0501 | Michael Levin

Hi, I'm Michael Levin of the Michael Levin Writing Company. And you are listening to EA interview.

EA interviews, episode 501, inspiration, transformation, success stories and the imperfect action round. Seven days a week, join Mario Ficcini for today's Expert Authority effect interview. Getting your message out, sharing it with your audience, attracting new clients. These are all great things. And that's why you should have a business book. If you've been around me for more than 10 seconds, you know I'm all about this. And I am super excited to have none other than New York Times bestselling author Michael Levin on today's episode. And we're going to be talking about books, we're going to be talking about ghostwriting, we're going to be talking about how the heck he has done this over a thousand times. I'm going to look at the cheat sheet here because there's so many of them. But Simon and Schuster, Random House, Penguin, Huffington post, Boston Globe, L.A. times. He's done so many things for so many people. I just want to get right into this because I know I'm going to learn a thing or two. And you better have your pen and pencil, pen or paper, whatever, write with a crayon. Just take notes. We're going to learn a lot. Michael Levin, Right after we thank our sponsor. Every business needs a book, including yours. And that's why I'm launching my new book to help you regardless of where you think your current writing abilities are. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Once again, that's eapublishingmethodbook.com Here he is, ladies and gentlemen, Michael Levin. Michael, how are you feeling today?

Mario Feeling great. Thank you for having me on. It's a privilege. Thank you.

The privilege is mine. I just got to jump in and go, how did you get started with this and how in the world. I know I missed half of the people you've even worked with, written books for, done stuff for. How, how in the world do you just get into this and do it that level? I've done my books and stuff, but looking at your. It's why I was so excited to have you. You're just a wealth of wisdom and.

Please take us, Mario thank you. Sure. I mean, the reality is I have no other marketable skills. So if I'm not doing books, then I'm not eating and my family's not eating. I'm a lawyer by training. I didn't like it. They didn't like me. I sold three novels to Simon and Schuster in my late 20s, which is kind of crazy when you look back on it. We couldn't come to terms on a fourth. Ran out of money. Starving writer, met a mentor, said, offer writing classes privately. I did that. I was teaching at UCLA and NYU at the time. And so I started filling classes, and the students eventually started saying, consult with me. And then they started saying, write it for me. So I literally backed into ghostwriting. And that's 34, 35 years ago. And as you said, about a thousand. A little more than a thousand books ago. So that's how it all began.

So let me ask you, because some people, I feel like they're excited to get the book out there and do a look at me. I'm cool. This and that. I have a book thing. And then some people, I realize, have a genuine passion for writing and they just want to share and create stories. I have a feeling I know where you're at, but.

What'S your favorite part of the process?

Oh, my gosh. I love words. I love words. I love people. I love ideas. You like jokes? I like jokes. We were getting around before the. Before the podcast started. And I call what my job the greatest grad school in the world, because people who are best in the world at what they do are paying me to learn from them. Not just the subject matter of what their books are about, but just I get to watch how smart people think. And that's about as. It's about as exciting as going to the game and watching somebody throw a really great pass or. Or hit a great home run or something like that. So I have a front row seat at. At. At the thinking process of people who run hedge funds, people who run Tom. Of the. Some of the top fashion brands in the country, top financial.

Team.

And just let me pause you right there. It froze. You said the top financial companies, the top fashion brands.

The top fashion brands, and right now, the CEO and owner, principal owner of a major league baseball team. So I get to see these folks in action. Plus the sports figures, the Dave Winfields, the Pat Summeralls, the Doug Christie's of the NBA, those folks. So, you know, it's not fun all day long, but it's fun most of the day, and that's pretty good for a job.

What's been your favorite thing to learn?

I did a book. It's a great question. I did a book with Jack Garcia, who is the top FBI undercover Investigator. And he spent two and a half years inside the Mafia, inside the Gambino crime family in New York. And just watching how he did things and learning his process for getting educated. He was Cuban, and he convinced these hardcore Italian mafiosi that he was Italian. So how he prepared, how he played the role, how he was convincing, how he was able to avoid giving people beatings when he was ordered to do so. And then sometimes he'd say to me, hey, Mike, can't talk next week I'm undercover in Florida. And I'd be like, oh, my God, Chad, don't get killed because you're my meal ticket. That was probably the single most exciting experience. And then I got to work with Zig Ziglar edited Zig's last book. And I love Zig Ziglar, so I got to spend some time with him. He was just as nice as can be. So, you know, and talking football with Pat Summerall, as I mentioned a moment ago, these are, these are, these are. These are all thrills of a lifetime. There's no way, no other way to put it.

