Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections. An Interview with Lee Baucom and Michael A Forman

Welcome to Networking Unleashed, building Profitable Connections, the show where clarity creates opportunity and focus fuels growth. I'm your host, Michael Forman, and today's episode is a must Listen for authors. Entrepreneurs and anyone who thinks a book alone will build their business. Publishing a book doesn't finish the race.

It fires the starting gun. Yet so many people misuse their book, confuse their message, and spread themselves thin, trying to do everything at once. My guest today has seen it from the inside. He knows why a book should open doors, not create noise, and why focus is the difference between being busy and being profitable.

We're breaking down how a book should work in your networking, how it should guide conversations, and why. Doing less on purpose often creates more opportunity. If you want your book to connect, you came to the right people in the right place. You want your business to grow with intention again, you're in the right place.

So let's get into it. I'd like to welcome to the podcast, Lee. I am so looking forward to your podcast because. As you can see, I've written two books and I'm sure I'm not using them correctly, so I'm very interested in what you have to say. Yeah. So Lee, welcome to the podcast and give us a little background of, of, of what you've done.

First, Michael, thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. You know, networking is part of what a book does for you. So let me set the scene a little bit for how I got to this point. And some of this is accidental and I don't want others to make that same mistake. So let's zoom back. To start, I was trained as a therapist and I specialize in marriage and family therapy.

And what I realized is marriage and family therapy is not particularly effective. So I moved from there to coaching. We can talk about that, but it's not a big piece of the business thing. It's just an interesting fact that dissuaded me from staying in that field. Now I continue to see people, but I was working with them as a coach and my whole endeavor at that point was to figure out what helps people actually have a good marriage.

And I started writing that. My intention was to. Write a book basically because I wanted to frame what I did and understand it further and use that as a, a resource document. And also because I figured it would be helpful for, you know, being in practice. And so I put it out so I. Back to 1999.

Well, 1998 I was writing and talking with this person who had done some writing and he said, so what are you gonna do with your book? I said, well, I'm gonna get it published, get it to a publisher. And he said, well, between now and then, what are you gonna do? And I said, I. Wait, and his answer was, why don't you put it on the internet?

19 98 99 was early in the days of doing much worthwhile on the internet. My website that I created looked horrible and I didn't actually believe it would work. So it was December of 1999 and I punched. For the website to go live. And we packed everything up. This was back in the days they called it a laptop, but it was a brick that sat on your lap.

I mean, it was heavy and and, and so it mostly just was a portable computer for me. And so I took my portable computer and we marched from where we were in Kentucky to my in-laws in North Carolina. I got there late, but I was just like really curious. So unplugged their phone cord, stretched another cord all the way around, got the dial up tone, and watched as I got notifications that my book was selling.

And so to my surprise I had started this process. So fast forward. And that book, that was an ebook. Because that's what we caught it then. And Amazon didn't have eBooks back then, so it was an ebook, and then Amazon suddenly had eBooks and I went, oh, no, no, it's not an ebook, because those are now 99 cent on Amazon.

It's changed now, but back then it was how they, they kind of broke the, the ground. And so I developed that further. Almost by necessity to get away from the ebook title. And created a much more robust system for people to use. And what I accidentally did is I launched a business I started finding people coming to me and I started listening.

So now that ebook not counted their seven other books and a couple of journals I've created plus other programs online basically. As buildouts from that. And so what I realized along the way, and that's how we get to hear, is that books can launch a business. But most people don't know how to do that.

In fact, most people think they wrote the book, they're done. You're proof that that's not what you're doing because you, you're taking that and furthering that in the podcast in other ways, but a lot of people are, you know, I've talked to people and they're like, well, I'm 95% on the way done. I'm almost finished the book.

I'm like, you're 5% done. You're, you're just starting. I. And and when you think the book is just going to do it for you. So there are two frames that I see. One is people go, it's just the book. I'll go and meet with authors at different events and I'm like, what, what's your plan after the book? And they're like, what do you mean the book is going to do it?

