI-powered writing assistance, helping users improve and enhance their written content in order to put their thoughts into written words.
• Beautiful.ai – This tool allows users to easily turn their ideas into visual content in minutes. It uses AI presentation tools and templates, that by just describing what you are looking for, automatically creates visually appealing and effective presentations with captivating slides.
  
  

These are my weekend favs; I would love to hear about some of yours – Tweet me @ducttape

If you want to check out more Weekend Favs you can find them here.

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The 4 Commitments To Grow Your Reach Online

The 4 Commitments To Grow Your Reach Online written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing Podcast with Becky Robinson

In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interview Becky Robinson. She is the Founder and CEO of Weaving Influence. This full-service marketing agency specializes in digital and integrated marketing services and public relations for book authors, including business leaders, coaches, trainers, speakers, and thought leaders.

In April 2022, Becky published her first book, Reach: Create the Biggest Possible Audience for Your Message, Book, or Cause. This book provides a structured approach to creating a successful online presence that will generate a big impact on any message. Becky shares a framework to cultivate followers based on four commitments: value, consistency, endurance, and generosity. 

Key Takeaway:

Building a successful online brand and thought leadership requires 4 commitments. The first one is delivering value and establishing meaningful connections to attract and retain followers. The second one is being consistent in the content shared and messaging to build trust and a strong presence.

While it may be tempting to chase quick success, longevity is the third commitment, and being able to create a long-term commitment that generates sustainable growth. It’s important to set realistic expectations and understand that building something meaningful takes time. Finally, being generous: with ideas, time, and support to attract interest and engagement. Becky emphasizes that sharing ideas freely and supporting others can contribute to your personal thought leadership growth.

Questions I ask Becky Robinson:

• [01:54] Based on the title of your book, creating reach starts way before selling or marketing a new book right?
• [02:35] Would you put the things you mention in your book as a must?
• [05:48] Can you explain a little bit about self-publishing as a more accessible and streamlined option when someone writes a book?
• [09:20] Talk a little bit about your journey of creating Reach that led to a publishing deal for you.
• [13:16] In your book you mention four commitments: value, consistency, longevity, and generosity. Can you explain each one of them?
• [17:53] Talking about longevity, how do you balance that when everybody wants quick results?
• [21:52] What’s your relationship with goal setting?

More About Becky Robinson:

• Get your copy or audiobook of Reach: Create the Biggest Possible Audience for Your Message, Book, or Cause.
• More about Becky and Weaving Influence.
• Connect with Becky.

More About The Agency Certification Intensive Training:

• Learn more about the Agency Certification Intensive Training here

Take The Marketing Assessment:

• Marketingassessment.co

Like this show? Click on over and give us a review on iTunes, please!

Duct Tape Transcript

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John Jantsch (00:00): This episode of Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by HubSpot. Look, AI is literally eating the web ChatGPT is more searched than I don't know, Taylor Swift. Check out HubSpot's AI powered tools, content assistant and chat spott. They both run on open AI's G P T model, and both are designed to help you get more done and to grow your business faster. HubSpot's AI powered content assistant helps you brainstorm, create, and share content in a flash, and it's all inside a super easy to use CRM now. Chat Spott automates all the manual tasks inside HubSpot to help you arrange more customers close more deals, and scale your business faster. Find out more about how to use AI to grow your business at hubspot.com/artificial-intelligence. That's hubspot.com/artificial-intelligence.

(01:14): Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. This is John Jantsch. My guest today is Becky Robinson. She's the founder and CEO of weaving influence, a full service marketing agency that specializes in digital and integrated marketing services and public relations for book offerers, including business leaders, coaches, trainers, speakers, and thought leaders. In April of 2022, she finished her first book with Barrett Kohler publishers titled Reach: Create the Biggest Possible Audience for Your Message, Book, or Cause. So Becky, welcome to the show.

Becky Robinson (01:51): Thank you, John. It's so great to be with you today.

John Jantsch (01:54): So I have, because I've written a few books myself, I get a lot of people that reach out to me and say, okay, I've written my book, how do I market it now? Uh, how do I sell books?

Becky Robinson (02:12): Oh, it sure does, John. And you know, I think it starts, hopefully it starts before you even have an idea for a book. If you're talking about a prescriptive nonfiction book, if you desire to write a prescriptive nonfiction book, you likely should be building an audience and community around your work for years before,

John Jantsch (02:31): Yeah,

Becky Robinson (02:32): Maybe a decade before

John Jantsch (02:34):

Becky Robinson (02:53): Well, certainly if you want to attract a traditional publisher, right? You need to build an audience before you go to a traditional publisher because they're making a business decision. They want to know that if they take a chance on your book and publish you, that you're gonna be able to drive interest in sales. So, you know, if you dream of traditional publishing, yes, you must attend to growing an online presence to be able to support your book marketing. Now, if you're interested in, you know, some people come to me and they wanna write a book just because it's a bucket list item or Yeah, yeah. You know, maybe they wanna use it as a glorified business card in their business and give to potential customers. Now, in that case, you might have a choice about whether or not to build an online presence, but in the book, one of the things I talk about, John, is what I call the influence gap.

