Michael DeLon: How to Write a Book and Become an Authority in Your Field

Strickland Bonner: So you're a lawyer, and your clients are squeezing you for lower fees. How do you put more cash in your pocket? We want to expose you to new ways of practicing law. Endless hours with no home life and a lease on an expensive office are so 1999. It's time to make a change for the better. Here to help you with that is your host Ron Bockstahler. Welcome to the 1958 Lawyer Podcast.

Ron Bockstahler: Welcome to the show. I am your Ron Bockstahler, your host. Got a very very special guest with me today, Michael Delon. Michael, I wanted to say you're the credibility expert, and I know you got a great bio, but you know the idea is, and the attorneys out there, you need to be writing books and showing that you are the expert at what you do, and that's exactly what Michael helps you do. Is he helps you go out and create a book, take that book to number one bestseller on Amazon, and then just you know change your marketing so that your marketing is all built around your credibility, and not just being another, you know, face and a website that really has no meaning whatsoever to a potential client. So, Michael, I didn't mean to mess up your your intro, but very excited to have you on the show. Welcome to the show. Thanks.

Michael DeLon: No, that's great, man. I'll take that title anytime. Credibility builder, and it really is is a game changer when you create your own book. You and I were just talking about you reading my book that I published back in 2013. That was my first book. That that was the book I wrote wrong when I escaped prison, and now it wasn't a literal prison, man. Right? It was an emotional prison. I was stuck in a job that I hated for about two years and needed to get out. And it was a ministry job where I was building marriages and families, and they just you know went through corporate reorgs and all that stuff. And I was in a position that I hated, and prayed and said, "God, I got to get out of here. And I started a marketing consulting firm in Little Rock, which is where I live now, because marketing is my background, helping small business owners with marketing. But I'd go out, Ron, and I'd come to you, say, "I think I can help you grow your business? You meet with me, we talk, and you say, "Now, Michael, what have you done for the last few years? And I said, "Well, I've built marriages and families, and you'd say, "Michael, that's honorable. Way to go! You know, look at the time, Michael. I've got another appointment. Let's keep this conversation going, and you'd usher me out the door. And Ron, I was not getting any clients, and I was living on savings. And I'm like, "Man, I got to fix this. So I found myself one day pacing the hallways of my church, saying, "God, how do I help Ron? Because I know I can. And he said, "Why don't you just take all of your marketing strategies and put them in a book? Now back then, Ron, I didn't know the first thing about writing a book, so I sat down and I just started plowing through it. It took us a few months to get it done, but what happened is I'd call you and I'd set an appointment, I'd mail you a copy my book, and by a week later, I'd walk into your office, and there it was. My book was on your desk, dog-eared highlight and underline. You'd read my book, and in that meeting, Ron, you'd say, "Now, Michael, in your book, you said, 'How do you help me do that? And you'd hire me, and the next guy hired me, and the next guy hired me. Pretty cool. Now let me ask you, what changed between those two meetings? Did my background in ministry change? Not a bit. Did my understanding of marketing change? Nope. What changed was how you thought of me. When you got a copy of my book, you immediately saw me as an expert, and you were ready to take down the prescription I had for you to solve your marketing problems, that Ron changed my business and my life, and that was the seed that got planted that has now grown into Paperback Expert, where we help attorneys create their own book without writing a word to establish that credibility to separate them from all that competition, and then we teach them actually how to market themselves as a credible authority and expert, so they'll gain clients, get referrals, and grow their revenue, which is what it's all about.

Ron Bockstahler: Here's the first thing I thought of when you said I wrote that book back in 2013, so eight years ago. I met you through networking, right? Through mutual friend who actually lives in St. Louis. I live in Chicago. I live Indianapolis, I suppose, and my business is all in Chicago. But and so in 2013, I went and bought the book when I met you because I thought, okay, I got to understand. I'm going to go curious, and I read the book, and of course, I've got it all marked up and eared up. I'll never return it to anyone, right? Because I've got so many notes into the book, but you wrote the book eight years ago, and now you're still that I got something from that. I guess shelf life, right? So talk about shelf life because I mean, how many times we go out, we go to a nursing event, we go to somewhere, and we hand out our business card, which goes in the circular.

