Today on the Book More Show, we are joined by Kevin Berwald, chartered financial planner, CMO of Catalyst4Growth, a sales team development organization, and author of Your Unicorn Client Acquisition Process.
Kevin has a great story, from running a successful financial services company to helping other professionals through Catalyst4Growth. We talk about how his book is now adding more and more value in developing that business and how a book is a perfect partner to one of their most successful strategies, helping people create a compelling professional biography for referral success.
Together, we delve into the psychology behind a book's authority, how this same authority translates into an authoritative biography, and how the right resources can make the writing process efficient and affordable.
This is a great chat, and Kevin brings some executable insights from a very successful career.
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
- Writing a book can help grow your business and boost your professional stature.
- Books carry psychological weight and authority, making them effective marketing tools.
- Utilizing a framework or process can streamline the book-writing journey.
- Creating a professional biography can help you connect with your target audience and differentiate yourself from the competition.
- Maximizing value and audience attraction is crucial for an effective professional bio.
- A book can reinforce clients' decision-making and intrigue them enough to take the next steps.
- Structure your book to educate and captivate readers before they take action.
- A book can be used as a lead generation tool and as a tool for client acquisition and referrals.
- Creating a professional biography can help with referral success and introductions.
- Integrating the professional biography into your everyday process can lead to more connections and opportunities.
LINKS
Kevin Berwald
Catalyst4growth
Show notes & video: 90minutebooks.com/podcast/142
How does your book idea score against the 8 book building blocks we use here all the time: Book Blueprint Scorecard
Titles & Outline Workshops: 90MinuteBooks.com/Workshops
Ready to get started: 90MinuteBooks.com
Questions/Feedback: Send us an email
Extra Credit Listening: MoreCheeseLessWhiskers.com
TRANSCRIPT
(AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors)
Stuart Bell
Everyone, welcome back to the Book More show. It's Stuart Bell here and today , Kevin Berwald. Kevin, how you doing.
Kevin Berwald
I'm doing fantastic. Thanks for asking.
Stuart Bell
This is gonna be a good show. We just were quickly catching up before we hit record. We're gonna try and keep this to a minimum of four or maximum of four hours and see where we go from there. Why don't we start with a bit of background, so share with the listeners kind of your backstory, what you guys do across there, and then we can kind of transition into some book stuff.
Kevin Berwald
Yeah, sure, i started in the financial really the financial services industry in 1988.
I really haven't been anywhere else, almost all in marketing and distribution.
In 2021, i got the opportunity to retire and not have to work anymore, and as I sat back and was thinking about what I'd done over my lifetime and one of my early mentors I'll mention his name, he's Mark Shearer.
He's no longer with us anymore, but Mark used to always say that what you learn and what someone gives you, you have the responsibility at some point to pass on, and a couple of my friends reminded me that there are some things that I should probably put in a book. I was talking to a friend of mine who referred me to you, actually, and he was saying and I was mentioning I need to put this information in a book, some of these points that have helped me and so many other people be really successful in life as best I can, so that I can pass what he called knowledge torches onto the future. So it was really bugging me to do this and I needed to find a venue to get there, and so that's what happened and that's how I got to you And that's the first book that I put together in row.
Stuart Bell
That's such a, it's such an opportunity and not many people think about it. You kind of think about the capturing the legacy, capturing the knowledge. We're also busy in the day to day work. Was it the fact that you had retired from the day to day business that gave you the time and the freedom to think about this thought now? Or was it the kind of pressure from someone else saying you should do it? you should do it? Was it more of a capacity thing rather than an intention thing?
Kevin Berwald
I think it's a little bit of both. You know, the funny thing is when you decide not to go to work anymore on a daily basis is you've got to have something to fill that void. And I've been a certified financial planner since 1995, cfp And so I knew that I needed to plan and set things up for what might happen in the future. So I had done lots of cool stuff, like I bought a 35 acre property that I could hunt and farm and raise honey bees on, spent a lot of time with my church. I live on an island right now I'm looking out at the water. That's a beautiful day. There's geese and swans and everything that are out there, and my boats are out there so I can fish and boat.
But eventually, as I was not paying attention or thinking about work, i just had one. I had two people actually that said you know, you need to write this book And it just kind of came at me from and not that I hadn't wanted to. I had threatened over the years to write this book. In fact I'd written two more workbooks that were related to it but never turned it into something that could be, you know, publishing out there for anyone to eventually get a hold of. So it was kind of a little pressure but it snuck up on me There's that concept as well.
