Ep #20: The Power of Paperback For Financial Advisors

Today's guest has built a career around helping business owners and financial advisors stop chasing clients and start attracting them by doing one simple but powerful thing. Writing a book. Michael Delon is known as the credibility coach and his story is one every advisor can relate to. After leaving a career in ministry, he found himself struggling to be seen as the expert he truly was until he wrote his first book on marketing. That single move transformed how prospects viewed him and opened the door to a new way of building trust. Now through his company, Paperback expert, Michael helps advisors, attorneys and business owners turn their expertise into authority by creating published books to position them as the go to professional in their field. In today's episode, we'll talk about what happens when you stop competing for attention and instead create credibility that speaks for itself via publishing a book. Let's welcome Michael. Hi Michael. Welcome to the Advisor summit. We're so excited to have you on.

Molly, thank you for having me. It's going to be a great conversation. I just can't wait to get into this and to share some fun things with your audience. Thanks for having me.

Of course, even you have so much fun energy. I do feel like this is going to be a really easy one also. Just free flowing conversation. I think advisors are going to get a lot of knowledge also. I mean you have so much credibility in this industry, especially you know, pertaining to financial advisors. But really, I mean the industry for paperback as a whole. And I'm excited because I feel like paperback is almost the bit of a lost heart if that's okay to say. But it really is like such a pinnacle thing in the industry that people still want. So I'm excited to explore that. But let's kind of start from the beginning. You kind of talked about how you transformed your business through publishing a book and I thought that was really powerful. So for a financial advisor listening, why might become becoming a published author be one of the most strategic marketing moves they could make? I feel like, I mean I track that advisor to you. We always promote marketing. Marketing is so important and any capacity. But book writing can be really powerful. So kind of give us the background of why that might be a good move to make.

Yeah, absolutely. Because marketing happens in the mind of your audience. It's really about how people think about you. Okay, so let me tell them my story real quick because I think it sets the stage for exactly why I tell people they need to be writing a book. So long story short, I was in Christian radio for through the 90s. That's where I learned how to do Marketing for small business owners. God led us from there to a. A ministry to marriages and families, sharing God's blueprints for marriage. And so I did that for a number of years. And then they went through corporate reorganizations, and I found myself stuck in, I call it prison, a job I hated at a ministry I loved. And after two years of being stuck in prison, I, I finally prayed and talked to my wife. I said, God, I got to get out of this place. And he said, what do you want to do? I said, I want to go help business owners with marketing because they, they struggle with it, and I love it. And God said, go. So on January 1st of 2013, I escaped from prison. I. I left the ministry, started a marketing consulting firm. And I would come out, Molly, to you, and talk about business and my strategies, and you'd say, michael, this all sounds really good. Tell me, who else have you helped and where have you, you know, what else have you been doing? I said, well, I've been helping build marriages and families at Family Life. And you'd say, michael, that's honorable. Way to go. Oh, look at the time. I've got another meeting coming up. Can. Can we reschedule this and talk again? And you'd usher me right out the door. Because, Molly, in your mind, I was a ministry guy, not a marketing guy, and I couldn't get any clients. And so I knew I had to fix that. So I went to my church one day and I prayed and I asked God, I said, how do I help, Molly? And he's like, take all of your ideas and put them in a book. And so I wrote my first book, Molly. It's called on marketing back in 2013. Then I would call you, I'd set an appointment, I would mail a copy of my book to you. I'd walk into your office a week later for our meeting, and there it was. My book was on your desk, dog eared, highlighted, underlined. You'd read my book, and in that meeting, you'd say, now, Michael, in your book, you said, how do you help me do that?

Yep.

