It's All Been Said

Do you really believe you having nothing more to say about your area of expertise, that it’s all been said by others? And said better than you could possibly say? There may be similarities in your perspective with that of other people. Looking further into your work, the odds are high that you have your own particular leaning, your own individual bent, your own special approach.
Given the billions of quasi-intelligent people there are in just the English-speaking world there is no way any of us could ever reach everyone who would be our client. That sure leaves a lot of space for a whole lot of your work to be bought, doesn’t it?

Consider an example that drives the point home stronger: Think about how many cookbooks are published every publishing season, with more each and every publishing season (basically twice a year in the traditional publishing world). Do you think there might be some overlap among those cookbooks? Absolutely. However, it all comes down to marketing each and every time. There are many other tips booklets now out in the world about organizing your business life. Some are quite similar to my own. Among the ones that are, each of the authors markets their booklet differently, I promise you. Have you heard of any other business organizing tips booklets that have sold a million copies in four languages and various formats, all without spending a thing on advertising? Mine has. Are you tripping over booklets about organizing your business life? Probably not.

You could be having conversations with yourself about marketing your booklet and your other products and services. You may recall history pointing to products as The Pet Rock, The Rubik’s Cube, and the Hoola Hoop as items that could easily cause someone to scratch their head wondering about the sanity of the inventor, much less of those marketing these products. The items are not booklets or information products. They are, however, wonderful examples of people having the conviction to stand by their uniqueness and laugh all the way to the bank!

Revisit your content. Think about how you live, eat, and breath your area of expertise. People coming to your information know a little, a lot, or nothing about what you know. Regardless of their level of knowledge they may find one thing in your booklet that reinforces what they saw elsewhere. Or you may have said something slightly differently, in a way that got through to the reader this time. Or you embellished or simplified what someone else said. It typically takes more than one exposure to a new idea in order for it to be fully installed into a person’s mind.

Recently I consulted with some booklet authors whose content could otherwise be quite dry. Realizing these authors had a whimsical element to their personalities, we explored changing some section headings in their booklets to make them more fun and more aptly represent the personalities of the authors. ‘Exercise’ became ‘Shake it Up, Baby.’ Reference to managing email was changed from ‘Email’ to ‘Ooops, I Just Hit Send.’ These changes showed the uniqueness of the authors and made the booklets more fun and attractive to read. Of course not all booklets or authors lend themselves to that approach. Take another look at yours. You could be surprised to find a breath of fresh air when coming at it and yourself from this approach.

Cherish your uniqueness enough to express it whenever you can. Yes, people do want to read what you have to say and yes, there is always more to say. n