Million Dollar Producer Show

063: From Author to Authority: Leveraging Your Book for Business Growth with Paavan Kotini

August 21, 2024 • Paul G. McManus

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In this podcast episode, I welcome back Paavan Kotini, author of "Effortless Wealth: The SWAN Approach to Unlocking Wealth for Busy Professionals". Paavan shares his journey of writing and publishing his first book, and reveals the innovative ways he's leveraged it to grow his business.

Paavan's Journey

  • Book Writing Process: Paavan discusses how working with our team helped refine his initial ideas into a concise, impactful book.

The Power of Authorship: Enhancing Professional Credibility

  • Authority by Association: He highlights how being an author has elevated his status among clients and peers.
  • Conversation Starter: The book serves as an in-depth business card and "salesperson in print".

Innovative Marketing and Distribution Strategies

  • Strategic Partner Engagement: Paavan shares how his strategic partners use the book to introduce him to potential clients.
  • Client Appreciation: He uses personalized, signed copies as gifts for clients.
  • Creative Promotions: Paavan created bookmarks with QR codes and used the book as a prize at events.
  • Community Involvement: He reached out to local libraries for author showcases.

New Opportunities and Business Growth

  • Speaking Engagements: The book has led to increased invitations for speaking and board memberships.
  • Next Generation Support: Unexpectedly, the book has attracted interns interested in finance careers.
  • Referral Enhancement: It's become an effective tool for generating introductions and referrals from strategic partners.
  • Book Series: Paavan is already planning his next book, which is generating additional interest.

The Impact of Bestseller Status

  • Credibility Boost: Achieving Amazon bestseller status has added another layer of credibility to Paavan's profile.
  • Opportunity Driver: The bestseller status is driving more speaking engagements and business opportunities.

Key Takeaways for Financial Advisors

  • Leverage Your Book: Use your book creatively in all aspects of your business and marketing.
  • Engage Partners: Collaborate with strategic partners to maximize the book's reach.
  • Continuous Marketing: The book doesn't market itself - be proactive in promoting it.
  • Think Long-Term: Consider writing multiple books to sustain thought leadership and relevance.

About our Guest: Paavan Kotini is the author of "Effortless Wealth: The SWAN Approach to Unlocking Wealth for Busy Professionals".

You can learn more about his work at: https://www.effortlesswealthbook.com/

About Your Host: Paul G. McManus is an accomplished author and expert in helping financial professionals grow their businesses. With over eight years of experience working exclusively with financial professionals, Paul has helped his clients generate tens of millions of dollars in fees and commissions.

Claim your free audiobook copy at: www.theshortbookformula.com

Support the show

Speaker 1:

Welcome everyone to another episode of the Million Dollar Producer Show. I'm your host, paul G McManus. Today, my guest is Pavan Kotini. I've been working with Pavan, I want to say, since August of 2023. And we met at an event in San Diego. Since then, we've helped him write and publish his first book. That's called Effortless Wealth.

Speaker 1:

Now, the reason I asked Pavan to come on the podcast today is that, as I talk to financial advisors about their potential book projects, probably most consistently, there's a couple key questions that always come up. But the one that we're going to address today is okay, when I publish my book, what's next? And I think this is probably because a lot of people maybe they've bought into book programs and they've been sent a case of 500 books and it gathers dust, and so we're going to talk about how, when you actually write and publish your own book through our process, that we're going to show you, through Pavan's example, how you can do some really cool things with it. With that framing of the conversation, pavan, it's great to have you on the show today.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. Thank you, paul, I appreciate it and thank you for having me. I'm excited to share my journey with the book and during and after we started the writing and publishing of it.

Speaker 1:

Awesome. So before we get into the marketing of it and the promotion of it, let's go back to talk about just a little bit the process of where you started when we met up until when you published it. So when we first started talking, I had already started writing, had the thought process of what I wanted to do.

Speaker 2:

But no, I thought I had the structure to it.

Speaker 2:

I think Journey With you helped me really discover what was my intent behind it and really hone in on where I wanted people to focus and convey the message to and just really simplify the process, and there's a lot of educational tips.