And I started gaining clients. And after about, after I gained three or four clients, I said, wait a minute, what's going on? Why don't business owners do this? And Molly, the only thing that changed between the first time I met with you right in the second time, was the way you thought of me when you got a copy of my book. I instantly became an expert in your mind on marketing. And you were waiting to take down my prescriptions to your Pain, Everything happened by how you, how I was able to influence how you thought of me so that we'd have a great conversation and you become a client. So the reason advisors need to really consider becoming a published author is because there is so much noise out there and they all sound like Charlie Brown's teacher. They're all saying the same thing, their websites look the same. But when you can put up your book into somebody's hand and help them understand how to retire on purpose, this is my right. That changes the entire conversation. It changes how they think of you. Now they're engaged. And what's going to happen is you're going to build trust much faster and you're going to gain more clients because of who they believe you are.

I think that's so powerful too. I mean, you went from zero clients because they didn't think you had the credibility. Wrote a book, mailed a book, and now all of a sudden you have this impactful credibility, which is funny to me because it's like you still had no clients. You still had zero clients until your first one. But then again, it's that influence in their mind. What did their mind think? And I, I find that there's so much psychology in business, which maybe we should do a whole nother episode on that, but there's so much psychology behind you taught them that you are credible, influencing, you are a credible source. And that is what the power of book writing can do. And I think I want to touch on you. So you talked about a lot of noise. And I think financial advisors often struggle to stand out in a crowded marketplace because there is, there's that constant noise they do. All the websites are great. And now we have so much technology and ChatGPT and just these amazing people that can build all these great websites. But from your experience, what makes a book such a unique credibility builder compared to other marketing channels? Because some books also could really align with that where they could all maybe be the same. But granted, I will say most of the marketplace isn't going to read more than one or two financial advisor books. Right. Like, that is not a common book club book. So kind of talk us through how to kind of stand out within that atmosphere.

Yeah, no, that's great. It really starts with your story. Every advisor has a story. Why? Why do you do what you do? What's different about you? My marketing philosophy. I've got lots of them, but my primary marketing philosophy, Molly's people buy who you are more than what you do. Okay, we want to do business with people we know like and trust, people we believe in. So you have a story to tell. So one, one quick. I've got lots of examples I'm going to show you. Okay. As we talk about it, clients who came to me, they had a story and we helped them craft it. Brad Pistol is a financial advisor in the Missouri area, Ozarks, and he's written two books with us. His second book, after having great success with this first one, he's like, I'm ready to do another one. So he came back to me and the, the philosophy is, is create. Getting a second opinion and creating a, a retirement plan that is, as we came down to the title, Bulletproof.

Love it.

So Bulletproof is the name of his book, the Safe and Secure Retirement Plan. But here's where it really gets good. Because, like, I mean, anybody could talk about Bulletproof.

Right, Sir?

What happened is, is we tell the story of Brad, that Brad, a number of years ago found out he had a brain tumor and he went to a doctor and one doctor was like, yeah, there's not a whole lot we can do for you. He got a second opinion. The second opinion said, oh, no, we can do something. So when Brad wrote his book, Brad printed his book in color because he wanted pictures of him and his brain surgery and the value, the life saving value of a second opinion. And so bulletproof to hand out to people to say, you may have an advisor, but if you'd like to have a second opinion that might just change your life, let's have a conversation. Why don't you get a copy of my book, I'll give it to you for free, read it and then let's have that conversation. Oh, he has helped so many people. Because what happens, Molly, when you, when you lead with your story, it resonates with people and it connects you at a heart level.

Yep.

They're like, oh, I like this person. They're like me. That's who I want to work with. So, yeah, so that's, that's how you really need to structure your book is telling your story and being real, authentic and transparent.

Yeah. I feel like people too can like sniff out when it's inauthentic, you know, and it's. And they do relate. I mean, even not to bring it personal, but my sister had a brain tumor. And so that like very much resonates with me going through, watching her surgery and watching her go through all of that. So it's like, gosh, like I would relate to somebody like that.

Yeah.