We can talk about the reality of book sales a little bit further on, but that's not where it's gonna happen for people first. Yeah. And so then the other mistake they, they make is they just think it's gonna unfold naturally. Right? People are gonna start calling and they're gonna have these natural opportunities instead of being intentional about how they set it up.

So. That's the kind of a pivot. I still do the relationship work, but I realized I kept helping authors out and they kept coming to me one by one and I went, let's do this in a formal way that more authors can take advantage. And so that's part of the Book to Business blueprint that I've been talking about lately.

So anyway, that's a, that's a more than a little nutshell, but that'll get you up to where we are. Absolutely. And I, you know, I use my, my books more as a calling card when I'm speaking in, in workshops at keynote speeches or just anything. If I walk into a business and I'm teaching them how to network mm-hmm.

I always include the book as part of my price. So if I have 50 people, then I'm ordering 50 books for them, and so they have it on their desk while I'm teaching them. Yeah. So they have a, a resource. So that's, that's one way and that's the way that I've been using it, you know, ever since. But, okay, so before you go on, before you go on though, just to clarify, for some people who aren't aren't aware of this, when you do that, so you, I'm assuming you make some.

Some amount of money per book. What a lot of people don't realize is when they're doing that speaking, that comes from a different fund than the speaker often. And so a company will have this resource fund, the speakers fund and the resource fund, and they can actually draw from two funds to pay you and sometimes make up make a better.

Deal for you and sometimes even find a way of matching what you want to charge for the speaking, but they aren't able to do by doing the resources. Exactly, and I could have said it better myself because there are times when they want to pay me a certain amount, but a portion of it will come out of a different fund, which you just said.

Yeah. And, and I'll include the book. So it all works together. It's very, very interesting, by the way. Okay. So let me start out by saying, by asking. You say a book is the start of a business, not the finish line. How should professionals think differently about networking once they become authors?

One of the things that I, I, I point out, and it's probably the most obvious thing I point out that a lot of people go, I haven't noticed that is the first part of the word authority, which is what you need when you're networking, trying to get attention, is author. So when you are author, you have authority based on the fact that you were able to create the book.

Now, it used to be that we had these, kind of, you had to break through. You had to get to a, a publisher and they would kind of give you their, their blessing that whatever you'd written was enough. That's no longer the case. I mean, if you wanna write a book and get it published these days, there are multiple ways to do that.

So you're automatically able to build the authority if you're willing to put in the time to create the book. And so now you have authority in that position. It that, that's the beginning point, you know, to be able to say, I wrote a book because I'm an expert in this area. You don't even have to say, you just have a book.

Hey, I'm the author of this book. That goes a long way. I mean, if somebody hands you a book these days, you, it still carries weight like. That meant something that they have a book. So in terms of networking this, it used to be pull out a business card and do you remember the, all the fancy business card stuff they would do and they start putting codes on it and it would, you know, have RFD stuff on all that stuff.

Okay, so a book is a business card. As long as you have made sure that you've got your contact information in it, it is a business card and it's way more powerful than the fanciest card you could do because now they have a way of thinking about, I've been to conferences and collected the business cards.

In fact, I just, I moved them. They're, they're over there in a big pile. And then I've got some books that people have handed me. And guess which one got attention? It wasn't the business cards. I read their books or at least skimmed their books. That's a bigger impact than Here's my card. Absolutely. And the book to me is the next level.

So when, first, when people are first going to networking events, you know, it, it used to be pre pandemic, it used to be transactional. You know, these are business cards or I have three widgets. Yeah, $5. We'll switch it and, you know, you're a customer. We've gone more customer and transactional to relational after the pandemic because I have to get to know, you know, you like, you, trust you.

They'll do business with you. And so now when I go to a networking event, I collect maybe 15 cards because I know I had a relationship. With that person, and I did this whole thing with follow up and everything else, which is just as important, but nothing says you're an expert more than saying, I wrote this book.