Stuart Bell
If people think about the benefit of books as I mean we primarily talk about them in terms of lead generation tools and business building tools The benefit is that a book has a lot of psychological elements that come along with it.
Like the whole Robert Cialdini persuasion type world of people come with perceived baggage of what a book is and the authority that it carries. That's a benefit for us as we're trying to use it, but it's also something that holds people back because they think you kind of switch into like the school mentality of oh, this is gonna be homework that's marked by someone else And there's all of this sitting in a cabin under candlelight and years of torturous work to do it, whereas the benefit these days is the actual creation of it is relatively straightforward. I mean, it's the process that we try and leverage to make it as accessible and cost effective as possible At any point. Was that something that was holding back as well, the kind of traditional idea that this is gonna be much more of an effort than it needs to be? Were you kind of held back from starting by that first step?
Kevin Berwald
I might think about that in two ways. One is one of my things that I like to live by or think about, not necessarily a standard, but I think about the fact that processes are always stronger than the individual. And if you put yourself inside of a process, like working with 90 minute books, then you're gonna at least have a framework where, along the line I wouldn't say it holding you accountable, but at least behind you to support and say we need you know we're working on, this is where we're at, this is the next step. It's like the beauty of your emails that you send out once a month with the 12 or whatever word emails. I mean that's absolute genius. But at the same process it's creating a process not to use the same word twice, but I did kind of keep you involved and not put it on the back shelf and just forget about it.
But there is, to your point, there's no doubt about it that putting a book together, there is that risk. You're putting yourself out there and you're going to be critiqued in some way or another. So at the same time it's great to have professionals behind the scene that are really good at what they do, to prompt you and kind of help. You see things a different way, from a completely different angle, completely different industries to make it. So you have the confidence that you're putting something out there that's quality enough to represent you the right way, so that people will perceive you when they read or see the book in a way that you'd rather have them perceive and see. And that really was wonderful what you put together to help me do it, cause I'm not sure I would have actually finished it without that. I told you about where I was in life, but I might've just poked at it, but it was the process that got me where I'm going.
Stuart Bell
And that's a great point as well. This idea that it's a like I said I don't know what the right word is either. It's not quite accountability, but that process there that keeps the train moving. And this idea that in 2023, and we've done a couple of shows AI based over the last six months or so, so it's really going to accelerate and change in the next months and years. But this idea that the old world of publishing was kind of like carving in stone tablets or getting a monk to lay something out on a press and it's kind of one page at a time. That's not the case today. Now it's a very dynamic world of we might print 10 copies or 100 copies, or one person or 1000 person downloads it today, but tomorrow, when the next person downloads it, it could be different. So if something does need tweaking and changing, it's this idea of it doesn't have to be set in stone and getting something out there and then reacting and responding to the feedback that you get. That's the modern way of doing it. It's not thinking about something in a traditional sense, which is take months and years behind the scenes, hopefully get something there and spend all the time in budget on this one version And then okay, now we need to pivot, and that's a problem. Instead, think about it much more as a living thing. It's just manifested in a physical sense, so kind of bridging those two worlds.
There's a point that I'm going to ask you about in a second, about how you pivoted, what you're doing, but to tie in with the AI conversations and the future pacing of that. This is really going to change over the next coming months and years, because the ability of people to get stuff out there, helped by AI to generate the stuff, means that the volume of stuff out there is only going to increase, and increase dramatically. So if you're in a situation where you're doing nothing as in the sense of not doing nothing, but you're not doing this, not putting something out there, you're going to get left behind by everyone that's putting out something. Now. The qualitative versus quantitative debate then comes in. This is going to be a whole load of AI junk out there, one of a better term. So it's not just a silver bullet. That means it will.
You still need a message that AI can amplify, but going from it's no longer a case where you can do nothing, i don't think, and being in a position where you can get that. First, get over the obstacles and hurdles and the fear of getting something out there. Know that the marketplace is very iterative and very fast moving, so hopefully that removes some of the barriers. It bridges into one of the things I wanted to ask you. You were talking about changing the from the first book, having a slightly different approach for the second, and that really came from feedback of having something out there in the world. So talk a little bit about that if you can.