Talk about that. And it wasn't me personally, but, you know, someone obviously very close to me. So I think that's great. And I think, too, it's. Especially with the rise of, you know, AI, I think people sense, like, genuine human connection is the currency in this world now. And it is such a neat thing to watch people lean on the humanness of each other and really know that that makes a difference. And, like, we are all human, and that's how God created us to be. We are created to be in relationship. And so if you can find someone that resonates with your book and really knows your story and understands your story, that's a really key factor.

So it is. And let's. Let's pause there. And I know we're kind of talking books, but let's talk marketing. Okay?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Whether you're using LinkedIn, posts, Facebook, it doesn't matter. Share. Share what's going on in life. Okay. Share that you have dogs and cats or that you have kids and you're at the playground with your kids. Post things like that because that causes people to. To say, oh, this. You really are a person. You have more to your life than financial advising. Shocking.

Yeah. Which is hard. It is hard. I even feel that on LinkedIn, I'm like, am I bugging people by posting pictures of me with my kids? Which is. I mean, they're cute kids, so, like, you shouldn't be bothered. But I feel like that's freeing for me to hear. So hopefully for others, too, people do want to know you. They want to know who you are, or even they're just nosy and want to know what you're up to, and that's ok. Like, the post engagement is engagement, so I don't care.

Absolutely. Yeah. It's really good.

No, that's helpful to know. Again, I think you hit it on the head. It has to be your story, and it has to be personable. So I think, too, for financial advisors, a lot of them, I mean, they're just such entrepreneurs and they are very confident in what they do because they are very good at it. So I feel like a lot of them probably have a little bit of apprehension when they go to write a book because they're like, gosh, I'm just not very good at it. I've never written a book. I don't know how to do it. So how does your process kind of remove those barriers and make book publishing realistic for busy professionals? Because I think that's the other thing is they don't have a ton of time to dedicate to this, but it is important. I mean, we've kind of reviewed that and it is really a cool feature for marketing in general. But how do you kind of remove that, that barrier?

I'll give you my number one piece of counsel. Never, never write a book.

Okay, great.

That sounds blasphemous, right? And what I mean by that, and, and it comes out of my story of writing my first book, which was just hard work because I'm not a writer. What I mean by that is you don't want to write a book. You want to speak your book. Okay. Because you're, as an advisor, you're a communicator, you're a thought leader to your audience. You can talk about your business all day long. That's how you need to be crafting your book. So our process is a speak to write process. Okay? So once we, once we have your title, Bulletproof, and we know what it's about, I match you with one of my ten professional writers, and through about an hour a week on Zoom, we're asking you questions and you're just talking, you're speaking the contents of your book to my professional writer who knows how to extract your genius. And then after about eight or 10 calls, we have everything we need. And now we craft your manuscript using your words, your tone, your voice, your message. Obviously, the advisor is involved in all of it, improving it and making sure it's just them. But we are really fanatical about capturing the voice of that author, the tone, the message, so that when somebody reads your book, they're going to say, I heard you in the pages of the book. It sounds like that's what we're after. And our process is super simple. It takes less than 24 clock hours of our clients time, over six months of ours to get a book from zero to published at Amazon.

It's, that's amazing. And you handle all of it from, I mean, from the start to finish getting it on Amazon, the, you know, beautiful images on the front page, everything. Okay, that's good to know too, I think, because sometimes it's like, do I have to go find now someone to do the image work? Do I have to go find someone to put it online? That's a lot.

Okay. And we go, we go the next mile too. Not only do we do everything, I mean, the only thing we don't do is the content and we extract that from you. Okay. But we do everything else to get your book ready, to publish it to Amazon, to Kindle, to PDF, hardcover, paperback. We also create audiobooks for our clients. We create podcasts that go along with the book. But more important than really all of that, those are all credibility platforms, right? More important than all of that is the marketing system that we create for every one of our clients. And author marketing systems go, okay, great, you have this book now what are you going to do with it? How are you going to get this in the hands of people so it gets, gets you more appointments and more conversations and more clients and more referrals so that it actually pays for itself year after year after year after year after year. How do you do that? I've created marketing game plans for every one of my clients so that they can get an ROI on their book and we actually back it up with a two year money back guarantee because I know it works. So it's not just being a published author, it's being a published author who understands how to make that a profitable book. By using your book in the marketing you're already doing, it's, it's a game changer. So yeah, not many publishing firms do everything that we do and with Chat GPT you can get a book created very quickly. But yeah, it's not going to sound like you and you're not going to do with it. And so we really don't recommend Chat GPT.

