There’s a well known marketing rule that it takes people an average of seven interactions with your brand before they will decide whether they want to buy from you.
You can create those seven touchpoints more quickly through books, blogs, podcasts and social media posts by actively repurposing your content to reach more of your intended audience (and help them get to know, like and trust you).
Write Business Results (WBR) offers a done-for-you service where we write your entire book or blogs through content consultations (with you) and provide the editorial, proofing, designing and marketing expertise. We can also work with you to further develop pre-written content.
Bringing a book into the world is a cathartic experience for many of our authors including speaker, mentor and lifestyle financial planner Doug Bennett. Doug’s second book Think Simple Win Big; How To Build The Business Of Your Dreams With A Few Simple Goals is due to be published this month.
The edge of bankruptcy
Doug began his working life as a cashier at the Halifax in 1983. He went on to become a mortgage broker before developing a financial services practice. His parents both died within 12 weeks of each other in 2008 and Doug used his inheritance to buy a bigger house and a Harley Davidson, but within two years a global financial crisis left him with a six-figure personal debt and a massive mortgage. He was on the brink of bankruptcy.
Doug created professional goals to help him rebuild the business, which he sold in 2019 for a seven-figure sum. He’s a master at goal-setting!
He continues to work part time for pleasure (work optional lifestyle) and is passionate about moving forwards and doing things his way. I wanted to know when he decided that building a strong personal brand was part of his strategy and if there was anything holding him back.
Overcoming imposter syndrome
Doug: “We’ve all got a book inside us. Often we can blast our way through 5,000 words but then writer’s block sets in. There comes a point where we don’t know how to take the ideas forward and that’s incredibly sad. Then I discovered through a simple conversation with WBR that there were many golden nuggets within my 5,000 words that could stand alone as a chapter in their own right.”
Doug has described an issue experienced by many aspiring authors. I was eager to hear how his journey creating content had supported him to build on his confidence and refine the message he wants to share with the world.
Doug: “As an author you don’t always recognise your own knowledge. Imposter syndrome was stopping me dead. Even though I have podcasts and blogs, one book out there and one on its way, I still question whether it’s good enough.
My work is all about setting and accomplishing goals; I am going to hit every single goal I ever set myself because I know how to do it and having a support network is very important. Whereas before imposter syndrome was making me freeze, now it might only affect me for a minute to an hour; it’s no longer days or weeks.
Through our work I can see the number of podcast downloads increasing so I know it’s delivering value and because I am excited to interview my guest speakers around goal setting I hope my listeners find it exciting too.”
Content must address a specific problem
Doug has touched on the importance of targeted content; creating content is no longer about trying to appeal to everybody. It aims to serve the people who have a very specific problem that you can help them solve. It’s about finding your niche so that the people you support can change their lives in a positive way and reflect those results in your income.
I wanted Doug to explore the key lessons he learnt from the content creation process.
Doug: “It’s important to believe in the message that you are sharing and everybody needs to focus on what they’re good at and use their time efficiently. There is so much involved in getting a podcast out there (deciding on content, intro music, editing, hosting) and I don’t think there are many entrepreneurs out there who have the skill or time to do that. It makes sense to subcontract to someone who has all of those skills and can make it sound and look amazing.”
Repurposing content
Repurposing content has also proven to be a successful strategy for Doug. It’s highly effective because it makes content work harder. A podcast can be turned into a blog, snippets of that blog become social media posts and a compilation of blogs and podcasts can contribute to a book. This triangle of content builds a strong personal brand.
Doug: “The essence of what I say during one of our conversations will have been developed more and turned into a blog; all of a sudden my nuggets of pure gold have become a whole seam of gold. It’s an amazing process”
Delivering your content in the way that your audience wants to receive it accelerates the buying process and in turn supports the consumer to deal with their specific problem more quickly.
Business results
The triangle of content continues to generate powerful business results for Doug.
Doug: “When people consume your content they get to know who you are as a person and whether they want to work with you; by the time they come to you there is almost no selling. If you’re authentic that comes through in the podcasts and the blogs. I find it easier to be me all the time rather than being one person in one arena and a different person in another.
Even though I am creating this content with Write Business Results it is still my voice and my message, which is really good because if people don’t like how I speak or the way I talk they won’t contact me, and that saves us from an uncomfortable conversation about not being the right fit to work together!”
Authentic content
As Doug mentioned, sharing a steady stream of authentic content is the perfect qualification tool. It makes sure that you’re in front of the right people who want what you offer, and who you can support to have a life changing experience.
To find out how Write Business Results can help you share your business message and create more impact through books, blogs and podcasts schedule a discovery call or email info@writebusinessresults.com
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