Kevin Berwald
I'd love to. So the original book that we created I wanted to keep it really in control. Other than, you know, introducing it to a few hundred people and getting it out there for them to review and see was important, but what I was really using it for was when I was doing specific meetings, specific coaching, specific seminars well, during COVID, so specific zoom all the time right And then constantly recommending or buying the books and mailing them out to people so that they would get the stuff. And I was also wanting to use it for predominantly for when I'm teaching or working with individuals and trying to help them grow their business, help them make more money, make their lives easier, by helping them think a little bit differently than they were before about focusing in on the what they're real It's a word that's used a lot, ideal client profile but actually zeroing in on what a real ideal client profile is and being able to quantify those values of what that person is or businesses that you're trying to attract to you by different quantitative metrics that you can quantify and then be able to circle back and say, yeah, that actually does make sense. That is who I want my business to be filled with three to five years from now When I think about where I want to be. That's who it needs to be. But, more importantly, here's why Some of the key elements are are they people you like?
A lot of people never put that first and foremost. If you're going to surround yourself in a business three years from now with 50 more clients than you had today, or pick another number, it certainly is, in my opinion, a lot better if they're people that you actually like, get along with and think the way you do So, then it doesn't feel like work. You're just interacting with people that you enjoy being with, and that's really a very high metric on my scale of figuring out who those clients should be as well as being financially effective for your business, not being waste of time. People who will take your advice when you give it, people who are great referral sources for you, should also be in that metric of who your real ideal clients are And what the time horizon is of how long they'll be your client, and all those things need to be blended together, which creates really a different identity for every individual. So that's what we really coach to, and we find that if we can help people take whatever resources they have, including their time, and the amount of sales interactions they can actually have. If you configure I can, you know I can do 20 sales interactions a month. Well, if we can take those 20 sales interactions of the rest of time and actually apply it to the right client with the highest propensity and probability to do business with them, you never guess what happens. They make more money, they have more time on their hands because you're not spending time doing things they don't want to do, talking to people they don't want to talk to you And they're having a lot more fun. And that's what the book was designed to do to talk about seven or six knowledge torches that help you, that work around your sales process, of what you've been doing, to make you think and see differently, to be more successful. Now, the funny thing about that is because I controlled it.
We used a unique name title for the book So it wouldn't necessarily be overly recognized of what it was, and we use the word unicorn and it was a unicorn client acquisition process. Now, i know what it means and I can describe it to someone, but someone just on the street would look at it and might not really know what it is And that was intentionally done. And then now we've driven it down and changed the title So it actually has the word, but not so much that we had to archive the old book, just adapting the title and the cover to actually have the words referral on it and emphasize the world word client acquisition. So that was the first thing in the evolution, because now we want it to be more recognizable Now that I'm now that me and my partner and our business associates have started another LC where we can actually take on more clients, it's tough to really handle the inflows sometimes and you don't want to tell people you can't help them or be able to be as assertive them. So but now that we have, we've changed the title to make it a little more, i guess, less opaque and more transparent as to what it is And then switch the contact information over to the new LLC from the old one.
I guess I could go to the next point and then I could tell you about what you were kind of alluding to was. We put this book out and it had six knowledge torches in it that have to do with setting goals, who your ideal client profile is like. We were just talking about how to set the stage for what you're going to do before you take off. You're prepared when you're there, opening conversations using note taking, which is it sounds so blasé, but if you're an effective note taker, know how to use it to control a situation and influence people. It's so strong to be able to learn how to do that and listen and then quantifying the value of what you do and how to ask people to do business with you. You put those things out there in this book and you never know which one's going to resonate the most. And the most interesting thing about this book is that what resonated the most isn't in any of the six knowledge torches up front. It was something that was buried back in the setting the stage portion, which is creating an individual professional biography that is used as an introduction tool by your referral sources to introduce you to other people and solve some of the primary problems of why it's so hard to get those introductions to your ideal client profile once you figure it out who it is.
And the biggest thing, the biggest hurdle is if anyone's watching this and they just listen to this one point. This is one thing they should tee into and I'll set it up with a question about anything I'm going to say. This is the point that resonates the most with most people. I ask, if I asked anyone listening to this podcast, if I went to their current clients and I asked them this question would you refer people to this person who's serving you in whatever way? right now I wouldn't say it that way, but I can't say it in a specific occupation, it's. Would you refer people to that? And you know what they say. And I would say nine times, eight times out of 10, without any further thought. They always say of course I would.
