How to write an e-book in under 5 hours. EP #166 - Den Lennie

G' day guys. Dan Lenny here, host of the how to Scale a Video Business podcast with episode number 166.

So I promised you last week when I talked about, you know, the importance of becoming an expert and we talked about writing a book that I'd share with you, a simple way to hack writing a book.

What I mean by that, I mean you don't have to go and write a 200 page book. You could get away with writing an E book that's somewhere between 12 and 18 pages. So that's what I'm going to show you today. I want to share with you rather how to do that.

So just to recap that, you know, the reason that writing a book is so, so powerful is it's a great way to hack authority. Authority being authority, you know, authority. So if you can become an author, then it will elevate your authority in your market, but you don't have to go away and write a full on printed book. Although that is absolutely going to be the best way to elevate your authority. You know, I have four books now, so I have a business for filmmakers which was written in 2014. That's a 232 page book. I have Marketing Filmmakers, which I think is about 125 pages. I have the Filmmakers Guide to Budgets and Quotes that increases profit margin on jobs by 20 to 30% instantly. I think that's like 60 pages. And then I have my most recent book which is Video Business Breakthrough, which is only 18 pages. But they can all do a similar job. So what I wanted to do today was talk really about the importance of execution and how to get more clients. Because it's something that I think is.

Often I hear a lot of people ask me if I could just get more clients. Everyone thinks that the answer to their problems is getting more clients. I could argue all day long that it's not. But you know, let's for the sake of argument say, okay, so you want to get more clients. That's what you think your business needs. So the best way to build authority in your niche or niche is to write a book. But if that seems just too far out of reach in your current situation, then that's okay. So just write an ebook. You know, when I did my last bootcamp, I think it was 2017 in London, 80% of the room created an ebook in three to five hours.

But I still get this overwhelming sense of resistance from people when they say, oh gosh, I could never write an ebook. And you know filmmakers, we're all pretty good at procrastinating and we're all recovering procrastinators. So if you're someone who's procrastinated about this.

Then, then I want this episode to be the episode that kicks you up the arse and says, just fucking do it. Okay? Because it will, it will absolutely transform your business if done properly as part of the funnel.

So I think where a lot of people struggle is with structure. So I want to share with you a simple system for creating an ebook so you can basically copy it, do the same. Now, as a little side note, statistically only around 10% of people who buy a book ever get beyond chapter one. Isn't that staggering? But that's not a bad thing because in an ebook it still brings huge authority. So you'll be lit, you'll be viewed as a leader in your space. And an e book can have a significant impact in beginning a relationship with a prospect and separating you from the competition. So here's my five step guide to creating a lead magnet in under five hours. So part one, we want to choose a frame. Now a frame is also going to likely be the basis of your headline. So a great starting point is to talk about the top five. The top five steps or the top five secrets or the top five things that or the top five mistakes that, you know, businesses make when hiring videographers. Five principles for making a compelling corporate video. Five keys, five elements, five virtues, five habits successful companies deploy when making highly converting videos. Five traits of, you know, high converting videos. Five rules, five laws, five questions. Five reasons you get the idea. So for example, the top five reasons people fail in business. The top five steps to building a seven figure business. The top five things all top leaders do. The top five mistakes people make when losing weight. The top five rules of fast growth business. So I want you to start by writing down 20 ideas. And this, this, this process is to force you to get out of your comfort zone.

So here are, I did this exercise myself a few years ago and, and I want to give you 10 that I came up with of the 20. So you can probably do this in somewhere between 20 to 30 minutes. So you've got to sit down, you know, blank piece of paper and no distractions, turn all your notifications off.

And just write down using the, you know, the words that I just explained. And if you go back to the website, there'll be, the transcription will be on there so you can look at this again. So the five secrets to a high converting promotional video.