(03:36): And for anyone who has great real world expertise that they could bring to a nonfiction business book, but they haven't adequately represented that thought leadership online, then they're experiencing what I call the influence gap. And that happens when there's a disconnect between who we are in real life and who we are online. If we want to set ourselves up for success, to have the biggest possible reach for our work, we have to choose to invest in both that kind of offline real world, you know, knowing something about our topics, experience with real life people and work. And we have to translate that and share that journey online as well.

John Jantsch (04:14): Yeah. If I can be completely cynical, I would suggest that the traditional publisher is, that's the first thing they care about. What's the size of your audience? What's the size of your reach? Oh, you got a nice topic. Great, we'll get to that later. It's more like, can you guarantee us that you can sell 25,000 copies? I mean, I think that's almost the, the calculus today, isn't it?

Becky Robinson (04:31): It is. And that's why people who are already famous get book deals. Right. You know, I have, I took a screenshot the day that Barack Obama's book came out. He sold 887,000 books on the day his book was released

John Jantsch (05:24): And it's probably 90 to 95% of their books, you know, are not, maybe they're break even or, you know, maybe they make a little money, but you're absolutely right. They bank on, you know, that top 10. And then of course, years of back list. I mean, but Duct Tape Marketing came out in 2007, and I'm still getting, you know, royalty checks, you know, for that, because that back list of 600 or 6,000, I don't have many books, you know, is where they actually make their money. Let's talk a little bit about self-publishing then. You talked about the glorified business card as it sort of called, but it, there's no question it can be, uh, an effective marketing tactic and that whole world has gotten a lot easier and you know, much more streamlined. Talk a little bit about that as an option.

Becky Robinson (06:03): Sure, I'd be glad to. So there are lots of folks who, you know, have a point of view to share, but they don't necessarily aspire to getting a lot of sales. Uh, in that case, obviously self-publishing can be a viable option and, uh, like even at my company, we support authors who want to self-publish their books, uh, with what I call a book production service. We are not a publisher. Uh, what I would say is that quality still matters. Yeah. So you wanna write a book worth reading because if you're using a book in that way, those who read it will be using that book to decide if you're credible and if you're worth hiring. And so you don't wanna skimp on a professional cover, you don't wanna skimp on a professional edit, you don't wanna skip skimp on a professional interior design. You want to create the best product possible, because obviously that will tell people things about your brand and expertise.

(06:54): Yeah. And so in that world, you know, if you're going to bother to write a book worth reading, then what I would say is then why not invest in expanding awareness of that book even beyond the people who could hire you? There's so much time and energy and money that goes into that. So, you know, on in some ways, you know, I said that's a choice that people can make, but at the same time, if you are going to invest to the level that you would need to have a product that can be a good business card for your business, then why not share that value more widely? You know, I wanna pick up on something you said, John, you are still getting royalty checks on a book that you wrote in 2007. So for those who might be listening who are considering a book, you wanna see that book as being a long-term, viable marketing tool for your work and a value add to others. And you know what? An amazing thing to have a book that's been out there that many years is still relevant, is still reaching readers. And I think that's the kind of book that we should all aspire to write. Yeah. One that's going to be timeless, one that's going to add value, one that can continue to fuel whatever work we wanna be about in the world.

John Jantsch (08:00): Yeah. And I, and I think also a lot of times people think of the book as one thing. You know, for me it quadrupled my speaking. It, you know, led to other people wanting, we started a whole licensing program of our methodology be based on the fact that people were able to find that book. So I didn't write it as a business card, but it certainly has for many years acted as a drawing card for many other things that we've been able to build around it. And I, and I think that's a lot of times people just think the physical book is it, but the physical book might actually be the entry.

Becky Robinson (08:33): Yeah, I agree with you because once you have that physical book, the ideas in the book can be repurposed and reused in all sorts of different ways to be able to reach new audiences in new ways. And you know, I imagine, John, you have continued to learn or adapt the ideas in the book. And so as you continue to bring those to new audiences, the power of that original content asset will grow. So chapter seven in my book, for those of you who are interested and have an existing book, wanna figure out how to repurpose and reuse it in different ways, that's a really powerful way to, to view a book. It's, it's an ongoing asset that you can use to add value to the world.

John Jantsch (09:10): So because, and this isn't always the case with nonfiction offers, but because you have actually done what you're telling people to do, you have your own book now that is out there. Talk a little bit about your journey of creating reach that led to, uh, a publishing deal for you. And we can just use you as a bit of a case study.

Becky Robinson (09:28): Sure, I would love to. So John, I started working with authors back in about 2010. And immediately I think as we, we all who love books are drawn to, you know, I saw what my authors were experiencing, and I, I immediately said, well, I want to do this also. And I remember early on, I traveled out to San Francisco. I had an author who was published by Barett Kohler Publishers, who later did acquire my book. And I remember thinking, well, look at how easy this is. Like, I know a publisher. So I, I made an appointment with an editor, I sat down, I shared my first book idea, and guess what happened? He said no. And then a few years later, I thought I had refined my idea a little bit. I contacted the same acquiring editor, and guess what John? He said, no. And then some more years went by.