Michael DeLon: Yeah, and and we're getting away from business because I was just at a three day mastermind, and this guy pulled out as his give. He's got this little.on the back of his iPhone case that all you have to do is touch it to my iPhone, and all of his contact information comes to my iPhone. Business cards are a thing of the past, right? But the shelf life, yeah, books have shelf life. Number one, number two, in our culture, it's sacrilegious. To throw a book away, we move them from house to house or office to office. So once you put a book in somebody's hand, you become a household member, right? But the other thing that doesn't-I mean, most of the time, your your message isn't going to change over time, okay? And the other thing that doesn't change-and really, where we shine in what we really want to help our clients do-is to tell their unique story, okay? I began this podcast with my unique story of escaping prison. Okay, and I do that for a reason. Is number one, it captures your attention. I've got you now. You're like you in prison, right? And then I weave that into how I got to where I am today. So it's a compelling story that's memorable, that is unique to me, and every one of your listeners, every one of your clients, Ron has a story of why they're doing what they do. Somewhere in their college, somewhere they made a decision to become a lawyer. Why? I want to know that story because I want to weave that through the book to separate them. Because none of their competitors can fight that. They can all do better pay per click. They can all hire better intake people. Your message is what differentiates you. I've got a couple examples we can talk about from attorneys that we've been able to seriously differentiate, not because I created something for them, but because we discovered their story and we were able to weave that into a very clear brand strategy and a clear message that just it changes everything in your marketing,

Ron Bockstahler: Michael. I'm mesmerized by marketing because it's so complex. It's almost one of those things where you know I'm an attorney. I don't want to get into the weeds on marketing. How do I break this down to something that's going to be effective for me and I can stand out? I'm a family law attorney, or whatever type of law I'm practicing. How can I stand out? I know you said you got a couple examples. I'd love to hear about them.

Michael DeLon: Yeah. So three words, Ron, that I try to live by that work in marketing, works in life. Okay. Three words: clarify, simplify, multiply, and they go in that order. So let's talk marketing. You have to clarify your message, your distinct, unique message. All right, William Franke, he's a personal injury attorney down in Florida. He came to me, wanted to do a book. We started going through the process, brand strategy, and I learned that he was a baseball player. Moved from the Northeast down to Florida to go to college to be baseball, he was heading towards the pros. He was that good. He was a pitcher. Okay, first or second year in college, he threw his arm out, had to go get surgery, took him out of baseball, lost his career, lost his scholarship. He kept going through college, got his degree, and through a long series of events, he became a personal injury attorney, right? And he helps people who are in situations through no fault of their own. Many times they got hit by a car or something. They're going through rehabilitation, right? And I said, William, have you ever told that story, your story, to anybody? Well, no, you're about the only one. He didn't think it was too powerful, I said. "William, time out. Here's what we're going to do. So, the name of his book, the way we branded William, was "When Life Throws You a Curveball. Okay, he was a pitcher, and the underneath his name on the front of the cover says, "William Fronkey, baseball player turned to turnkey, and what we what we were able to do is tie in his baseball passion, being a pitcher, throwing curveballs at batters. Life threw him a curveball. He never expected to be out of baseball, but every client he serves on life has thrown them a curveball. And so what we were able to do is take his personal story, his journey, and create a very distinct brand. So now, not only does he have his book, but when he's on TV down in his market, guess what he's talking about? You know what? If life's thrown you a curveball and you've had a slip and fall, or you've been involved in an auto accident, or you've bitten by a dog, whatever, it wasn't in your plan. Life threw you a curveball. I've been where you are. I understand the pain you're going through. I understand the process. Let me help you walk through this process. It's a very compelling message that separates him from everybody else. Who's like, I'll get you $18 million for that, right? Because that's what everybody says. He has a very distinct, unique message that we discovered as we walked them through his story. Because most, honestly, most people think their story's boring. I disagree. We all have compelling stories. It's how you discover it, how you tell it in your marketing to separate you. So that's just one way. But I think it always comes down to your unique, compelling story. So you'll clarify your message, and that clarity just gets right through all of the noise that's out there because your consumer says this is somebody different.