Speaker 2:

I know a lot of financial books that are written but they just collect dust on people's bookshelves, right, and so one really great advice is probably do you want it to be such a big and thick book but people buy it and keep it there and don't read it, or do you want people to actually be able to read it and digest it and then come back to you and talk to you? That was really valuable advice. So we created a very short book, you know, leveraging your short book formula, putting together a few concepts, my story and the message I want to carry across through that in a very concise way, and it was interesting because I really wanted to initially start calling my book Swan Market Investing, but then, through the journey, we're able to transform the title, based on the content and everything like that, to effortless wealth, and we put in there the SWAN approach to unlocking wealth for busy professionals. So it incorporated both things. My title changed through the journey. It's been a valuable title. People constantly tell me it's a conversation starter with people.

Speaker 1:

And I appreciate you saying all that for a couple of reasons. Just to underscore a couple of key People constantly tell me it's a conversation starter with people. This might even tie back to the question is that, or the premise of today's conversation is, which is that once the book's published, then what we want our ideal clients to read the book right and part of that process is making it digestible enough that when you engage with whether it's your existing clients or prospects, that it's reasonable for them to actually read it and they're interested because, at the end of the day, people who have problems want their problems solved and the book is a fantastic tool to introduce you to them and how you can help them solve their problems. Just in the writing journey, was there anything else that surprised you or that you weren't expecting or thinking about just during the time that we wrote the book together?

Speaker 2:

One of the things that I was a little worried about is, hey, if I write everything, then what do people sit with me for after?

Speaker 2:

It really was about sharing and there's no way that if you share it, that they know everything what they need to do and how to implement it and what that, in fact, it's the opposite effect. Where people that read it, they go I need to do and how to implement it and what that, in fact, it's the opposite effect. Where people that read it they go I need to talk, even though they can do it sometimes on their own or whatever they feel that they need to talk to the expert that has an understanding of it. Right, and that was something that was a revelation. That sort of happened through the journey, because sometimes we feel like we've done this and we just got to keep it to ourselves. But I knew I really wanted to propagate this out, but a fear that I had with if I share this information, people still want to talk, but in fact, more of them want to talk to me now because of that.

Speaker 1:

I would agree, and my experience has been that's 100% true. Is that? And ultimately, the reason why? Is that nobody likes being sold to, but people like to buy, people like to do their due diligence. And if you give people information, say, in a book form, that's digestible, they have the opportunity to essentially do their due diligence. And if the book is crafted well, which is what we try to help our clients do, it essentially entices them and compels them at some level to want to take that next step with you, because, as you said, it doesn't give them all the implementation secrets. It simply gives them the reasons why and why they should be thinking about doing something, and it's very logical for the person that actually wants to do that to then come to you versus some other person, because the information now it's tied to you and you've framed it in such a way that you're uniquely qualified to help them implement exactly what you talked about. Would you expand on that at all?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, and it's just really a confidence booster as well too, and sometimes you don't have enough time to be able to talk to somebody in depth about what you do, but you can tell them that hey, read the book right. Or even if they're a close family friend or something like that, you've talked to them a thousand times before, but they don't hear you right In the same way. But now all of a sudden they look at you in a different light when they read the book and say, hey, actually these are the things I do need. So I didn't know you could do that stuff. I'm like I've been telling you thousands of times, but now it's because it's not about what you say, it's about what people here understand, what they take in, and so the book helps us do that in many ways. It's a business card that is very more in-depth than just phone and email.

Speaker 1:

I call it a salesperson in print, so it absolutely has educational value. But it's also if you were to spend an hour or more with a prospect and they came to you and you're going to give them the PowerPoint slide and walk them through all the information in a very educational format essentially does that. It duplicates the benefits of that, but it does it in a very non-threatening way because they can choose to get the book, they can engage with the book on their own time and then when they read through it, they can come to the decision if it makes sense for them to reach out. There's just so many benefits in my mind of using this approach. Can I share a story around that 100%?

