Thinking Ahead
Now that the book (Choose To Believe) is almost done, I've taken some time to think about what's next. Where should my business go from here?
As some of my close friends know, I've been studying material from Fred Gleeck over the past year, and learned some very valuable things, like how to create a line of valuable products in a short period of time. In his system, you start with a very detailed outline of your material, create a short ebook to see how that material is received by the market, and once accepted, start cranking out the products.
In its truest sense, the Fred Gleeck model of product creation is to start with an audio recording of an interview, where you get someone to ask a bunch of questions about your material and you answer those questions directly. This can create a valuable audio program very quickly - like within a single day. A one-hour interview audio can sell for $25 or more, depending on the subject matter and your reputation. Business topics can command $97 for a one-hour interview from a recognized expert in the field.
The next step in the Gleeck model would be to put together a seminar/workshop on your material and record that, both in audio and in video. Whatever money you make from the inital seminar/workshop is miniscule in comparison to what you can make from the recordings. An audio recording of an 8 hour workshop is easily worth $197 or more, and a 3 day seminar audio (20+ hours) can be sold for $397. Video is worth even more, but costs more to produce.
From the workshop audios, a transcriptionist can convert the audio to a rough book, and very little work would be needed to bring it up to a quality level required for publication.
As Fred Gleeck says, your book is primarily a lead generator rather than a profit center. It can be both, however it doesn't need to be.
To be a lead generator, your book needs to get the reader to contact you for more information, or better yet, a more expensive product in your line. Dan Kennedy, one of the greatest marketing geniuses of our time, does this with all of his books. Each of his little $10 books gives great information to prove his expertise, and then offers a free marketing evaluation or some other gift to get you to contact him and get on his mailing list.
This is one reason the more expensive products (seminar, workshop, audios, videos) are created before the book, so that they can be referenced in the book itself as the next purchase.
Fred Gleeck calls this "the funnel system". Once the system is created, prospects are drawn through the funnel to become customers. But to be effective, the system needs to be created first, before anything is sold.
In a way, writing the Choose To Believe book first could be seen as a mistake according to the Gleeck model. Personally, I think I needed to write the book first to clarify my material before I created a line of products around it. I feel that the whole product line will be more successful this way.
And, since there's no real NEED to release the book as soon as it has been written, I can still create the backend offers to include in the published book before it goes to press. In this modified version of Fred's system, I can use the book material as the basis for a workshop/seminar (or even an e-class) and record the presentation to be another product in the funnel.
Of course, when I stopped to think about what my readers will most likely want after reading the Choose To Believe book, I realized that the most effective 'next product' would be a series of belief conditioning audios. After all, if your beliefs create your reality, and you have trouble working with the suggestions in the book by yourself, then you'll probably want something that will help you change your beliefs to create a better reality.
In the back of my mind, I knew this, but I think I got side-tracked by all the great information I was reading.
In any business, the question that should always be foremost in your mind is "How can I help my customers the most?" This question can be rephased as "What do my customers want more than anything else?"
By focusing on what your customers want, you'll automatically be led to create products or services that will be highly valuable. If you take this information and then analyze it according to what you can produce and deliver at a reasonable cost, you have a plan for success.
In my meditations on this question, I've seen the possibility of creating a retreat center around this material. Audios can be a great way to condition your mind to believe differently, and videos may offer a more effective means of doing the same, however, the most effective means is to totally immerse yourself in an environment that is specifically designed to condition your beliefs 24/7.
And here's a great example of prosperity consciousness. Rather than look at this from a standpoint of "that's going to take a LOT of time and money to create such a retreat", we can look at this from the standpoint of "who has a retreat center that needs our material and would be interested in a partnership?"
By finding an already established retreat center that may not be doing so well, we have the greatest of all opportunities. I can go in with my material and enhance the retreat center, bring in new business, and earn a profit from my contribution.
Better yet, I could actually license my materials and train others to present them effectively and earn royalties for the use of my system.
It's an interesting idea, and one I'll consider once I'm further along. The next step is the create a set of belief conditioning recordings, and then perhaps record a workshop. Then we'll see what seems appropriate after that.