Ron Bockstahler: So how did you? Okay, now he clarified his message. Now talk simple because you had three words there: clarify, simplify, and what's the third one?

Michael DeLon: Multiply.

Ron Bockstahler: Multiply. That's probably the most important that I forget. So okay, we got a message. Let's stick with the same topic, same person. Now simplify because I know you do more than just write the books. You help them with your branding. Branding is very important. I know you talk about it. So God, let's keep that going.

Michael DeLon: Yeah. So he's got his book now. He's got his message. Obviously on the website, pictures of him right in with his baseball garb, and when he goes on TV, it's funny he walks on TV with his suit, you know, his attorney suit, but he has his baseball mitt in on his left hand. Okay, nobody's expecting an attorney to come in looking like that. He's got pictures of himself with his baseball bat over his shoulder in his office. He's got baseball paraphernalia in different pictures, right? Because we're always branding around that theme because that's what separates him. Now, when he's doing his TV ads, he's always coming back to, "Hey, when life throws you a curveball, you need an attorney who understands and who can walk with you. Once you go to my website, download a copy of my book. So they download the book, and the follow-up email sequence that they're going to get is all themed around being thrown a curveball. What happens when you swing and you miss? What happens when you write all of these baseball analogies that everybody's familiar with, but it ties right back into his message. He can do that on radio. He can do that in follow-up thank yous. You know the thank you card that he sends out, and whether it's to a meeting or whether it's doing you know direct marketing to prospects and things, the theme of that is a baseball theme with him and his catchers or his baseball men. Okay, immediately just that one picture separates him, and it causes people to stop before they throw the thing away to go. What's this? And then it's copywriting, right? To make sure that your message is clear and compelling. But it's taking that, and that's how we clarify your message. This is how we simplify marketing and teach our clients how to do this. Is to take that clear message and you use it in all of your media channels. But the beautiful thing about simplifying your message with a book is all of your media channels can come back to get a free copy of my book because it has the information that you need. Let me go ahead.

Ron Bockstahler: Yeah, let's stick on free because you got a chapter in your book where you talk about free. Can we? And we'll just we'll come back to multiply here in a minute and simplify. But let's talk about that chapter you talk about free. And what should the attorneys that are listening? What should they be thinking through? And what are they giving away? What's their giveaway? Because you don't want to give away your intellectual property-at least not all of it. Talk to free.

Michael DeLon: Right. Yeah. Free is giving form away, really. Because all right. Let's talk about an attorney. You've got somebody coming in. If you're an estate planning attorney or a personal, it doesn't matter. They are not going to be able to do what you do, and when you have a compelling story or a unique way of doing business, you can give it away because your competitors aren't smart enough to copy it because you put a lot of work into building a system, right? So free, you're not going to get rich selling your book on Amazon, Ron. It's just not going to happen. You're on Amazon and Kindle for credibility purposes because that's where people go when they say, "Oh, you're an author. Let me find you there. So somebody can buy your book on Amazon. You bought my book. Thank you very much. I earned woohoo about $5 from that. You're not going to get rich. What I'd rather you do, if you're an attorney, give your book away on your website. Give somebody a free PDF download. Capture their name and email. Get them on your list. Your number one asset in business is your list. Get them on your list. The thank you page should pop up, and you should be there. Hopefully, with a short video saying thank you so much for downloading a copy of my book. I know it's going to be really help for you. I would love to mail you a free copy, so that way you can highlight it, underline it, put notes in it, and when we talk later, you'll be able to have the page number of the question you have. Just tell me where to mail it. Doesn't cost you a penny. I'd be happy to do that. And you have a form there, pre-populated with their name and email that you just got for them to add their phone number or their mailing address, right? 40% of the people we're testing this with our clients. 40% of the people who opt in for the free PDF will opt in for a free copy of your book. Now, what do you have, Ron? You have all of their mailing address, not just to send out your book in a hopefully beautifully branded welcome and wow kit or a padded envelope, something that will stand out, okay. But also for all the other mailings, your print newsletter, anything else that you're going to be mailing to them. And the beautiful thing about direct mail, two big things right now. Well, last time you went to your mailbox, the physical thing in front of your house. I mean, how many pieces of mail were actually in that thing?