Speaker 2:

One of my strategic partners will actually have this book and when they're having a client meeting they'll come a few minutes before holding the book reading it a client they want to potentially introduce to me. Right when the client comes they'll say hi, and whatnot. And the client obviously sees the book in front hey, what are you reading? Reading this book, it's pretty good, and whatnot. And one of the clients actually asked hey, do you mind if I read it? Can I borrow it? And so she was like, absolutely go ahead. And so they borrowed the book, they read it, had all the notes and everything like that. Read it and whatnot.

Speaker 2:

And she turns around and goes how would you like to be able to meet the person, right, the author? And she goes I'm actually a personal friend, I can make that introduction happen. And so her client was like, oh, this is fantastic, I'd love to be able to meet the author. And it becomes a really VIP type experience for them and it makes it easy way for somebody to be able to introduce. She was not selling, she was not pushing. It would lie on their own volition that they came out, that they needed to be able to have this conversation. It becomes a very easy way for us to be able to be able to pass and introduce my services and me to my strategic partners.

Speaker 1:

But you shared that story with me at the event and that really triggered me to want to have you on, because it's stories like that are just to me amazing. That's what I live for is to hear stories like that in terms of how people are implementing. Is that something? How did that come about? Was it your strategic partner came up with that? Did you guys discuss it?

Speaker 1:

And just for our listeners who are financial advisors and I think they have CPA relationships, they have other centers of influence and they're thinking, okay, I want that, and so how did you create that situation with that COI?

Speaker 2:

So it actually happened accidentally, because she was genuinely actually reading a book, okay, and it happened. And then we talked about it and she shared it and I said I wanted to see if this would work. And then I asked one of my other strategic partners just how can you do this? We had a similar result right, and now multiple strategic partners will have it, or they'll have it in their office or anything like that, and whatnot. And then face is on there as well too.

Speaker 1:

When I meet them, they're like oh, you're the guy, one of the other benefits of authorship, and I don't know that everyone is aware of this, but it's one of those things in our culture that I was literally doing a webinar with Anton Anderson, who we both know, just earlier this week and asking him about his experiences, and one of the things that he said, which I'll say now, is that he's probably spent a lot more time working on certain things like his video modules and other stuff that he's built over the years and the book, relatively speaking, was much easier to create. But he's only seen that people come up to him and treat him differently, with higher, more status, more congratulations and all these different things as a direct result of the book. And he was joking, but no one's ever come up to me and said thank you for creating module eight. That's really made a difference in my life.

Speaker 1:

The book itself. They're like're like. Wow, that's impressive, congratulations. Is there any other stories or anything else that you can share, just from your experience now being, I would say, a local celebrity?

Speaker 2:

thank you, it really has been interesting. I had two incidences, but really, first of all I'll just say is that there's a higher level of authority that people it's all about perception and a higher level of authority that people it's all about perception and a higher level of authority. I haven't changed as a person, but that perceived value of who I am from their standpoint has changed. And I remember when I went to Atlanta and I was in a line for something and someone just was like hey, name tag on and they're like you're Pavan Kateni. And she goes yeah, and she goes hold on a second, she pulls up her Kindle and she just says just literally bought this book two days ago. Right, it was just funny, it was cool for that to happen. Now I don't think that hasn't happened often. There was no way I would have had that reach, so it was a book. That happen often. There was no way I would have had that reach, so it was a book.

Speaker 2:

But then I have been called for being a keynote speaker for several different organizations. Now when I talk to several boards, the person that's introducing me to the board or anything like that they're like oh, by the way, this is Paul McCartney. He's the author of Effortless Wealth and a bestselling author, whatever, and the board has their attention. So I've been invited to several boards as well too. Now, right, but been just awesome in terms of it gives you a platform to now build upon right and have conversations, speaking engagements, or and I've changed some of my material to align with the book content and so on in that way as well, too, the new frame of thinking for me as well, and I'm really, to be honest, excited about writing my next book.