Yeah, yeah, we'll talk about that later for sure.

Because I think anyway, I just wanted to, it's everything you, you're going to need to grow your business as an author using a very simple process that, that we've just dialed in over the last decade.

Dialed in, I think too it's similar to those that are like used to the Tracted Advisor platform. It's, there's a difference in knowing your data and understanding your data. There's a difference in writing a book and using your book. You know, there's such a difference there. And really to take that extra step and go, great, I've created, created this. You've used a lot of time and effort to make this. Now what do you do with it is huge. So to take them on that extra journey is really critical. So I know also with advisors, compliance is always on the top of their mind. We gotta love the compliance and shout out to all of our compliance people because I love you, I couldn't be you, but I appreciate you so much. How can advisors work within the industry regulation? Because obviously there's rules around that while still publishing a book that showcases their expertise and personality. Because I think that's Huge is we do want to show like, hey, we do know. They do know what they're doing, but how do we keep it compliant? Like, what do you do in your business to ensure that.

Yeah, we've dealt with compliance for a decade. I mean, yeah, I love them, but I look at compliance as guardrails on a bridge. Right. They're there to keep us safe. And so as we start down the road, working with an advisor, we want them to let compliance know we're going to create a book. Is there anything we need to look out for? Because every compliance department is different. But compliance is really, they get, they get edgy when you start talking about returns or specific things. And that's not really the place for that in a book anyway. Right, Right. We make sure that you're not going down into the weeds on things. So our writers understand the, the broad aspect of most compliance issues. But what happens is, is we tell compliance we're writing a book, get any counsel from them at the beginning. We walk down the pathway. We get the manuscript done and approved by the client, and then that advisor sends it to the compliance department at that time frame. They walk through it, make any changes, and then we, then we approve it and go to copy editing and proofreading everything. But compliance is totally involved and we, we need them, we want them involved. But we know, we know we're going to stay at a high level because really the book is to, to get people from A to B to scheduling an appointment to nurturing them. Right. Every situation is different. That's why you hold the details until you meet with someone. But we work with compliance all day.

Every day, so that's not a factor. And you talked about, so when you're meeting with a prospect, you know, A to B, what is your recommendation as far as utilizing that book? Should they be sending it? I mean, it really is a silent salesperson. The book is really, really kind of their first go at, hey, this is who I am. This is what I stand for, this is what I believe in, this is what I do. And I mean, that obviously is so critical, but how should advisors strategically be using their book? Should it be before a prospect, a client meeting or a prospect meeting, but during the prospect meeting, what is your recommendations on that or kind of the data behind that?

That is a great question. So go back to Brad. I mean, I've got, I could pull a dozen different books. I mean, we can talk about.

Joe, I know you've, you've worked some of, with our, some of our mutual clients. And I'm like, I organize this book before.

Absolutely. So let's talk Joe Schmitz. He's in Columbus, Ohio. He's written four books with us. And so Joe's on tv. He's got a morning show type thing. He's on radio, he's got a podcast, he's got a website, he's got LinkedIn. He's got all. He's got 12 marketing channels, and he uses his book in every one of them. Hey, get a free copy of my book. I hate taxes. If you hate taxes and you want to figure out how to, how to mitigate those taxes in your retirement, why don't you get a free copy of my book, read it, and see if we need to have a conversation. He does it at the very beginning. Because what Joe does, and this is one of the strategies we teach, is I want to. I want to filter out prospects who may not be good for me, and I want to attract and bond with those who are. So in Joe's world, if you hate taxes, you're going to read that book. And through that book, you're going to go, joe's my guy. I want to talk to Joe.