Now, if you let that sink in just a little bit, you would think holy cow, people just need to be asking for more introduction to referrals. But they always not always, i would say at least half the time. After that they pause and they say but who would I introduce them to? And number two how would I do it? Right, see, we talked earlier about losing weight or playing the piano or getting better at golf. We all like to do that. But how? And that's to stop. You can't have something that stops someone to make some thing.
So the professional biography is a tool that has seven elements in it that help individuals think through who their ideal client profile is, what their value propositions are, a little bit about themselves and their personality. There's a few other things in there, but it's a tool that when someone has it and they want to refer someone to you, it takes the risk away from them to say here's a piece I'd like you to read And, if it resonates with you, there's a call to action on the bottom of how to get a hold of this person And they can do it with some really kind words. A lot of times it's just a text to somebody and they'll copy me in on the text or they'll email it and they'll copy me in on the email with some really hopefully glowing words, right words. Right Now I've been introduced without them having to physically introduce it. It's an easy process. They understand who I'm looking for or who the person we're coaching to is looking for, and they've already have their contact information. Yeah, it's beautiful.
Another way just to throw it that works really well is not just from referral sources. But say, i'm at the golf course and someone says, kevin, what do you do? You know I'll say, well, let me do this, let me give you my professional biography. Scan it over. It'll give you a real good impression and understanding of what I do and who I work with. And after you look at it, let's talk. Then what's your email or your text number or you know? just download it from phone to phone. But what I want is their phone number or contact information. Right, if it seems like the right person, yeah.
And now, key to all that is I'm controlling their perception of who I am before I meet them, and that's the most important thing. For an example I mentioned earlier about, you know, honeybees, and I have a farm where I raise bees and some people really love it. That's on this piece And my picture is on there, very specific picture that looks a certain way that's attractive to the audience that I want to work with. And I multiple times walked somewhere and someone said Kevin, how are you doing? I heard you wrestled in college. My son And they start talking to me for five or 10 minutes I'm not even sure who they are, but it's so read my professional biography knew that I raised these or I wrestled, or I live on an island and there's boats in my backyard, love the fish and hunt.
Whatever it is, they get to know me first, and so isn't that what we really want And is the connection of those ideal client profiles that we can talk to you and do life with, that are financially symbiotic with us, that can refer us to more people like that right, and what's the easiest way possible for us to be introduced to them and connect without a lot of risk. And that's what this is all about And that's what the second book is. That we pulled out of the first book because we didn't know what was going to be which would resonate the most. That was it, and so now we're taking the second book that we're in process with you right now to work just on the development and working on the professional biography as a referral and introduction tool.
Stuart Bell
It's such a great example because it kind of evidences the methodology. In the first place You're talking about the whole approach, and the whole idea is around deciding who it is that you want to be in business with, deciding what the criteria are, how you can serve them best, how they can work with you best, having that kind of thought process, taking a moment to think about it. But then, out of the back of the book, the feedback that you got was this particular area. So you've identified the people who you would most like in that whole world, and then of the ones in that whole world, they've kind of evidenced to themselves, or they've evidenced by themselves to you, which elements of it you can then best help them with. And then you're doing another iteration of providing that value and creating the asset that delivers it, to start the conversations. So it's kind of self-referential pattern of trying to be as helpful as possible, trying to deliver that value, collecting all of those knowledge torches together, but then looking for which ones spark more and create more of a light and flame, and then double down on that to create more things. Not that the old ones getting thrown out of the window. The old ones still exist. It's still there, but you've got the opportunity to really kind of amplify the signal that you're getting back in from the audience.
And it's so insightful as you speak, and someone who's been through that process because sometimes we'll talk to people about okay, you need to, we'll try and pull out from them which are the most resonating elements, but sometimes it's difficult. I mean, we're talking about creating books, which is sometimes enough of a mental load for people just to pull the stuff together. We don't want to stop the track completely, waiting for answers to these questions that people might find difficult, but to have that flexibility to change afterwards and then double down. So, the clients that you're now working with the second book and those people who you're trying to help, that group of people who are inspired by the professional bio and that's the thing that is resonating with them is that the same group of people that were around in the first instance the older clients so are these? is it kind of bridging off now into a separate group?
Kevin Berwald
Well, it's interesting, great question. The first book we started thinking about who I was and where my mindset was not to work hard. It's not that I don't like to work hard, it's that it was time in life where I wanted to play a lot harder. Right, i'm going to work. I want to work funer and I'm going to play hard. That's my emphasis in life right now. So when I wrote the first book initially, the reason I contained it is I did not want to get big and I didn't have a lot of staff and resources.
