“Now, the best way to increase your Credibility, Visibility, and Profitability is to write a book,” she started. “So let’s write that book! Take out a pen and paper, and I’ll help you map your book in the next 20 minutes.”
I sat up straight, wide-eyed, wondering what this person could possibly accomplish with a room full of 300+ hungry, aspiring messengers in 20 minutes.
They moved the room through a mind-mapping process, with the prompting question of: “On what topics do you have the most knowledge and credibility? On what topics would you like to be the visible expert? On what topics could you make good money?”
When we were done, the woman with intense green eyes and a brilliant smile sitting next to me said, “Well, that was easy!” and showed me her map.
My breath caught in my throat because I knew she wasn’t
the only one in the room looking at a paper like this,
and I decided to help her over our lunch break.
We discussed her big vision for her work in the world, and it wasn’t long before she realized that several of the topics she’d written on the paper were not at all connected to her vision. Whoops!
We talked about her message, and she quickly saw how much clarity she was lacking in her grasp of her true message and secret sauce approach to it. Uh-oh!
We uncovered some of the not-glaringly-obvious repetition that was already on the paper, and she discovered that the trainer’s suggestion to write one chapter on each of the topics would have created confusion for her while she was writing and repetition and frustration for the reader. Oh dear!
Map your book in 20 minutes?
Sounds awesome, right?
Well, sure…it would be awesome…
if there weren’t some important foundational work to do first.
Foundational work like drilling down to the core message, so that you don’t get lost on rabbit trails. Like clarifying your vision and asking yourself how your book is going to help you achieve it. Like digging deep for how your book will be different than all the other books on the topic, so that you don’t accidentally dilute your vision, your secret sauce, or your branding.
That work alone takes a whole lot more than 20 minutes. And, this may sound a little melodramatic, but I believe it’s downright dangerous – to your vision and brand, your confidence, and your pocketbook – to write the book without doing that work.
But that’s what I’ve seen a lot of people do because of coaching like I witnessed in that room and so many others. And the consequences are steep. The message never gets off the ground, and the messengers give up. Or, in my estimation, worse – the message gets off the ground, but the lack of foundational work makes it impossible for the messenger to sustain or grow their Credibility, Visibility, and Profitability.
As a messenger coach, of course I agree that a powerful book
can help to create Credibility, Visibility, and Profitability.
I just know that it will only do this IF...
CLICK HERE to see "the trap" in this way of thinking and how to avoid it.
Committed to Your True Intention,
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