Speaker 1:

A couple of things I want to unpack that. You said so. You mentioned speaking opportunities and again, in my experience, for both myself and the clients that I work with, I think having a book and ultimately, the authority associated with and speaking is one of those. One plus one equals three activities. Right, just the synergy between them is greater than the parts prior to the book. Were you looking for speaking opportunities? How was that? Versus after the book? What changed?

Speaker 2:

I had the desire for speaking engagements and opportunities. I didn't know where to get started. To be honest, Now some people are reaching out to me, and if I want to reach out to somebody else, I also feel that, hey, I have a confidence. I built an organization that's successful, but now I also have a book that's successful as well, too.

Speaker 1:

So it gives me a platform to be able to really attract the right engagements that I want. It's interesting. Just a comment is that, using Antonin's example just as a contrast, a lot of stuff he's done prior. We spent a lot more time, it's been very all these things, but it's the book that creates additional opportunities that, absent the book, it's harder to do. And you just articulated that you already have a very successful business. Nothing has changed. They're just getting probably more successful as you go forward. But it's really. It's the book, I think, gives people a window or a bridge to you. That gets them where they start seeing opportunities on how they can have you help them, whether it's with their COI referrals, whether it's helping them directly or whether it's opening up opportunities to speak and things of that nature.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, and I'll also say that, in terms of my own clients, this has been a great way for me to be able to give a gift. In fact, just today, a client came into the office. It's the first time that, after a long period of time, that we're meeting in person and but I hadn't seen them since I published the book. All right, physically, it's been a virtual meeting for me to be able to just hand it to them and assign it and personalize it or write a message for them or anything like that. It's wow, cool, thank you, I appreciate it. Right, it's a gift that you're giving to them and they appreciate it, and it's generally like I wanted to be able to give it to them, but what I have seen come out of it is that they'll actually talk about it.

Speaker 2:

You know how often do you do people talk about a business card, but never, never. Well, I can't. You know, this author just signed this for me. I gotta sign, and so they'll actually talk about it to their friends and they'll put it on display on their coffee table or whatever it is or when they're reading it, and it's just an easy way for existing clients as well be able to utilize it to be able to introduce other people, and that's what I tell people is that, assuming you do good work which I'm going to make the assumption that you and I and people listening to this do good work it's how do you get people to more naturally and enthusiastically talk about what you do?

Speaker 1:

We're all sitting on these potential raving fans that if only we could unleash, would create a lot of activity for our business, but they're just lacking the tool oftentimes to do it in a natural way that makes them feel good and just naturally attracts people to the message In terms of just the marketing and promotion. Is there anything that we haven't discussed that comes to mind for you?

Speaker 2:

before we switch gears a little bit, yeah, a couple of the things that I've done that I wanted to share is I reached out to my local library, the county library, and found out that they have an author showcase for somebody that's in the county that was Henrico County. So Henrico County did an author showcase, where they publicized it on their website and they gave a location of the library where I could do an event and I could talk and I could be able to share my book. So that was a great thing. Another thing that I did is I don't know if you can see it, but like I created bookmarks, yeah, and this was something like if I go to event, they can get more information because there's a QR code on it. But if we were giving the book, we'd also put the bookmark inside of the book and then give it as well too, and there's a lot that we've done with events.

Speaker 2:

We actually had a mini golf at an event, and the first place was they get to choose something that was there. And then second place was they would get a piggy bank that we had. And and then the third place, if they got all three holes in the mini golf, is they get a signed copy of my book All right. So people were. I was amazed that people were like, can I get a second chance? I really want to be able to get that book, and they were like really trying Get it. It was just awesome. Some of them. Sometimes we just said you know, come to the side, I'll go ahead and get, we'll be over the top. I appreciate your effort.

Speaker 2:

And the other thing is that because of this, we had a few people that we're currently interviewing right now for interns. They may be kids. This was not an audience that I was talking about and targeting initially with this book, but they're reaching out to me. They're like hey, you're a successful financial person. I'm looking to get into business and finance in the future. Can I intern with you, right? So it's nice that it's not always about clients but it's also about how you can support the community and encourage other next generation. So there's been a lot that comes. I've enjoyed the process. I think that there's a lot more that can be done with the book as well, too. Like I wanted to do a book tour, we started off on that journey. We haven't fully leveraged it yet. It's been pretty chaotic and busy, and so it's in a good way, but I think we want to be able to still leverage that for the remainder of the year.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, definitely, let's switch gears a little bit.

