I just finished reading Brendon Burchard's new book entitled The Millionaire Messenger.
In this excellent book, Brendon proposes that almost anyone can package their life experience and advice into formats that can be sold to the public at large. He further proposes that by doing so, we can benefit the world and make a really good living at the same time. He proposes, in fact, that one can become a millionaire by doing so.
I found the book to be very well written and to present the ideas (which are not going to be new to many people reading this) in a fresh way that would be very accessible to a person who is unfamiliar with the information marketing business. This is a big point in the book's favor.
Of particular interest to me was the chapter entitled, The Messenger Manifesto, in which Brendon proposes that the entire industry (which he calls the “expert industry”) is in desperate need of a “reset”. What he means by a “reset” is the setting of higher standards by which we conduct our business. I think this is a point well made. Five of his points in the Messenger Manifesto are:
- Moving from silos to sharing. In other words, getting rid of the scarcity mentality that causes us to want to keep ourselves and our customers separate from one another and instead sharing our ideas, our resources, our tactics, and yes – even our customers.
- A renewed focus on innovation and distinction. Brendon makes the very good point that this business is full of copycats and rip-off artists, and he proposes setting a new standard of creating original material.
- Better branding. He points out that in so many cases, when we attend a seminar or a workshop, we get materials that look like “photocopies of photocopies”, and cheap looking self-published books and manuals. Brendon simply proposes that we spend the money and make the investment in creating materials that reflect the quality of the information we're teaching.
- Moving from sales communication to value communication. In other words, Brendon proposes that instead of coming across as carnival barkers and pitchmen, we actually start communicating messages of value to our audiences. He bases this largely on the premise that if we communicate value in the sales process that gives customers a taste of the value they'll get from buying from us. We'll actually be more successful in the end. Sounds like common sense – but uncommon practice.
- Achieving customer service excellence. We need to move from being merely good at customer service to being excellent at this. To which many will say, “Duh!” and also, “It's about time!”
I highly recommend this book and I think you'll get a lot out of it, even if you're an experienced marketer or expert. Millionaire Messenger gives us a fresh look at the “info-marketing” or “expert industry”.