Have you ever considered publishing a book?
I recently spent six months as part of a group of 36 coaches in the AJC Coaching Career School.
Of those 36 coaches there were at least six people who were published authors of a book (some people more than one).
Yet if I were in a group of a similar number of financial planners and advisers, I would imagine that very few, if any, had published a book.
I am not sharing this as a criticism of financial professionals but rather to highlight that this represents a huge opportunity.
Why publish a book?
One of the keys to building a thriving financial planning practice is meeting potentially ideal clients under favourable circumstances.
Publishing a book is one of the best, if not the best, ways of helping you do this.
Below are listed just some of the beneficial things a book can do for you and your business:
1. Positions you as an authority on your subject.
2. Helps to establish trust.
3. It makes you stand out from the crowd.
4. You are creating something that genuinely helps people.
5. It opens doors for you.
6. It can generate enquiries from people who already like your approach.
But I am not a writer!
It has never been easier to publish your book because of the amount of help available.
Before dismissing the idea of publishing a book because you are not a writer, or you cannot imagine writing something as a big as a book please think again.
There are services available that can do virtually everything for you.
You do not even have to write it because a book can be created through interviewing you (as many are these days).
For example, Financial Planner Paul Tracey published a wonderful book called, ‘True Wealth‘ and whilst it is Paul’s content, he got help with turning it into a book.
My book, ‘The Client-centred Financial Adviser‘ began as a series of blog posts that I turned into a book with the help of ‘The right book company‘.
How can you use a book?
You can make your book available on all the usual channels. Amazon, book retailers, and creating a Kindle version.
Yet there is also a whole world beyond this.
When you have a specific topic or target market then you can create ways to get your book into the right people’s hands.
You can create collaborative relationships with other professionals and organisations that are already in your area of interest. They want to create value for their clients, members, or connections and your book can help them do this.
For instance, when I published my book, I did a launch event and one of the invitees put in an order for five hundred books to distribute to their clients (and this was not an insignificant amount of revenue).
The main point about a book is that it lasts. People rarely throw books away and they are often used as reference material. When you publish a book you are taking a stand for your work, sharing it with a bigger audience, and creating a highly effective marketing tool.
PS. Still think a book is impossible? Click here to read ‘Getting the impossible things done.’