Yeah, yeah.

And when they schedule that appointment, guess what? That is not a first appointment. Because of all the preconditioning and all the bonding. That actually feels like a second appointment. They're going to say, hey, Joe, in chapter four, you talked about just like you did Molly when I mailed you my book years ago. So we, we teach, we work with every client. Say, that's a strategy. We always want your book on your website. Get a free copy of my book here, click get a PDF copy goes to a thank you page. Thank you so much for downloading my book. It'll be in your inbox in a couple of minutes. If you would like to have a free physical copy mailed to you, just let us know where to put that. We put that in your hands as well. So, so during the process, they're tracking that lead to say, hey, if you opt into my ebook, what we have found is 50% of the people who opt into the ebook give us all of their information to get a physical copy of the book. Now, now we teach our advisors to not just don't just grab a postal thing and send it your book.

Create a note, make it personal, and.

Send it in what we call a welcome and wow kit. Maybe you've heard shock and all package. Yeah, yeah, I just don't want to shock anybody. I want to really welcome them and so, yeah, a nice handwritten note. You sign the book, you put some candy in it, and some other information about your firm. And then I have a four step follow up process that somebody in your office does after you mail that to them, that you call them in a couple of days and say, hey, Molly, we mailed you that big blue box. Did it get. Have you received it yet or did the mailman lose it? Because we want to make sure it gets in your hands. Oh, no, I actually got it yesterday. Awesome. You're going to love the information. I'll call you back in a couple of days, give you some time to look through everything. Yeah, then we call you back. So we're not pesky salespeople. We're building credibility, making sure you're getting the information and we're walking them through a process. And with everything that you do with tracking data, we know when they get it, where they are in the process, when they schedule the call. And then I have an entire system on how to precondition through video from the time they set the appointment till the time they show up. That is a game changer. That shrinks the sales cycle and increases the closing ratio as well.

Well, I feel like too the stick rate wouldn't be extremely high also because they feel like they know you, so they're typically going to come in and at least meet you because they feel like they're standing at the front at that point.

Yeah, because, I mean, how frustrating is it for advisors to get an appointment and get excited and realize 20 minutes into the call this is not even a good prospect? That's a waste of time and money because your time is valuable. That's where preconditioning them, letting people read this before they ever schedule an appointment with you is very valuable. Well, how much does cost a lot of money, Michael? No, it's not. The book's about five bucks and mailing it is about three or four bucks.

Yeah, you spent way more on dinner seminars, you spend way more on radio, you spend way more on TV people. Lots of stats on the cost per client on a lot of different marketing funnels. And not $8 is very cheap.

Oh, it's, it's incredible for the, for the return and, and the person that read it who's not a good prospect today might be in two years or three years. And guess what, Molly, you know this. It is sacrilegious to throw a book away in our culture.

Oh my God. I have a whole stinking closet full of all of them. I don't Know why I'm never going to read them again.

I know, but you might if you got this and you're not ready today.

Yeah, yeah.

Two years from now you're like, where's that, where's that book? Because I hate taxes.

Yeah. Yeah.

So it's the long term effect as well as that short term saying. So don't always look for the, what I call the, the 3% of the market who are in the market today. Yeah, let's sell to them, but let's focus on the 57% who are in the market in the next 90 days to three years. That's where the.

Yeah. And you want to be top of mind and you want to be someone that they remember and someone that had something credible that they're going to, they're going to look back to.

So, and let's pause there. Let's go back to a book. When you create a book, you have now a library of content that you can speak on, on social media, on tv, on your podcast, being a podcast guest, and you're always the author of and you point people back to your website to get a free copy of your book. So now your messaging is not Charlie Brown's teacher. It's very specific about who you are and what you believe and give somebody a great call to action to get a free copy of something that's very valuable. It just, it solidifies the messaging that you're putting in front of your audience in such a powerful way. And you let your competitors be Charlie Brown's teacher.

