You know, I’d never really considered writing a book before until recently, and now I’m in the middle of writing three! It’s a lot like the experience I had with the House of Commons, when I realised one day that I’d been living just a few miles away from it for years and hadn’t ever visited! Then, all of a sudden, I had three separate opportunities to visit the House of Commons fall into my lap. It’s intriguing how focusing on something starts to bring you related opportunities.
In the case of branching out into writing a book, I’ve just about finished my first one, called “The 5 Deadly Sins That Can Destroy Your
Insurance Claim.” The book offers loads of valuable information on how to keep your insurance claim from imploding under the pressure of insurance adjusters. At this point, all the copy in my book is pretty much ready, but I’m waiting on a few final reviews. It’s really exciting to have a finished book under my belt, and it definitely gives me more confidence in working on these other book projects!
I’m co-authoring one of the books with Dan Kennedy, who you may have heard me mention before. He’s a prominent direct response copywriter and marketing guru with an unbelievable amount of experience, so it’s a thrill to work with him on this project! That book is called “The Ultimate Success Secret,” and I’ll be sharing my ideas on ‘focused perseverance’ — something you need in spades when dealing with insurance companies who sometimes need to be dragged kicking and screaming through the claims process before they’ll pay up!
The last book I’m working on, for now, is with someone in my business networking group. He helps give young business people advice, and he wanted our group to write about what they need to know when setting up a new business. The group’s accountant will talk about accounting, the lawyer will talk about legal, and I’ll share my knowledge about getting the right insurance. I’m looking forward to seeing the good this book does for young business owners.
As strange as it is to be an author, the new experiences haven’t stopped there. As I mentioned last month. I’ll be speaking at The National Flood Forum, and I’ve been preparing my presentation, which is from the point of view of a flood victim making a claim. This experience is also new to me from a logistical perspective, as I’ve never really presented at a conference like this before. I’m even going to be debating with some experts in the field, which I can’t say is a common habit of mine.
Fortunately, there are a lot of good things to come from the event. I’m bringing down a video guy to film the lot and use the footage for marketing purposes. I’m also taking my wife with me for the two days, so it should be a great time. It’s just that, while I do have public speaking experience in my networking group, the Flood Conference presentation is still a stretch for me: a half hour on my feet in a strange environment with strange equipment, using my own material in front of a bunch of people I don’t know.
But I’m branching out because it’s a good idea. Just in September alone, I had my busiest month ever as far as new client instructions and claims — and I’ve been in business for over 11 years! The month was five times busier than usual, and those numbers were coming off the tail end of a two-week holiday, no less.
That’s why I highly recommend that you try to branch out into new things. It doesn’t have to be related to business, necessarily, but putting yourself out there and exposing yourself to new ideas and experiences is a great way to grow. Someday, when I’m a best-selling author who Dan Brown looks up to, you’ll be able to say, “I learned a lot from that Steve Lazarus.”
But in all seriousness, branch out and add those experiences. You’ll be glad you did!
Best Wishes,
Steve Lazarus
