Michael Port discusses his new illustrated edition of Book Yourself Solid, which condenses the original 90,000-word book by two-thirds into visual diagrams readable in three hours. He shares his favorite sales strategy, the "red velvet robe" policy: work only with clients who energize you and bring out your best work.
Hello everybody in the entrepreneurial enclave. I have one of my favorite guests back. You've seen him here before? Well, maybe about a year ago on the old site, but you've seen him before. You know his name and you know his book. His name is Michael Port and he wrote Book Yourself Solid. Hey Mike, how are you doing?
I'm great. Thanks for having me here. I really, really appreciate it.
Yeah, brother, any, anytime. You got a brand new book coming out. Book Yourself Solid Illustrated. I have, I think about six copies of your book marked up all over my house and my office with what's the difference between that book and this book?
Well, you had to read the old book. Now you can see the ideas, see the concepts, so you can see yourself in them, which means you can understand them much easier, you can recall them easier, and most importantly, you can act on them. Look, the first book works five stars, hundreds of reviews on Amazon. But I still meet people who say, I love the book, but I didn't finish it. It's a lot of words, 90,000 words. It takes a long time and I don't really love to read. So they say, well, it's not your fault, Michael. I don't like to read. They say, well, our job as entrepreneurs is to figure out how to always solve the problems of the people we serve. And even if you do a good job, say in producing a product like Book Yourself Solid, always room for improvement. So I thought, if 85% of people are visual learners, that's a lot of people, then why should I only write with words? Why can't I illustrate the entire book? So we cut two thirds of the text and were able to visually demonstrate every single idea in the book. So that now, even though there are 480 pages, you can read it in three hours. I'm trying to make it easier, I'm trying to make it lighter, I'm trying to make it fun. And you know, I mean, look, here's an example of an illustration. This is about developing a personal brand identity. So you decide how you're known and you'll always see that in your mind every time you think of it. And it'll encourage you to actually be fully self expressed. Like this amazing. I don't know where he went over there. This amazing chameleon there.
Yeah. You know what I think of is I've read your book, I've read it through, I've read it multiple times. But if I see it in a different perspective, like illustration, I think I'll learn different lessons.
I know you Will. So it's not the. I mean, look, the system is the same, but it's not a duplication. This is not the same book. It's a better book than the first one. So for people who've read the first one, you are going to love this because you're going to so quickly reengage with the ideas. Oh, my God, I missed that the first time. Now I get what he's talking about. And it gives you a resource to go back to again and again and again so you can quickly get all this stuff. You can pick it back up. And for people who've never read it, well, now this is an incredible opportunity to get all of this information faster with full book yourself. Solid system.
Yeah. So a great entrepreneurial lesson right here is you can repurpose or reposition your content, because all people don't learn the same way. This is great. Give me your favorite entrepreneurial tip from within the book. Your favorite sales tip.
Well, there's so many, but this is a sales tip. But it may surprise you that this is a sales tip. The red velvet robe policy is the first chapter of the book, and the red velvet road policy is a filtration system. So you only work with people that are ideal for you, people that energize you, they inspire you. But most importantly, they allow you to do your best work. Because two things happen when you're doing your best work. Number one, everybody's talking about your best work. That's important for marketing. And number two, you're loving every minute of the work you do, which means you want to do more of it, which means you might even fall in love with marketing and selling because you're compelled to introduce what you have to offer to more people. Because you enjoy working with people that you are meant to serve. Now, here's how it works in a sales conversation. If I meet you and we've been having a series of sales conversations and I know we're ready, I can say to you, you're my ideal client. And you say, what do you mean? Because nobody's probably said that to them before. Most people will just sell to anybody that has a pulse and a checkbook. But I say, you're my ideal client. And they say, why? Well, I've noticed that you are collaborative, that you are energetic, that you seem to do the things you say you're going to do, that you have a high level of integrity, et cetera, et cetera. With each description, you know you're feeling better and better and better about yourself. But this person noticed this about me. My spouse hasn't even noticed this. And I say, and I do my best work with somebody just like you, because those are the qualities that allow me to do my best work because blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And who does this person want to work with? They want to work with somebody that does their best work with someone just like them or somebody that'll just work with anybody that can fog up a mirror.
Yeah. No, I love it. I love it.
It changes the nature of the sales conversation.
Totally does it. Totally. And everyone listening. That's just one tip out of countless tips you're going to get in the new book. It comes out April 8th, and I will race you to see who can buy it first on Amazon.
Fantastic. And if you go to bookyourselfsolidillustrated.com you'll see scores of bonuses you can get for buying it when it comes out, because we want to try to sell as many copies as we can. But most important to me, and don't tell my agent or my editor, but most important to me is that you actually use the book and get the results. I don't really care how many I sell. I'm most interested in the book being meaningful to the people that I serve.
Good. So there you guys have it. April Eigth. Buy the book. April 9. Be acting on the book. Michael, port. Thank you, brother.
You're the best.
Take care.