Right, Right. And you're, like you said, you're backing it up with more modes than just the book. You have the podcast, you have a website, you have, you know, maybe they're telling their friends to go get this book that they just read because they feel like it was good knowledge and there's a lot more to it than just writing a books.

I've got 18 different strategies we teach our clients.

Yeah.

Step by step guides of how to make money with your book.

It's perfect. I mean I do have like a handout or anything. Maybe we can link it in the show notes that we could give to people. And just if they're interested in starting or just want some more information, we'll link something in the show notes, something in the show for sure. I feel like we talked a lot about the positives of, you know, advisors utilizing these books and all the good stories. What are some mistakes, mistakes that potentially advisors make when trying to market books themselves or how does credibility marketing help avoid Those pitfalls.

Yeah, it's funny. It's funny. You ask Kayla and I just. Kayla, my son, he's my chief operating officer. He and I just created the documents, the bad book marketing plan, and I love it. Seven things, not seven things to do. If you want to make no money with your book. And here's what happens. They a. Don't put it on their website. They don't put it on the front page of the website, which is. I highly recommend that. Or have a dedicated landing page for it. Okay. They don't do that. They. They don't really tell anybody about their book. They don't hand it out to prospects or clients. They have a book, but it's like, oh, that was fun. Next. Next. Shiny object. Next. Shiny object.

Yep.

Honestly, this is what they do. They don't give it to happy clients to say, hey, Molly, thank you for allowing us to serve you. Would you do me a favor? And you're going to say yes. Could you. Would you be willing just take three or four copies of our book? And as you're talking with your friends over the next couple of three weeks about how we've created this retirement plan for you, would you just hand them a copy of my book and say, well, here's who we trust. They were amazing. Would you do that for me, Molly?

Yeah, I'm already serving them. They're gonna say, yes.

Brad Pistol, he's done that for about eight years now. And here's his phrase. Somebody says, brad, can I. Can I take a. Can I get another copy of your book or so to hand out somebody? Brad's answer, absolutely. Would you like five or 10 copies? And he is dead serious. He's made so much money on referrals like that that it's. But not understanding the simplicity of just doing something.

Okay.

And many advisors and get. I mean, yes, they're great entrepreneurs. They're type A's. They're chasing every little thing that comes along and they hear a webinar by somebody else and they go, I want to go do that. And they forget. Yeah. That you just invested in a marketing machine that you haven't put any fuel in. Those are the biggest, biggest mistakes. If you do virtually anything with your book, it's going to pay for itself. But many, many advisors, they just. They just keep going to the next thing, to the next thing. And it's like, I'm so sorry.

Yeah, yeah. And I get it. I mean, this shiny object is the fun thing, and the shiny object is what you think is going to make the most money. And we always say you have to have three kind of solid marketing. It's like a stool. You have to have three solid marketing platforms and then go find your shiny object. And I see especially paperback and, and just books in general. It's like it's such a tool to be an addition to your marketing. You can utilize it while you're on TV as a free promo. You can utilize it while you're on radio asking, directing them to your website for a free gift. You can utilize it at dinner, seminars, giving it away. I mean, I just feel like it's this really unique and tool that can be used in so many different aspects. And it's not standalone marketing, it's not standalone marketing.

And it's also, it doesn't come across as, as I'm trying to sell you a product or a program or something. It's like something. Think about having your book done. This is one of our strategies. We teach. And why don't you do a short video on every chapter, just talking about that chapter. And now you take that one video, or let's say you had 12 chapters, you've got 12 videos now you put them all on your website, all on your YouTube channel, all on Facebook, all on LinkedIn, all on TikTok, because you're educating people. And at the end of every one of those videos, hey, just get a free copy of my book at my website. Oh, driving people to your website to get into your funnel so you can nurture them, so you can have a conversation with them. The book becomes the cornerstone of all of your marketing and it makes your marketing more consistent, more credible and more. And over time, people start understanding, oh, you're that person who.