(10:17): And I think in those intervening years, a few things happened. One is that I continued to build my own online presence. I was building my email list. I was establishing thought leadership and credibility. You know, in those years I had a podcast, I had a newsletter. I grew my social media accounts. So there were at least two things that happened during those intervening years between when I started my business and then 10 years after when I finally did get a book deal. One is that I built confidence in the way that I could articulate my ideas, which I think led to me writing a better book proposal in terms of how I framed the idea. So that's one thing. And the second thing is also just the growth of my thought leadership brand. So in 2012, when I first talked to the editor, I was an unknown.

(10:59): I didn't have, you know, any experience or credibility. You know, fast forward 10 years, I could say, Hey, I've launched 150 business books, you know, I've done X, Y, Z. So I think that, you know, for those who might be listening, who might be beginners like I was, and have a book dream, be patient, but use your time in the best way possible. Yeah. No, I think it's possible. I could have gotten a book deal earlier. I had a lot of reasons along the way for why I waited. Finally, the thing that kind of got me over my resistance was figuring out that if I did a book proposal in, I think it was like the fall of 2020 or the leading up to December, 2020, that I could probably release the book for the 10 year anniversary of my company. Mm-hmm.

John Jantsch (11:56): And now let's hear from a sponsor. This episode is brought to you by Business Made Simple, hosted by Donald Miller, and brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals hosted by Donald Miller Business Made Simple Takes the Mystery out of Growing Your Business. In a recent episode, they talked with my old pal, Seth Godin, where he explained the virtues and values in his book called The Song of Significance, A new manifesto for teams, listen to Business Made Simple. Wherever you get your podcast.

(12:28): Hey, marketing agency owners, you know, I can teach you the keys to doubling your business in just 90 days or your money back. Sound interesting. All you have to do is license our three-step process that's gonna allow you to make your competitors irrelevant, charge a premium for your services and scale perhaps without adding overhead. And here's the best part. You could license this entire system for your agency by simply participating in an upcoming agency certification intensive look, why create the wheel? Use a set of tools that took us over 20 years to create. And you can have 'em today, check it out at dtm.world/certification. That's dtm.world/certification.

(13:16): So let's talk a little bit about the, I think you call 'em commitments, pillars, whatever we wanna talk about. So there are four that you, uh, talk about in the book, value, consistency, endurance, and generosity. Obviously listeners, you're going to get the book to get the whole story, but let's talk a little bit about that idea of giving value. I think there's a lot of, there's a challenge for some people because they have a business values what they sell,

Becky Robinson (13:52): Well, yes, and I do want to acknowledge, and I do talk about in my book, the difficulty for some of these ideas, if you happen to come from a marginalized identity. And I do know that my own ability to navigate the world did come from a, a place of privilege as many of us do. So I do wanna acknowledge that first. But in terms of growing an online brand or online thought leadership, it always has to start with value. And that value is, you know, what do you have to add? You know, what's the topic or expertise that you're bringing to online spaces? And so showing up with value is the starting point, because why would someone wanna follow you if there's not some value that you're delivering to them? I do wanna say, John, that value is not only about the content that we create, but it's also about the connections that we make.

(14:36): And so people might derive value from following us, not only because we have a point of view to share, but also because of who we are as people. And so thinking about value, it's, there's value in the content, but there's also value in the relationships or how we show up in the world. And that's really the starting line for this. Like, if you don't have any value to offer, you are not going to attract people to follow you or build community or build an audience. So yeah, that's really the, the most basic commitment. The second commitment is consistency. And you know, in order for people to count on you or trust you, they have to know not only that you will show up in a consistent way that you're gonna continue to be there. John, before we started recording, you told me that you've done 1500 podcast episodes.

(15:22): Now that is consistency, if I've ever seen it before. People know John, that they can count on you to show up with something. List interesting to listen to that you're gonna ask good questions, that you're gonna share content that matches what they need. So when we show up with value, consistency, people know that they can count on us. And the other thing is, I think people need to see a consistency of message. So sometimes where we fail at building reach, it's because we, we failed to, uh, we failed to commit to a topic area. And so for example, like today I might wanna write about social media next week I might wanna write about leadership. People can't figure out what I'm about. So we do need to have consistency in our messaging.

John Jantsch (16:03): Yeah, it's interesting about that topic though. I think some, if I can add a point to that, consistency sometimes can just be a consistent point of view. You know, there are new topics that come up in our, you know, our world of marketing, for example. My consistent point of view has always been that marketing's a system that starts with strategy before tactics. But Lord knows over the last 20 years we've seen a lot of new platforms that fit into that point of view. And I, so, so I think sometimes people do jump around, but I think you can jump around with a consistent point of view. And I, I maybe that's a subtle point, but I think it's one worth making.