The five questions you need to ask before hiring a corporate video company. The five steps to a great looking and highly converting promotional video. The five traits of a promotional video shoot and how to avoid blowing your budget. The five secrets of maximizing your budget and how to avoid wasting money. The five elements of a great looking and high converting promotional video. The five principles of an effective and highly converting promotional video. The five common mistakes clients make when hiring a corporate video company. The five elements of a successful promotional video. The five rules for maximizing your budget when creating a company video. So you can see that if you sit down and write another 10, you'll end up with two or three really powerful video headlines. I mean the one that sticks out for me there are the five common mistakes clients typically make when hiring a corporate video company or the five elements for successful promotional video. These are, these are highly engaging headlines that make the reader want to read on. So the purpose of a headline is to get the reader's attention. So part two is to write an opening headline sentence.

That'S.

A benefit statement that will engage the client. So we've got the headline. This is the kind of the benefit statement that you can use as a sub headline for when they first opened lead magnets. So for example my book business for Filmmakers, it kind of, it does what it says in the tin and in Europe and England there's a product called Ron Seal. We call it the Ron Seal effect. You know, it does what it says on the tin. So Business for filmmakers was the headline. But the sub headline was the Quick, dirty and uncensored secrets to having a steady stream of new leads flow into your video production business without an employer salesperson. That was actually, actually not my headline. That was actually the headline that we use for an e book. But it was very simple based on the main book which was Business Filmmakers the Quick, dirty and uncensored secrets to a six figure video business from the world's ballsiest filmmaker. But you could take that and, and use something a little, you know, less in your face. I happen to kind of like that style.

So part three is you want to write a paragraph are about what they're about to do so you can tell a story about what they'll get, what they'll learn, what they're going to achieve, discover or will be revealed in a concise paragraph.

So that you know you're kind of selling them into reading the whole lead magnet. So you want to make it short, sweet and conversational to the point. So it's like the ebook could be called let's Call it the five elements of a successful promotional video. And the headline could be the quick, dirty non censored secrets to having a steady stream of new leads flow into your, your, your business by. Com by creating a compelling corporate video that costs less than you think.

So you want to just kind of, you know, say in this, in this short ebook, we're going to reveal to you the five common mistakes that people make when, when hiring videographers and why they miss these, these, these points. And, and what we're going to do is take you through these five steps so you can avoid making the same mistakes.

Part four, you want to outline the steps of a lead magnet. So you want to think like a table of contents, you know, what are the steps, the traits, the rules, etc. So it's Rule 1, Rule 2, Rule 3, Rule 4, Rule 5, and just a quick headline and a sub headline what each kind of micro chapter is going to be about.

And in part five, you want to go through each step one by one. And the really smart thing about doing this is that once you've created your first one, you're simply going to duplicate it five times. So once you've got your headline, your sub headline, your opening statement, your contents page, it's like, you know, what do we say? We said that the five elements, element one, you know.

So it's like element one, choosing the right subject matter.

So you want to have a kind of sub headline for each chapter and then just tell them the three most important things about that step and why it's important or how it will benefit them. And you can use numbers or bullet points or say like, you know, the three reasons you need to do this right is because blah, blah, blah. Then what you can do is use a diagram or a picture or a drawing to create a visual representation. You know, paint a picture or use circles or quadrants or staircases to make it visual. Just, just something to help illustrate the point. Remember, you're not here to tell them chapter and verse every step of the way. You want to entice someone to just want to know a little more from you and to take another step. Now one of the little hacks you can do is you can use a quote that drives home a point. You know, you know, for example, the key success in life is rule one, you know, blah, blah, blah, John D. Rockefeller, you know, you can go and quote, you can get good quotes from relevant subject matters. I just been recently reading.

David Ogilvy's book and, and he was a master of advertising. It's called Ogilvy on Advertising and it was written in the 80s, but you know, it's been a gripping read. If you've not read it, then I really recommend you go and go and look at it because it talks about the advertising world and what drives human beings to make buying decisions. And so you can use quotes from famous. You know, if you, if you're in the, the agency space, then you might be able to create a book that's like, you know, quotes David Ogilvy. If you're, if you're in the medical device space, maybe you'll find quotes from, from prominent medical experts that will help drive the point home.