So I felt conflicted because you're talking about the Mafia and all this stuff, and I'm like, yeah, this is awesome. But for anyone listening, I just find intriguing. Also.

There are so many people you have worked with like that. So I guess what I want to ask is, because people listening, I know there's people that go, why should I have a book? And, you know, why should. So I'm going to do this in two parts because this is actually real time. People that go, why should I have a book? They don't. People in business tend to see the benefits sometimes. But I think there's too many people who have convoluted, like, reasons why to do it instead of the real reasons and then how good they should do it. I see a lot of people just putting stuff out there just for the sake of, again, look at me, I got an award, yada, yada. But there's a big difference between a book and a well written book.

Sure.

Can you speak to that? Because you're obviously the expert at it.

Yeah, I mean, the main. I was told that the way to write is, well, so, you know, if you're going to do. If you're going to do something, do it well. And a book is going to advertise you, it's going to represent you in the marketplace. And if you would go into an important sales call in torn jeans and a T shirt and you're not in the surfing industry, God bless you. I don't think you're going to make the deal. So why would you send something out into the world that doesn't represent you brilliantly? And then in terms of why to do a book, my starting point is that the Internet commoditizes all of us. And when we are a commodity, that means that the buyer has tons of choices and commodities are judged primarily on price. And that means that all the attorneys or all the financial advisors or all the whatevers, insurance guys, insurance women, they're being judged on price. And that's a bad race to the bottom and one you don't want to indulge in. So the question becomes, how do you get the premium you deserve for your experience, your knowledge, your wisdom, the cases that you've closed, or the ways you helped people in the past? How do you put all that into the hands of the reader? Because there's one huge question that exists that a book can answer the way nothing else can, which is this. How can people trust you if they don't even know you? Because, you know, everybody's websites kind of look the same. I think if most people and their chief competitors switched websites in the middle of the night, no one would know the difference, including them.

Right.

And what other leave behinds do we have today? Everybody's Instagram feeds kind of look the same. If you do that social media stuff, it all kind of, it just comes back to commoditizing ourselves because art in.

General is being lost, like actual masterpieces and craft and art. And it's just. Because when you said everything's being, everything looks the same, Instagram, all this, I'm thinking, yeah, so do cars, movies, like. And I understand from a business standpoint, are you going to bet on the sure thing or the maybe?

But yeah, I'll tell you a story from this, goes back a few years. I was in Filene's basement in Boston back in the day. And that's where you went to. I found a beautiful sports coat and I had a European guy who worked, who worked there, who I'd always go to if I found something. I said, do you think you've got a tailor who could make this jacket fit me right? And he sighed and he said, they're all dead. And, you know, that's how it is with craftspeople today. We, yes, we are losing the sense of craftsmanship and the sense of making something great and making something outstanding. And we're all trying to get by on 85% or shoe shine and a smile. And I I had a college professor in ancient Greek. I got drunk and stumbled into the Greek department story for another day. But while I was there, white woman.

She. Yes, she would. She would. My professor would expect us literally to spend six to eight hours a night translating 40 lines so that we knew what every single syllable of every word meant. And if she called on one of us and we did not know what that word meant, it was just. It was the nightmare that you did not want to live. And I have taken that attitude or it's just become a part of me into what I do. And I'm no different from a cobbler making fine shoes or a painter trying to do a beautiful painting.

Watchmaker. Yeah.

Watch. Yeah. It's just simply, look, you can get a commodity level book for short money, and it's going to be mediocre, and it's not going to do you any favors. Most people have never bought ghost writing before when they come to me. So there can be a little bit of sticker shock when they find out, hey, this isn't $10,000. This is serious money. But the thing is that you get what you pay for. And if you want something that's going to be outstanding and represents you well.

It'S the same thing with your clothing and your car and your house and everything else. You really do get what you pay for. I don't know how I got to that point, but there you are. But I love words. And.

I get to use words to, to. To help other people.

Showcase their uniqueness, their brilliance, their gifts, their hard work. And for me, that's just. It's just fun. Best way to put it.

I can agree with that. And I don't think there's anyone in business. I mean, sometimes it's like, okay, I think people are getting more particular with food and different things, but it used to be like, okay, we just need something to get by or this and that. You know, if you're doing things growing up, you know, like college and stuff, no one's like, really that discerning. But I've never met many people with their business that they really, truly want good enough.