Becky Robinson (16:38): No, I think that's a really good point, John. And you know, I think that part of it involves ensuring that we're listing our community and keeping them up to date on our story. Right? Right,

John Jantsch (16:49): Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Becky Robinson (16:50): So to all of those, you wanna add the third commitment, which is, you said endurance, it's longevity. Oh. And so we need to commit to showing up with value consistency over a long period of time. John, I'm sure you've probably interviewed Dory Clark. Yeah, good friend. Dory Clark says it can take a year of showing up online to get any results at all. And it can take five years to be recognized as an expert. So I think what often happens is people think that they're gonna come online and start to share something, and it's gonna be magic, and they're going to be an overnight success. And that is just not true for many of us. Yeah. I've been online since 2009. Yeah. So, and I'm really not all that well known. Right. So it, it's not likely apart from some kind of magic or as I already mentioned, you know, that you're already famous, that you're gonna be able to do something quickly. So we have to show up with value consistently over time for a long time. And then the last one is this added,

John Jantsch (17:47): Let, let me before we, that last one I just went, we just lost half our listeners, because they want, everybody wants a quick fix. Everybody wants an overnight, you know, success story. And I think that I totally 100% agree with you, but isn't, doesn't that become a harder sell? I mean, you have so many people out there selling the get rich quick scheme of the day. I mean, even Dory's book the long game, you know, it's like, that's just not a very sexy title

Becky Robinson (18:19): Well, it isn't, but it's real. So I mean, on the one hand, like I think it balances the frustration like worth doing is going to be challenging, should be. So, you know, when we were exploring how to name the four commitments in the book we did kind of wrestle with is the idea about endurance, is the idea about perseverance was another word that I chose. You know, in the book I tell a story about 500 trees. So I live on a five acre property in Michigan, and it's beautiful and peaceful and private because 20 plus years ago, a man and his sons chose to plant a lot of trees more than 500. And they chose to wait for them to grow. So if we want to build something beautiful in the world, we can't expect that it's going to be instantaneous. So it may not be sexy, but it's real. Yeah. And I think that it might help set people up to have that realistic view so that they can decide whether or not it's worth it to make the commitment.

John Jantsch (19:15): Yeah. That reminds me of, uh, a quote, quote I'll probably get wrong if somebody asked, you know, when's the best time to plant a tree? And the answer was 20 years ago or today. Meaning, you know, okay, so you did

Becky Robinson (19:31): Yes. Yes, exactly.

John Jantsch (19:33): All right. So I cut you off the fourth one.

Becky Robinson (19:35): No problem. The fourth one is one that, you know, sometimes might seem counterintuitive, particularly, you know, if we're wanting to build the reach of a business and we're wanting to drive revenue, the idea of generosity as a commitment can seem counterintuitive. And lots of times along the journey, I've met people, John, and they say, well, you know, my book's not out yet. I can't talk about this. I have to save it back. You know, cherry, I think the more that we can give our ideas away freely to others, the more we will drive people to our work and our message. And people aren't gonna have any reason to be interested in your work if you don't make it easily accessible to them. You know, there's an author, Lilly Zang, she's a bear. Uh, they're a Barrett Kohler author. And one of the things they have done is they have taken the content in their book in different ways and shared all of it on LinkedIn.

(20:22): Yeah. And what they've seen is, well, people wanna buy the book because they see that there's value, it's in pieces that they've received and they want the book so that it's all in one place. Yeah. So, you know, I think like it's a natural response to think like I shouldn't give away my best ideas. But what I've seen is that when you set your ideas free in the world, they are more likely to grow. I share the story in the book of a guy named David and back in the early, I think it was 1980s, David founded an, founded an idea called Appreciative Inquiry. Appreciative Inquiry is an organizational development approach. And rather than copywriting the idea, he set the idea free for anyone to use. And so as a result, that idea of appreciative inquiry has been used by coaches, consultants, organizations, all around the world. And it might have not been known apart from that. So you really wanna think about if your idea has value and merit, if you set it free, it can make the difference that it was intended to make. And when you think about generosity, it's not only about give away your ideas, it's about give away your time, your encouragement, your energy, your support. You know, when we support others in their thought leadership, our thought leadership is more likely to grow as well. Yeah.

John Jantsch (21:36): One of the struggles, I think anybody who looks at your book, I don't think anybody would disagree. I think where the rub sometimes comes is like, there's more to do in a day

Becky Robinson (22:02): One thing I say to authors is, as you look at building reach, there are gonna be three possible places you can put something. Either it's something that you can joyfully sustain yourself, or it's something that you may choose to outsource if you have funds to do so. Or you may say, this is not for me, not now. So I asked about goal setting. I think one of the most important goals is to be very clear about what you can do and what you can't do. And to commit to those things that you can joyfully sustain over the long haul. Now sometimes that might change. So in the early part of my business, I was an avid blogger on the archives of weaving influence.com, you're gonna find like a thousand or more blog posts. And I wrote most of them about four years ago we started a podcast. Now I don't have as many episodes as you, but that has been our new content mechanism. Mm-hmm.

