How to Best Transform Your Book into a Marketing Machine - BM412

Susan Friedmann [00:00:30]:

Friedman. Welcome to Book Marketing Mentors, the weekly podcast where you learn proven strategies, tools, ideas, and tips from the masters. Every week, I introduce you to a marketing master who will share their expertise to help you market and sell more books. Today, my special guest is Margie Beiswanger. Margie is a business coach for online entrepreneurs who are ready to leverage their brilliance. She's passionate about teaching her clients how to transform their expertise into signature programs, online courses, and authentic marketing so that they can do more of what they love and leverage their success, creating more impact and income. She's a newfound friend and colleague. It's a pleasure to welcome you to the show, Margie.Thank you for being this week's guest expert and mentor.

Margie Beiswanger [00:01:26]:

Thank you, Susan. I'm delighted to be here and to get to know you.

Susan Friedmann [00:01:31]:

I think it's a wonderful opportunity and I love what you do. You and I have had a few very in-depth conversations about how our authors can use their material and I know you're all about repurposing in many different ways. We've got this book, Margie. What can we do with it?

Margie Beiswanger [00:01:54]:

Oh my gosh. I think sometimes experts think that their book is the endpoint. It is, you know, putting onto a platter all of their knowledge, their expertise, and it's done. Not all authors feel that way, But many times, it's either been such a labor of love or such a long time coming that they feel done. Instead, I think it's really valuable to change that mindset to a book being a launch pad for a multitude of additional opportunities.

Susan Friedmann [00:02:36]:

I absolutely love that. A launchpad for different opportunities. Listeners, I hope you heard that. Yeah, it really is. And so give us some ideas of what kinds of things that we could be thinking about with our book.

Margie Beiswanger [00:02:51]:

Gosh. How much time have you got? No. I'm kidding. Well, I know that you are a marketing maven, and I'm sure you teach them these things. But one of the quickest things to do is take what you as the author think is a super teeny tiny snippet of information, And I'm emphasizing this. You as the author feel like, oh, my gosh. This is just such a teeny tiny little piece. Yes.

Margie Beiswanger [00:03:23]:

That's perfect. Because too many times, we overwhelm people. And if you can give your audience one small taste of your expertise each time they encounter you in marketing, whether that be social media, YouTube videos, a free download. Your book is just an endless supply. You've got so many quotable quotes in there, stories, a way that you have described something, a new perspective, a single key point. Any one of these can be turned into a blog post, an infographic if it's visual, multitudes of social media posts, a series of short videos. And in essence, you're helping people by saying, hey. If you found this fill in the blank, this tip, this video, this blog post useful, I got a whole book full of them waiting for you.

Margie Beiswanger [00:04:25]:

Right?

Susan Friedmann [00:04:26]:

It's really interesting because if I ask an author, it's like, well, tell me what your book is about. They don't even know how to often bring it down to one sentence. Yes. They have to go into, well, it's about 7 strategies. And the first strategy is, and the second one, and they feel they have to tell me the whole book almost like reading it. Whereas, I just want to know a little bit of information.

Margie Beiswanger [00:04:54]:

Yes. And if you think about it, and I know you know this, our first objective in marketing is to peak someone's interest to create a little bit of intrigue. And the part that people don't talk about so much is about 99.9% of the people are not gonna be interested. That's okay. But that's how they'll know. And if you give them too much, or you're trying to explain too much, the brain just tunes out. So I may have been interested, but it's better if you can give me a tiny little snippet that makes me think, do I want to know more about this? I wonder what she means. I wonder if this applies to me.

Margie Beiswanger [00:05:35]:

It's got to let them start asking internally some questions to see if they want to know more. And if we give it all to them, like I said, they either tune out or the vast majority of the people it's not right for anyway. So you've wasted your effort. If you think about it that way, I think that helps some of my clients to realize I'm just helping them dip a toe in the water. And if somebody says, oh, that seems possibly quite nice. They will ask you more or they will click on your profile and learn more.

Susan Friedmann [00:06:08]:

That's exactly what you want people to do is to ask you, well, how do you do that?

Margie Beiswanger [00:06:14]:

Yes.

