Claim your agency’s position of authority with Michelle Prince

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Agency Management Institute community, where you’ll learn how to grow and scale your business, attract and retain the best talent, make more money, and keep more of what you make. The Build a Better Agency podcast presented by White Label IQ is packed with insights on how small to midsize agencies survive and thrive in today’s market. Bringing his 25 plus years of experience as both an agency owner and agency consultant, please welcome your host, Drew McLellan.

Drew McLellan:

Hey everybody, Drew McLellan here, from Agency Management Institute. Welcome to another podcast episode of Build a Better Agency. Super happy to have you here, and we are going to talk today about a topic that is near and dear to my heart. I’ll tell you a little bit about it in a second. I want to remind you that we actually have some amazing workshops coming up in August and September, I am assuming by then we will all be traveling again, we certainly are working with our conference facilities to make sure that we are social distancing and we have cleanliness standards and safety.

So we’re going to make it absolutely safe for you to be there, but also just want to give you the energy of being in a room with other folks who do what we do. So in August, we’ve got the workshop that we had to move from March, the running your agency for growth and profit, and that is in August, I think on the 11th and 12th. Then at the end of August, we have an amazing workshop with our good friends Mercer Island Group, Sell with Insights. That workshop came about because Mercer Island Group observed … when they were working with brands to help them find an agency, they observed that most agencies don’t talk through the thinking and the strategy that led them to whatever recommendations they’re making in the pitch.

When an agency actually did take the time to walk the prospect through their thinking, and show them how all of the facts stacked up, those agencies won over and over and over again. So, Mercer Island Group basically dissected strategic insight process, and have now built a two day workshop where they teach agency owners, creative directors, directors of accounts service, new business people, this methodology for developing the strategy and then pitching from that strategy. I will tell you this … so we’ve done this workshop now twice, and the workshop is capped at 50 people, so that means a 100 people because we sold out both times, have done this workshop.

Those 100 people and their agencies have earned over, now, $40 million in AGI using this methodology. Let me repeat that for you. These agencies, 100 agency people, and many cases, they came with somebody else from their agency. Let’s say, total, 70 agencies. These 70 agencies have made $40 million in new client wins in AGI, not cross billing, since they attended the workshop. Aggregate, not all, not each of them made 40 billion, although that would be some. But together, they have landed $40 million of new business using this methodology. So that workshop, again, it’s going to be in August in Chicago, and it’s going to be in January of 2021 in Orlando. Hard stop at 50 people, so check those out.

Then we’ve got both of our AE BootCamps in September. So we have the Advanced AE BootCamp and then entry level AE BootCamp. The entry level I would say is for people who have zero years to maybe four years of agency experience. So we see a lot of project managers, account coordinators, junior AEs, so people who are newer in the business. After they’ve been in the business four or five years, the advanced workshop is probably more appropriate for them. So, you can find out all of those on the Agency Management Institute website, and we’d be delighted to see you or one of your team members at those workshops.

Okay, so let me tell you a little bit about what we’re going to talk about today. So, as many of you know, Stephen Woessner and I wrote a book that was published in January called Sell with Authority. The whole premise of the book is this idea that there is power in the having a position of authority, where you are a subject matter expert, and that there’s all kinds of data points that we outline in the book around that is how agencies are selling today. They’re being found because they know a lot about something, it might be an industry, it might be an audience, it might be around a certain deliverable like PR. But for the most part, it’s around, you have a subject matter around an industry, or typically an audience, or maybe that you solve the exact same problem for all of your clients.

But anyway, you have a depth of expertise and knowledge in this thing, whatever that thing is. And because you have that depth of expertise, it allows you to create content easier, it allows you to attract the right kinds of clients, it allows you to charge a premium price for what you do, and all of that adds up to easier, faster, better fit wins for the agency. That’s the premise of the book, is explaining how you do that. So, when I heard about Michelle Prince, and I heard that she had written a book called The Power of Authority, which is all about, again, coming from a position of authority, and in her world, it often is, it often accompanies writing a book specifically.

Stephen’s in my book, we talk about having cornerstone content and our book is certainly one of them. And with Michelle, she often with her clients leads with a book, because she runs a publishing company. So let me tell you a little bit about her. So Michelle is a best selling author. She’s a sought-after speaker. She is an expert in self publishing, and she is the CEO and founder of Performance Publishing Group, which is a partner publishing company dedicated to making a difference in helping business owners own and claim their position of authority.

Interestingly, Michelle started her career working for Zig Ziglar, and then leapfrogged out of that experience to now being a business owner. She is the co host of The Ziglar Show podcast. She also hosts her own podcast called The Power of Authority. So, she is going to talk to us today about how we claim that position of authority, how we get a book written, the value of doing that. So I have a ton of questions for her, that I know are the same questions that you would have for her, and I’m going to ask her on our mutual behalf. So, let’s welcome her to the show. Michelle, welcome to the podcast, thanks for joining us.

Michelle Prince:

Hey, thanks so much for having me, I’m happy to be here.

Drew McLellan:

So you and I have a word in common-

Michelle Prince:

We do.

Drew McLellan:

And that word is authority. So, you have been talking for a long time in your professional life about stepping into your authority and how to maximize it in terms of revenue and opportunity and all of that. So I want to hear a little bit … tell everybody a little bit about your background and how you came to have this opinion or take on that word and that strategy.

Michelle Prince:

Yeah, you bet. So my background is actually with Zig Ziglar, I actually worked for Zig right out of college, and that set the foundation, which was amazing. So that’s always been in my DNA, personal development being the best self. It was in 2008, I decided I wanted to write a book. But my intention was only to write the book for my family, my kids, for myself, it was just a goal that I wanted to accomplish. But the result of writing that book is literally a full time business of speaking and coaching and all that.