Everyone wants the highest level. I think it comes down to. It's not even, can we afford it. It's, do I believe I deserve it?

Yeah, that's a great point. I had a client who was convinced that deserve level was such an important concept that we ended up doing an entire book about it. Because in life, you know, you don't get what you negotiate. Yeah, you don't get. You know, there's the whole thing. You get what you negotiate. No, you get what you think you deserve. And if your deserve level is low, then you're not going to get much because you're not going to expect much or ask for much or if you get a lot, you're going to toss it away. So I'm entirely with you on that point.

I always ask later in the episode about books you'd recommend, but I want you to shout that one out right now, please. The one about the deserve level.

Oh, no. Well, at least it was a good spot.

It paused again. But let me take it back there and say, I always have people mention books at the end of the show. I'll ask it later. But if you could mention that one right now, I'd really appreciate it. For the deserve level.

Oh, sure.

It's called the author is Gary Kady K A D I and the.

I don't know the title of the book. I mean, I've done a thousand. I can't remember them all offhand, but it's something. It's raising your deserve Level by Gary. Katie.

Yeah, I'll make sure we get in the show notes for eainterviews.com I appreciate you mentioning the author and I love how you just nonchalant. This is my favorite thing with experts like yourself. You're so good at what you do. You just rattle off like, oh, yeah, we were so enthralled with the deserve level, we just wrote a whole book on it. And then the next day I was working with just like, this is like a monumental feat for that most people wish they could do once in their lifetime. You're like, yeah, slow lunch.

Yeah, I hear you. Can I tell you Gary's Katie's story because it's pretty cool. Please. So Gary consults to dentists, and most people would say, gee, that sounds really boring. Gary came to me, this goes back about 18 years, and he said, I want to do a book that's going to attract five dentists to my practice.

Okay?

Charge them $120,000 a year each. Guarantee them dollar for dollar results. I'll make $600,000 a year and five people will have my credit card, will have my cell phone number. So we did a book called Million Dollar Dentistry and He sold over 60,000 copies of it. He ended up not just with five clients, but with a $20 million practice, which he recently sold in an ESOP to his employees. And then he went on to roll up 20 of his biggest dental client dental dentist office Clients. So I always say that magic comes when you do a book. You can just never predict from which direction the magic is going to come. But it always, always happens. Cool things happen. You just can't predict. It's not just the ultimate leave behind or the way to convince or the way to turn your, your reader, who's your prospect into a salesperson for you to convince the other decision makers, whether it's a spouse or team members. If I come home and say to my wife, I found the guy, she just laughs like the last guy you found. But if I say, I found the guy and here's his book, or I found the woman and here's her book, then all of a sudden she has to sit up and say, you know, this time you found the person. I really like this person. Let's hire them. And that's, that's something else the book does.

You get to know the person. My first book, Video Marketing for Business Owners. I remember I was flying to San Diego to speak and on the way back I was just literally looking for a charger. And this wasn't, it wasn't like this over a decade ago, before everyone had them and everything, you know, And I wasn't in first that time. So I'm like looking for a charging port because my phone was about to die. And I'm flying across the country and I'm like. And the lady next to me, she's like, we just start talk. I don't even really remember. All I remember is we were both coming from San Diego to Detroit. Her brother was on American Idol. I think she was flying in to see him or something because he was performing. And then they were going to record at Motown or something. And I told her I was speaking and I just had a copy of my book. And she starts reading it. I don't even remember giving it to her. But halfway through she's like, oh, it's so great getting to know you. I'm like, we said six words. I'm still wondering, like, what's going on with my phone and the charger. But you know, like you're saying with your wife. How else are you going to have a 3, 4, 5 hour conversation with someone one on one?

Yeah. And you're raising a very important, great story and you're raising a very important point, which is that people don't know how much of themselves their own story to put into a book or where to put it, or they're too shy about it.

Let me give you all the bullet points in this Nice white paper with a cover. Are you kidding me?