So I, I, I agree with you a hundred percent on all the lines. Let me, I'll, I'll give you an example of that. I had a, a, a person who I'd, I'd worked with and he was trying to figure out how to use the book and how to position it. And, you know, my thing was, let's do it quietly. So this guy was a consultant and he was in the office of a president of a company who was trying his best to get the cheapest option available.

And so he was doing this competitive thing. You know, I've got these two people. Why should I choose you? And he wanted price point. And my my guy the author as he's talking, he said, so why should I choose you? And he was just waiting for the, you know. The low offer. My guy pulls out the book and said, because I wrote a book on this, and he dropped it on his desk and said, if you're interested in me helping you, let me know.

My information's in there. And he left. There was no, I'll give you the lowest price. He came in as I'm the expert in this, so much so that I wrote the book on this. And that sealed the deal. The other person might have been brilliant, but he didn't have a book. And the book is what turned the deal.

Absolutely. I, it absolutely, and very close to that scenario. It's helped me countless times. It really does. So I, I agree a hundred percent. I, I never talk dollars, never talk when I'm, I'm consulting or I'm educating or I'm putting a class together. I never talk dollars. I always talk experience and being an author.

Mm-hmm. Where do you see authors misusing their book in networking conversation and unintentionally limiting their opportunities? So that's, that. There are different levels to that, but let me just pick one. I see a lot of people that if they were in a normal situation, would have a conversation about a topic, and instead they'll say, well, that's in my book.

And, and then just leave it at that. And they expect the person is gonna go do it. Here is the reality for a book. Not many people are A, going to buy it and b, going to read it. I mean, that's, that's the news of this. That doesn't mean it's not valuable. It still has power. And just being able to say, I wrote this book, and when somebody has a book, they feel like they've done something.

But if you want them to know something. You can't count on them going to the book. So a mistake is relying too much on the book instead of the conversation and relationship. I think an another mistake is assuming that this is going to be the easy answer for people. People come for different reasons.

Some people aren't at the point of needing, for instance, what I do but they might down the road. And the book is still back there. Business card, who knows? But the book is often still back there. So forgetting that this is a long-term venture is another mistake people make. One of the big ones I see though is when people assume that they know what the book is going to create in the business.

So I said I was an accidental entrepreneur. We have multiple pieces of the business that I never imagined. From the book just itself, I could see the, the straight shot. What I didn't see are the several things along the way that came out of that. And so a mistake that a lot of authors make is not listening for what's possible.

Listening to the people around them, the, the readers often mining that for what are the opportunities and just making an assumption about what rolls out from it. That's, that's absolutely true. You know, you can't be closed-minded about your book. You know, you, you're not the end all. You don't know everything.

There's always something else that you say, oh, I, I, I should have added that to the book, or I could add that to volume two or something else. But you have to keep your eyes and ears open because there's like 15 things going on around you. You have your conversation, but. You can be picking up something else that's going on.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And then afterwards, when you go speak to, I'll say the person and they expand on that thought. Like, I never thought about that. I never thought about, because that will go nicely with what I wrote, what I wrote, what I wrote down. Yeah. So there's, there's the backside of that too. I've often seen authors when they're in that mindset of listening that everything is like the next thing.

And not everything is the next thing. There are some things that you have to be able to say. Interesting. And I hear that, but that's not what I want to do. So part of what is nice about an author building a business from their book is they get to decide what that business looks like. For you speaking you, you like that there are plenty of people who absolutely do not want to do that.

And so there they start hearing from people, oh, we want you to come speak. That's tempting. But if that's not really what speaks to you that's not going to work. And and the same for consulting. Maybe you don't wanna do consulting, maybe you wanna do something else. And so there are all these different opportunities that start coming out of it, and you've gotta be able to separate the signal from the noise.

And that's a learned skill. I'll watch a lot of people chase them. What they thought were, it is like the, the silver object, you know, it comes along and they're like, oh, let's go after that. And then they start down it and go, wait, I don't, that's, I don't wanna do that. Or that takes me in a whole different direction.

And so to be aware of that is. It's so critical. Years ago I was working at a counseling center and I was watching them deal with their fundraising, and the board was going, oh, we could, and I was in this board meeting watching it just from the side we could do this. And they kept going on with these ideas that they would get all pumped about.

And finally, this one person said, why don't we just sell drugs? And it stopped the whole crowd. And they were like, what? He said, just stand on the corner and sell drugs. And they were like, why would we do that? And he said, well, that's what I'm wondering about. All the other answers I'm getting here, all of them are taking us away from what is our core.

We need to talk about what our core is. And so that. Is true for the Authorpreneur too. The person who wants to build their business from the book, they need to be able to go, oh, that's a signal of where I could go with this, as opposed to, that's noise that takes me away from my core. So mistakes on each side of not listening for the signal and listening too much to the noise.

You, you, you said it and you said it for the same thing on, on both sides. You're, you're listening, but you have to listen to yourself and you can't, you have to focus on what you want to do and what the task is at hand. You know, you can go, always go off into eight different directions, but you have to have the mindset to keep yourself focused, and that takes a lot of practice.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. How does a book change the quality of the rooms you're invited into and the conversations that you're able to have? It's that authority, again, you're building that authority based on the fact. And I don't think it's an overestimation for our culture to think that someone wrote a book on it.

They, they have something. I think we recognize that if you wrote a book, you spent some time. I mean, there, there are some interesting statistics on how many people say they wanna write a book. It is, the vast majority of people say they wanna write a book, right? The number of people who write a book.

Very small. And the number of people who write a, a, a book that can create their their whole business is even smaller, but not because it wasn't there. It's just because they didn't see it. So and, and then there are some books that are just written like a memoir. Probably not gonna be the start of a business.

Could be, but it might not be. Fiction, probably not. I had this question the other day from someone who said, well, I don't know. I mean, I wrote fiction. How would that apply to me? And my response was, have you thought about? Teaching people how you did that. I mean, that, that's a possibility because I watch your creative process and it's pretty amazing.

And I had another that came to me and said, you know, I am really good at telling somebody if a plot line is, is good enough for a book or not. I'm like, okay, you're a fiction writer, but you have a skill, right? So even with fiction, it's possible. But we we're going with for general purposes, non-fiction books and some expertise, and we just named the piece that stands out.

You have to have some expertise to actually write a book. I don't know how many people I've heard from that. They started to write a book and they got 12 pages in and they ran outta content. That's, they thought they had it. And people who write the book, first of all, it changes how they think about.

What they're talking about. I mean, it forms you in in ways. I created frameworks as I'm going, how can I explain this? You create a framework to explain it. How can people go through this? You create a framework so they can go through it. I'm sure that's true in your books, that there is a framework that people follow in how to network and how to move from the airwaves to income.

Those are ways you framework it, right? And so that's that requires some thought. When you have that level of thought, you're having different conversations than if you just happen to be skilled in some area. You're having a different conversation on the front side. So when people are interested in you and have a short conversation with you, they go, okay, there's, there's content here, there's something there.

We want frameworks. And so that changes the conversations going into the room. But the fact that you spent the time to write the book changes the opportunities for the book. I, I mean, I, on podcasts when I can say I've written seven books, people go, oh, maybe I'd like to talk with you, as opposed to, I've never written a book, but I would like to talk to authors.

That's a whole different frame. So the authority still is there and how it shapes your framework. Is there. Kind of gives you more credibility when you're speaking with somebody, somebody who hasn't written a book, or somebody who's written seven. You know, I'm a novice. I, I wrote two books and I thought that's great.

Until I spoke to you. Who, who wrote seven? I spoke with John Maxwell, who wrote a hundred. Yeah, Bob Berg. Wrote, I think 12 or 15 books, and it's like, okay, I'm obviously just a beginner and but to somebody who hasn't written anything, they look at me like, oh, he wrote two books. Wow. Yeah. You know, and for me, I look at you guys and I go, I didn't do anything.

You know? So that's, that's, that's all right. Okay. And, and yet there are people who have built completely full businesses with one book. And people who have no business, who have written multiple books, especially in this age of how many people, how many books people can turn out using AI in other ways.

Just because they're turning it out doesn't mean that those have authority. So we're really talking about people who have expertise that they are putting into the book. They're creating the book in some way. And, and, and just to say there are plenty of people who don't sit down and write every word in their book.

They have a ghost writer or they have an assistant, or there are lots of ways it can happen transcriptions. So just to open that up, that there are plenty of ways to create a book. It's still been created because there's content to be put in there, right? Absolutely. Okay. Many people try to do everything after publishing, speaking, coaching, courses, consulting.

Yeah. What does that approach usually, why does that approach usually stall momentum instead of creating it? It's overwhelming. I mean, first of all, you can't stay focused on one thing. And so when I have worked with authors, my thing is, let's, let's start with one thing. You know, let's build one thing.

That was what happened to me. It was just an accident. So the sales of the book is kind of what I was metricing in the beginning, and then people were like, you know, I need some coaching. I'm like. Okay, well we will add that in. Not everybody could afford the coaching. Okay. Well, let's find a different way of providing the help, the feedback that they need.

Not all the time could I be the coach. Okay. Well that would add that add in. But each step. Was built as it went, not everything all at once. I don't do I used to do some speaking and some consulting. I don't do that now, partly because it spread me too thin. There's only so much a person can do and all of those require a different process to get there.

So I suggest that people pick a few, but focus on the one at a time until they have that down. Otherwise, it's overwhelm. Nothing gets done in any one area enough to get you there. And then once you've, you've got that down, it's easy to add on. Sometimes you go, I don't wanna add on, I don't need to add on, I need to continue this.

You don't know how deep something can go until you have stayed with it long enough to find that out. Very good. Yep. From a networking standpoint, how does focus make it easier for others to refer, recommend, and remember, you. So I think one of the things that's very useful is having the hooks in there.

That's where, that's where a book authoring a book is often powerful as, I don't know how, how it felt for you, but I would be sitting there writing something going, oh, I haven't thought about this frame, but. Let me put that in and you go, that's a hook that I can talk about. So when you have that hook, it's easy to transfer information.

And so when you're in conversations, when you're in networking, you can talk about, for instance, I have a three C process that people can use to save their marriage three C process. They go, oh, what is that? I can talk about that. I talk a good bit in my trainings about the dangers of the pause button marriage.

People are curious about what I mean by Paul's button marriage. So I can drop a hook in and let the people get curious about it, and that is engaging for them to go, oh, there's something else there. And first of all, you're saying I have a framework that's useful and I've tested it and I've done it enough that I can name it.

And that's important because everybody uses a framework in their life. I mean, we have systems, we just haven't named them and clarified them. So you have that. You create curiosity by naming that, and then you follow up by saying how that can be transformational for where the people are. Outstanding. Yep, absolutely.

I had about three questions, but I was, so, I was listening so intently to you that I forgot what the questions were. But let's, I'll move on to the next one. Hopefully I'm gonna remember them. What should an author stop saying at networking events if they booked, if, if they're booked to open doors instead of creating confusion.

One of the things I see people do is they circle, they, it's like they wrote the book and then they drop back to their heels. And they, they suddenly start downplaying what they've done. And so they go from a, a position of, I have this authority to, well, maybe I don't, and start hedging on that. So I think that is always dangerous just in life to be able to knock yourself onto your heels that you wanna be on your toes if somebody else pushes back.

Then of course you're going to have to speak into that. But to start with that, you know, so they'll hold up their book that they wrote and then they start going, well, it's not really a big deal. And you know, it hasn't really sold much and suddenly you're taking away your own authority. The power that people get from.