Yes, yeah. Who wrote that book. And you're like, yes, I actually am that person who wrote that book and that place for sure. So I feel like, I mean, it is such a credibility builder. And so if an advisor is listening and they're maybe still skeptical, which I'm like, there's so much knowledge and wisdom out there. Just write the dang book. But if they are skeptical, what's kind of the mindset shift that they may be need to make in order to kind of get over that skepticism or what's kind of the first steps they need to take in order to write that book?

Call their. Call their buddy who wrote two years ago, right? And say, did it, did it do any difference? Right. Honestly, I mean, if you're at this point in the game, in, in our culture and you're skeptical about Whether it's going to work or not, you're probably listening to the wrong people. You're listening to people who are talking about publishing a book and you don't understand the, the long tail of what am I going to do with that book? So you need to stop thinking I'm a author or I'm going to get a book. No, you, you're buying. And you need to invest in a business growth system that begins with your message put into a best selling book that gives you the opportunity to expand your influence and grow your business. It's a mindset shift. I mean, I bought this thing at a conference the other day. It's, it's, it's made out of a 3D printer thing. I'm a jigger, right. And I don't even know what it is, but it's a fun to. If I could, if I told you that I could help you grow your business by 30 a year by buying this, you'd buy it.

You'd buy it.

So why won't you book that's going to last the rest of your career that will produce a lot more than that. So it's a mindset shift. It's not a gadget or a gizmo. It's a positioning piece to both your credibility and bring in more clients so you can impact their lives. Yeah, that's how you need to be thinking.

Yeah, I love that. And I think too. So kind of on the opposite end, obviously there are those that are skeptic that want to do it and then there are those that are like, oh, I can go write a book on ChatGPT. I'm sure in the book writing world, when ChatGPT kind of started to make its launch, it was a very hot topic. So kind of walk us through why that's not the best idea and why it is important. Important. Either use an expert or, you know, write it yourself or find someone that you can utilize in that. In that sense.

Yeah, Great question. So a couple things right off the bat. If, if you're going straight to Chat GPT, that content's all over the Internet. It's not copyright protected. Okay. Number one, okay. Number two, it's pulling all the same information for the advisor down the road who's writing a book using Chat GPT. And so you're both going to sound the same. Not a good thing. You sound the same right now. That's why you're Charlie Brown's teacher. The purpose of a book is to position you and tell your story and bond with your audience is that human aspect that you were talking about earlier. And if you're not a writer, good, hire somebody who is. Never write your book. Don't sit down in front of your computer in a blank word document going, I'm going to write my book. That's the stupidest thing you can do. Seriously.

I love that. I love that because it's so free. Because I feel like everyone's just like, I could do it. And it's like, no, you actually can't. Like, you're not. I always have equate this to like, you're not going to be in your dot, your own doctor, you're not going to be your own plumber, you're not going to be an electrician, and you're not going to be your own anything. So, like, why wouldn't you hire an expert to do it? I think it's insane. To me, it is.

And what do financial advisors do? Tell prospects who say, hey, thank you very much. I think I'm just going to do it myself.

No, don't.

So. There's so many negatives. Caleb, my son, has read multiple attempts at Chat GPT books the other people have written. And he's like, I can't get past three pages. It's just that bad. And it is. Maybe in the future it'll get better, I don't know. But there's. There's nothing that's going to capture your tone, your voice, like human is. And yeah, if you get 24 hours, we'll get your book done.

Yeah, 24 hours is not a big commitment.

Leverage your time. I work with busy entrepreneurs every day. We get it.

Yeah, yeah. It's so true. It's, it's. What is your time, honestly? It's going to take you more than 24 hours if you're trying to utilize.