Well, now we've morphed over to our second book, our second business, which is called Catalyst for Growth, where we actually work with individuals to find those one percentage points of improvement where, if we can find and make it just a little bit better in what they do, the composite of all those one percent improvements creates all those catalysts, create a movement for them to just grow their business substantially. So that's what we're doing now. Part of that what we want to do in working with the same clients we did before, but now broadening the base as well, because we've got more people to work with us now is we want to figure out what that piece is which will draw them to the website. So we're going to expand it And so the second book, which will be done pretty well who knows should be done could be done. Right now Just can't get 15-aged boys that are in La Crosse and swimming and all kinds of stuff. But when that's done they'll get this book, hopefully by referral, and they'll start working and they'll realize I need a tool to complete this piece. And so I suggest right up front that they go to our website, which is catalyst, the number four, numeralforgrowthorg, catalystforgrowthorg And they'll find the biography generator.
So when we talk about all seven elements, the question is okay, just the first part. Your picture that you use sounds like it's not important, but if anyone, i've been married for 20 years but I hear dating apps have swipe left and right. Allegedly You want to be attracted to your audience And in fact I was taught public speaking in the 90s by Adina Communications at a major university, and I'll just add this quick 30-second story because it pinpoints what I'm going to say. Next, you go into his class of freshman. There's an auditorium picture, a couple hundred kids looking down. They were in high school a few months earlier. Now they're in college and probably all been out partying whatever they've been doing as they go on to do beginning of the semester.
And he would walk up on stage and he would say all right, everybody grab a pencil and paper and I want you to write down the answers to these questions What kind of car do I drive? What kind of pet do I have? What's a political persuasion am I? What's my net worth? He'd ask four or five questions like that. Right, everybody just writes down feverishly. When they're done writing, he would throw up the syllabus for the semester and he would start talking and within a minute or less someone would raise their hand and say professor, what is the answer to these questions that you just gave us? And he'd say the answer is just like it is for you.
When someone meets you for the very first time, they will create hundreds of biases and thoughts of who you are and what they think you are, and the problem with that is they only go away one at a time when they're proven wrong.
So when you introduce to your audience that you want to be attracted to, you got one first shot And so your picture has to be right.
What you say in your introduction about who you are another point, if I were someone listening to this I would key into has nothing to do with you personally. When you say it to someone, the only words you should say are the words that your client wants to hear, and nothing else matters. It doesn't matter how great you are, what your experience is, none of that matters. It only matters what they want to hear, and those are the only things that should be written in that first part, because they see your picture that resonates with them. They hear the words they want to hear. Then they hear some things about you personally. They say you know, this guy's not scary, i could hang out with person. That's what crosses the chasm before you get to your value proposition and what a great professional you are and the best at whatever you do, from cake making to whatever it is. You may be the best, but you know what They don't care.
Stuart Bell
Yeah, what can come next is a great way of bridging into something that we talk, marrying up with something that we talk about in terms of the readability of books or the readerships. Rather, books is low across the board, and that goes for for fiction books, where the whole job of work of the book is to entertain someone. Even that readership is low. Once you get into the business side of books, it's even lower. But the job of work, almost more than anything else, is to reinforce to people that they're in the right place. Exactly as you said, people want to know that the decision that they've made to even have this interaction is going to get them to where they want to go And there's nothing scary that turns them away.
So, the title of the book, the table of contents, the call to action and then, to a lesser degree, the content it's really, it's a whole job of work is that someone's out there in the world? they've come across you for whatever reason. This is just compelling enough that, yes, i want to take the next step with that minimum viable commitment step, to make a phone call, visit the website. It's the fact that it shouldn't be scary. Such an interesting take that, from a visual perspective in terms of photos, from a bio perspective, from how you construct your emails. It's all the same. It's all about what they're thinking and their next step in the journey. That just really resonated as he talked about it, this idea that you've got of starting the second business rather than the first business. So when we think about the job of work of the book, the first one seems like it was very much used with existing clients or with people who were in the world already, as almost a motivating or educating tool to take them down a path that they're already on.
Kevin Berwald
It's actually very controlled because I would teach from it. Knowledge torches are a week of content, of teaching As a consultant. they could pick what they want or we could walk through all six. at the end of culmination They would have a plan and a way that they could go, connect and grow their business and charge towards those ideal clients that they have.