That was really my first glimpse into the power of … I was the exact same person the day before I wrote a book, I was the exact same person the day after, but instantly I was seen differently, instantly I was being hired to speak and paid to speak and coach and do all these things. So, that’s really when I first recognized that there is so much power and putting yourself out there as that expert, as subject matter expertise. I’m telling you, I happen to believe with the book, it makes it even better. But there’s just so much opportunity there.

But that’s how it all started. It was not planned. I never set out to help people in this area, but I just saw it happen to me firsthand, and then now we’ve helped hundreds of other authors do the same.

Drew McLellan:

I can’t even imagine what working for Zig Ziglar was, coming right out of college. That must have been like an NBA every single day.

Michelle Prince:

It was amazing. Funny story, I met him at 18 and my parents forced me to go to his seminar when I first graduated high school, and I did not want to go. I went kicking and screaming but I loved it. It was actually a goal that I made at that seminar that I was going to work for him one day, and it’s a funny long story, I won’t go into all the detail but I just happened upon, I was cold calling on his company right out of college. Long story short, I begged for a job and the rest is history but it was … I mean, literally, we were changing people’s lives every single day.

For whatever people know about Zig Ziglar, he was the most amazing man, the most integrity based, value based man I’ve ever met. He was actually better behind closed doors than even on a stage, and that just goes to show you what a great man he was, just all around.

Drew McLellan:

Yeah, my impression of him was always that he was a man of great warmth and wisdom, and so I would imagine that being in close proximity with him in a private conversation, that would be even more magnified.

Michelle Prince:

Completely. He took interest in everyone. One of my favorite memories of him was, every Christmas, this is back before cellphones and back before any technology really. Every Christmas morning, he would get out his Rolodex, and he would call every single employee, whether they were warehouse worker or salesperson like myself, and he would literally get on the phone, when he could have been with his kids, to call us to thank us. Yeah, and just to say, “I couldn’t do this without you.” That’s who Zig was.

Drew McLellan:

Yeah, yeah. Then I want to get into the whole discussion of your work today. But for you, what’s the takeaway from that period of time in your life that has woven itself through how you approach business and clients and the work you do? What was the biggest takeaway from you? Where did he leave his mark?

Michelle Prince:

Gosh, the biggest one was, so I ended up quitting because it was the.com boom, and I had an opportunity and technology and software. So, I left to go make more money, to be quite honest. My biggest reality, it was, “Okay, corporate America is not quite like Ziglar. We were a very positive environment. So that’s something I took with me, the importance of environment and building people up and not putting people down. I’ve always liked being around positive people. But that was one thing. But integrity, to have a boss like Zig Ziglar. I mean, you couldn’t get any better, and so it made me very, very careful who I worked with, who I associated myself with.

I secretly always longed to get back there, not necessarily at the company again, but back doing what we did, and making a difference in people’s lives. But it, honestly, shaped everything, especially even the business owner that I am today. You treat people fairly and everything else works itself out.

Drew McLellan:

Yeah. Yeah. His lessons are absolutely timeless, absolutely timeless. That was quite a start. So, let’s talk about the work you do today. First let’s talk about this idea of authority. I know that for a lot of my … when I broach this topic with a lot of my listeners, I get pushback, they don’t really think they are an authority. They don’t think they really … They’ll say, “Well, you know what? My agency is good, but there’s a lot of agencies out there that do the work we do.” They dismiss the idea that they could be an authority. So, talk a little bit about that, because I suspect you hear that all the time.

Michelle Prince:

All the time, all the time. Actually that’s a perfect example of why somebody needs to claim their authority. Because anywhere there’s competition, you have to think of the end consumer. Right? You may know how you differ from your competition, but to us average Joes, we don’t necessarily know all the behind the scenes stuff. So we are basing it completely on a perception of you, of your branding, of, how do you stack up against your competition? So, you have to differentiate more than anything. So that’s one reason.

But everybody, if you feel strong enough about what you do for a business, then you are an authority. I mean, unless you don’t believe in what you’re doing, no matter what, if you bring on a new client, and they’re paying you money for your services, you are the authority in the eyes of that client. So, I see it all the time too, mostly with people who they think, “Well, who am I to write a book or who am I to put myself out there?” And it’s like, “I’m no different than anyone else that’s done it.” I know this for sure to be true, for me. I would not be doing what I’m doing today had I not just decided to write a book and decided to put myself out there. I wasn’t any better than anyone else.

If you have a heart to help people, if you want to serve and that’s really all business is, then you have to put yourself out there in a way that people want to listen to you and they want to listen to the experts, the authority.

Drew McLellan:

Right. And for you, talk a little bit about … so let’s say I’m an agency owner, and I’m listening, I’ve ignored Drew for months or years, Michelle comes on the podcast, they go, “Okay. All right. Michelle said I’m going to do it, I’m going to be an authority.” What do they do next? How do they actually become the authority they want to be? How do they own that?

Michelle Prince:

Yeah. So, it’s funny I do help authors, but a lot more of what I do is building that authority piece of it too, and I have a framework, and the first step in that framework is, it’s just clarity on your message. Right? It’s clarity on, first, what do you want? What do you really want for your business? If you want to keep it really tiny, that’s fine. If you want to grow it, that’s fine. But getting that clarity up front is the first step, and then figuring out, “Okay, what is my messaging? What is it that I want to put out there? Who is my audience? Who do I want to help the most?” That’s the most important for any success in life, it’s clarity. But then it’s a matter of figuring out what your message is, and then documenting it.

Now, when I say document, I don’t necessarily mean a book. But I mean getting it out there in a way, whether it’s a blog, whether it’s a book, whether it’s a podcast. You are the absolute authority on agencies for many, many reasons. But one of which, because you are out there, you have taken your message, you’ve put it in multiple channels, and that’s so powerful. So that’s really the other thing, how can you publish your message beyond … publish, meaning it’s available in a bigger way to attract more people. I always tell people to think of it, you don’t have to write a book, you don’t have to do a podcast, you don’t have to do speaking, but you do have to think about the people you’re trying to help because not everybody is going to learn the way you like to teach.

So for example, I love to speak, that’s one of my things. But if I only spoke my message, I would miss so many other people who don’t ever go to live events. So, thinking about, “Do people like to read? Are they better at listening?” Do a podcast to tap into that audience, do a seminar, do coaching, all of those things to really hit all the people and all of their different learning styles with the same core message. There’s more to that framework, but that’s the gist of it.

Drew McLellan:

In the book that I co-wrote with Stephen Woessner, we talked about, not only exactly what you’re saying, which is understand your audience, but also look at yourself and say, “Do I like to talk more or do I like to write more?” Because one of the challenges of being an authority is that you have to keep doing it, you have to keep producing. So, if writing is laborious for you, and it takes you three weeks to write a blog post, then maybe you have to think about that as you think about what your core channel is, what we call a cornerstone channel. But for you, I know you have a strong belief, which I do as well, that books are a great cornerstone.

So, talk a little bit about why your book is all about … I want to get your exact title of your book right. So The Power of Authority, how to get the revenue, respect and results you deserve by authoring a book, which by the way, everybody is available on Amazon. So, why did you choose a book, and why do you believe that is such a … I know you don’t believe it’s the only way, but why do you believe it’s such a powerful way to establish authority?

Michelle Prince:

So, from a business perspective, and anyone looking to build this authority, think about it that, it’s a business card, it is one of your greatest business card.

Drew McLellan:

Absolutely.

Michelle Prince:

In fact, I have a book called Your Book Is Your Business Card, and the point of that is, people will throw away your business card, but they will never throw away a book. Even if they don’t read it, there’s something about books that we just put a lot of value, and I can’t explain it and I can’t even tell you that it’s actually valid. It should happen in all books. But the truth of the matter is, if you are a published author, people just instantly see you differently, the media sees you differently, meeting planners, clients. So for me, and again, I started off, I wrote a book with no intention of building a business, but what happened was, that book literally opened up the doors to a full time business over time. I know there’s power in it.

But the book that I wrote, The Power of Authority, and when I mention authority, it’s really a play on words. You can’t spell authority without author. It’s not the only way. But it’s one of the easiest, in my opinion, one of the easiest ways to get to more people, because when you’re an author, you’re more credible in the eyes of the meaning planner, you and I both know, when you have an opportunity to speak one to many, whether they’re live or a podcast or webinar, there’s so much more power there than having to meet with someone one on one. But you don’t get on those stages, you don’t get on those podcasts, you don’t get that platform unless you are the expert, and authors tend to be considered experts.

Drew McLellan:

Yeah. Let’s talk a little bit about what you mean by the power of authority, what is the power of authority and how do I leverage that? When you’re working with folks and you’re helping them through this process, I would assume that, part of what they want to know is, “Okay, writing a book is hard, that takes time, what am I going to get out of it?” How do you help them understand what power of authority is, and how they can leverage when they actually have it, how they can leverage it, and how it changes their business?

Michelle Prince:

So they actually believe it or not, most people don’t think of themselves this way, but they’re already the authority. If you are doing any transaction, and people are giving you money for your services, you are the authority in the eyes of that person, the client. What the power of authority is, is really just taking what you already know, what you’re already doing, what you really are already putting out there, it could be on your website, it could be in blog posts, but you’re pulling it together in a way that you can leverage it more.

I mean, when you have a book or when you’re an author, I mean, you can increase your rates, you can attract more clients, you can get more referrals, and all of those things come along with it. So, when I work with business owners, that’s one of the first things that we start with, is not starting with something different. Let’s start with where you are, what are you already putting out there? I was just having a call the other day with one of our clients, and he was stuck, he was thinking like, “I’m not really sure what I would write about.” Then he mentions, “Well, but I have been writing a blog for the last eight years.”

Drew McLellan:

Eight?

Michelle Prince:

Okay. Well, that’s a good place to start. Believe it or not, well, you probably know this, most books are not written anymore. I mean, many authors love to write, but most of us don’t. So most of us are recording ourselves. I have a lot of podcast hosts that we do books, and we are literally taking their podcasts, transcribing them and creating it into manuscript. So, is it difficult? No. Does it take a little bit of time? Yes. But you can outsource everything, this audience especially knows, outsource, outsource, outsource. There’s somebody out there that will do what you don’t want to do.

Drew McLellan:

Absolutely. For almost 20 years, I’ve written that marketing column for my state’s Business Journal. That was my first book, I just took 150 of those columns, and knit them together in a book and that was back in the 90s. But you’re absolutely right, we produce so much more than we think we do. We don’t see it with the connective tissue of, “Oh, I could thematically lump these things together, and really put together a valuable.” Because I think that’s the other thing that the listeners are thinking about is like, “Okay, I probably can write a book, but I want it to be a good book, I want it to be something I’m proud of, that actually helps people.” They probably have all the pieces of that book lying around somewhere.

It’s just a matter of cataloging and assembling them, and then restructuring how they’re formatted in a way that there’s a cohesive message throughout.

Michelle Prince:

Yeah, that tends to be everyone’s most difficult part, because there’s really no lack of ideas. Even whether you’re thinking of writing a book or not, you could probably figure out pretty quick what your book would be about. But it’s like, “Okay, but how do I organize all these thoughts, I have so much just floating around in my head.” There’s some exercises that we actually do at our workshops or just in person where pulling it together, I mean, it’s all in there. So, it’s just a matter of putting it out there. I mean, one of the easiest ways that I suggest is mind mapping, mind mapping is one of the best ways to write a book, because once it’s on paper, you can get anyone to help you do it, but nobody knows your thoughts.

So, whether you write it or … we tell a lot of our authors, just grab your recorder and just start talking. It’s funny, many of our authors, especially the ones who are CEOs, they’re busy, they just don’t want to take the time to write a book. If you ask them the right questions, they’ll just start … tons of information is coming out, and you probably see this with your podcast [crosstalk 00:23:46]

Drew McLellan:

Absolutely.

Michelle Prince:

One question and all this information. So whereas somebody who sits in front of the keyboard, they’re like I don’t know [crosstalk 00:23:54]

Drew McLellan:

Paralyzed, Right? Paralyzed.

Michelle Prince:

You don’t get the authority because you labored over a keyboard, you get the authority because you are published. However you can get there the quickest, whatever the topic is, that can get you there the quickest, you don’t have to write your huge story yet. You can start with even a business card book, we do these little books all the time. This is actually my business card. It’s just a four by six little book, and I just give these away for free everywhere I go when I speak. Even though that’s tiny, it is still a published book. So, I get the same exact authority status with that as I would a 200 page book. So, that’s what I tell people, don’t make it more difficult than it has to be.

Drew McLellan:

Yes, interesting. I never thought about it before. But we talk all the time and we don’t edit, we don’t proofread, we just blurt out whatever is in our head. I mean, hopefully we have some filters, but nonetheless, it just comes out without editing. When you sit at a keyboard, if you’re not a natural writer, you sit at a keyboard and the pressure of perfection leads to that paralysis. Right? You’re absolutely right.

Michelle Prince:

Especially if they’re people … business owners, entrepreneurs, agency owners, we’re used to working really, really hard and making sure things are done right, but that book never comes out of your head the way it ends up in a book. So for some people, that’s just torture, they write it and they will go like, “Oh my gosh, that’s terrible, I can’t do this.” And I’m like, “You can’t, but that’s what editors are for.”

Drew McLellan:

I was going to say that’s … Thank goodness for editors, right?

Michelle Prince:

Best money I’ll ever spend.

Drew McLellan:

Yeah, absolutely. So, I know one of the beliefs that you have is that part of stepping into your authority is sharing your backstory? So, can you talk to us a little bit about what you mean by that, and why that’s valuable?

Michelle Prince:

For sure. So, we all want to get to know people. I mean, ultimately, if we do business with someone, it’s a relationship, right? We’re serving somebody, and it’s a relationship, and we always will do business with people we know, like and trust. Is what Bob Burg says in the Go-Giver. The truth is, even if you’re a very competitive business, so let’s choose a dentist, for example, how many people are really dying to get to know their dentist, but what if you knew the story behind why he opened his practice? Where he did? Or Why is he so passionate about oral health? Maybe his grandmother died of something related. The more you know about why they do something, the more connected, we are connected through story.

So the backstory is usually overlooked, it’s usually the more clinical technical, here’s what I do and no personality, but now more than ever, because we’re so digitalized, everything’s online, it’s like we were missing that authenticity. So the backstory makes you human, it makes you real, you’re not perfect, you don’t have it all right. You’ve just drawn to those folks. So, it’s relationship more than anything.

Drew McLellan:

Do you share that backstory in your … is that part of the book or whatever it is you do? Is that part of how you set up your authority in? Let’s call it a book, in your cornerstone, like a book, do you believe that is actually part of the preface or the beginning of the book is establishing, this is why I’m writing the book, and this is why I have this position of authority is because here’s how I started?

Michelle Prince:

Definitely, definitely. Because, let’s say you have … I’ll take just my company’s example. So I love helping people to write books, and I love publishing books, but there’s a huge backstory. I mean, it’s not all because I just love publishing, and it has nothing to do with that. It’s because I witnessed firsthand, when I followed my heart to tell my story, all of these opportunities came from it. So when somebody knows more the backstory, I’m different now from other publishers. There’s a difference between, I’m not for everybody, but somebody who connects with my backstory, Zig being a huge part of my story. If you don’t like Zig Ziglar, you’re not going to like me.

Drew McLellan:

Right. Right.

Michelle Prince:

So, backstory, what it does is, in my opinion, it just connects you to your perfect client. Not all clients are perfect, right?

Drew McLellan:

Absolutely.

Michelle Prince:

And we don’t know everyone. You only want the ones that you know you can serve better than anyone else, and the more you share yourself, the more they can self select you. It’s just so much power behind it.

Drew McLellan:

Yeah. I know a lot of your work is around books and book publishing, and I ask this question just to make the example of that point. You’re not just writing books, you’re a host of what? Two different podcasts, write your own, and the Zig Ziglar Show. So you’re producing content in a lot of ways. But I also am guessing that, when you’re producing content in those other ways, that’s also laying the groundwork for your next book?

Michelle Prince:

Always.

Drew McLellan:

So talk to us a little bit about that.

Michelle Prince:

Yeah. Obviously, with all of us, there’s so many sides to us. I never ever sat down with a plan to help people to publish books. It just was never in my thought. I just wanted to help people to find their purpose in life, find their passion, and there’s something about writing a book you just get really, really clear on your purpose, more than anything. But yeah, so I do a lot of speaking and webinars. In fact, I’m going to be doing a webinar today, not about writing a book but it’s more about shining through your story and more making a different side of your story type of thing. Then the power of authority is more on the leveraging it in your business. So, they’re very similar, but they’re a little bit different for different audiences.

Drew McLellan:

Sure.

Michelle Prince:

Yeah. I also do speaking, and I do a lot with personal development and disc and those kinds of things. But how this all evolved was, I would be out speaking, and I’d always get two questions. It was so funny. Whenever I started, when I wrote my first book, what would happen quickest was speaking. So I would be out speaking and people would come up to me afterwards and asked me two questions. One, “What was it like working for Zig Ziglar?” Everybody wanted to know. Yeah, it’s a great question. And two, “How do you write a book?” Because people would say, “Oh my gosh, I want to write a book, I dream of writing a book, I want to make an impact, how did you do it?”

What started as me just saying, “Oh my gosh, it’s so not rocket science. If I can do this, you can do this. Listen, I’ll help you out.” And literally turned into doing seminars and coaching. Now, all these years later, I’m officially through publishing. That’s how it evolved. My message is, it is about a book. I think all of our businesses are this way. Whatever you do, there’s a bigger reason behind why you do what you do.

Drew McLellan:

Absolutely.

Michelle Prince:

All of those hours into it, and what I’ve found is most people ultimately, no matter what you’re, even if you’re carpet cleaning, most people want to know they’re making a difference in some way. That’s what it boils down to.

Drew McLellan:

Absolutely. So, I want to take a quick break. But when we come back, I want to hear from you, your thoughts about, “Great, I have a book, how do I build from that? How do I build a platform, whatever that is, whether it’s a book or a podcast, or whatever it is?” Again, for most people who authored books in the way that you and I are talking, it is not their goal to be best selling published author that they make all their money through books. Right? It is a three dimensional business card, it is a credibility factor, it is owning and stepping into your authority, but it results in new revenue stream. So when we come back, I want to talk a little bit about that-

Michelle Prince:

Okay.

Drew McLellan:

If we can. All right. All right, we’ll take a quick break, we’ll be right back. Hey guys, sorry to interrupt the show. But I wanted to tell you about an opportunity that we have created for you, that I hope you’re going to be excited about. So as many of you may know, Stephen Woessner and I just finished and published our book called Sell with Authority. It’s available at Amazon and all other good bookstores. But what we’re trying to do, especially because, right now we had a big book launch planned and all of that, but that feels yucky right now given that everyone is thinking about other things. So, what we’re doing is, instead reaching out to our community, you guys, and making this offer.

If you will go to Amazon and buy a single copy of the book, and then after you read the book, leave a review, and then all you have to do is, forward me the Amazon receipt for the book, or a picture of you holding the book, I guess, and the copy of the review, that would be awesome, then what we’re going to do is we’re going to put you in a drawing for a seat for the Build a Better Agency Summit. So we’re going to give away three seats to the conference, that we are having, the Build a Better Agency Summit, and all you have to do is buy the book and leave us a review. Even if you think it sucks, that’s okay. It’ll make me cry a little, but it’s okay.

We’re just trying to generate more reviews on the book, because as you know, that affects the algorithm of the book. Since we’re kind of dark in terms of promoting it in other ways, we’re just looking for a little help from you, and most importantly, I really do believe, which is why I wrote the book, that you will find it valuable and hopefully inspirational in terms of how to position your agency and become an authority, where prospects are actually seeking you out, rather than the other way around. So if you’ll do that, that would be awesome. Again, buy the book, review the book, send me proof of both, and we will put you in the drawing for a seat to the Build a Better Agency Summit. Alright, let’s get back to the show.

All right, we are back with Michelle Prince. Before the break, I was acknowledging that for most of us, certainly for us as agency owners, most of you are not thinking, “You know what? I am going to become the next J.K. Rowling, I’m going to ditch the agency and I’m going to craft books for a living. That’s how I’m going to feed my family.” For most of you, it is certainly a tool in the toolbox that allows you to build your core business, which is your agency. So, let’s talk a little bit about that in terms of how do you leverage this platform? Or how do you leverage these tools that help you build a platform to generate different kinds of revenue streams?

Michelle Prince:

Yeah, I’m so glad you asked, because so many people have a misconception that, if I write a book, I’m going to sell bazillion copies and I’m going to make all this money, and while that is possible, it’s very unlikely for a first time nonfiction author. So the opportunity really comes through other ways. Now, do you sell books, and do you make money? Absolutely. Or do you use books sometimes, like I do, and you give them away just to get more opportunities? So, what I always suggest is, is creating those multiple revenue streams, and it’s all on the same core message, but in different formats that monetize differently, but also open up to different audiences.

So of course, you have your book, an ebook and an audio book, I mean, that’s in the book category. But really you have to have all three, in my opinion, you have to have all three because even if you love a physical book, you may be traveling and want a Kindle, now everybody is listening to audiobooks. So you want to make sure it’s in those formats, but those are all three different revenue streams. But beyond that, so then taking that core content, this is something I did with my last book, actually, with most of my books. But my last book, we have very strategic rollout, and we took each chapter’s content, went to the studio, created videos, one per chapter, basically.

So I ended up with eight to 10 different videos, taking them through in detail what the chapter was about, but more interactive and more like what we’re doing now. The result of that was now I have eight to 10 videos that I can use in any way I want online, social media, YouTube, etc. But combined, it’s now a digital course. So that $20 book is now a three $500 course with the same content, but it’s just in a different format, because some people prefer the digital online courses, that same exact content could go into other things like a webinar or a seminar, etc.

Drew McLellan:

Well, I think about the course, what you did was, you took a monologue and turned it into a dialogue where you can also assign homework or tasks or things to think about. So what you really did was, you added new layers of value in the video that a book just doesn’t lend itself to.

Michelle Prince:

Right, and personality too. Sometimes you can get it when you’re reading it, but not always. The other really cool thing about that, though is, I’m really being on repurpose, don’t recreate the wheel first of all-

Drew McLellan:

Slice and dice.

Michelle Prince:

Slice and dice. Yes. So with those eight to 10 core videos that became this digital course, we took each video and broke it down even more. So I ended up with about 60 different small short videos that we use for Facebook ads, we use for social media, all over the place, and it’s the same content. But if somebody is interested in just that little blurb on finding your topic, then it’ll direct them to get the book, which will direct them to get the course and so on and so forth. Then that same message is also then moved into a conference, or a mastermind or a masterclass, these are all the things that we’ve done just for the power of authority.

Then coaching, some people don’t want to listen to a course, they don’t want to read a book, they just want you to tell them how to do it, and they want to work with you every week to get it done. So, that’s what I always say, when I think of platform is, how can you take that core content and just repurpose it, get it in different ways, so that you’re also all over the place too, if somebody searches for you?

Drew McLellan:

Absolutely. For most of the listeners, they’re probably like, “Okay, I don’t want to take away from my core business.” But having a book and a video series, or having a book and a course, or even just having a book and going and doing the videos to create social content for the year all around the book. So it’s like speaking. So, a lot of people say, a lot of agency owners will say to me, “People are asking me to speak but they don’t want to pay me.” And I’m like, “It’s not about the payment for the speech, is the client you get because you’re standing on that stage with the credibility that that conference gave you. That is much more than any speaking fee you could possibly charge.”

Michelle Prince:

Yeah.

Drew McLellan:

And I think of the book in the same way, right? So this is revenue streams, you’re right. Odds are none of us are John Grisham and we’re not going to me a bazillion dollar author. But you probably sell enough copies to pay for whatever it costs you to make the book and make some money, right?

Michelle Prince:

Yeah.

Drew McLellan:

Some decent money. But that’s chump change compared to the ways that you can make money through these different revenue streams, again, maybe an agency owner doesn’t want to do personal coaching, maybe that’s not a good use of their time. Okay, then don’t do that one. But you’re spending an afternoon shooting some videos and then putting questions at the end of each video that somebody can think through and a participants guide. Now all of a sudden, for a lot of agencies, the revenue stream is a bit like a rocky wavy ocean. Right? Some months it’s awesome, other months not so great.

So some of these things that you’re talking about are great ways to even out the revenue stream, month over month. I will tell you, as somebody who has online courses and some of the other stuff like you do, there is a magic little thrill that happens when you get an email that says, “A perfect stranger just gave you money while you were sleeping.” Right? There’s just a magic about that experience. It’s a relief to know that that’s out there as well working on your behalf.

Michelle Prince:

Yeah, I love that. So the book, The Power of Authority, when we first launched it, I didn’t charge people for it, we actually specifically kind of like a Russell Brunson type thing, we gave it away for free with shipping. That’s a big investment where you-

Drew McLellan:

Absolutely.

Michelle Prince:

[crosstalk 00:40:49] hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people getting the book and you’re shipping it out, and you have that investment. But one publishing client, one pays for all of that and more. So for us, the way we looked at it was, “I’m not in the business to sell books.” If anyone is listening, they want to be in the business of selling books, then this is not the kind of book we’re talking about, this is an authority book. So, what we did is we gave it away for free, and that gave them opportunities to get the other things like the digital course and all that. But ultimately, all I really wanted out of that was for them to schedule a strategy call. That’s it.

Then they read the book, and they scheduled that call, and then again, we’re just seeing if we’re a fit to help each other. But by then, if somebody has read enough of my content, they know if they’re fit for a fit, and you’re not wasting your time talking to people that are just not the best clients for you.

Drew McLellan:

Yeah, that’s a great point, because when you read someone’s book, you do get a sense of them, you get a sense of how they think, how they communicate, the stories they tell. In essence, most business books, there’s a bunch of case studies baked in the business book. So you’re seeing their success stories. And as a reader that allows you to go, “I align with this person, this person is achieving the results that I want for myself for my business, or whatever it is.” So, I do think the other thing it does is, it dramatically shortens the sales cycle. So I think it does two things. One, it attracts the right clients and repels the ones that are going to cost you time and money anyway, and two, by the time they get to you and they’ve read the book or taken the video course or whatever, they’re halfway sold already.

Michelle Prince:

You know what’s really amazing is, half the time the people aren’t even reading the book. I mean, they may start it, but it’s not because they’ve read the whole book that they’re convinced, a lot of times it’s the fact that, “Well, he knows what he’s doing. I mean, he wrote a whole book on it. I’m going to work with anybody, I’m going to work with him.” So that’s why agency owners more than anything, especially if they have a lot of competition is, what are you telling when you’re talking to a prospect, how are you communicating that you’re different? That’s what you put into a book. That’s what you’re showcasing so that the ultimate goal is make it easy for a prospect to say, “You’re the right person for me.”

Because even if it’s 100 people doing the exact same thing, we want to work with people we know, like and trust, and I may not be a fit for everyone, you may not be a fit for everyone. But we don’t know that until we have that. They get to know you through video, through podcasts, through books.

Drew McLellan:

Yeah. When you’re advising a client, so one of the things that when I talk to agency owners, and they kick around the idea of writing a book, it feels like this daunting task, which we’ve talked about, and then they’ll say a book is so big. I can write a blog post or I can be on a couple podcasts, but a book is … that’s like hundreds of pages. So, from your professional experience, now that you’ve done this for lots of clients, how big is big enough? I don’t mean physical size, but is it 50 pages, 100 pages?

Michelle Prince:

So, it’s funny because for a full size book, think of it more by word count, full size book is going to be 20 to 50,000 words, somewhere in that range. A lot of them these days fall on the lower end of that, because, frankly, a lot of us don’t want to read these big long books, a mini book, like what we were talking about with what I have, we’re talking 5000 words. I mean, that is a chapter, that is a blog post.

Drew McLellan:

Just packaged differently?

Michelle Prince:

Package different. Truthfully, a lot of the many books that we do, we just take a chapter from their full book, and then use that. So it’s the lead magnet, right?

Drew McLellan:

That’s a great idea. So you don’t even have to write the mini book, is just chapter two of the big book.