Yeah. Who's going to care? Because meanwhile, your competitor gave those people a book, and, you know, you're on the call. What I always tell people is that people don't read books. They use books as a screenplay for a movie that's going to play in their heads. And in that movie, they're going to play two parts. Themselves as student and you, the author, as teacher. So they need to know just enough about you so that they understand who they're being when they're being you in this movie in their heads. If you tell them too much, they'll be bored. If you tell them too little, they'll be confused. So you kind of have to get over either your shyness or your egotism and just find that sweet spot. And then people say, well, chapter one should be about me, right? I said, never. Chapter one's about the reader. Chapter one is really, I feel your pain. It's explaining to the reader that you understand the problems they face better than anyone they've ever encountered, and you have a process for taking away those pains and problems. Then they're saying, who is this person? And then York's story comes along in chapter two. So that's what I typically. I mean, every book is different, but that's sort of the typical approach. Get the problem out front. Show people that you understand what their problems are. And remember that there are big problems and small problems, but we each get to define for ourselves what's a big problem, what's a small problem. So what you want to do is surface their big problems, the ones that you get paid the most to solve the pains you're paid the most to take away. Focus your first chapter on that. And then they're going to say, who is this person? And then you come in with that. Not too long, not too short, Chapter two all about you in that sort of Goldilocks zone where you're not boring them and you're not confusing them, and you've got them, and they're going to keep reading, and then by the end of the book, they're going to be reaching for the phone to call you.

That's awesome. And this is a perfect segue. I was about to ask you, for someone that wants to write a book, what are things they can consider that no one's ever told them before? And I think that's a great one right there. Let me ask you about the preface and prologue.

I'm not a fan.

Oh, really? I wasn't expecting that. Why not?

Because people don't know whether they're supposed to read them or not. Anything that has those little ro. Little Roman numeral, little I, little double iv, V, all that stuff, people aren't sure, am I supposed to read this? Is it important? Is it going to get repeated later? And then they get to chapter one, page one, and all of a sudden they're back. You know, they're Back to page one. They've read. You know, they've read 12 pages. They feel like they've invested, oh, I'm back on page one. This is terrible. So psychologically, it's depressing. So what I tell my clients instead is start the book with an invitation. Just two pages. Everybody loves getting invitations because it means you're going to go somewhere fun, and it empowers you to turn the thing down or not. You don't have to accept the invitation, but in the invitation, explain. In a page and a half, two pages, this is where you're going to get.

If you read this book, just a basic introduction.

It's a basic introduction, but don't use the word introduction, because introduction is an inherently boring word. Forward. Prolo. Sometimes people say, well, I could get so and so to write a forward. And I will, and I will tell them, terrific. But I've never heard of anybody doing anything or buying a book because somebody wrote a forward. And that even includes if you can get a former president. It's really overrated. The whole point of doing a book is so that people can get to know you and your words. And if they've picked up the book, then if you're the author, you're the authority. You don't need other people's authority once they've opened the pages. Just start telling your story and start explaining how you're going to make their lives better. Wow.

Okay. I love it. So I got to ask about the rest of the chapters. Is that where you put the meat? So you're saying chapter one is about them, Chapter one is about them, chapter two is about you quickly. And then the rest.

Chapter three outlines your process. And you may not have a process. I have a lot of clients who have said the equivalent of, until you got here, I didn't know what I did. I showed up somewhere, got hired, I said stuff. They liked it, I got paid, and I got out of there before they caught me. And the reality is that when you have a process that has steps and that you can name.

That'S intellectual property that you own, that separates you from everybody else.

Same reason by Doing that. Same reason people buy courses and invest in them, because you have, oh, this is all on Google. Okay. We'll spend the next year finding it all, assuming it's right, and then collating it and organizing it and going, okay, here's the process to follow.

Yeah, exactly. So let's have your process. So chapter three, often in these sorts of business books and in business books as marketing tools, we'll lay out your process brief, and then each of the next six chapters, say, will be a different step in the process. And then I like to conclude the book with a chapter that's about half the length of the other chapters, called something along the lines of should we continue the conversation? Okay, and what we're doing here is we're doing a respectful call to action. If somebody has read 90 pages or 140 pages. And I don't like books for business people that really run longer than 100, 250 pages. Yeah, because nobody has the patience. If you cannot close someone in 100 or 150, you're not going to get them in 250. So if they've hung with you all this way, they really want to do business with you. And so your job is to answer three questions for them, which are the three questions on their mind. First, are we right for each other? Which means that you get to pre qualify your readers before they call you and waste your time or your company's time. And you say, I'm a financial advisor and I have a minimum of $2 million. Or I'm an entrepreneur and I work with these kinds of people or whatever it is, I'm a consultant, I work with these kinds of firms. And they get to say, hey, great, I'm in the story here. I qualify. They'll say that subconsciously, but they'll say it. And then the second question they want to know is, what can you do for them? So explain in broad terms your offerings. You don't have to be specific and don't put in prices because those will change, those will go up. And so you don't have to be specific, but just give them a sense of what you'll do. And the third thing you want to do in that call to action chapter is to explain what will happen if they call or email. Everybody loves to buy, everybody hates to be sold. Nobody wants to be put into some sort of jujitsu, infernal sales funnel just because they gave up their phone number or an email. And then they're getting bombarded. So just say if you call, you will speak with John, our director of first impressions. You will have a 20 minute conversation with him. And if it seems like a fit, then, you know, whatever comes next. And that way they feel confident that when they reach out and actually give up their phone number or their email, they're going to be treated respectfully and not like they're trying to buy a used car. So those are the three steps that I have in a, in a respectful call to action concluding chapter.

