Book Yourself Solid Summary
Book Yourself Solid Summary
Book Yourself Solid is designed to teach you how to take a personable, practical, and spiritual approach to business, and let your passion fuel your success.
The author, Michael Port, identifies common mistakes and addresses how to avoid them, and also reveals little-known tricks to market yourself more effectively. Using specific examples, Port demonstrates how to identify your objective, find out who your target market should be, convince people to hire you, and maintain strong relationships. Book Yourself Solid’s heartfelt approach and specific formulaic instructions give a fresh spin to timeless advice, presenting the reader with a compellingly empathy-driven approach to economics.
Based on the need for a fundamental shift in perspective on behalf of the business owner, Port’s theories insist that many service professionals’ selfishness, ironically, undermines their potential. Rather than entering business for personal gain, Book Yourself Solid claims that effective businessmen are drawn to help others, leading them to relationships that culminate in success.
By taking the time to understand clients, and personalizing an approach to satisfy their needs and concerns, Port insists that you can build a business that is rewarding morally, spiritually, and financially. He suggests that you think of yourself as a trusted advisor to your clients, and imagine that you are charged with guiding them to help them achieve their own goals. If this seems outlandish to you, Book Yourself Solid suggests you have the wrong career, as service professionals are supposed to be driven by the desire to serve.
Next, Port lays down another intimidating rule for success, called the “Red Velvet Rope Policy,” dictating that you must be unafraid to limit your clientele by cutting out clients who frustrate you and distort your objectives. However frightening turning down potential customers may seem, Port presents a convincing argument that freeing yourself from such clients opens up time and energy to focus on those you instinctively relate to.
Book Yourself Solid prioritizes such connection over marketing gimmicks, declaring that if you have a message to spread, that’s because there are people who need to hear it, and that the ability to understand clients is what allows you to recognize and meet their needs. Such spiritual undertones infuse the book with a sense of purpose beyond making money, and keep the book’s instructions from reading like a manual.
Almost as critical as identifying a target market is identifying a personal brand, which Port describes as being built from two parts: firstly, an examination of what you provide for whom and the ensuing benefits, and secondly, how your identity compels you towards your objective. He claims that your personal brand will not only sharpen your focus, but will allow potential customers to understand you on a deeper level.
Port advises that you temper your personal brand with market research to reveal the gaps in service left by your competitors, since these gaps are opportunities. Meanwhile, he states that you should never stop reading and learning about your field. In order to be credible enough to be worth hiring over your competitors, you need to be an expert at what you do. Additionally, you must streamline your referral process and take the time to create a great website so that you can convey your knowledge and personal brand to prospective clients.
After demonstrating how to identify your target market and pinpoint their needs and desires, Port continues to give strategies on how to attract and maintain clients, focusing on likability and communication skills. He provides formulas for effective and engaging career-oriented dialogues, scorning the traditional “what do you do” exchange as useless and boring. He suggests specific small actions to differentiate your business, promoting personal touches as the easiest, most effective way to reach a client. Additionally, he proposes that you should only communicate in ways that make people excited to hear from you.
Advice here ranges from the obvious (do not meet someone and then immediately add them to your mailing list) to the subtle (use words that you have heard your clients use previously to subconsciously indicate camaraderie). Port states that everyone is looking for talented people who can lower their stress levels, but they need reassurance that you have their best interests at heart. By allowing them to understand you, you build trust over time that translates into long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationships.
Book Yourself Solid is filled with practical and inspirational business advice. The techniques in the book make it easy for your clients to find, use, and reap the benefits of your services, and the results speak for themselves. 93% of the people who have utilized the Book Yourself Solid system have increased the number of clients they serve by over 34% and increased their revenue by over 42% within the first year. Port seeks to help you learn how to let your passion leak through every conversation you have, drawing people to you and leading you to interpersonal and financial success alike.
His basic, appealing, and human approach teaches you to be friendly, be relevant, be real, and have empathy, and to let others recognize that in time to hire you.