And then you can use a metaphor or simile to create a relationship between the step and something that's widely known. You know, rule one is like fishing because, you know, if you put the right bait in the water and fish in the right places, you get the right results. Now obviously I'm paraphrasing, giving a lot of different ideas here, but the idea is that there are many different methods of filling the page, which means you don't have to sit there and write 500 words.

Now in part six, you want to create a one page call to action for a next step.

Which is like, you know, if you found this interesting and useful, you can go and take our quiz or you can go and do this get a quote form. You know, in our ebook Best Video Business Breakthrough, we have a call to action at the end of each chapter which is like, hey, do you want to take our quiz and see how you measure up against the eight growth accelerators? And if you want to see how this looks in action, then just simply go to my website, denleny.com, d e n l e N-N-I-E.com and click where it says download our ebook. And you can download the E book and you can go through the process and follow the quiz and see how we use this in our own business. So make sure you put a link at the bottom of every page to your website or wherever you want to send someone. And then you can always add images or illustrations to each page if you really want to pad it out. But honestly you don't have to, but you can. Those options are there. And then the final step is twofold. So part one is get a professionally designed 3D ebook cover so it looks like an ebook and it looks like well designed. And then part two is to get your book formatted properly by a typesetter.

And I mean, if you really want to give your book the professional look. It's like, make sure you pay someone to do this. You can do it on Fiverr. It's not expensive. And I say this because I see time and time again creative people dabbling in areas that they really shouldn't be or shouldn't have any skills in or don't have any skills. And, you know, people building their own websites and stuff like that, and it always makes things look a bit amateurish. So remember that your finished ebook is a first impression for a prospective client, so don't make the mistake of trying to save a few pennies by doing it yourself.

But if you do happen to have amazing design skills and you've laid out a book before, then, sure, go ahead and use something like Canva. But I would recommend that leveraging the help of other people, go on to fiverr.com it's Fiverr F I V-V-E-R.com where you can get it all done for, like, less than 50 bucks. So let's say you get your ebook back and it looks fantastic. What next? So the ebook is what we refer to as a lead magnet, and it should be a free and compelling informational resource that you can use as an ethical bribe in return for a visitor's name and email address on your website. Now, if you want to, you can even ask for.

An email address and a phone number. Now, if you ask for a phone number, you will end up with less conversion. So, I mean, that's a whole other topic. But.

The people that do leave the number will be better leads. So it's not always just a simple case of, like, more people leaving the details. It's like the right people. Inside the vba, we have a more complex funnel than this where you can kind of click a quote and it goes through a questionnaire, and that questionnaire takes you through to a page. And that means that the leads that come through there are very qualified.

But if someone does leave the number, they're basically saying, yes, you can give me a call because I'm looking for some help. And they're more likely to be looking for a solution. But other lead magnets could include, you know, a special report, depending on the industry you're in. It could be a coupon. It could be like, you know, a video tray, a free video training. It could be a quote download a quote. It could be a webinar. It could be an audio series. It could be just a pricing guide. I've seen this used very well with, with like you know, people putting a pricing guide together. So it's like tell us about your video. And at the end of it spits out a number that says well this sounds like it's going to be a video that's going to cost you somewhere between 5 and 10,000. Why don't you give us a call? So the more you can gamify the experience, the more you can get your message in front of people and take them through a bit of a journey. It's time they're spending on your site and not on someone else's.