John Jantsch (23:19): Just get overwhelmed.

Becky Robinson (23:30): Sure. So Reach is available at all your favorite online retailers. And if you want me to be giving you a pep talk in your ear, I recorded the audio myself. So the Audible version is available as well. In terms of connecting two main websites, beckyrobinson.com and weavinginfluence.com. If you wanna find my business, go to Weaving influence. If you wanna find me personally, go to Becky Robinson. I have tons of free resources available on both sites. I'd love to have you download one or two. And I'm also on most of the social media channels. Instagram and LinkedIn are my two favorite places to show up. And I would always love to hear from people via email. I'm becky@weavinginfluence.com.

John Jantsch (24:08): Awesome. Well, again, thanks for taking a moment to stop by the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast and hopefully we'll see you out there on the road one of these days. I'm going to a wedding in Michigan in a few months, so who knows, maybe I'll bump into you.

Becky Robinson (24:18): It would be amazing to connect. Thank you John.

John Jantsch (24:20): Hey, and one final thing before you go. You know how I talk about marketing strategy, strategy before tactics? Well, sometimes it can be hard to understand where you stand in that, what needs to be done with regard to creating a marketing strategy. So we created a free tool for you. It's called the Marketing Strategy Assessment. You can find it @marketingassessment.co, not.com, dot co. Check out our free marketing assessment and learn where you are with your strategy today. That's just marketing assessment.co. I'd love to chat with you about the results that you get.

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How To Write A Business Book That Matters

How To Write A Business Book That Matters written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing Podcast with Josh Bernoff

In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interview Josh Bernoff. He is the bestselling author or ghostwriter of eight business books and contributed to 50 book projects that have generated over $20 million for their authors. Josh was formerly Senior Vice President, Idea Development at Forrester, where he spent 20 years analyzing technology and business. 

​​His most recent book Build a Better Business Book: How to Plan, Write, and Promote a Book That Matters, is a guide for authors who want to create impact in their business books. Josh teaches them how to refine their idea, choose a publishing model, and research, write, publish, and promote their books.

Key Takeaway:

A good business book should have a unique idea that solves a specific problem for a targeted audience, incorporating real-life stories and a narrative structure that engages readers. It should follow a natural progression from presenting a problem to providing a solution and explaining the details of that solution, using case studies to support their ideas. It is vital for authors to understand the continuum between big-idea books and how-to books, as both can be problem-solving.

The promotion plan of the book is crucial, and authors must not assume people will find their books without proper promotion and by building a platform. Josh shares a five-step process called “PQRST” which involves: Positioning, answering the Question, Reaching the target audience, Spreading the book encouraging word-of-mouth, and Timing the book launch.

Questions I ask Josh Bernoff:

• [01:59] What are the essential elements that a business book needs to be good?
• [02:49] Can a business book have a similar narrative to a fiction book?
• [04:03] Some business books are terrible. What are they doing wrong?
• [04:59] There are two types of business books: the ones that stay in the big idea category and others that are perspective. Are there different approaches that need to be taken for those two different kinds of books?
• [06:43] Can you explain the different kinds of authors?
• [08:59] Do publishers care about ideas or do they care about the platform or do you have to have both?
• [11:16] There are two book approaches, the ones that include research and case studies, and the ones that talk from the author’s daily knowledge and experiences. What do you think of that?
• [15:09] You have been a ghostwriter on some projects. What are some reasons somebody who has a good idea might use a ghostwriter?
• [16:01] Let’s talk about editors. In a business book, are they qualified to give much input and help you get your ideas down?
• [17:16] What role does the design of the interior pages as well as the cover play in the success of a book?
• [19:36] If you’re going to write a book today, how important is having audio done?
• [20:54] Can you explain the promotion plan of the book?

More About Josh Bernoff:

• Get your copy of Build a Better Business Book: How to Plan, Write, and Promote a Book That Matters.
• Reach out to Josh.

More About The Agency Certification Intensive Training:

• Learn more about the Agency Certification Intensive Training here

Take The Marketing Assessment:

• Marketingassessment.co

Like this show? Click on over and give us a review on iTunes, please!

Duct Tape Transcript

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John Jantsch (00:00): This episode of Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by HubSpot. Look, AI is literally eating the web chat. GPT is more searched than I don't know, Taylor Swift. Check out HubSpot's AI powered tools, content assistant and chat spott. They both run on open AI's GPT model, and both are designed to help you get more done and to grow your business faster. HubSpot's AI powered content assistant helps you brainstorm, create, and share content in a flash, and it's all inside a super easy to use CRM now. Chat Spott automates all the manual tasks inside HubSpot to help you arrange more customers close more deals, and scale your business faster. Find out more about how to use AI to grow your business at hubspot.com/artificial-intelligence. That's hubspot.com/artificial-intelligence.