Do you call it the conclusion or is that boring too?

It's kind of boring. I mean, you know, I like words like should we continue the conversation? Because remember that it's not a one way conversation. They're talking back to the book. They're saying things like, wow, I didn't know that. Or gee, that's really interesting. So you know, they're scratching their chin and making notes sometimes. What I like to say is that over the course of the book, you want to get in at least what I call 12 to 15 HFS moments. And HFS stands for holy, where that's what the reader says to himself or herself. Or maybe they just simply say, wow, that's interesting. Excuse me, but the thing is that if you can wow them with 12 to 15 really amazing moments, and they may not be amazing to you because this is the stuff that you do all day long, but the thing is that if you know that your clients or your customers have never heard these ideas before and it's going to blow their mind, you do that 12 to 15 times over the course of a book, you're going to own them. And then you get to the call to action chapter, which is a reflection of the fact that it's been a two way conversation and they're going to call and they're going to hire you. It's that simple.

Such great points. I've never really.

Heard anyone share it publicly before.

Mario, you're very cool.

And I am shocked at the. When I was like preface and prologue, you're like, don't like them. That kind of. That was.

One of the 12 for me.

Here to help.

What else can I be useful with?

So I want to ask you about the. Do you help people with the marketing and the launching of the book? Are you strictly with the writing? Like, what would you say to someone? Okay, so you do the book for them. Now they want to market it and launch it. Do you help them with that? And either way, what do you suggest?

Sure. The two words that are flashing in my brain right now are buyer beware and I'LL tell you why I'm always amazed if I can find somebody who can do one thing well. Okay. In today's world, you find somebody who does one thing well, you're happy. Can you find people who do two really difficult things well or three? It's rare. In fact, it's really, really rare. There are people like me who went into ghostwriting because we love books and we love writing and we're writing for people. And then you've got. There are companies that basically recognized that there is a great business opportunity in providing ghost written books. So they will do ghost writing and publishing and marketing. They'll sort of bundle all those phases. And my attitude is, are they great at any of them? I'm not sure. We saw one company called Scribe go belly up not too long ago. They were trying to be all things to all people. You have to be very, very careful if you're going to buy all of those things from one individual. What I do is one provider. I offer. That's right. I provide my clients with referrals to specialists who. Best in breed, specialists in publishing, specialists in marketing. And there are different strokes, there are different needs. Yeah.

Like PR is vastly different than writing it.

Yeah. It's a totally different world. And it's also a moving target. It's a fast moving target. With social media and Amazon Marketing. There are very, very few people who can do it well. And I don't know anybody who does that well and ghostwrites well. So my attitude is find one person or entity that does something well and then get referrals to the other things. And I love turning my clients over to the vendors I've used and trusted for years or decades in some cases because I know they're getting best of breed, I know they're in the right hands and I'm not going to try to offer services that are out of my unique ability.

I'll let you know where you're at.

I know where I'm at. My lane is getting the book done. My lane is getting the. You know Michael, Michael Gerber, who created the E myth for some of your folks who are. He's a friend and a mentor and he says that I've created more successful books than anyone in human history. And that's my brag. And it's, and, and, and it's. And it's probably true. It's, as I said, it's, it's more than a thousand. And this is what I do all day long.

People don't realize, especially like I was Joking with the. It's not really a joke. It makes me sad. But the people just throw up a cover, throw up a manuscript, whatever. And I've said from stage it's why it looks like they just literally threw it up there. Yeah, yeah, well, that's the thing. I get why they're doing it, but at the same token, even if you have the best marketing in the world, if you don't have a good book, it's going to be real hard to sell it. You can be doing like a traditional PR tour all around the country. But, but the people who do those, they're pretty confident the book's going to work. I've noticed there's like two different types of people. It's like there's the ones who want to do it the right way and are willing to do it, and then there's the other ones are like, well, I don't want to do this, this, this and this. I'm like, if Oprah is doing it, why do you think you don't need to? And again, I think it's the deserve level. It's not that they don't think they need to, it's they know it's not going to work the same because they know they skimped on abcdefg.