Michelle Prince:

Exactly. I always recommend for speakers that, if you have all these topics, why not do a little mini book for each one so that when you’re out you’re basically whetting their appetite on what they’re going to get when you speak. Anyway, there’s just … To answer your question, it doesn’t have to be long at all. In fact, it could even be a chapter in someone else’s book, it doesn’t matter the size, is just the fact that you are published and that you’re leveraging it. I mean, if you don’t tell anyone about it, if you don’t use it in your marketing, if you don’t put it out there, then it’s not going to serve you.

Drew McLellan:

Yeah, so one of the things that we do at Agency Management Institute, we’ve done two, and we’re about ready to do another one is, I’ll pick a topic, and I will say to our members, so a select group of people that we serve, “Here’s the topic, if you want to write a chapter in this topic, we will edit and produce the book, and then you can buy copies of the book at our printing price.” And the setup of the book is, so I as the editor and this agency expert say, “Here are the 25 leading agencies that I know of in the world, and they all have a comment on this topic.” So they all write basically, it’s like an 800 or 1000 word chapter, right? But now there’s this book where they are being heralded as this …

One of the best agencies on the planet, they were invited to participate in this book, and they use it exactly what you’re saying. So that your idea … I hadn’t really thought about it, but your comment about, you can be a chapter in someone else’s book, this compilation book allows them to do the same thing, right?

Michelle Prince:

Exactly. In fact, we do tons of compilation books, we call them collaborative books. We’re launching one actually today, it doesn’t matter how many authors it has, we’ve done them for different industries, I do my own, but you just get these stories, and then what happens is, now you have all of these authors in the book, if you’re in a book, you’re going to tell people about it.

Drew McLellan:

Absolutely.

Michelle Prince:

Now, you may not know any of the contexts that this other author has. But now all of a sudden, your network is huge, because this person is promoting it, that person is promoting it. So, I love doing collaborative books. In some cases, you pay to be in them, other cases, if you can just throw in a quote and then buy the books, it’s a great … and it’s a really easy way to get started for folks that are not really convinced that they have a whole book yet to write, then start with a chapter.

Drew McLellan:

Right. Yeah, really great ideas. So as people are listening to us, and hopefully they’re getting like, “Oh, maybe I could do this.” I mean, you’ve given them lots of really tactical ways to think about this. In your experience, I’m sure you’ve bumped into people who are at this stage right now like, “Oh, maybe I could do it. I am warming up to the idea, I like the idea of being an author, but I’m warming up to the idea of doing the work to be an author.” I’m guessing a lot of them get stuck right there. How do you help them get unstuck? Like you’re now talking to tens of thousands of agency owners, how do you help the subset of them that are like, “Yes, I should do this, but …?” How do you help them get over that hump?

Michelle Prince:

Okay, first thing is, because most of them, even if they think they want to write a book, there’s still usually that confusion [inaudible 00:48:18] but what exactly would it say? I’ve got all of these ideas. And truthfully, we could all write 100 books, because we all have expertise in so many different things. There’s an exercise that anyone can do, just grab a sheet of paper, put a little T chart on the paper, and on the left hand side of the T write the word passions at the top, on the right hand side write experiences. What you do is, you make a list and this isn’t a book yet, but this is a process.

Writing down your passions is so important. Because obviously you … first of all, the people who write a book about something they’re not passionate about, end up never finishing that book, or regret it. I say to people, “Be careful what you write about, because you’ll be talking about it a long, long time.” So you better be passionate about it. But passion is, think of things that you enjoy doing, what lights you up, what comes natural, and put it on the left hand side of the T, and then on the right though, this is where you put your experiences. So, experience as an agency owner, maybe you have experience in video or experience specific to business, but experience is more than just our career or our expertise. Maybe you’ve experience as a parent or you’ve experienced traveling a lot or experience … something that you didn’t want to experience, and that’s the tricky part of experience.

Some of us have been through things, good and bad, and it doesn’t mean we wanted it to happen, but it’s a part of our story. So it goes on the list. Once you have both sides filled out, now what you’re looking for is an intersection or connection. So where can you draw a line from the passion side to the experience side? Because that intersection is the magic, because it’s a book you want to write, you’re excited to help people with this topic, and it’s something you have a lot of credibility on because you’ve been doing it, you have the experience.

I’ll give you an example of mine. So, I told you I met Zig so early, I worked for him. I’ve always been passionate about personal development. I just love it. I still do, and I love helping people to find their greatness basically. So that’s on my passion side. On the experience side, I did work for Zig Ziglar, there’s a little bit of a connection there.

Drew McLellan:

Absolutely.

Michelle Prince:

I’ll share this and I don’t mind sharing it to be vulnerable. I hadn’t experienced when I was in middle school, even early high school, just not a lot of confidence, low self esteem, things that like, “Look, I don’t want to have to tell people that, I don’t want that on my list.” But it’s just the fact of who I was, and it’s part of my story. But here’s where the magic is. So the connection, I love personal development, I struggled with some stuff, I had to use personal development to pull myself out of that rut.

So my first book was Winning in Life Now: How to Break Through to a Happier You, and it was all that, it was how I use personal development, my ups and downs in life, how I use personal development to get myself through, what it was like working for Zig Ziglar. That was all my book. And you know what? It was so easy to write, because it was just right here, it flew out of me, and I couldn’t wait to share it with people because I was so passionate about the topic. So, that’s the first thing, is just get clarity on your topic.

Drew McLellan:

Can’t just be intellectual, I mean, that’s your point, right? It’s got to come from your head and your heart?

Michelle Prince:

Yes. Because if you want people to connect with you, that backstory, you have to put yourself in it. You have to. If you’re not willing to, then you have to be authentic on social media. So it’s the same exact thing. That’s where I always tell people to start. Then what usually happens after that exercise is, they see they have 10 book ideas, I mean, because there’s so many things with passion and experience. So I always say, “Okay, pick the one that you can do the quickest, the fastest and the easiest.” Because again, we’re just trying to get you that published author status, no matter the topic, even if it’s about personal stuff, you still leverage it into your business.