Ron Bockstahler: Less now, right?

Michael DeLon: Less and less. I had four pieces on Saturday when I went to get my mail. Four things in my mailbox. It's like an echo chamber. Hello, whoa, whoa! Right. This is a great time to do direct mail. Now, when I send books out, I tell my clients to put them in a big padded envelope, and so I'll tell you, I say, Ron, when I mail my book out to you, it's going to come in this big gold envelope. Okay, so when you go to your mailbox and you open up and you see that gold envelope there, you know my book's inside. It's going to be a great time. Make it an experience. Disney. Why do people pay so much money? You just went to amusement park, right? You probably paid you know 60, $70 to get in. You go to Disney, you're going to be paying 160 or $200 per person to get it. Why is that? They have the same kinds of rides. It's because of the experience. We need to add some experience into our marketing. Telling your story is one way to do an experience, but how do you deliver a book? So free, and we're talking about free here, right? I'm giving my book away for free so I can capture your name and information. That way, I can do all kinds of marketing to you, right? Right now is a great time. I'll give you anytime you get around any holiday. We got Thanksgiving coming up. We got Christmas. We got New Year's. We got Valentine's Day. Think about an opportunity to mail a copy of your book out to your best clients, thanking them. How many Thanksgiving cards do you receive every year, Ron? Yeah, probably none. How many Christmas cards do you get? Dozens. So send a Thanksgiving card. Send a Thanksgiving letter saying thank you for allowing me to serve you. I just wanted to make sure you had a copy of my new Amazon best-selling book,

Ron Bockstahler: Michael. If you're looking at a budget standpoint, what percentage of your budget would you recommend to for a while playing attorney? What percent of his budget would you allocate towards sending these things out? Yeah, of his

Michael DeLon: marketing budget probably depends on on where his budget is, but probably a half to 1% It doesn't cost that much. You know the books that you know when our clients publish a book, they buy them from us. Their copy, you're you're going to sell it on Amazon for like $17 $20 each, right? But the author's cost is only $5 per book. Okay, you can mail that to somebody for probably another 350 Okay, so you got $8 total in that. What's a client worth to you? Would you spend $12 to get a new client? I think most attorneys would probably be spending hundreds of dollars for a new client, so it's understanding you're not giving, you're not mailing 1000s and 1000s of books most of the time. Okay, we have a couple clients who mail lots of books and send lots of books. Most of our clients are sending about 30 books a month, and they get into a rhythm because that's where they are in their marketing, and everything's pre-done. They have all the packages, got the books. You sign your book because a signed book you'll never throw away, but it's a matter of understanding the book is that cornerstone of your marketing. That your Facebook ads, your LinkedIn ads, your Google thing, everything can come back to a similar landing page. You could have the same landing page, you know, multiplied one for Facebook, one for YouTube, one for Google. They all say the same thing. Here's a free copy of my book. That way, you can track where it's coming from. Obviously, but you're building your list, and through the emails that you send out, or if you do podcasts, you're taking content from your book and using that in your ads. You're using that content on podcasts. You're using that content to create blog posts, so you create your book once, then you find 1000 different ways to use it in your marketing to simplify your marketing. You're not chasing every new shiny object, and you don't have new ad agencies and media people coming in to change your message. Heaven forbid, you have a clear, compelling message. You simplify your marketing by having all media channels driving to a free copy of your book, and then that funnel that comes out of that can be identical for every one of those channels, and it all reinforces the fact that you have a story to tell, and you can relate, you can bond emotionally with that prospect, which is we make buying decisions emotionally. Then we find the logic to back them up, right?

Ron Bockstahler: Here's you're you're. I mean, you're making it sound easy, but I'm even I'm getting a little anxiety just thinking about it, going, "Holy cow, that's I can do it. There's a lot to it. You need a coach. You need someone. You need you to summon say, "Okay, hold on. Let me step back. Let's walk through this process step by step, and we'll get to that end result where you have a book, and then we can start doing the marketing programs.

Michael DeLon: Absolutely.

Ron Bockstahler: Okay, multiply. Are we here to simplify? Let's kind of take our step back and let's go to that third point. That multiply. What are we doing there?

Michael DeLon: Yeah, multiplying is where you actually you're gaining clients and you're getting referrals. Okay. When I talk with a prospect, they always want to jump to multiply. That's what I want to do. Great, but we have to go clarify and simplify first. Then, when you put those in the right order, then you get multiplication because you're going to be able to convert more of the prospects you're getting because you're giving them something of high value. They're not going to throw away. Here's the number one myth I hear in business, Ron. I hear it every week. Is whether I'm talking to an attorney, financial advisor, doesn't matter. Same myth. I need more leads. Here's what happens: they do their advertising, they do an event, they do whatever, and they get 20 people calling them for, let's say, a book, whatever it is. Right, 20 people. Eight of those people. Book a consultation with them. Two of those people buy. Okay, they come to me and they say, "Michael, I just need more leads. I'm like, "Time out, Ron. What are you doing with the six people that you met with that didn't buy? What kind of follow up process do you have? Well, we send them an email or two. Really, two? It people most people don't buy until months after you had that first contact with them, right? What about the 12 people who raised their hand, who got your book or went to your webinar, who didn't contact you? Are they totally not interested? No, you got to have a system in place to stay in touch with these people, and when you do, you start multiplying your business, and your business grows. Now, do you need more leads? Yes, you need a continual flow of leads, but you need to do a much better job of converting the lead you're getting in order to increase your revenue to gain clients. How about so? That's one gaining clients. One of the best ways is by offering somebody to have a copy of your book, right? Because it's powerful. How many other attorneys in your market, have their own book that they're offering for free.

Ron Bockstahler: And here's the funny thing: I bet some of them can answer that question. They can't say how many. They can name the one that they remember because they have their own book.

Michael DeLon: That's right. It makes a difference. And we all love referrals, right? Everybody loves referrals. How do most attorneys get referrals? Well, most of them don't. But if they do, they say, "Well, here's my business card. Would you hand this out to somebody? Or here's our beautiful brochure, right? How about Ron? At the end of your transaction, whether you're an estate planning attorney, you just got my estate set up. I'm thrilled with you, right? Before we leave, we say, "Ron, thank you for allowing me to serve you. Would you do me a favor? And because you're happy with me, what do you always want to say? Yes, and you say, Ron, you may not know this, but most of our clients don't come to us through all the advertising and marketing that we do. They come to us through our happy and satisfied clients like you. Would you do me a favor? Would you take three or four copies of my book, and as you're talking with your friends in the next week or two about how we've set up your estate properly and put you at ease. Would you just hand a copy of my book to them and say, "This is the person we've trusted to put our house in order. You should read his book.

Ron Bockstahler: I love that. We talked about actually. I talked with you, and then I talked to an attorney who I met who had her own book, and I. It's like, wow, hold on. And I remember the name of her book. It was "How to Divorce a narcissist and win, like I'm never going to forget that the rest of my life, right? I mean, and I've hundreds and hundreds of family law attorneys, but there's one who I've never met in person, but I've read her book, I spent some time talking to her. I'll never forget that one person. That's how you make yourself unique.

Michael DeLon: It really, it really is. And and when you think about your best clients, the ones you want to clone, right? They run in circles with people just like themselves, right? Friends, neighbors, relatives, business nurses, church members. You can you can enhance your sphere of influence at least five times by taking your best clients and putting multiple copies of your book in their hand with that little script, because now they can go out and say, "Well, yeah, we finally got off the stick and got our estate and plan in order. Now we don't have to worry about it. And you know what? We worked with a guy who wrote the book on

Ron Bockstahler: it. So, Michael, let's talk unique message. You got a chapter in your book. You talk about unique message. I try to look it up and kind of read about it, but look, unique message. I talk to attorneys all the time, and they'll say, "I do this. They got a list of 12 things they do.

Michael DeLon: Yeah,

Ron Bockstahler: that is not unique, and then I can never remember why would I call them.

Michael DeLon: That's right. Yeah, and it's less about all of that because at a certain level, people buy who you are more than what you do. And with attorneys, I mean, your competitor does those same things at two, right? So what's going to separate you? You've got to understand what's in it for the client. What are they looking for? And many times they don't know what they're looking for in terms of the services you provide. What they have an emotional something going on, right? I feel like I need to get my house in order so that if me or my spouse starts having dementia or losing our mind, we've already got everything set up so we don't have to deal with things. It's already taken care of, right? We need to make sure we have those conversations with our children before that day ever comes. So it's talking about those pain points per se, and having a chapter in your book that explains that and how you've helped other people walk through that process. Save the legal stuff until you're meeting with them face to face or on Zoom. The book is your clear message is really about the higher level process that they're going through. You've got to meet them where they are and how you can help them get to where they want to be. It's just a simple bridge, but you have to understand where your clients are. I've got a thing that hangs on my wall. Hang on. I know you're the only one who can see this, but I like to hold it. So it's it's a four by six card has a drill bit and a hole. Had this thing for decades, and it reminds me that Black and Decker last year made millions of quarter-inch drill bits, and Black and Decker wants to tell you about the steel they use in the drill bit, and the quality of machinery they use, and the talent of the people who've been with them 150 years, and all of that falls into the category of who cares, because it's been proven, Rod, that of all the people that bought these quarter-inch drill bits last year, not one of them wanted to own a quarter-inch drill bit. They each wanted a quarter-inch hole. When you do your marketing, your messaging, and you're reaching out to your prospects, you have to understand what is it they're actually buying from you. What are they paying for? They're not paying for an estate plan; they're paying for the peace of mind and the security of knowing that when life throws me a curveball, I'm going to hit it out of the park because I've taken care of everything ahead of time. Right? That's what they're paying for. When you speak to that, you're going to get a lot more client because no, I nobody wants to do an estate plan, right? But I want what the estate plan gives me, and so talk about that. And oh, it just so happens to be an estate plan that we put together. And I tell our clients, name your process. You know, if you do estate planning, you're like every other attorney. But if you have the box dollar, you know, patented estate planning kit that we need to take you through to make sure you have all four aspects of this estate plan. They're like, what? You know, I always go back. One of my favorite examples is Dave Ramsey, the financial guy. He has his seven baby steps. Brilliant marketing. He's not really that smart in budgeting and finance. He's just a great marketer because he has these seven baby steps, and you can identify. Oh, I'm on step two. I have to finish that before I go to step three. It's a process. You do the exact same thing with estate planning or, or personal injury. It doesn't matter. People like a plan. Give them a plan. Take them through it. Just don't go deep into the woods and speak to how your customer, how your client thinks about things.

Ron Bockstahler: Here's the hard part: is I know you said this. You said, "Look, you got it in your mind. You've got a history. You've been successful. How do you bring it? What's your process? How do you get that out of someone's mind and into marketing content?

Michael DeLon: Yeah, great question. We do it through interviews. So brand strategy, right? Somebody has a story to tell. You've got to know how to ask questions to elicit the the right answer, so that we can discern and discover your unique story. So we've got eight questions that we ask our clients, and from those the answers they give us, we can discover their unique story. So you can have somebody to ask you questions, tell your story to them. It's not as boring as you think. And as you go into that, after we get your brand, we go into the book creation process, which is you don't write your book with us. You speak to write it. One of our writers actually interviews you. We walk you through the creation of your outline, and then you speak to write your book as you're being coached by a writer, and that process, Ron, is amazing because many of our clients go, "I've never told that to anybody, but it becomes the essence of a chapter or the entire book because you've got somebody else asking you questions, almost an dare I say, an uninterested third party? But a third party who's really interested in you, I can see things in your business, Ron, that you can't see, and vice versa. I've got you know, I'm a marketing guy. Okay, I've got two coaches that I pay who are looking at my business from a marketing perspective because I am too close to my business to make good marketing decisions. Right. Same thing with an attorney. You're too close to it. You start talking attorney speak. Nobody cares. You sound like Charlie Brown's teacher, right? You've got to pull back and speak to us in a more emotional way. Tell us your story. Stories captivate our attention. They cause us to listen, right? Star Wars, Star Trek. You name all the movies. Why are we so compelled to that? Because it's a story that we can latch onto. That's really what people want. It is challenging to do it yourself. You know that's why we exist. But you can go out with a buddy and have a coffee or have dinner and say, "Here are five questions I want you to ask me, and I want you to dive deep.