Well, you're going to get exposed in today's world, if you write a lousy book, you're going to get exposed because people are going to post about it. I've noticed.

I got a thousand reviews on Amazon. Yeah, 900 of them aren't good or.

900 are bought and paid for. And people don't like being cheated. It really comes down to that. People don't like being taken advantage of and word gets around. If I, you know, we all know that if you do something good for somebody, they'll tell four people and if you do something bad, they'll tell 23. Yeah, or whatever the statistics are. But.

I don't know, I'm just not interested in people who want to do schlock, who want to do something that's, that's third rate and just sort of check the box and say, hey, I have a book.

Yeah, me neither.

Nothing to offer them. I've got nothing to offer them. And they're not going to. Let me put it this way, I don't even attract them. I'm very happy to say that my practice consists of positive people with positive messages. And people are just trying to put out one or two chapters of stuff and then 12 chapters of hamburger Helper. They don't even call, which is fine. I don't have time for that.

I'm so glad you bring that up, because I agree. And I started saying something in 2013.

When I transitioned stuff around for personal, professional reasons, but we had, like, 38 simultaneous clients. I was honoring all the contracts, closing it down, wanted to do more travel and speaking and stuff and help people in a bigger way. And I just remember going, I'm so thankful for all the people that thank me for the opportunity to pay 100% up front and thank me for the opportunity to work with us.

Because that's beautiful.

Yeah.

Thank you. Appreciate. There wasn't 9,000 people beating down the door at that time. There was maybe a handful, but I was like, you know what? This is my career. This is my life. What don't I like about the last few years? And what am I doing for the next 20? And I go, I want to have fun. I think we both do. I could tell that even before we started. And I was just like, you know what, people? I feel the entrepreneurs.

I want to tell them, you don't need to work with anyone just because they knocked on your door or called or whatever. And the fact that you brought up I don't attract them. I think that's, like, one of the things under that a lot don't talk about because, you know, you don't attract who you are. You don't attract you what you want. You attract to you who you are. It's like, are you being the type of someone someone would want to do business with? And I. I can honestly say we don't attract them either. And isn't it freeing?

Well, it is, because.

Your time isn't wasted. I was told. Look, I don't want to hold myself out as a paragon of anything. I'm a typist. I'm a good writer and a decent husband and a pretty good father, and that's about it. So let's not. I don't want to get carried away with myself. I will say that years ago, I read a book called. I think it was called the Perfect Client. And the idea of the book is that you can be either a flashlight. You're sort of scurrying around looking for prospects. Hey, do you want this? Do you want my product? Or you can be a lighthouse just putting out a calm, steady beacon. And so I have a beautiful print of a lighthouse over my desk at the office just to remind me of who I want to be. And.

Look, everybody wants the phone to ring. And everybody wants to close deals. But what I do is, so I always tell people when, when we're talking for the first time when trying to prospect. So, you know, I have to hear a real business purpose for this book, a really serious personal purpose for this book. Because otherwise I can promise you that eight months from now, you're going to call me and you're going to say, why did you talk me into this? And it's not going to help that I'm going to remind you and say, hey, you called me. I never heard of you. So you called. So.

It'S an intimate relationship. Two clients have written their checks to Dr. Levin instead of Michael because it can be so therapeutic. The thing that everybody craves and nobody gets in our times is just to be listened to.

And there's a program called Strategic Coach. It's a program for entrepreneurs. DAN Sullivan I've been in it for 15 years and 16 years. And they have you identify your unique ability, what you're best at. And I thought this is a no brainer. It's writing. It wasn't. It was listening. And in turn, actually for me, listening with love. I'm listening with love to my clients. And I realized long ago that a lot of them were so successful, especially, well, some of the athletes, but some of the business people too. The reason they were so successful is that they didn't have anybody at home to say, I'm proud of you. And now as adults, they have people saying, let's do a deal, I want to sleep with you, something like that. But nobody's just sort of saying, I'm proud of you and not really wanting anything else from them. And you know, even before I started having kids and having gray hair, they just sort of saw me as a father figure because I just listened and said, wow, you know, I didn't tell them, hey, you're great. They knew they were great, said, I'm proud of what you've accomplished. And these are words that.