(01:14): Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. This is John Jantsch, and my guest today is Josh Bernoff. He's the bestselling author or ghostwriter of eight business books. He's contributed to 50 book projects that have generated over 20 million for their authors. He's formerly Senior Vice President of Idea Development at Forrester, where he spent 20 years analyzing technology and business. We're gonna talk about his most recent book, Build a Better Business Book: How to Plan, Write, and Promote a Book That Matters. So Josh, welcome to the show.

Josh Bernoff (01:49): It's great to be on. Good to talk to you.

John Jantsch (01:52): So I'll just throw out like one really big question to start us off. Okay. And then we'll hone in on, uh, things, you know, what are the essential elements that a business book needs to be good. How is that for, how is that for a big question,

Josh Bernoff (02:06): No, that's exactly the right big question

John Jantsch (02:49): Can a business book, like, I mean, a fiction book, you know, has a narrative and a plot and characters and we get to the end hopefully and go, oh, that was amazing. Can a business book have narrative similar to that? Or is it there just to do some nuts and bolts work?

Josh Bernoff (03:04): It has to have a narrative similar to that. Now we understand this, if you're reading a business book that's say a description of Elon Musk's life or Right. You know, how Netflix was created as a company. But when you're talking about a business book that solves a problem, there's a natural order to it in the first chapter. We have to scare the crap out of you by getting you to see that there's either a problem that you're gonna have if you don't follow the book or some opportunity you're gonna miss out on. That's the fear and greed options. Yeah. And then after that we described the parts of the solution. We show you how to implement that. We might show you some more detail about how it applies in different situations. This is a natural progression from you have a problem to the solution, to the problem, to the details of the solution. And that's just as much a narrative as if narrative as if you were reading a novel.

John Jantsch (04:00): All right, let's some people learn better from the negative. Let's talk about some business books that are terrible. What are the, without naming names, what, what do they get wrong typically?

Josh Bernoff (04:10): So I don't know if your listeners have had this experience. I have many times of the business book where you read chapter two and you're like, gee, that sounds just like chapter one. And then you read chapter four and you're like, oh my gosh, it's just the same thing over and over again. Yeah. So there's a word for what that book ought to be, which is a blog post

John Jantsch (04:58): Uh, there are two types of book business books. I read lots and lots of business books as I know you have as well. There are two types of business books that I really like. Some kind of stay in the big idea category. Mm-hmm.

Josh Bernoff (05:36): Well, in the problem-solving kind of book, which is both of those are the big idea books and the how-to books are basically problem-solving kind of books. I think it's a mistake to think of them as two different kinds. Okay. They're really two ends of a continuum. Yeah. Right. So for example, the book I just wrote, right? Build a better business book here. This is a how-to book. There's 24 chapters. There's a chapter on covers. There's a chapter on how to do research. Right. These are all very specific things that you have to learn how to do. If you look at the first book I wrote with Charlene Lee groundswell of posters behind me on the Wall. Yeah. That was a big idea book. And the big idea was that social media wasn't a toy anymore, and people really need to learn how to take advantage of it. But even there we had to say, okay, if you're gonna use social media for research purposes, here are the steps involved in that. Or if you're gonna use social media for marketing, here are the steps involved in that. And unless you have some kind of prescription, then all you're doing is basically throwing grenades and blowing things up. And while that can be entertaining, it's not that helpful to people.

John Jantsch (06:43): All right. So I'm, I'm gonna go down the same path. There are two kinds of authors, I think

Josh Bernoff (07:17): Mm-hmm.

John Jantsch (08:32): Yeah. Yeah. Well, I, you know, fortunately out of some sort of dumb luck, I actually sold a lot of copies of Duct Tape Marketing as well as it being my kinda launching for a platform. So I kinda lucked into the best of both worlds. I guess l let's talk about book proposals for a minute. You know, which is a typical organ that a lot of people would use to, uh, get a publisher interested in a book. Boy, that has changed in the last

Josh Bernoff (09:05): Well, you have to have both. But platform's more important, and that's a shocking thing to say, right. But in the last 20 or 30 years, what I have seen is that some publishers like Wiley explicitly say, you have to prove to us that you can sell 10 or 12 20,000 books on your own. And the other publishers don't say it quite so starkly, but they believe the same thing. Yeah. And that means, and they're not gonna help you very much with the selling. You have to provide that yourself. So you need to have a podcast or a blog or regular appearance on CNN or a Forbes, you know, column or whatever. You need to have some sort of a platform to roll the book out. Now a person with a large platform and no ideas isn't really very interesting, the publishers, because someone has to get something out of the book, but the, they look at the platform first and the idea second. Sadly, it's true. Yeah.

John Jantsch (09:59): Yeah, yeah. And I think it's become more true, quite frankly. You know, you mentioned definitely Wiley, for example, I've even seen some authors talk about, you know, they had to guarantee that they were gonna sell that

Josh Bernoff (10:14): I can't resist pointing out here that there are alternatives now.