Susan Friedmann [00:06:14]:

You know, when they start asking you that, then you're like, okay, there's some interest. But again, you don't want to give them everything. It's just, like, focusing on what is of most interest to them and even turning it into a question and saying, well, yes. Yeah. What is it about this that might be of interest to you? Now I know that one of the things that you do extraordinarily well are online programs. And this has been the bane of my life is like I wanted to put together an online programme, and yet I feel I have to give everybody the farm, and

Margie Beiswanger [00:06:56]:

all the

Susan Friedmann [00:06:56]:

chickens and the cows and the horses.

Margie Beiswanger [00:06:59]:

Anything they might possibly need on their farm. Yes. That's what happens when you are an expert with such depth and breadth of knowledge. And it's a good thing, but it's a bad thing when you're on your own. Because one of the biggest challenges that my clients face is they're stuck. They get bogged down in the details or they're thinking too much or just a myriad of things that all come down to too much. And if there's anything that I want authors to know is that your entire book can be broken into multiple online courses with the right tools, the right mindset, maybe some reflection pieces so often. And think about this.

Margie Beiswanger [00:07:53]:

I can't be the only one. I know I'm not. You get some great nonfiction book. You're so interested. Maybe like me, you do start with the intro and you wanna get the little background, some context. Maybe you dive into a certain chapter, but I can pretty much bet the farm, to use your analogy, on the fact that most of us do not sit down with every nonfiction book and read it from cover to cover nonstop. We end up picking and choosing. Don't you think, Susan?

Susan Friedmann [00:08:23]:

Oh, without any shadow of a doubt. I mean, the first thing I do is to look at the table of contents. And it's like, okay, I'll skip the intro chapter because they're just telling me, you know, what they're going to tell me. I'm like, let's get into something meaty, so I might even start halfway through the book.

Margie Beiswanger [00:08:42]:

Right. And if something really if a word or a phrase for a chapter title in the table of contents or a pain point for you or something you specifically wanted to learn is right there. You're gonna go to page whatever and start there. I use this as an illustration to tell all of these non fiction authors that that is proof positive that you can take out individual segments of book and people will appreciate that and pay for that. It doesn't have to be this whole encyclopedic set. And that's the other thing that we feel as the expert. Well, they need all of this. And no, you can't start in chapter 4 because you need to understand this first.

Margie Beiswanger [00:09:25]:

I'm here to tell you, I understand and I agree. And that's in a perfect world. But if we want people to use what we want to share, what we are so driven to share, then we want to find ways that they will use it.

Susan Friedmann [00:09:42]:

One of the things that's coming to mind as you say that, Margie, is, okay, we feel that they need to know everything, but where do we start? If they only need to know this nugget to get going, how do we determine which nugget that is?

Margie Beiswanger [00:10:01]:

Well, that's a $1,000,000 question. Right? And I would say the hard truth is it's not usually up to you what that is. And that would be all the more reason to pick it apart. Share it in small snippets and see where you get the most interest or the most engagement. It is so often a surprise to us what people gravitate towards. I'm working with a client right now who started in this very clinical manner because she saw what was missing for her potential clients and how people asked her, which is again a very common starting point. The same types of questions over and over, and she wanted to address them. And we wanted to create an online course where they could do that and then move into deeper work with her.

Margie Beiswanger [00:10:50]:

Well, once we got into it, I saw that she was basically feeding them content like a fire hose, spraying them with such force that there was no way they would graduate on to working more deeply with her. They were probably going to feel like they failed in that initial online course because it was too much, if that makes sense. So what is my impetus? Am I going to feel confident enough if I didn't even get through that or I felt inadequate in some way or like, well, it's going to take me a year to do this. Okay. That's not what you want. You don't want them to say, well, I've got so much here. I don't need anything else from this person or I'm not ready to. And that's another common mistake.

Margie Beiswanger [00:11:39]:

And I know that's not even the question you asked me, but Oh, we'll go into the mistakes. It's another perspective shift, though, right, about how to share what you've shared in this book and recognize that we have to find ways, as I said a minute ago, that your people will actually use it because it makes no difference if you say and feel with every bone in your body, they have to have this, this and this. If that's not what they want or are ready for, then that's why courses don't sell. That's why somebody doesn't make the money they thought they would make. We have to meet them where they are.

Susan Friedmann [00:12:19]:

I love that. Meet them where they are. Yes. And you have to communicate with them in order to find out exactly where they're at. And as you earlier said, well, what is it that they're interested in versus what you think that they should be interested in?