And so then, and it's quite difficult to kind of say this, to create this, this vision for you kind of audibly but once you've got an opt in form on your website that then takes you, you've got to send traffic to that site. So it's we call a landing page. So you're track, you'll send traffic, maybe some paid traffic to a landing page that takes you to the lead magnet that has a strong headline, it's relevant to your audience and, and then when they put their information in, there's an email sequence and again our VBA members both in the course and in the mastermind, get this system already pre built so that they can simply import that into the business, even that the videos that we create for you. And so if you can get an email address, you have marketing currency. It's the key if you will, to opening a door and beginning a relationship. So you know, if you haven't ever, you know, created an ebook then then I want to encourage you to do that. And if you haven't ever read any of my books or any of my ebooks then I want to encourage you to go to my website now and download the ebook. And then you can see how this is all laid out. You can see the mechanisms I've talked about here and, and then you can start to kind of see how that might work in your own business. I say this to my clients all the time. It's like always be thinking how can I apply this in my business? Because you know, it's all about getting in front of clients and we're all battling for people's attention on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, there's Google, AdWords, there's Instagram, there's all these platforms that are fighting for our attention. And so on the one hand it's never been easier to get your message in front of people but on the other hand it's harder to get people's attention. And that brings me to Something called the mere exposure effect. The mere exposure effect is a psychological phenomenon by which people tend to develop a preference for things merely because they're so familiar with them. And social psychology, this effect is sometimes called the familiarity principle. Now, from a business perspective, the more exposure between a prospect and a brand, product or service before they feel comfortable reaching out to have conversations has grown quite phenomenally in the last 10 years. So in 2010, it was argued that you need, you know, there were six to 10 touch points for a client to feel comfortable. By 2013, that had risen to 12.2 exposures, and by 2018, 19.8 exposures. So, you know, that is almost doubled. So that means that you need to be hitting your prospects over 20 times before they even feel comfortable reaching out and learning more about you. And so an ebook is a really powerful way to get people off social into your ecosystem and actually becoming a relationship that you can nurture rather than simply someone who visits your website and leaves. And I know that this can seem somewhat overwhelming. You know, all you really want to do is make videos. But the great thing about this is once you've built this funnel in this system, it becomes a flow into your business. You know, if you think about, you know, what every business needs is inquiries. And most people tell me that they get by on word of mouth, but that is changing because it's not predictable. And with all the disruption we've had in the last year, it's harder and harder. And so it's really critical that you start developing systems that can gain predictability into your business. That means spending some money advertising, but not just kind of getting them to a website and saying, hey, we'll make a video for you, actually taking them on a journey. And that's all going to take some work. And that's really one of the main focuses of the vba, is building systems inside your business that make it predictable. So in my own business, I have a predictable system. I can increase my ad spend and see more leads come into the business, or I can decrease my ad spend when I don't want to bring any more people into the business. And that is real control because then you can predict, you know, when, when, when new business is going to come into your business. And, you know, you don't want to be bringing new business in all the time because you've got to build systems to be able to handle the new business. And so many of my clients in the vba, you know, have been busy for months. They, you know, in January they had work booked up until May or June because they've got predictable systems in the business, because they've been built systems and they've put the work in and now they've got predictability. And when you've got predictability, it's, it's amazing what a ride it is because you can then say, well, I know what my revenue is going to be next month and the month after and the month after. I can predict my revenue for the next six months without, without any new business. And, and that's what I want for you. I want you to be in a position where you can predict your revenue going forward. And typically, video businesses have got this kind of bias that says, oh, but so it depends, you know what business comes in and it doesn't have to be like that. You can absolutely set up a system for building predictability into your business and it's going to take some work. But this is just one method of, it's one tactic, but a really powerful one to build authority in your business. All right, guys, I hope you found that useful. You've got any questions, please reach out me on socials and make sure you go to the website@denleny.com Download my ebook. You'll go into the funnel, you'll see what happens and, and I will talk to you very soon. You've been listening to the how to Scale a Video Business podcast with me, your host, Dan Lenny. If you're a video business owner, it's hit a ceiling and we benefit from mentorship, support and coaching. Then check out how you can work with me over@denleny.com don't forget to subscribe and rate the show over on itunes and we'd really appreciate you taking a few minutes to leave a review. And don't forget to share if you feel you've gotten value from this episode and you think it would be useful for other filmmakers you know, then please do me a massive favor and share it on social media and in groups that you might be in. So thanks for listening. See you in the next episode.