Because it really is a milestone, not just to go through that, all the emotional stuff, but how many, I mean, Statistically, out of 100 people, how many really do ever publish a book, let alone a good one, let alone a great one, and then have it sell and impact lives and have that ripple effect.

Mario, I want to talk about that one thing that you just said about the word selling. A lot of the time I tell my clients, don't even think about selling copies of your book. Instead, give it away for free. Put it up on your website for free in exchange for email information and give it to them as a PDF. Yeah, build the list and build your list. And then also they'll be reading what you give them in the quiet of their den at night or on a flight somewhere. And they're going to be connecting to you in ways that no other thing can. And ask yourself how much, how many copies, how many books would you have to sell in order to equal the value of one new client over, you know, two years? I had a client years ago who did long term care insurance and we, and it's a very complicated product and you know, you can spend a day and a half and then educating the client and then at the end the prospect would say to my authority, yeah, you know, you did a great job selling, but I got to give the business to my brother in law or my wife will kill me. And she heard this enough time so she came and said, let's do a book. So we did the book and unfortunately she got caught up in how many copies of the book she was selling instead of recognizing that 90 days after the book came out she qualified for million dollar Roundtable. So you know, it's like, let's keep the. Don't go into the book business. It's a lousy business, it's a declining business because people are reading fewer and fewer books. People don't need to read your book, they just need to hold your book. They need to flip through your book and see that you're an author and that you know many words and there are lots of words in your book and they're going to say, okay, you got the job, but don't worry about how many copies you sell. Instead the real ROI is how it, how it affects your bottom line from a sales standpoint, how it drives thought leadership, how it gets you speaking, which can be paid and then you can sell lots of copies and make a lot of profit selling it back in the room. Owning your intellectual property or just simply standing out in the world or getting your ideas out into the. That's another reason to do a book. I did a book with a doctor in Oregon who identified a way to make the Affordable Health Care act work in low income communities by bringing together all of the various providers of health care services, including Firecracker.

Just getting people connected.

Yeah, so this was his idea. So he did a book. You know, he made plenty of money as a doctor. He didn't need the money. He did the book because he wanted to get his ideas out into the world and let them help other people in Other communities. So that's a perfectly. You know, we talked at the beginning of the. Of the conversation about why you do a book. That's another totally legitimate reason. And then I've got a bunch of people right now who are in their mid to late 70s, and they're extremely successful CEOs. One is 86 years old, and we're doing their books because they want their families and their grandchildren, great grandchildren, friends, to know this is where the business started. This is where the money came from.

Yeah. The legacy.

This is the legacy. So that's another legitimate reason. You can do it for marketing purposes. You can do it to capture the culture of your growing business so that new hires understand exactly what you stand for, instead of thinking it is just one more business they saw in the glass door. Anyway, I'm kind of.

It's one of the reasons I did the show.

It was after dad passed, and I was just kind of, like, lost. And I was like, why am I here? What am I doing? And.

It came to me.

In church, and it was like, are you honoring God in your work? And I was like, if today was my last day, what would be left? And I'm happy to say now, with everything, it's like, I don't think there's any confusion if someone wanted to know what I'm about, who I'm trying to help, what I'm trying to do. There's no confusion about it. So I. It resonates with me personally and professionally.

A lot of people don't think about that. What are you leaving behind? What's the impact? What's that ripple effect? What's the legacy? It's. It's not just the client. It's not just the business or just. It's definitely not. Look at me. I got some hack job, cover. But thank you for bringing that up, because I think it's important to let people know.

Yeah. And I love what you just said, and I respect and acknowledge you for that. And.

When you talk about a legacy.

You have to ask, if I went to bed and didn't wake up, God forbid, what am I leaving behind? What will my kids take away? What will my spouse, what my partner? What will the world take away from my time being here? And if you think you've made any kind of meaningful contribution, then you want to capture it between hardcovers or soft covers, whether I do it or somebody else does it, because books are one of the few things left in today's society that are built to last. And we all want things that are Built to last.

And they're not going anywhere. They've been around thousands of years.

Yeah. And if a smaller, you don't need.

A computer, you don't need electricity to run them, you don't need. You know what I mean?