Stuart Bell
Right. That actually is another great reminder for people. The job of work of a book that we don't necessarily always talk about but it does come up in terms of it's a reinforcing element to the business that you do with people further down the track. So we often talk about it as a top of the funnel lead generation piece. but the book blueprint scorecard, for example, there are eight mindsets, the eight building blocks that are in here titles, subheadings, single target, audience, call to action. They're the exact things that we talk about when we're going through the book or if I'm having strategy calls with people that I'm going through as well. The ability, like you experience to actually teach from the book almost, or be giving a point and then reinforce it by pointing to printed words on the page. It's such a psychological cue to help people accept it and move on rather than question it and judge and fight against it. I mean, that's an element we don't talk about much.
The second book, then, more of a lead generation tool, is going to a wider audience and hopefully through referrals, to a pretty significant path. Was that an active decision in terms of? okay, i'm going into the first one, thinking about it in terms of how it's going to be used in a more closed way. And now I'm going into the second one, thinking about it in terms of referrals, and did that impact the structure of it or the bits that you were including or the level of content? I'm kind of thinking that the first one might have been quite a deeper level of content and the second one might be more of an introduction level of content because of where it sits in that funnel.
Kevin Berwald
Yeah, Well, the first one was giving people just enough information to break their legs, as it were. So they would say, oh, i need that, and then they go. I don't have any idea how to do that. And then they follow it. So each one of the knowledge torches in the book are just enough, but not enough right. Not quite two hundred and twelve degrees to boiling point right, just a little lower where they need to contact me to figure it out, assuming that they actually read it and went through it. That was the goal.
The second one because the professional biography. And just to circle back, when people read that they need to get this bio generator right, so they'll read the book and if they get anywhere into it, they're going to realize I need this bio generator. Where do I get it? They got to go to our website. So that's the first thing. So it's designed to help people, yes, but then move them to our website to get we can get, you know, the drug oh, i'm better contact how to resolve whether or not we're going to fit or mesh, have chemistry together, all those things. So it is more a specific, exact description to go through each seven elements and develop their own professional biography when they're done Won't be, i don't know, maybe a hundred and fifty pages, probably a hundred pages tops, i would guess, maybe less than that, but something they can read and say. Each element this is my element, this is how I build it, build it. The second element, this is go through each one of them linear, line by line, with the primary purpose of getting them to the point where they have their own introduction referral tool. But this is the crossing, the chasm point. This is where it makes.
This is what has really grabbed me in a couple instances recently, because if I don't build this book, i'm getting some. I don't know. There was Memorial Day, right, so I didn't get any in the last few days, but before Memorial Day I was getting at least one person a day calling me wanting to do this. So I didn't even know Right. So I need to send them a book because I can't spend three hours with everybody walking through. But if I give them homework to do most of the work, i can do 20, 30 minutes and be just as effective, probably more effective. So that's what it's designed to do is to get us, to get people into the website, to help people do their homework before they call us, so it's a lot easier to do. But here's the point that resonated.
Circling back to what I just said is doing two meetings in Tampa this year And in both instances, the first time I thought it didn't really, i thought it was just happened right. The second time it happened I realized no, this is fact. So of all these clients that were potential clients, so these are all prospects that showed up big whiteboard, i'm asking them a question you know, what do you want your business to look like in a few years? They say, and I say what's holding you back on the whiteboard? I'm writing down the things that are holding them back. Both times when I look at pictures going back, they both said the same thing.
Now it cycles down to one word, which is marketing. They don't know how to convey. This is what they were saying. They don't know how to convey their value proposition and what they do to the right group of people. That's all about marketing. They'll always say if I just had a better website. But what they're really saying, if I could just get my message out and say it the right way? Well, the interesting thing about creating the professional biographies that makes you write all those things down.
We found out. It was the stepping stone to their marketing program. So people would do this and then they'd come back and we'd see this robust marketing program that grew from that first piece, which was just starting, and creating the seven elements in the ideal client profile, And they had the profile with the biography, the professional biography, And that blew me away. They just needed the first step and the first start, which then leads back into what's our impetus to do this is. We get them to our website and then they want to build a marketing plan. We built marketing plans for all kinds of business all over the country, big and small, national footprints, local footprints. It's what my partners have done, more than me, But with their resources we put all these two things together And we're hoping it turns into something that looks like a lot more fun than even what we're anticipating.