So.

And then you get a way lesser product.

Okay, let's stop there. Let's stop there. The other aspect, everybody has these, these visions of Granger. I'm going to use Chat GPT. Great. You get a manuscript. Now you have to get somebody to edit it, to proofread it, to format it, to get the ISBN number, to get a cover design, to get it through the Amazon maze, and then to get it published finally. Not to mention the other 30 steps that I don't even know about. So it's not just chatgpt to create some content. I got a client last month, he's written two little tiny books using Chat GPT. He's like, they're okay for the lead magnet type things. I was going towards my real book and I realized that's not going to work. So I reached out to you, Michael, and now we're creating his book. And it's amazing because we were able to weave his, his process, his thought, his DNA into his title and his book outline in a way that he never was, was able to do. And he told us that. He's like, I, that was, I would never come up with that.

So different. That's why you're an expert. I mean everybody's an expert in what they do and it's needed. Yeah. And day in and day out, you've spent the time, you spent the hours to become the professionals and I feel like there's reliance on that. And I do think, think chat GPT can be a good tool, like you said, like for the smaller lead magnet things. Sure, go for it. But when you're trying to actually do the full fledged book, it's not often going to come out that way.

So it'll do you more harm than compliance.

You also have to go through compliance. I feel like we're gonna get a lot of hits on compliance on this one though. I'm gonna be so thrilled that we, we mentioned them. Shout out to compliance.

They're there, they're doing their job, they're keeping us 100.

They get a bad rap and I'm like, you know, what are keeping us safe? So I love it. But anyway, I feel like our final question today, we always add in the Advisor Summit podcast with this one is where you're tracking today. Are you, where are you trucking personally or professionally? What's your big goal for the year? Or whether it's personal or professional, what's your, what's your big thing happening this year?

Yeah, my big thing happening is it's on order, it's being made right now. I finally. And so long story short, when I was 16 years old, I was taking flying lessons. So I, I soloed in a Piper Warrior airplane, single engine on my 16th birthday.

Oh my gosh. Okay.

I've always loved flying. I never got my pilot's license because I gave it up after that. But I've always loved flying. And so on my birthday this year, I turned 59 and I said I'm going to do it. And so I bought a powered paramotor. So think about this little gizmo with a big engine on your back and a parachute over the top.

Yes. My husband and I were actually just looking at these because we were considering trying it for hunting, to try to get into, like, very remote areas. And so we were just looking these up. That's so funny.

We can talk offline, but mine's on or being manufactured. And in the next two or three weeks, I'm gonna go and get trained on it and start flying my. My Paramoto.

Oh, that's amazing, Michael. I'm excited for you. I'm also. It's also amazing to me that nobody needs a license to do them. I'm glad you're getting training because you don't need a license. And I thought that was insanity. I'm like, you need some type of training.

So I'm going up for a week of training from a guy from the number one trainer, and he's been doing it for decades. Super safe. And I can't wait to do it.

I. Okay, well, definitely post pictures on LinkedIn, because, like we talked about, people want to see your whole life, and we want to get to know you more. So if anyone's looking to do a book, what's the best way to contact you? Is it be LinkedIn via your website? What's the best. Best avenue to go?

Yeah, Paperback expert dot com. That's our. Our website. That is this center and hub of all things. Michael, you can. You can reach me anywhere from there. But it. There's also a lot of information, free trainings, all kinds of things there to help you understand who we are, how we operate. So Paperback expert dot com.

Perfect. We'll leave everybody there. So thank you so much for joining, Michael. This has been a great conversation. I learned a lot personally, so I'm like, we need to go put our book on the website front page. So that is one thing I can take away today. And for any advisor listening, just take the jump. I think it's a big thing to do a book, but it is really helpful. I think you showed us that today, so thank you, Molly.

It's been so much fun. Thanks for allowing me to just share our passion, our expertise, and we're there to serve anybody and have great conversations. Thank you.