Writing a book is, they wrote the book, it doesn't matter how many books are sold. Average number of books sold about 200 copies. And I think that's even in flux now because of all the mess that's coming out. But a few years ago, the average was 200 copies. People who could get above 200 copies were well exceeding the average.

Now let's just extrapolate a little bit if a copy sell. A million copies, some book sells a million copies. How many have to sell 5, 10, 15, 20 to balance that out to 200? Right? So just looking at that, the, the chances of having a best seller, true, best seller, not. You got it pumped up on Amazon in a subcategory for 30 minutes.

But a true bestseller is not extreme, but that doesn't matter. It's not the number of copies, it's the process to get there. You did the process to get there. You took the time to write the book, you took the time to get it printed. You get or, or published or however you did that and multiple ways of doing that.

That's what you stand on. I wrote the book on this. This is my knowledge. And to stay with the knowledge point is where you survive. That's, that's where you, you get into the networking and you wrote the book, not, it's only sold 20 copies. I've seen this multiple times when people are like, I wrote the book.

I wish it would sell. You wrote a book. You wrote a book. That's it. I go to a Chamber of Commerce meeting every week and there's 40 or 50 businesses, and I always at the end of the meeting, put my book up there as a giveaway. Because I've, I've gotten the attention of everybody in there and I'm always the expert in the networking field.

So it's like, here I am the expert in the field. I wrote a book and here it is. Mm-hmm. And everybody buys for the book. So at the end of each meeting I do that and they're almost waiting for it for me to. Say, I'm gonna give the book away. So now I have, I have two books. I have a podcasting book, and some people are more interested than one than the other, but it doesn't really matter because I'm the expert in both of them, and I'm giving that away.

And I, I created that feeling, that sensation. Mm-hmm. That they gotta have it. I need that. Right. I need that. Yeah. How can a book act as a filter, attracting the right connections while quietly repelling the wrong ones? Yeah. So, you can see this on different levels. One is the title itself. There are a number of titles out that are far more provocative than I would be in the way I speak, and those books are intended to filter out to people.

Who are offended by that and don't wanna be a part of that community. So that's a filter out, filter in is the one that goes, that speaks to me. So one of my books that I wrote early on was How to Save Your Marriage in three simple steps. There is not a lot left to the imagination of what that is about.

You're not gonna read that if you're not. Or if your marriage is great, you're gonna read it because you need to know how to save a marriage and you need a direct approach. So when when we create a book, the title and the content both serve as filters in and out people will well, let me, let me say before I say that though, there are plenty of people who think, because I've been in these author groups, and they'll say, who is this for?

And they'll say, this book is for everyone. If it's for everyone, it's for no one. Absolutely. So it has to be targeted to who is your ideal person? Who do you want to most listen to this and that automatically filters. The design helps with that. The title helps with that. The content helps with that.

The first thing people hear is the title of the book. That's gotta create some level of filter of them going, Hmm, I'm at least curious enough to go further. Or, that's me, or, I'm not interested in that at all. And you've created the filter system right off the bat? Yeah absolutely. You, you have to pick a lane, right?

When I first got into speaking, you know, I, who, who could. Who can, who can be better by what I have to say? I say everybody, everybody needs what? I have No, no, no, no. Pick Elaine. When I went through the training to be a a speaker, I, I learned the business side. I'm a graduate of the speaker lab and they taught me the business side as well as speaking, but he said no.

Pick lane. You know, just pick up, you know, two or three industries that really need your business, your networking skills, and go from there. And then if you wanna expand, go on. But you have to pick lane. And being an author is the same thing. We live in a in a world where vanilla information is everywhere and we're overwhelmed with it this was less true.

I remember when I first was into the, this kind of this world you could write a book on how to have less stress and it would be popular. Not anymore. There's plenty of stuff on the internet and for free for stress, but how not to give a, I'm not gonna even fill it in. That's a different level of how I'm gonna deal with my stress or you know, how to deal with a narcissist.