Speaker 1:

And I know when we first met, you had said you have ideas for multiple books, and a little bit earlier in this conversation you brought up the thought that you were starting to think about your next book.

Speaker 1:

So part of what I like about the short book formula, and part of just the structure of it, is that it's designed in such a way that it's not such a heavy lift, meaning that you don't have to go on a year sabbatical to write your book and then you're overwhelmed and exhausted and then you never write a book. Instead, typically, we help people do it inside of 12 weeks or less and ultimately, what we encourage people to do is that write the first one, see how it is, the results that you get and, if it makes sense, come back and we can think about a second book. And I know in your case, you were already thinking about multiple books when we first met. But now that you've had a little time to see some results, et cetera, what has you motivated and inspired to take the next step and start thinking about the next book from a business standpoint?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, there's certainly other topics that I want to be able to cover, specific topics and I want to be able to utilize the book and, in fact, when I talk to people now as I'm talking about this book and they're excited I even mentioned that I'm planning on writing my next book and they get a little bit more excited about that.

Speaker 2:

So it's not about the book that you have in hand, sometimes it's also about the book that's coming up, and so they recognize that this is somebody that's going to be not just a one-time author. This is somebody that's doing a lot in that space and I have been asked for a couple of events. There was a group over here that was thinking about, hey, what event can we do in fall? And they were talking around a couple of things. I opened the opportunity. I said I'd be happy to be able to do an author showcase and have a book talk and really talk about the opportunity. I said I'd be happy to be able to be like do an author showcase and have a book talk and really talk about the book. And they loved it and so they're hosting it and it's free of cost to me. It really leverages, it allows me to be able to talk about that book at that time, but also maybe potentially introduce my next book too.

Speaker 1:

This is a joke, but I'm comparing it to like maybe a Hollywood star who you know, they're in the limelight and it's getting all the media attention and they're like, yeah, I'm pretty, I feel good, and then maybe the movie's old now and they start getting less attention and I need that next movie because it's you missed the recognition and all those things.

Speaker 2:

I say this jokingly, but I think at some level it's true, yeah, cause, like for us, for anybody else it's still hot off the press, but for me I've been working on it for a year now I'm already on to my next thing and whatnot. So I see the cycle and I see how the plan to be able to create a book per year.

Speaker 1:

I think for many people, the first book can be just the idea of it's overwhelming, and so we always like to just get people to do the first one. But people that I look up to and admire and I'll name a few names Brian Tracy, who's world renowned speaker, coach, et cetera, and I heard him say that he tends to write a book every six months, and it's for those reasons it's a reason to get back out in the media to do all those different things that create new attention and awareness and, ultimately, business. Dan Sullivan, who another known business coach. He actually does a book a quarter, which I think is very aggressive, which is awesome. It just shows that people that are operating at that level they've honed in on what it takes to really not just build that thought leadership but to sustain it over time.

Speaker 1:

You think of people just other people that come to my mind Tony Robbins, robert Kiyosaki I think the list goes on and what they all have in common is that they have multiple books. Ultimately, it's because it drives their business goals, which is to create more awareness and, ultimately, more revenue, and to be able to impact more people through the work that they do. Yeah, absolutely, I agree Just as we start to wrap up, a couple final questions. Is there anything that haven't specifically asked about that you think is relevant to this conversation?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I would say for somebody that's looking at writing a book they're trying to figure out what to do with it. The first and foremost thing is that it's not going to automatically market itself for you. You have a tool, but you got to be able to leverage it. So I've changed my LinkedIn banner, I have changed my email signature, so it shows that there's this book, right, and then I have marketed it like there's a newsletter or a magazine that we send it out and there's a page in there, and so just different places and different avenues. But instead of trying to push myself, I'm pushing the book Inadvertently. The book is pushing me. It's a full circle in that sense. Just think of creative ways to be able to leverage it more and more. I think, especially if you're working with strategic partners, you're in the introduction or referral business and this can be a great way of being able to do that.