Drew McLellan:

Yeah, that’s great. So, after I do that, is that where you find, if somebody does that, and they really see that intersection, is that what actually propels them to sit down and either start typing or talking or however they’re going to capture the book? Is that the speed bump they have to get over?

Michelle Prince:

There’s one step in between, the hardest part truthfully is, even once you know exactly what you’re going to say, is getting it out on paper. So, one thing I recommend is a process and it is utilizing mind mapping, but I use it specifically for books because it’s sitting down and thinking, “Don’t think about writing a book, just think about you are sitting across the table from somebody that you care about.” Somebody comes to you and says, “Drew, I need to build the agency, and I’ve got 30 days to do it, and I’m about to lose my house, my marriage, everything.” What would you say? You wouldn’t hesitate to tell him, “Okay, you have to do this, you have to do this, you have to do this.” Okay?

So everything that you would say at that high level, you put it on paper. Okay, so the core is how to build an agency? All right, well, let’s say I’ve to tell them how to find their niche, all the things, I don’t know what you would say. Those are the main bubbles, basically like a mind map. Then you do the exact same thing for each one. So, figuring out your niche, right? Okay, what’s everything, you got one shot, maybe it’s your child, maybe it’s your best friend, and they’re desperate for this information. You’ve got one shot to tell them everything you know, you do the same thing. Okay, well, I would tell them … and then boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, get it on paper.

What happens is, that ends up being your chapters, your sub chapters, and then you throw in stories, examples, things either you struggled with or other people that you know. When you approach a book like that, you’re doing it out of your heart, you’re wanting to serve, I just want to help … excuse me, I just want to help someone with what I’ve learned. When we come from the standpoint of serving and helping, we don’t have any issue getting it out, but that mind map exercise, we do it at all of our workshops, we do it with all of our authors, and it works. In the 10 years we’ve been doing it [inaudible 00:54:11] somebody leave without a full book mapped out, and it just works.

Then you can go, you can write it or you can record it, or you can get somebody to interview you. But that has to happen for [crosstalk 00:54:23]

Drew McLellan:

Yes, so great. This has been awesome. I’m excited for how excited I think everyone’s going to be when they hear this and realize they can do it, it’s in them, it’s part of how they can help people because I think one thing that’s true about agency owners is, one of the reasons they got into the business is because they want to help other business people.

Michelle Prince:

Yes.

Drew McLellan:

And they love when clients let them come alongside them and coach them, not in the traditional sense, but coach them and help them make good decisions and allow them to really serve their audience. So, I think what you’ve done today is show them, here’s another way for you to lead with your heart, to be a servant leader, to help and coach the industry or the audience or whoever it is that really needs to hear from you, and here’s a way that you can do that also and there’s nothing wrong with this, that also benefits your business. So, it’s good for the audience, it’s good for your business, it’s good for you. So why wouldn’t you do this?

Michelle Prince:

Yeah, and I’ll just add one more thing to that, what is authority? Authority doesn’t mean you are 100 times better or have … you’re on a pedestal, authority means you’re literally just one step ahead of someone else. That’s it, and you’re turning around and pulling them along. That’s what authority is, and that’s what having it through all these different channels, what it does for you, and it builds the business and it helps other people, and there’s power in it.

Drew McLellan:

Yeah, that is awesome. Thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing all of this.

Michelle Prince:

Thank you for having me. Yeah, this is fun.

Drew McLellan:

So folks who want to learn more about your work, your bookshops, your publishing, all of that stuff, what’s the best place for them to find all of that information?

Michelle Prince:

Michelleprince.com or you can go to thepowerofauthority.com/freebook, if you want to get download of The Power of Authority book, and then that will link you to the publishing page.

Drew McLellan:

Okay, this has been awesome. Thank you so much.

Michelle Prince:

Thank you, Drew.

Drew McLellan:

You bet. All right guys, this wraps up another episode of Build a Better Agency, if you’re not fired up after listening to Michelle talk, and if you’ve ever thought about really capturing your knowledge, your experience to the benefit of others, if you’ve ever had that thought, boy, did she give you a blueprint for how to do it, how to do it quickly and well, and to serve both the reader and you. So, I expect to see all of your books on Amazon relatively shortly. So, I would love for you to send me a note, if you’ve decided to do this, I would love to hear about what you’re thinking about, and be able to celebrate that and support you in that, because, boy, you got to download today of how to get it done.

So, love this? Please check out Michelle’s stuff. A couple quick reminders for you before I let you go. Number one, remember that every month we give away free seat at one of our live workshops, or one of our on demand workshops, and all you have to do is leave a rating and review of the podcast, take a screenshot of it and shoot it to me in email. So just email me the screenshot at [email protected], and remember, reason I’m asking you to do that, I do read all the reviews. But if your user ID is, I hate [Max 00:57:50] 69, then I don’t know who that is, and by the way, you should not hate Max because they’re better.

Nonetheless, I don’t know who you are. So, identify yourself for me, send me the email and we will put you in the drawing. We’re happy to be able to offer that to everybody. So please do that. A big shout and thank you to our friends at White Label IQ. They are the presenting sponsor of this podcast. So, they make it possible for me to come and hang out with you every week and bring you smart people like Michelle. So, head over to whitelabeliq.com/ami because they have a special deal there just for podcast listeners and you’re going to want to take advantage of it. They do white label PPC, dev and design and they are awesome. My agency works with them and we love them, as do many other AMI agencies.

Alright, that’s all for me today. I will see you next week, and thanks for listening. Talk to you soon. That’s a wrap for this week’s episode of Build a Better Agency. Visit agencymanagementinstitute.com to check out our workshops, coaching packages, and all the other ways we serve agencies just like yours. Thanks for listening.