Well, that is much more clear. If you don't have a narcissist in your life, you're not gonna need that information. Right? Those are very defining books. It's not vanilla. They, they, you have to have some flavor to it that they go, I want that flavor. I'm not interested in the general information that I can get from a general search.

Especially in the day of ai. There, there's plenty of vanilla. It just doesn't move the needle for anyone. And that's, that's the mistake, is people believing that information is all they have to do. I, you know, I grew up with a knowledge is power saying. It is not knowledge is information. First applied knowledge is power.

And second specific applied knowledge is the most powerful. So how can we help people apply specific knowledge in the area where you have the expertise? You wrote the book on it. Yeah. You know, you have to really wade through all of the information that's available. You know, people go to chat, GPT for a lot of answers, but.

Chat, GPT gets all the information off the internet and brings it to you now, you know, and I know that all the information is incorrect. Mm-hmm. You know, so, but it, but it's not, it's not filtering that out. So you have to filter out that information. So you still have to put the work in, but the information, a person can be on information overload, and you just have to deal with that.

You have to be more specific. What you're asking and what you're getting and everything like that. Okay. What relationships matter most after a book is published and how should authors intentionally build those circles? Yeah. So it, that kind of depends on what you're doing with that. Because that's gonna be your leverage point if you're a speaker, to be able to a say to a speaker bureau for instance, Hey, I've got a book on this and here's what I like to cover.

That's much more powerful than, oh, I just wanna do speaking. So you're, you're fostering that relationship. For me, who's dealing with. Not out. I almost said general public, but it's not the general public, the public who's having a marriage crisis. When I'm dealing with those people they need some clarity on how to move forward.

So I'm building a relationship with someone who's going, Hmm, I'm in trouble here. I'm not even dealing with the people who are like, I just wanna have a happier marriage, that I have some resources for that. But most people find me because their marriage is truly in trouble. So I speak to them and I'm building a relationship with them, understanding where they're at, and so the more I can solidify me as the answer the more likely they are to stay in my.

My network to stay in, to use the business term, my funnel, and move through that as they needed. So who are you close to that depends on what you're doing with your business. The, the piece that I think is important is knowing what your business is. And that's the process of building it out that I think most people get lost in.

Yeah, that's fair. Can you share an example of when narrowing the message around a book led to better connections and a stronger revenue? Yeah. So lemme tell my story. Sure. When, when I was writing the book I was writing a general book on how to have a better marriage. And so I'll tell you about Bob.

Bob called me late one night, and I, it had been a long day, but this was back when you didn't know to filter the phone so much. 1999. It was a might've been, it was in 2000 because it'd been out a few months. So I answered the phone and, this guy starts talking to me and I'm like man, is he gonna tell me that I screwed up his relationship and or is he gonna tell me that, you know he wants free coaching here at whatever it was nine o'clock at night and my wife is kind of staring at me.

Well, Bob was telling me the story where my book that was written for both people to work on, he knew their marriage was in trouble and so he had gotten my material and he was planning on presenting it to his wife that weekend. And the day he bought it, at the end of the day, he went home and she said, I'm done.

This is over. I am absolutely done. And so he said, I was like, I'm gonna get a refund from this guy. And it was over the weekend, and he's like, I'm not gonna do it right now, so I think maybe I'll just look at it. So he started reading it. And so the material that I had created to help people have a happy marriage, gave him what he needed to restart a broken marriage.

And the more I started listening to Bob, the more I realized that there was a, a world there that I needed to focus on. 'cause there's a lot of information from people that is about how to just have a better marriage. And it mostly is not read because people don't focus on that until they're in trouble.

And so it defined who I wanted to focus in on more. I wanted to focus on Bob's. And so we redesigned some things, added some extra pieces in took some pieces out that didn't matter for that setting, and that's what led to save the marriage. He gave me the the kind of the, the vision of what that could be about because I watched for what was different.