Ron Bockstahler: So a little bit of a curveball question for you in law, and I look at as you got B to B and you got B to C. So you got the attorneys that deal with consumers, family law, estate planning, bankruptcy, and then you got B. Those attorneys that are dealing with more corporations, more maybe litigators, corporate law, yeah, whatever probate. So is there a difference in the book they need to write? No. Okay.

Michael DeLon: I've had that. People ask me that all the time on B 2b I said, you know what? Do you sell to a business? No, you sell to people, right? You sell to people. They and I assure you, there are other competitors who are going after that same business, right? What are they saying? They're probably saying the same things you're saying right now. What? Me, I graduated from here, and I've got all this. I got I, I, I, I, I. But when you start turning the table and tell your compelling story of why do you do that? Why are you a patent attorney? You could be doing 1000 other things. Why are you doing this? There's a story there, and when you tell that story, it starts resonating because they understand it's not about the knowledge that you have-it's about the heart that you bring. Okay, I want somebody who's not only good at what they do, I want somebody who's also passionate about what they do. That comes through your story, so it doesn't matter because people buy people, and whether you're a B 2b or a B 2c they're going to buy you and your services, and they better. What we've always heard for you. They got to know, like, and trust you, right? What better way to know, like, and trust somebody than spend about an hour to an hour and a half talking with them? How great would that be, Ron? If you could get in front of that prospect and spend 90 minutes just talking with them, understanding them, helping them understand you, that'd be great. That's valuable. Well, why don't you let your book do the talking for you, and you mail it to them as a beginning of a relationship?

Ron Bockstahler: And I like to add, how often, especially attorneys listening, how often is that there's a book that uses a reference where you're continually going back to it, and I think that happens a lot. As you said, we never throw away books, and if you were in my office right now, you'd know I've never thrown away a book.

Michael DeLon: That's right. And you mentioned earlier they have shelf life, but think about a marketing spend. Okay, attorneys spend a lot of money on marketing, whether it's TV or you name it, Facebook. It doesn't matter, but they make that spend month after month after month after month. A book is created in such a way that you invest in it one time, and it pays you back year after year after year. I wrote my book when 2013. I still use it in my business today to gain clients, to get referrals, and to grow our revenue. That's how you need to look at simplifying your marketing, clarifying your message, so you can multiply your book. I mean, that book's been worth well over seven figures to my company in this time, right? I'm not going to deviate. It will be here in 25 years. I'll still be using that book. I might add other books, but that's the foundational book that set me apart from every media repping in Little Rock when I was out doing my marketing consulting, and all the ad agencies-they were all doing the Charlie Brown thing, right? I came in with a book and put me in a category of one. Changed everything. It can still happen today because the battle hasn't. Here's the deal: everybody thinks, Ron, that the marketing battleground is out there. It's on Pinterest. It's on Facebook. It's on LinkedIn. It's on whatever, and the truth is, the marketing battleground is between the ears of your prospect. It's in their mind. It's how they think about you. Okay, why do people spend $10,000 to go to a Tony Robbins seminar for a weekend? Because they think about him very uniquely, right?

Ron Bockstahler: Yeah.

Michael DeLon: All right. He wrote a book a few years ago on finance, right? Became number one bestseller, sold hundreds of 1000s of copies. Why? What does he know about finance? If he came out and he wrote a book on estate planning, guess what? It'd be a number one bestseller on that on everywhere, right? Because why? Because he's Tony Robbins, not because he understands estate planning. People buy him because of who he is, and attorneys can do the exact same thing to their audience. You need to become the go-to expert to your audience, own them at the heart level, and then allow them to expand that sphere of influence by bringing referrals to the table. That's how you grow a business.