Margie Beiswanger [00:12:39]:

Yes. An analogy that is used often in the coaching world and service based entrepreneurial world is to think about your most ideal client. And they're standing there in front of you and they've clearly said to you and you understand what their result is. Where it is they want to go. They're here now. They're not where they wanna be. They wanna be somewhere over there. And you as the service provider, you as the expert, you as the guide, you are going to show them the path to get where they wanna go.

Margie Beiswanger [00:13:18]:

And your right people who are meant to work with you will recognize that path and say, oh my gosh. That's exactly what I need. And yeah, your path is all of these different steps, all of these different things. That's great. That's your signature program. That's what I love helping people do. Translate their expertise into something that potential clients can say yes to and understand. That is what I was looking for or that makes sense or that's what's been missing for me.

Margie Beiswanger [00:13:51]:

Or I see now how I could actually achieve that thing because you've made it visible for them. You've got this complete path and simultaneously each one of those steps can be its own path, a micro path, a smaller course, or an offering because not everyone is ready for every one of those steps.

Susan Friedmann [00:14:13]:

I mean, just breaking it down into those smaller steps is so critical. What's coming to me when you talked about different ways people think about things or even how they verbalise it or what they want. I mean, for the longest time, I'm talking about author marketing. And they don't want author marketing. They want book marketing. So even just recognizing that differentiator, even though I want authors to think about marketing themselves as opposed to just the book. But they're thinking just the book at this point.

Margie Beiswanger [00:14:56]:

That's an excellent example. Oh, my gosh. Yes. Because, again, this is what you know they need to get their mind around. Right? Is that they, as the author, are the source. And I would imagine you want them to get comfortable thinking of themselves that way and as a marketable commodity because they're going to create more content, ideally. And yet, what are they gonna search for? I gotta get my book out there. I gotta make my money back on this book.

Margie Beiswanger [00:15:26]:

You're right. So we do have to know the words and phrases and the things they say they want, you know. And there's this old adage, if you're in the United States, of the old bait and switch and the used car salesman and all of these things that kind of tarnish this idea that is true, which is you sell them what they want, and then you give them what they need. And it used to be that people were like, yeah. That's bait and switch. That's terrible. No. No.

Margie Beiswanger [00:15:54]:

No. I need to draw you in by meeting you where you are. I indeed can give you and sell you what it is you want. And underneath that, I know you also are really gonna need this, this, and this. And then I can give that to you as well.

Susan Friedmann [00:16:10]:

And that's a brilliant way of looking at it. And I hadn't thought of it quite in those terms, but yes, because there's that fear of, you know, people think, Oh, you know, you're going to give me something that I don't necessarily want. But, yeah, you give them what they want, and you teach them what they need to know. Because Yes. They often don't even realize what they need to know.

Margie Beiswanger [00:16:33]:

That's right. And, again, when you're the expert, it can be easy to forget, 1, that they don't already know they need that. Or 2, here's another biggie, that that isn't gonna be scary to them. It might be too scary to think about this one thing you know in your area of expertise. It might be the thing they're afraid to face. Doesn't mean you can't give it to them and teach it to them, but I doubt very much they're just gonna plunk down their money for you to help them with that big scary thing. Most of the time, that's still, you know, in the shadows.

Susan Friedmann [00:17:08]:

It's called sales. They don't like that word. It's a four letter word.

Margie Beiswanger [00:17:13]:

That's right. Yeah. But really, I mean, who buys a book because there are going to be 20 steps to really get lasting change and that you're going to have to them every day for the rest of like, hello, no one wants to buy that book. That is a million steps and tells you that the reality is that if you wanna make this deep transformational change, you're gonna have to practice this day in and day out for the rest of your life. Now we all know that most things are like this, but look at the dieting world. It's lose £5 in 3 days or whatever.

Susan Friedmann [00:17:45]:

They want instant. And I often tell my clients, this isn't a silver bullet. I don't necessarily have the panacea. This is just one way that you can do it. Now, if you want to follow this way, I can help you with that. But if you don't, there are other people teaching you other ways. And there's no one way that is the ultimate only way to do things.

Margie Beiswanger [00:18:13]:

Yes. Or like you said, the silver bullet or the miracle I made $100,000 in a month. Anytime I hear somebody in the online world saying that, I say, well, please ask them what they spent on that to make that 100,000 because it it was quite a bit of money. It's not that they netted a 100,000. Yes. But I digress. I think when it comes to being a nonfiction author, if you're passionate about this, what you're helping them see is that they are so much more than what they've put down in the book. The book is a labor of love for most of these people, I'm assuming.

