Hanneke Antonelli Coaching

View Original

How To Grow Your Business Or Brand By Writing A Book

Jess Greenburg

I was featured in an article written by Theresa Albert from Authority Magazine (summarized below). You can read the full article here.

While writing the book, I realized that I couldn’t wait for the book to be finished — the strategies and tools I share were needed in real-time as the pandemic was unfolding, and so The Up Level Program was born, my companion course to the book that further solidifies and builds on the principles of the book. And because people knew about the book, I had no problem filling that beta-round of the course in a jiffy, effectively increasing my offerings and revenue streams.

Hanneke Antonelli

See this content in the original post

How I Got Started Coaching

When I was in my twenties, I had a severe episode of depression that landed me in a psychiatric ward in South Africa. While in the hospital, I vowed that I would do whatever I could to get better. A few years later, I was living in London and discovered the power of coaching. The tools and strategies I learned while working with my life coach helped me do a complete 180 of my life. I’m not dramatic when I say that coaching saved my life. And that’s what inspired me to become a coach.

I specifically decided to focus on helping other entrepreneurs as it’s an industry where we often see individuals struggle with mental health issues in silence. I believe that a huge part of the problem is due to unattainable messages, like “I did it this way, now I’ll show you how to do it too,” that get sent to these individuals. That false mainstream idea leads to business owners beating themselves up, feelings of shame, and burnout. I’m here to change that narrative and provide experiences and opportunities for entrepreneurs to take back control, tap into the parts of them that make them geniuses, and help them scale sustainable businesses with increased profits and freedom.

Writing A Book Can Be A Great Way To Grow A Brand

Understanding where your book will fit into your brand and how it will elevate it is so important. Originally, when I started, I wanted to get out there and be on more stages. However, I also knew that a lot of conventions and conferences don’t necessarily pay their speakers. I often quote the movie Jerry Maguire’s “show me the money” to clients, and in this case, my book would be a way to get paid to speak. It would also allow readers to remember me and hire me down the line or send referrals my way.

While preparing for the book’s launch, I was also able to connect with my existing network on a deeper level by sharing advance copies with those folks. They then shared my book with their communities which have brought in new connections and opportunities that weren’t previously possible.

The book also helped quicken my lead time with prospects. Clients now have the opportunity to get to know, like, and trust me while reading my book vs. coming in cold on a sales call. And because I share vulnerable stories while showcasing my expertise, you’ll immediately know if I’m the person to help you grow your business or not.

Writing A Book Establishes Credibility

Being an author and having a book to promote is a great asset for your brand. But before you go ahead and make this investment, be sure that you know exactly where your book is going to fit into your brand (refer back to what I mentioned for my business in the previous question.) I’ve spent almost $20,000 (and counting) on my book to date — this includes production, marketing, and PR costs. I’m comfortable with my investment because I’ve got a pipeline of products that align with the book that I can offer to those who want to expand on the principles I share in the book and go deeper into them. Likewise, I also know that if the book only ever results in signing just one private client, it will give an immediate ROI.

Why Should You Invest Your Energy And Resources Into Writing A Book?

Having a book gives you a lead into opportunities that you will otherwise be overlooked for, and it gives you a great opportunity to pitch yourself and your ideas to more outlets, which will raise awareness and give you a lot of new exposure. It gives you a product that someone can buy on the spot. And of course, the long-term benefits of that is that whoever buys your book after they hear you on a podcast or at a conference will remember you more and either refer people to your work, send opportunities your way, and/or hire you/buy your program/other products you offer.

A book also gives you the opportunities to organize and structure your work, and, much like my Up Level Program, you can take that framework and turn it into a workshop, a program, or something else that can allow you to create more revenue streams.


Five Things Every Author Needs To Know To Successfully Promote And Market A Book:

1 — It’s all about your network.

Invest in your relationships and network, put together a launch team, or hire a marketing agency with a book launch team at their fingertips. I chose to ask people in my network to become part of my launch team. They all got an advance copy. I also ran a live book club to make it more fun and engaging, and now they’re ready and eager to leave reviews and tell their networks about The Up Level Project.

2 — People are eager to help and support you.

This builds on my point above, but it’s so important and very often overlooked. There are people in your network that can’t wait to help you. Don’t be afraid to ask them. Be specific and keep your request as simple as possible. I asked my friend if they’d be willing to help me get the word out about my book, and they were excited to include me in their LinkedIn newsletter of 4500 people. Other friends made me feel special and excited about my book by sending me videos almost every night of them settling in with a glass of wine or by the fire pit to read my book. This simple gesture kept me showing up and kept me motivated to keep looking for other opportunities to get the word out about the book.

3 — Hire PR experts that can help you promote the book beyond your network and reach.

I learned this the hard way in my previous business. Draining your energy on marketing and PR if that’s not in your wheelhouse will lead to you showing up to interviews and opportunities with meh energy that won’t sell your book. You wrote your book to inspire and have an impact — now stay in your essence and in the energy of your purpose, and let others support you with their gifts and talents.

4 — Step outside your niche.

When it comes to marketing, we’re conditioned to niche down. When it comes to promoting your book, you want to think way broader than that because the whole point of the book promotion is to get as many eyeballs as possible on the book, so you can raise awareness beyond your usual reach. So, when it comes to book marketing: forget about your niche and think about how far and wide you can expand your reach.

5 — Make a checklist.

You can find one for free by googling “Book launch check-list. There are so many moving parts to a book launch, and it’s important to keep track of everything. I had my virtual assistant draw up a checklist for us, and every week we tackled what needed to happen next on that list. As a result, we were super organized, hardly ever overwhelmed, and never felt like we were doing last-minute scrambles. Having the checklist made the entire experience feel more expansive and fun.

How can we work together?

If you liked what you read here, and you’re curious to learn more about business coaching, you might also like this other article I wrote: How can a business coach help me?

And here are a few more ways you can get more support from me to become the best entrepreneur you can be: