What makes you pick up a book and begin reading? Is it because the book was written by an author you like? Did a friend recommend the book to you? Or did you fail to follow the “Don’t judge a book by its cover” rule and choose to read a particular book because the cover art was eye-catching?
What makes a good book? We spoke to Julie Keyes and Justin Goodbread, EPI Faculty Members and published authors, to share what they believe makes a book a great read and why they became authors.
How to Find a Good Book
With an abundance of books on the market in every industry, it can be hard to find books that truly meet your needs. Whether you are searching for education, looking to be entertained, or perhaps a bit of both, determining what makes a book stand above the rest can be quite tricky.
Julie Keyes, Founder of KeyeStrategies and Author of Poised For Exit, shares that the best business books contain easily understood and actionable advice. She says, “The reader should be able to easily glean advice, insights, and lessons from any business book in order to make it worth the time to read. And it should be easy to understand. If the writer uses complex jargon and concepts that most people aren’t familiar with, they’ve only managed to satisfy their ego, but certainly not the reader.”
Julie continues to say, “The advice in my book was intentionally written to be concise, clear, and easy to implement. Business owners are very busy people. With that in mind, I wrote a book you can read in a couple of hours, but it’s packed with actionable content and next steps.”
Justin Goodbread, Chief Strategy Officer at WealthSource Partners, highlights the importance of incorporating usable content in his books. He states, “I believe good business books must be practical. It doesn’t matter how many technical terms or concepts the author packs into their text if the common business owner can’t understand how they can be applied to their businesses. It’s why I chose the name, Financially Simple. I believe anyone should be able to pick up the book and immediately understand what you’re telling them to do, and why they should do it.”
What Motivated You to Be an Author?
Julie Keyes was motivated to publish her own book after her professional speaking coach shared the benefits she would see in her business. Julie says, “The book was meant to be a tool to open doors for more speaking opportunities, but it’s become so much more than that. I’ve since published the 2nd Edition of the book and launched a podcast show 2 years ago of the same name called “Poised for Exit” to expand the book’s reach and widen the content by sharing more stories from various owners and advisers who appear as guests on the show; it’s a new guest and a new story every week!”
Justin Goodbread shares that one of his professors inadvertently motivated him to publish a book. He says, “When I was in college, I had an English professor that failed me because I was a poor speller. Each misspelled word took 25 points from my grade. When discussing my grades with her, she told me I would never be a writer because of my poor spelling. I’ll admit, spell check has a difficult time keeping up with me, but I knew I would be an author at that very moment. Not only that, I told her that I would one day be a New York Times Bestselling author. While the New York Times is still a goal, I have become a professional author and have had my books listed on a couple of other bestseller lists.”
Benefits of Authorship
As a published author, Julie not only gained recognition for her expertise but was able to promote her business and the interests of her collaborators as well. She shares, “Poised for Exit has gained me some additional credibility as a practitioner and as a speaker. I used the book to promote a few other professional service firms that provided some of their own proprietary content in the form of useful tools and resources. They use the book as a promotional tool to promote their own expertise and credibility too. It has become a great collaborative effort that binds a balance of expertise and wisdom into 121 pages!”
Justin has also seen his business grow due to his success as an author. He explains, “It’s given me credibility. My business’s credibility has grown, attracting clients and peers, alike. I’ve taken the lessons I’ve learned in my 30 years of entrepreneurship and shared them with others, through my books. This has elevated the business as a model for others to follow. Just as important, it’s enabled the clientele to be at ease, knowing they can trust our team.”
2023 Exit Planning Summit Author Showcase
The Exit Planning Summit is headed back to Scottsdale in May 2023. Join EPI May 21-23 at the Phoenician, A Luxury Collection Resort, in Scottsdale, Arizona as we bring together hundreds of Certified Exit Planning Advisors, professional advisors, and business owners for three days of exceptional educational content. Summit attendees will hear exit planning lessons and stories from dozens of industry leaders, advance their practice with actionable education, and access a large referral network of advisors from across the globe.
The 2022 Exit Planning Summit featured our first-ever Author Showcase with 19 authors of business books. This event provided Summit attendees with the opportunity to engage in meaningful conversations with the authors of books covering a variety of exit planning topics.
Are you an author in the EPI community? Do you want to be one of the featured authors at the 2023 Exit Planning Summit Author Showcase? We are in the process of selecting our featured authors now!
Contact Content Strategist, Colleen Kowalski to learn more about this year’s Author Showcase and share how your book will benefit our community!
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