John Jantsch (10:17): Sure. Well,

Josh Bernoff (10:18): There are hybrid publishers

John Jantsch (10:19): Usually change, right? Yeah,

Josh Bernoff (10:21): Yeah, yeah. You can pay a hybrid publisher to publisher book. I'm this most recent book I did with a hybrid publisher, and I'm not saying that's the only model. My previous book was done with a traditional publisher. Yeah. And you can even self-publish books on your own through the Amazon platform. And of course that makes a much less of an impact, but if you really gotta get your book out, you don't need to go through a traditional publisher anymore.

John Jantsch (10:44): Well, I have a few, you know, folks in that, that I know well that have made a whole lot more money on their book by doing self-publishing because it sold really well and they kept 80%

Josh Bernoff (10:54): Phil Jones

John Jantsch (10:55):

Josh Bernoff (10:57): Now it's, but it is hard to make your book catch fire. Yeah, yeah. If you're doing it, you're publishing it independently like that. Yeah. The, the traditional publishers have a certain amount of clout and distribution, and the hybrid publishers are helpful within that vein as well.

John Jantsch (11:13): Yeah. So my books are not heavily researched in the, you know, the idea that we had 3000 participants in some sort of study. I mean, my books are really kind of more, here's my daily knowledge. I mean, here's what I've learned working with ex clients. Is there, again, I don't think there's a better approach, but they're quite different, aren't they?

Josh Bernoff (11:34): Uh, you know what, you need something that proves that your book is right. Yeah. And I was sitting down and I thought of these ideas and I wrote them down as not sufficient

John Jantsch (11:45):

Josh Bernoff (11:47): Yeah. And, you know, everyone does secondary research. This is basically going on the internet and finding quotes and studies and stuff. But you need some sort of primary research. But what you said, the, the, you know, the survey kind of research or data Look, I worked at Forrester. I actually created the program that they used to collect consumer data. That was wonderful to have all of that data. Yeah. But you can write a book that's based on anecdotes. And if you're telling the stories of, you know, Sarah, that that changed her marketing program, or Alvin who figured out a better way to, to track attribution, those stories are quite sufficient as primary research. You don't necessarily need a huge amount of data.

John Jantsch (12:32): Yeah. I guess case studies would fall into that too. I mean, I know people love to see, oh, I'm a business kind of like that. And they did that. Oh, okay. That will work for me.

Josh Bernoff (12:41): Case studies are essential. In fact, I would say when I work with authors and we're like at the beginning of the book process, the lack of case studies is the biggest problem that they have. So you want to be thinking right at the beginning, where am I gonna get the stories I'm gonna tell, where am I gonna find these interviews? If a book is, let's say 14 chapters long, it should have 14 case studies in it.

John Jantsch (13:06): So you might even organize the book around what you

Josh Bernoff (13:09): Got. Is I you saying that? Well, I, one way to organize the book is to start every chapter with a story. Yeah. Yeah. It's actually pretty common to do that. It fact, they're No, they're known as Malcolm's after Malcolm Gladwell

John Jantsch (13:46): And now let's hear from a sponsor. This episode is brought to you by Business Made Simple, hosted by Donald Miller, and brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals hosted by Donald Miller. Business Made Simple Takes the Mystery out of Growing Your Business. In a recent episode, they talked with my old pal, Seth Godin, where he explained the virtues and values in his book called The Song of Significance, A new manifesto for teams. Listen to business Made Simple. Wherever you get your podcasts.

(14:19): Hey, marketing agency owners, you know, I can teach you the keys to doubling your business in just 90 days or your money back. Sound interesting. All you have to do is license our three step process that's gonna allow you to make your competitors irrelevant, charge a premium for your services and scale perhaps without adding overhead. And here's the best part. You can license this entire system for your agency by simply participating in an upcoming agency certification intensive look, why create the wheel? Use a set of tools that took us over 20 years to create. And you can have 'em today, check it out at DTM world slash certification. That's DTM world slash certification.

(15:06): You have, as I noted in your intro, been a ghostwriter on some projects. Mm-hmm.

Josh Bernoff (15:15): Well, it's always a question of time. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's also a question of talent. Some people just don't feel like they're good writers. Yeah. But mostly it's people who could write, but just don't have the time to do it. And in the cases where I have ghostwritten books and I've done three, now they're all situations where they were senior executives. Right. Very busy people. They had really interesting ideas and sometimes a lot of detail behind it, but they just wanted to hire somebody who would assemble that into a useful book. And what you read there was written on spec based on what the author, the person whose name on the cover asked for. They've just outsourced the writing. Just like you might outsource the graphics. Yeah. Or, uh, you know, a, a survey that you did,

John Jantsch (16:01): Let's talk about editors. The, I think the common belief was that an editor was gonna make your book better. You know, certainly help you devise or get your ideas down. Mm-hmm.

Josh Bernoff (16:26): It's a question of how busy the people at these publishing houses are. So I, there's a quote in my book from Holla Heinbach, who's a, a very well known editor to Hartford Business who says, look, we expect the manuscript to come in ready to publish. Yeah. Um, so they don't really have the resources to edit your book. Yeah. But that doesn't mean you don't need an editor. Most people who work on a good book will hire a developmental editor, and that's someone whose job is to, to do the work of helping with the ideas, the sequence, the structure, the language, how the chapters are assembled, everything just so that you have a high quality piece of work that's publishable.

