Join us as we continue our series and present excerpts from our latest book “How Writing A Book Will Help To Grow Your Business”.

What is the #1 indication that someone is an expert? They “wrote the book” in their chosen field of expertise. My email tagline after writing my first book was “I literally wrote the book on selling houses,” because I did!

Look, most of the time, writing a book is hard. It can be long and tedious. It can take focus and “down-time” away from your regular life. That is, unless you are smart in how you go about writing your book. But writing a book leaves an impression on your clients that you are the go-to person. Perception is everything. As a real estate agent, let’s take a real-world example:

Put two homebuyers side by side: they both make an offer on your listing. One has fully underwritten pre-approval, and the other does not. Who would you suggest your seller negotiates with? Probably the one with the piece of paper indicating they know what they are doing and have put the time and effort into researching and understanding the process. Write a book and your prospective clients will make the same choice.

Not sure what to write about? I get it. I’ve said it before, and I'll say it again: the hardest part of writing a book is WRITING the book. What if I told you that your book may already be written for you? What if I told you that you have access to the resources you need for all the content you want?

Let’s look at a few ways that you could be a whole lot closer to being a published author:

Repurpose Your Content: Do you write or publish a newsletter? What about a blog? Have you produced some videos for your social media channels? If you have done any of these things, there is a good chance you have scripts lying around somewhere. Newsletters, blogs, social media posts, and even the content on your website, may already have enough content for a book. Choose your most popular or informative entries, then update your intro and scatter in a few original new comments. Each of those posts becomes a chapter. Add some photos or graphs, and you have yourself a book. One thing to keep in mind is any copyright issues. Make sure if you are using a service for your blogs, newsletters, or other written media, that you have permission to publish the content anywhere, make changes, etc. In the industry, there are different “rights” associated with copy. Just stay on the safe side.

Hire a Ghostwriter: Compile your ideas.

The ghostwriter will do the research and write the book. Then you work with the ghostwriter/editor to fill

in the holes and add your own voice. It still has the feel of a book you would write since you’re having

someone organize and tidy your thoughts, but it takes a lot less time.

Interview Experts: Reach out to your sphere of influence, talk to previous clients, or connect with the vendors that you use regularly. Everyone you know is an expert in something. Find a common tie that binds them together, interview them, and voilà! you have several chapters written. An excellent example of this is the book LAWYER UP! by Justine Gronwald. The author contacted seven attorneys who each wrote a chapter. Book complete. Then, the attorneys promoted the book to their clients and her audience grew seven-fold!

Have  Someone  Interview  You:  Some of us have a lot to say, but don’t know where to start. Do you have a “Signature System” that you use to run your business? Walk readers through what sets you apart from your

competition. Do you have a team? Have someone interview you or your entire team to explain how your way of conducting business benefits your clients.

Simply sit and have them be curious and ask you questions about your business, expertise, or topic. Record the conversation and have someone transcribe the video.  Hire an editor and your book is almost complete.

Video Yourself: Have you created a YouTube channel filled with videos? Do you have a TikTok channel filled with “quick hit” style videos containing helpful hints? All those videos can be turned into copy and summarized into categories.

The great thing is, once the book is produced, you can recycle the copy back into videos and record fresh, updated videos for your social media channels to help promote the book. To promote YOUR book.

Create an Outline:

10 x 2 x 2 Method -

• Pick 10 topics
• 2 short stories per topic
• 2 points for each short story

Outline Steps -

• Write down 10 topics or “Most Frequently Asked Questions.”
• Write down 2 common answers, options, or short stories you have encountered in your experience. Don’t have your own story? Tell someone else’s story. For each short story, give 2 lessons or advice the reader should take from the story. A point-counterpoint argument is an option as well.
• Each of the 10 topics is a chapter. You can wrap up each chapter with a review and reinforce the information you are looking to convey

Pros and Cons/Dos and Don’ts: A “Pros and Cons” list is an easy way to get you started writing your book. Pick your subject and think about the pros and cons of your topic. By writing these down, you will instantly have the chapters in your book. Can you write a book using dos and don'ts? Of course, you can. Some people have even written books on only the don’ts. One of the most popular articles on my website was a “Dos and Don'ts” style look at open houses. It talked about things you should and shouldn’t do at open houses. I think people secretly want to know which category they were in: the DO people or the DON’T people.