Margie Beiswanger [00:18:52]:

A passion. Something that they felt compelled to put down and get out into the world, which means you have even more. And there are a multitude of ways to reach people, just like you said a minute ago, and not everyone is a reader. So why not consider repurposing this into different formats to reach different segments of the audience that could very well be interested in and use your expertise.

Susan Friedmann [00:19:18]:

And it's funny, there's this fear that if I put it in, an audiobook format, that they're not going to buy the printed version. Or if I do it in a hardcover, they're not going to buy the soft cover or the ebook. Or if they buy the ebook. And I say, No. I've bought an ebook, I've bought a printed version, and I've bought an audio version of a book because they all serve different purposes for me.

Margie Beiswanger [00:19:46]:

Yes. You can't highlight. Yeah.

Susan Friedmann [00:19:48]:

I mean Yeah.

Margie Beiswanger [00:19:48]:

You can't highlight an audiobook. Sometimes I'm like, oh, that was good. I gotta get a paper copy so I can highlight that. Right?

Susan Friedmann [00:19:55]:

Exactly. Yeah. I'm driving and I'm listening to the book, but there's something I want to write down. By the time I get to a point where I can write it down, I've forgotten what it is. So

Margie Beiswanger [00:20:07]:

Yes. Oh, yes. So true.

Susan Friedmann [00:20:09]:

There's that aspect to it as well, but that's a whole other aspect. Now you mentioned mistakes earlier, and I know our listeners absolutely love mistakes, Margie. So share some of the common pitfalls that you see when it comes to repurposing. And I know you've shared some, but let's dig deeper to some of the other pitfalls that they would experience, and we're going to and you're going to help them avoid those pitfalls.

Margie Beiswanger [00:20:41]:

Yeah. Okay. So I do think one of the pitfalls is that they take their gifts or their brilliance or their expertise for granted. They may not even realize they're doing this, but very often you're so close to your own skills and talents that you don't see them as something special or extraordinary. And that is a pitfall that will prevent you from learning about capitalizing on your expertise in the book and all of the things that go with the book and surround the book and that spring from the book. And I don't know what that is. There are many egotistical people in the world. We all know that, but the vast majority of the people I work with, one of the things I've heard in the past is, you know, it's a gift if you take it for granted and you think it's easy and people look at you like, what? That's not easy.

Margie Beiswanger [00:21:41]:

Well, that's a sign. That's a clue if people are like, wow. Don't even start. I can't even, you know, comprehend that. But that also means you have much more to share than your book, which is amazing and a huge feat. I don't mean to minimize it. The other pitfall I already mentioned, I do feel like many nonfiction authors, experts in your field, right, you end up overwhelming your audience because you have so much to share. It is easy, as I mentioned, to forget that most people don't know nearly as much as you do.

Margie Beiswanger [00:22:19]:

And what you may think is a small bit of information, a little bite size, can actually feel like that fire hose of water spraying someone with way too much force. And it's worth reiterating that you've got to be mindful of breaking things down and not overwhelming them because it will actually close them down versus opening them up to wanting to learn more. And that's what we want. We want to meet them where they are so they feel confident and excited to learn what's next.

Susan Friedmann [00:22:50]:

So I'm feeling very vulnerable here now because I think you were describing me. It's like, okay, if I can do it, well, I just assume other people are going to be able to do it. If I know it, I'm assuming other people know it. And as you rightly said, couldn't be further from the truth that that, you know, that happens because my background is very different from your background, and your background is different from mine, so you've learned things that I knew nothing about. I grew up in a big city. You know, if you've grown up on a farm, if you've grown up in a small rural community, I've no idea what that was like growing up in that kind of environment. Yeah. Right.

Susan Friedmann [00:23:37]:

You've been in publishing for a long time.

Margie Beiswanger [00:23:39]:

Think how much has changed since you started. And somebody who may have published a book or learned all about it even 10 years ago does not even come close to knowing what you know. Right?

Susan Friedmann [00:23:53]:

And I don't necessarily know everything that's going on now because things are changing so quickly. It's extraordinary. And it's, you know, there's an element of scariness about it as well. How fast things are changing.