Stuart Bell
It's such a great insight into. it's often that first step. It's like what's the Groundhog Day movie when he steps off the curve and falls in the fall The first steps of the do's. It's that first step that you almost like breaking the seal that then unleashes things and being able to give people a tool where they can put enough intentionality behind it to create something that is the framework for something much bigger. But it's in a bite-sized chunk. It's manageable. They can see the end of where it all plugs together. Plus, then you've got the tools that help them to create it and the book that supports the actual ideas behind it. That first step I can really imagine that is the gatekeeper to a lot of the other stuff that you're then doing further down the track.
Another way of getting close on time. I wanted to quickly talk about referrals. So the idea we talk about it sometimes in the beyond the book element of once the book's created, there's various ways that you can use it, the referral strategy being one, and this idea that, as you said, 80% of people would happily refer people to it, but what usually happens is you'll see them six months later and I'll say oh, did Bob give you a call. I told him he should give you a call, or oh you know what. I was just talking to Mary last week and I wish I'd have remembered and I would have made that connection, because people don't A recognize that a referral opportunity exists or B have that easy way to make the connection.
Like you were saying. what's the step that makes the referral So for the people who are creating the profiles, the bios? are they using it? Do they get that as well? Do they understand that referral opportunity or have they seen it more as? a I need this is something to do, but not necessarily thinking I need this because it works in this way. Does that make sense to you? Yeah, i know what you're.
Kevin Berwald
I think I know what you're asking for. I think I know what I'm asking for. No, i mentioned earlier that processes are stronger than the individual. Everybody wants to die and everybody wants to play better golf, play piano, whatever it is, but you've got to figure out the easiest, simplest way to do it. And so when you create a professional biography and people start using it once or twice and they see it resonate, they just get it all. The light bulbs go on. It was simply just making it very easy for them to do. First of all, writing it means I can convey my value proposition. Now I can.
Actually, if you ask people what do they do, sometimes they say the silliest things. What they do It doesn't resonate with the person they're talking to And sometimes it makes people recoil. Right, it has to. Everything needs to be approached the right way and approached to the right client, and when the light bulbs go on that there is a process that's simple. This isn't the only one. That's just one way to do it. I'll give you another example in just a second.
But thinking it through and knowing it, like if you've read the book Think and Grow Rich, right, there's that point about having something in mind that you have centered on right. But the first thing is you've got to center on something. What is that person you're actually gonna see? And I use this analogy a lot when my wife was my oldest son's gonna be 17 this month And I remember when my wife was pregnant the first time And I never realized that I think it's like 6% of the population is always pregnant women. Right, i never noticed them, but as soon as my wife was pregnant, i saw them everywhere. Or the little red sports car you know if you buy one and the next thing you know, whatever car you bought last, you're gonna see it everywhere. And so the focal point is once you actually figure out who you wanna get introduced to and you figure out an easy way to do it and you incorporate it into your everyday process. You don't bring it out once in a while, you bring it out all the time. The professional biography is printed and in digital format with you always, whether it's on your phone or any client you're talking to, and it becomes habit, right. So here's how simple it really is. Not to blow up my whole strategy, but there's a book called Freddie the Frog. It's a little green frog.
I hear this story from one of my close friends. He worked with a guy who was with an insurance company 30 years ago and he used to. Whoever we talked to. He brought a little frog out and sat it on the desk and he said you know, i'm just saying this here to remind me to ask you a question when I'm done. And at the end the people are looking at the frog and they'd say what's the frog for? He goes, i wanna figure out who else I can introduce to Freddie the Frog. And he'd ask for referrals. Now, the first thing I've ever heard in my life. I could never do it myself. I have too much pride, but that guy led the country and refurbished a new business.
Stuart Bell
Because no one else is orchestrating it, or having that intentionality, going into the situation knowing that was gonna be the outcome. I mean it doesn't take much to differentiate yourself from the crowd At the end of the day. That extra level of specificity or targeting an audience, i mean we see it all the time. With some of the books I've we've done a thousand or so now And the level of random small niches that people work in, you'd think that there's never enough business to be that tailored But to dominate such a small area or small industry these days it's more than possible. So to have that intentionality behind your biography, behind the setup, to know that these are the people who I wanna work with, who are the fun people, who are the profitable people, who are the ones that we can help most, and have that, like I said, that avatar dialed in, it just really helps all of that intentionality With.