Speaker 1:

It reminds me of my first book. It was just time to have this happen. But originally I was gonna write a book called Million Dollar Producer and just publish it by myself, and at the time I was able to develop this strategic partnership with a gentleman. His name was, but he had this whole community of advisors, and so we decided to collaborate and we called it Smart Million Dollar Producer, which essentially tied in his branding with my branding, and just I made a million dollars on that over the next several years, and so when you get a little bit creative and, especially as you're dealing with potential cois, there's so many fun ways to do it right, so I think that I'll just mention, as we're talking about it is writing a forward.

Speaker 1:

Who can you get to write the forward for your book? There's so many different ways to engage your clients, your strategic partners and all these different people that think, naturally, either want to help you or would be willing to help you, but you need to give them a way that excites them and gets them to feel good. I just love your creativity and all the things that you're doing. It seems to come naturally to.

Speaker 2:

To you, I feel like I connect dots and I just see an opportunity, and so it's just being able to leverage the opportunity. So you have a need, you have an opportunity, just put it together. And so to me I don't feel like it's too hard. I think, just for anybody, if you just put a little bit of time and thought into it, you can make a lot more out of it and just a final thought.

Speaker 1:

There is that, like anything in life, out of it and just a final thought, there is that, like anything in life, there's a learning curve. And so book number one, this result, but now book number two. You've already gone through the process, those lessons learned in terms of positive lessons, the other lessons, but now you can build off of that and say, okay, these are the things, I already know what to do, but what are the other things I could do that I wasn't aware of the first time around. And so, ultimately, I think you're building this thing, that this momentum, that just gets better and better with each iteration.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely I agree, and as long as we can have fun through the process, it really makes it something that's worthwhile right 100%, actually, I'm thinking about.

Speaker 1:

the one question I didn't ask you which I just want to touch upon is that part of the process that we did for you in publishing the book was to help you get Amazon bestseller status. From a practical level, meaning you're an author and now you're an Amazon bestselling author. What's the difference there from your perspective?

Speaker 2:

I think it was about perception. There's a lot of people that write books which you feel great about, but the minute you say that you're a bestseller, it just changes the paradigm that people look at you with this Wow, this is accepted. This is what you're telling, is something that people are desiring and they'll want, right? And so what are they missing out on? A book is about you. Best-selling status is about what the rest of the community is thinking about you, right? So it's really like a lot of acceptance, and that's what actually is. What is driving the conversation around speaking engagements and things like that is that, hey, this is a bestselling author, right, and we should take a really good look at it right, because the reason for that I'm just thinking aloud here but is that, at the end of the day, what we really want is the resources we want.

Speaker 1:

If I'm going to hire someone to speak, if I'm going to do a referral, if I'm going to get a center of influence, strategic partner, all these different things, it's like we want to do them but we're scared. If we can demonstrate in a sense that, hey, this is who I am, this is what I do, it just takes off that layer of fear that I think a lot of people have and so few people can do that, that you just stand out from the crowd massively.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. Thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciated the conversation and I hope that our listeners took some notes on this, because what Pavan's demonstrating here is just through his creativity. He's found a lot of different ways to leverage the book once it's published. I bet you, in a year from now, we'll talk again on this podcast and the list will have grown from then, which I'm excited for. For anyone listening Pavan, what's the best way for them to get a copy of the book or learn more about you?

Speaker 2:

They can go to wwweffortlesswealthcom or, if they want to reach out to me directly at pavankotinicom. So that's P-A-N-K-O-T-I-N-I-A-N-D-K-O-T-I-N-Icom. You talk to them.

Speaker 1:

Perfect, and we'll put that in the show notes. Again, thanks so much for your time and looking forward to our next interview a year from now. I've already scheduled it, awesome.

Speaker 2:

Thanks, Paul. I appreciate it. Enjoy all the help that you guys and your team has done as well, too.