Ron Bockstahler: What do we? So I know we're going to have some attorneys that are going to say, "Man, I got to reach out to paper book expert,

Michael DeLon: paperback,

Ron Bockstahler: paperback expert. I had a speaking impediment going here, but what's going to be the process? How long is it going to take to actually write a book?

Michael DeLon: That's a great question. So number one, I tell people never write a book; always speak it. Right there, you go. We're going to. Our process is designed so that after brand strategy, which takes about a month, working with me to get that clear brand, we move into the book creation process. And if everybody stays on track, then we can get your book created in about six months, start to finish. We publish it in paperback to Amazon. We publish it in Kindle, in PDF for your website, in e-marketing, then obviously in paperback. So, about six months from today, six to seven months from today, you can be an Amazon best-selling author of your own book. Then we'll give you the marketing systems that we've developed to help you market that credibility that you have, so that you can grow your business.

Ron Bockstahler: So, Michael, after the book is published, it's good to go. You guys aren't walking away. You're still going to be sitting there helping them. How to maximize that investment in the book?

Michael DeLon: We do, yeah. Because the next fun part, we didn't talk about this. We create. Podcast for our clients. If they don't already have a podcast, we create one for them, and we interview them on every chapter of their book, and we syndicate that to all the platforms. Right? It's a video interview, so they can put their videos on their website and YouTube. But we also have marketing systems that we give them, built step by step systems that they implement in their business that coincide with their authority and their credibility, and then we stay with them additional years. So our flagship program is a 12 month program. Create your brand, your Amazon best selling book, your podcast, and all the marketing systems that we're going to bring to the table for you. That's a 12 month program. We're going to stay with you for another 12 months, no cost, through our coaching programs that you're part of, because we stand behind what we do, Ron, with a two-year double your money-back guarantee. Because we know this works, and so we're going to stay with you. We don't just publish your book and disappear. We've been doing this for a long time. We've dialed it in. We know it works when you do the effort. When you follow our counsel and run our playbooks, you'll gain clients. You'll get referrals. You will grow your business, and we guarantee that with our money back guarantee.

Ron Bockstahler: And I know you've worked with hundreds of clients. I mean, many of them are attorneys. How long you been doing this?

Michael DeLon: Since 2013, when my business changed. When that's when we launched Paperback Expert.

Ron Bockstahler: Last word. We got a couple more things. What do you want to leave our audience with, Michael?

Michael DeLon: You know, the biggest thing is be yourself. Tell your story, and make sure that you bring people around you to get that story. But tell your story and speak to the needs of your prospects and your audience, and your business is going to grow. And you can do it yourself. There's ways to do it. Bring friends around you or something. If you need help, just reach out to us at paperbackexpert.com. We'd love to talk with you about that. But be yourself. Tell your story because it really is pretty compelling.

Ron Bockstahler: That's awesome. I mean, look, I'm. I think it's one of the greatest things out there. I think of all the marketing. I've talked to people. We've done a lot of things in our company. This has to be the number one concept that every attorney I've talked to they need to be jumping on and writing a book because the ones that have we know who they are. And you know, of the 1.3 million attorneys in the United States, what's that say that less than 1% have published a book? Yeah, Michael, thank you so much for coming on the show today. It's been great. I know a lot of our listeners are getting great value out of it, so I think they'll be reaching out to you and wanting to. Hey, how can we get started? So, best way to contact you

Michael DeLon: back just at my website, paperbackexpert.com

Ron Bockstahler: paperbackexpert.com I'll actually post that up there, so it'll be out there, so I won't butcher it when I actually post it. So anyone wants to find it, you guys can check it out. You can you can check out the watch the podcast on Apple or wherever you list your podcast. You can also go to a model modeloffices.com Look under our podcast page. You can find the podcast there. Michael, thank you so much for joining us. I really really appreciate having you, and look forward to having you back on the show.

Michael DeLon: Hey, Ron, thanks, man. It's been lots of fun talking with you.

Strickland Bonner: Thanks for listening to the 1958 Lawyer Podcast. If you like the show, tell a friend, and please subscribe, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts, Google, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you'd like to hear more about Ron or Amata, go to amataoffices.com All the links are also available in the show notes.