You know, he was telling me a story that wasn't about how it improved his marriage. He was telling me a story about how it saved his marriage and that that difference. Created a whole new throughway for, for what my business became. Oh, that's great. That's a great story. Okay, so let's, let's bring this podcast full circle.

If an author listened today wants their book to create real business opportunities in the next 90 days, what's one networking move they should make immediately? Yeah. So now we're at the what is your business gonna be, right? And so part of the one piece is going, where do I wanna start this process?

What are the one things, and this is where I feel like authors get derailed. There's so back to the information, there's so much coming at us and people telling you how to be a six and seven figure author, coach, all of these things. And it's like open up the fire hydrant and going, I think I'll get a sip.

It just, you can't, you know, so you're overwhelmed with that. And when you're overwhelmed, you tend to do nothing. And so we have these two groups on either side where they don't know what to do, they do nothing. They have too much coming at them, they do nothing. And so part of what I try to do is move into the process of going, okay, let's start talking about that something.

What do you need to do? And the first piece is actually thinking about what. What piece is important to me? You know, like what is the starting point for this? My process is actually looking at what can you do one thing each week to build it, not. A hundred things a week, not a thousand things a week that you get from some programs, but what one thing can you do to further that?

And maybe a networking piece of figuring out who to talk to and maybe stepping back and going, what is the framework that I need to clarify it? Maybe who do I need to listen to? But that one piece builds up over time. You've got the, you've done the, the heavy lifting of the thinking. Now we're doing the heavy lifting of the creating and how do we build that out?

That's great, Lee. That that was great. I, I am, I have, I can probably fill another two hours worth of questions that I would have for you, but we don't have that kind of time. If somebody were want to get hold of you, whether it's to for you to help them author their, their next book to begin, a book to get coaching or, or anything from you, what's the best way for 'em to contact her?

Yeah, so this is, it kind of made sense and you're like, oh gosh, I, I have the book. I want to build it out. I, I, I've got this business, or I am planning my book, which is even a better time to be thinking about that. Book to business blueprint.com. So book to business blueprint, that's TO like. To go towards.

So it's a book to business. blueprint.com is the, the place to find me and resources. I've got a podcast there, some articles, but the big thing I have is a process to lead them through that one step at a time that they can find there. Okay. Okay, so let me just this conversation is your reminder that success doesn't come from doing everything.

It comes from doing the right things consistently. A book is a power, is a powerful, when it sharpens your message, attracts the right relationships and gives people a clear reason to remember and refer you when focus is missing. Even the, the best books get lost in the noise. If today's episode changed how you're using your book, or how you're networking around it, take action this week.

Refine your message, tighten your conversations. Let your book lead not distract. Share this episode with an author or entrepreneur who needs clarity right now. Make sure you subscribed to Networking Unleashed, building Profitable Connections so you never miss conversations that help you connect smarter and grow stronger.

And if you're ready to turn your message into a meaningful opportunity, visit michaelaforman.com to learn how I work with professionals, teams, and organizations. So until next time, simplify your message, focus your connections, and build relationships that actually move the needle. I want to thank you again for coming on my podcast.

You were wonderful, Michael. Thanks for having me.

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  A huge thank you to our guests for sharing such incredible insights today, and of course, a big shout out to you, our amazing listeners, for tuning in and spending your time with us. If you're interested in my digital courses being coached or having me come and talk to your company, just go to MichaelAForman.com and fill out the request form.

Remember, networking isn't about being perfect. It's about being present. So take what you've learned today, get out there and make some meaningful connections. If you've enjoyed this episode, please don't forget to subscribe. Leave us a review. Share it with someone who could use a little networking inspiration.

Let's keep the conversation going. You can find me on Apple, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, or my website michaelaforman.com/podcast.

Michael is a business networking expert specializing in enhancing professionals' networking and communication skills to drive profitability. As a leading authority in this field, he is highly sought after for his dynamic presentations and workshops. His extensive experience has consistently led to significant improvements in corporate profitability by empowering individuals and organizations to connect more effectively and efficiently.

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