I read a lot of books this year.
Below is a countdown of the ones I found must useful when it comes to learning how to get more clients from your content along with an excerpt from each.
10. The Algebra of Wealth by Scott Galloway
“A successful small business owner told me recently that, in his experience, it’s not the person who makes the best decisions who comes out ahead, it’s the person who makes the most decisions.
Making more decisions means you get more feedback, and you get better at it.
Each decision you make is an opportunity to pivot, and the more decisions there are the lower the stakes of any wrong decision you make.
Accumulating right decisions builds confidence; piling up wrong decisions builds scar tissue.”
9. Day Trading Attention by Gary Vaynerchuk
“It’s not just about letting your customers know your business or your brand exists. It’s not about posting random content just for the sake of posting it.
If you’re a florist, for example, you can’t just post a picture of a flower with ‘Happy Tuesday’ in the caption and call it a day.
Relevance is about creating and distributing content that people find meaningful (whether that’s potential customers, clients, or other individuals who matter to you).
When your business is more relevant, more people consider buying, which then leads to higher sales numbers.”
8. The Secret Tradecraft of Elite Advisors by David C. Baker
“Value-based pricing is exhausting.
It’s my belief that most people are in love with value-based pricing because they aren’t charging enough and because they feel cheated by their clients and this is the salve that heals that wound.
If you want a more efficient method, package a service or two from your menu and charge more. And do it consistently.
I should clarify that there is no innate reason that the package price needs to correlate with the hours it requires to complete that work. Not at all!
The price is what it is – the only difference is that it’s high – and it doesn’t vary much from engagement to engagement, if at all.”
7. Make Time: How To Focus On What Matters Every Day by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky
“There are defaults in nearly every part of our lives.
It’s not just our devices; our workplaces and our culture have built-in defaults that make busy and distracted the normal, typical state of affairs.
These standard settings are everywhere.
Nobody ever looked at an empty calendar and said, ‘The best way to spend this time is to cram it full of random meetings!’
Nobody every said, ‘The most important thing today is everybody else’s whims!’
Of course not. That would be crazy.
But because of defaults, it’s exactly what we do.”
6. This Is Strategy by Seth Godin
“Rome was built in a day.
Of course it wasn’t finished in a day. It still isn’t.
But as soon as the brothers announced that “This is Rome,” there it was. Built, but incomplete.
After that, the work became the tireless, recursive, and repeated effort to improve the system and to grow the community that is Rome.
They started it in the right century, in the right place, with the right philosophy.
And then, each day, Rome got better.
Better, not done.
5. Double Your Price by David Falzani
“In general, people will pay more for a product that has a specific purpose than for one which is more generic.
The idea that the product is specialized suggests it is worth more and therefore should cost more.
Looking at cold and flu products on the pharmacy shelf, many of them have additional performance statements on them, such as good to aid sleep, or good for allergies – however, a look at the ingredients tells us that they are often actually identical, apart from some food coloring and the information on the packaging.”
4. Million Dollar Weekend by Noah Kagan
“How would you double your business if you COULD NOT get any new customers?
This will help you think of ways you can overdeliver to your current customers. Because the biggest growth lever in business is customer retention and referrals.
If you’re just starting out, every referral can literally double your business.”
3. Case Studies That Close Sales by Brian McCarthy
“They’re not buying.
Not because it’s ‘too expensive’ or ‘I don’t have time.’
(Sure, they may say that. But you and I both know that’s usually just an excuse.)
They just don’t think it can work for them.
Your job is to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it can.
You can’t do that with testimonials. Because they don’t answer the ‘Will this work for ME?’ question.
You need context – a story – that SHOWS the full transformation.
For that, you need a case study.”
2. Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell
“The little known secret to reaching the next stage of your business is spending your time on only the tasks that: (a) you excel at, (b) you truly enjoy, and (c) add the highest value (usually in the form of revenue) to your business.
Likely, two to three tasks fit that description.
Every other task you’re handling is slowing your growth and sucking the life from you, and you should clear it from your calendar.
Yes, someone else should be handling about 95 percent of your current work so you can get back to what matters.”
1. Oversubscribed by Daniel Priestley
“Your business must begin investing more money into your products and your customer service and less money into advertising and traditional forms of marketing.
Oversubscribed businesses spend money on their existing customers before they spend money on their prospective ones.
It seems counter-intuitive – but if you get it right, your existing customers go out and do your marketing for you.
I would go so far as to say you should take at least 50% of your traditional marketing budget and transfer it to the “being remarkable” budget. If you do, your products will sell because other people will spend money on marketing and then people find you.”
BONUS BITS:
• What book would you recommend to help someone who wants to get more clients from their content?Recommend it here.
• Here’s a list of 13 other books I recommended a couple years ago.
• And here’s my personal favorite book about audience growth (which isn’t technically about audience growth).