Margie Beiswanger [00:24:09]:

That's true. But, you know, one of the things I remind myself of is there's no way, another old adage, you can't make all the people happy all the time. You just can't. I'm not here to be everyone's perfect coach on their journey to creating their signature program or their online courses. I'm here for a small number of people who we mesh perfectly, where our paths are have, you know, linked up. Yeah. You don't have to know everything, but the people who are perfect to work with you are going, that's exactly what I need to know. Thank you.

Margie Beiswanger [00:24:45]:

This is so helpful. And this is true for any of us as experts. Your job is not to learn it all and teach it all. You know, Marcus Buckingham, who came from the Gallup industry I mean, I don't even know. Maybe this was 20 years ago now. He wrote the book on strengths finders that has since gone crazy. But one of the things he said in that original book is a strength is not just something you're good at. It is also something you enjoy.

Margie Beiswanger [00:25:15]:

And I think this applies to experts in their field. There's plenty that you're good at, plenty that, you know, but I encourage my clients to add in another piece. What are you really passionate about? What makes you just over the moon to share with people or help them with or teach them? Let's focus in on that.

Susan Friedmann [00:25:36]:

Yeah. Which is this is a brilliant segue, Margie. You couldn't have set it up better for allowing the audience now, our listeners, to find out more about you because that's exactly if I was in their place that I would want to know, it's like, tell me more. How can they find you? I know you have a little thing to offer them as well.

Margie Beiswanger [00:26:01]:

Yes. I thought I would give them something that, you know, at first glance, may not seem connected to being an author of a nonfiction book, but it's a free resource I have titled 20 ways to generate income from Your Signature Talk. And it's actually deeply related and can be incredibly beneficial to open you up to this idea that your book is a powerful tool, a launchpad for what's next for you. And that all this amazing work you've done can be expanded upon. It can be contracted and brought up to a 20,000 foot view. There's so many ways to repurpose that. So I wanna share with them that resource, 20 ways to generate income from your signature talk, because it guides you on how to transform what you're talking about, whether that's your signature talk or your book into something that will resonate with your audience and the ways you can do that. Because again, we get stuck.

Margie Beiswanger [00:27:01]:

We think I've done the book. What else am I supposed to do? So it's just a list of all these different ways that I hope will spark your interest for you to take action and repurpose your book. So my website is signaturebrilliance.com and the gift is not on the menu. So you're gonna go to signaturebrilliance.com/20  for 20 ways. It's part of my signature talk toolkit, which they can see on the website. It's one of the tools that I include in that. And, honestly, if you don't already have a signature top created from your book, I would say that could be your next item.

Susan Friedmann [00:27:46]:

Which absolutely. Because that's one of the marketing strategies that I stress is that speaking, training, coaching, that's going to make them money and having a signature program that they can literally sell to the right audience is a wonderful way in which they can really, as you say, launch the book into a whole different stratosphere. I think that's lovely. And I will put that in the show notes as well, just in case somebody can't write it down because they're driving, or they're, you know, at the gym, on the treadmill, and they don't have a pen and paper there handy, or something, you know, that they can input this information. And Margie, as you know, we always end off with a golden nuggets, some more words of wisdom that you'd like to leave our listeners with.

Margie Beiswanger [00:28:46]:

I was thinking maybe it should be what I started with, but your book is actually not an endpoint. It's a launch pad for a multitude of additional opportunities for you, for impact and income.

Susan Friedmann [00:29:02]:

Two brilliant words. Yes. Impact, income, and that whole idea of it's not the end of the journey. This is actually the beginning of the end in the book. In fact, I just wrote an article and started it off with the end, saying, hey, this isn't the end. It actually is the beginning of a whole different journey. Yes. Thank you so much, Margie, for sharing your wisdom.

Susan Friedmann [00:29:31]:

This was wonderful. I love it. And I know that we could have more conversations on this topic because it's so rich, and there's so much that we could be doing with the book. And listeners, if your book isn't selling the way you want it or expect it to, let'syou and I jump on a quick call together to brainstorm ways to ramp up those sales because you've invested a whole lot of time, money and energy. It's time that you got the return that you were hoping for. Go to BrainstormWithSusan.com to schedule your free call. And in the meantime, I hope this powerful interview sparked some ideas you can use to sell more books. Until next week, here's wishing you much book and author marketing success.

Download  Margie's "20 Ways to Generate Income with Your Signature Talk"