Kevin Berwald
The next thing is I developed this professional biography Right, mine's in my book. I'm holding one of them right now. I accept it. You use it. If you don't have one. You don't have a green frog. The question is, how do you have a green frog that someone will resonate with, remember, understand who you're looking for and make it very easy for them to refer people to you, and That's it. So, so many benefits to creating it, whether it's launching marketing plans, figuring out what you want to do, what you want your business to look like, and it's just that easy, simple first step. I mean yeah, but I mean, if you're gonna write a book, it's probably a good idea and I know you agree with this to know who your clients that you're targeting, because if you don't, it's you know. You never know you could hit the lotto.
Stuart Bell
But yeah, but it's a big gamble. Much better to put a little bit of thought behind it and at least hopefully get it dialed in a little bit Well.
Kevin Berwald
I agree.
Stuart Bell
Time goes fast, like I knew it was. If you're up for it, it'd be great to do another call a little bit further down the track. And two things I'm thinking is one, just check back in with the book further down the track, see how that's going, just to give people a book update. But the other thing, if you're up for it, would be great to do like a little training session or a little way to Expand on your actually your methodology a bit more, because I think all the people who are receiving this are all people who have expressed an interest in a book as a lead generation tool. So obviously they're in business and I think this methodology, this approach, would be a benefit for everyone. So if you're up for doing a quick intro training session for people and obviously well then point people back to the site, but so it'd be great to that at some point in the future as well, really add some value.
Kevin Berwald
I would for sure. In fact, the quote that I use on my professional biography is from Napoleon Hill. It says it is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed. Yeah, so from that mindset, i'd be happy to help, you know, help people be successful, help people make more money, expand their business, make their life easier. That's really the only job we have, right, exactly.
Stuart Bell
Yeah, it makes all the difference. It's the success. If that comes in a vacuum, away from everyone else, i mean it's better than no success, but it's nowhere near as good as feeling. We were talking about the podcast just before we started recording and doing more client podcasts now than the earlier seasons when it was really Me and Dean will be in Betsy talking about the process Way, way more. I mean I could talk about it all day, but it's really much more enjoyable Getting to see people and hearing their experience. So, yeah, on the shoulders of Giants for sure. Well, until we get that scheduled, where's the good place where people can find out more? you mentioned their website before, but just put that back out there So people can jump the gun and check things out for themselves. You bet the easiest way.
Kevin Berwald
Way isn't that? there's the big bomber. How do you want people to contact you? Contact you once, but you can go to our website, which is catalyst, the numeral for growth dot org catalyst for growth dot org. And you could email me directly [email protected] and I'll get back to you. Generally I can get back to people or someone will get back to you the same day. Sometimes it takes two days if we're really busy over Memorial Day. But, yeah, happy to help out any way we can.
And, candidly speaking, i'll just tell you an all candor. But I just told you which was taught to me by multiple people a culmination of all kinds of people will help me be successful in life. I don't think I have a really original idea in my mind. It's all been borrowed from other people that I've been blessed to be, you know, schooled by and create something like this. But I can tell you that I've never, a single time, in all candor, i've never seen anybody not get more referrals by doing what we just did. I've never seen it not work. It is always work. The only time it hasn't worked is, as we talked about earlier. Some people will create a book and then, once they're done, it's like whoo, that's over, right. But they actually use it and show it to people and use some of the strategies to just get that biography of people to read. They've always gotten more referrals than they did without it. Yeah, we'd love to help people grow their business.
Stuart Bell
That's fantastic. Well, we'll make sure to report the link in the show notes So in podcast players or as people looking on the website they can just click through. We'll get something scheduled for sure to do a quick The 101 level of it, and then people can follow up with you directly for the next level after that. But game was plug.
Kevin Berwald
It's on the back of my book. So if you get online and you look for the unicorn client uniform unicorn client acquisition process book, my phone number and my emails on the back and a copy of one of my professional biographies It's all in the book.
Stuart Bell
Fantastic. Well, i'll tell you what I'll link to that as well and then make sure that people have got all the channels to get through. Right, cool, kevin, been an absolute pleasure, really looking forward to catch up on the next one. Everyone is listening. Definitely recommends checking out the links that we'll put in the notes and we chat to Kevin directly. But until the next one, thanks for your time and we'll speak soon.
Kevin Berwald
Very fun, have a profitable day.
Stuart Bell
Thank you.