You know, Walter Isaacson, when he wrote his biography of da Vinci said, I learned doing this book that the best information retrieval technology is paper. Because you know, every, all the paper that exists from da Vinci's time is still here. All the documents. He said, I'm trying to research Steve Jobs for that biography. And it's all CD ROMs. Nobody can even find them or open them. So, you know, just a. Interesting sideline.

I appreciate everything you're sharing. We're going to thank the sponsor and come back for the imperfect action round. You've heard me say every business needs a book, including yours. And it's true. And that's why I'm launching my new book@EA publishing method book.com so you can learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. But you know what, don't take my word for it. Take it from a few of my authors like Lori, I went from having.

An idea and a possibility to actually getting my book published.

Or Catherine, thank you for making my.

Mom number one best selling author.

Or Mary Alice, what he got done for me in three days regarding my book launch.

Unmanageable.

John Cody.

I've worked with Mario over the phone.

And online and he's been very helpful.

In getting me where I needed to go with promoting my books. Rocio, there's no way in the world I would have been able to do this with somebody else again. I've attempted it in the past. It didn't serve me. As a matter of fact, I ended up more frustrated than anything. So this has been a very seamless process.

Adele, if you're looking for an amazing.

Business coach, I highly recommend Mario Ficcini or Bill Benner. I can't make a higher recommendation.

To work with Mario Ficini. He has been great for me and right now I won't work with anybody else except for Mario.

Hey, their words, not mine. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com to get your copy and I look forward to hearing your transformation as our next video success story. Once again, that's eapublishing method book.com and we are back with the imperfect action round. Michael, are you ready to take imperfect action?

I'm ready to take imperfect action. Let's do it. All right.

Got three questions for you. Rapid fire answers. The first one is, what is the fastest path to the profits?

Let people know what you stand for and what makes you unique. Fly your freak flag. Don't commoditize yourself.

Love that. Number two, what is the biggest problem you see your prospects making? And the fastest way for them to fix.

Really comes down to readiness. It's just, are they ready to step out and put their ideas out there? And the solution is to stop thinking about the critics. There are none. Nobody cares enough about any of us to, you know, to post criticisms of us. Instead, just be useful and get your, get your, get your story out there and think about the people you can help instead of the imaginary, illusory people who you think will be criticizing you.

Number three, what's the best way to maximize customer lifetime value?

Don't chase the next shiny object. Stay in love with the customers you've already gotten to fall in love with.

You love that. Obviously we've been talking about books the whole time. This is probably one of the easiest segues I've ever had on the show. But what books would you recommend? Oh, gosh, limit it to your first 949.

Winnie the Pooh. I learned everything I needed to know about writing from Winnie the Pooh.

I've been reading Business Brilliant.

That's a tremendous business book that I just got turned onto. And then 10x is faster than 2x by Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy. Actually, he had been on the show on Neat.

Yeah. Uh, they're great.

Where would you like people to learn more?

Two things. If they want to do a book, I'm going to give you my cell. It's 617-543-3747 or you can go to my website. Michael Levin writes Gmail. And if you want to do a book without me, go to bestearning author.com. i've got a course that lays out everything that you need to know about organizing, writing, publishing, marketing, and monetizing your business book. And normally the course is $7,000, but for your folks, we're offering it for 49.95 and they can actually watch the first half hour for free and they can watch a video about it. So thank you for that. Sure.

Sounds great.

Those are my thoughts. Very good.

Well, I thoroughly enjoyed this. I honestly wish we had more time because I think we're both on the same same wavelength. And when we were talking about the attracting, I don't think it's coincidence that we cross paths. So thank you for everything you've shared.

Sincerely, Mario thank you for having me. This was really a great pleasure and have me back anytime. The answer is always yes. So thank you.

Sounds good. All right, Expert Authority World, we have another exciting episode here today. I'll see you on the next one. Have a great day. God bless. You're already the expert, but have you transformed your expertise into a tangible asset that will generate qualified leads while increasing profit for you 24 7? And if so, how well are you promoting it? With my new book, the Expert Authority Effect Publishing Method, I take you through my process step by step. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction, lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com to get started now. Once again, that's EA publishingmethodbook.com Thanks for listening to today's episode. I would love to know what you enjoyed most from it. If you haven't done so already. I invite you to connect with me on my new LinkedIn. You can go to it directly at eainterviews.com LinkedIn Once again, that's eainterviews.com LinkedIn lastly, check out the full eainterviews.com site for complete show notes, the full interview video experience, links to the resources we mentioned, and more. Have a blessed day and I'll see you on the next one.