John Jantsch (17:08): Yeah. This is gonna be a hard question to have a definitive answer, but I'm certain you have an opinion on

Josh Bernoff (17:23): Yeah. Well, let me divide those two. Yeah. Okay. Unless your book has got some sort of unusual elements to it, like, you know, a lot of sidebars or something like that, the interior design usually just as utilitarian and it doesn't make that much difference. People need to tell when things are heading or subheading, but, but most books are pretty much interchangeable from that perspective.

John Jantsch (17:51): I've seen some poor font, I've seen some poor font.

Josh Bernoff (17:53): Oh, you can definitely make a mistake there,

John Jantsch (19:03): I, I know for myself, I'm, you know, walking through a bookstore back when we used to do that, used to do that. Yeah. A facing out, you know, book that had a compelling cover. It, it was a stopper, you know, it would be like, oh, I want to at least take a deeper look at that.

Josh Bernoff (19:17): Well, nowadays people are looking at the book on the screen Yeah. And it's an inch tall.

John Jantsch (19:23): Yeah,

Josh Bernoff (19:23): Yeah, yeah. So the subtle little details of the design don't become obvious until the person has had it shipped to their house.

John Jantsch (19:30):

Josh Bernoff (19:41): Yes. Audio, you cannot have a book that's has a full measure of success unless there's an audiobook to go along with it. Yeah. And people love to consume business books on audio while they're exercising or commuting, you know, or on an airplane or whatever. So you really have to have that available to them. And in my book, I actually recommend that if the author has got any inclination at all, it's great if you, the author can record the audiobook. Yeah. Because then your voice and your willingness to communicate the things that are important to you will come across effectively. And even if you know you have a scratchy voice or a nasal voice or something, most people can do a good job with that. Yeah. It's just, that's likely to take you 10 or 15 hours and not everybody's willing to put the time in to do that.

John Jantsch (20:32): Yeah. Well, and, and, and if your goal is to build a community, to build a business around a platform, a larger platform around, I know I find it all the time. People are like, oh, now that I met you, you know, I can hear you in my head already, you know, because I listen to your books. Yeah. So it, it really is, you know, I think it's a must for if you wanna do other things with the book as well.

Josh Bernoff (20:51): Yeah.

John Jantsch (20:52): Okay. We have exactly 30 seconds left. Let's talk about promotion of the book

Josh Bernoff (21:03): Yes. You need to plan the promotion. And the biggest mistake that authors make is to write the book and assume that people will find it, even if they don't promote it. And I got a five step process positioning, what's the question you answer? How are you gonna get reach? How are you gonna get people like the book to spread it? And how are you gonna get the timing focused? And right around the book launch, that's P Q R S T, those are the five steps that I recommend people do to prepare for promotion in 30 seconds.

John Jantsch (21:32):

Josh Bernoff (21:53): Yeah. Well, people don't realize, but in most book processes, there's a period of three to six months when the book is in some sort of production and printing process, and you as the author, don't have too much to do. That's exactly when you work on the promotion planning, because the temptation is to sort of relax and say, oh, I'm done. And then the time comes to write and you're like, oh, crap, I didn't put anything in place.

John Jantsch (22:19): I'd tell you during Covid, it was 12 to 18 months for forcing some people to get to Yes, it's true. Get the books out. And it's like, well, I don't even remember what I wrote

Josh Bernoff (22:37): Okay. So if people wanna reach me, you want to go to bernoff.com. That's my website, B E R N O F F.com. I post a blog post there every single weekday, mostly about authors and their issues. And if people are interested in getting the new book, build a Better Business book, you can go to bernoff.com/books, or you can pick that up on Amazon or bookshop.org or wherever you're used to shopping for books. And by the time this goes live, the audiobook will be available. It's already available in print and as an ebook.

John Jantsch (23:11): Awesome. And you can tell how long somebody's been online by the fact that they have their last name come as a website

Josh Bernoff (23:17): I, I bought it from like a third cousin of mine in Chile

John Jantsch (23:25): So I, I actually, when all my kids were born, I actually reserved the names, their names. You know, I, I don't know if they've kept them or not, but yeah, you can tell how long somebody's been online. All right, Josh, again, great having you stop by and hopefully we'll run into you one of these days out there on the road.

Josh Bernoff (23:41): All right. It's been great to be here, and thanks for giving me the chance to speak with your

John Jantsch (23:44): Audience. Hey, and one final thing before you go. You know how I talk about marketing strategy, strategy before tactics? Well, sometimes it can be hard to understand where you stand in that, what needs to be done with regard to creating a marketing strategy. So we created a free tool for you. It's called the Marketing Strategy Assessment. You can find it @marketingassessment.co, not.com, dot co. Check out our free marketing assessment and learn where you are with your strategy today. That's just marketing assessment.co. I'd love to chat with you about the results that you get. Got.

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