The Influential Advisor

101: The Authority Operating System: 5 Pillars That Turn a Book Into a Business Growth Machine

• Paul G. McManus and Gabe McManus

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At the Exit Planning Institute CEPA Summit in Nashville, 1,200 credentialed advisors gathered in one room. The first night, they held an awards ceremony. Every single person who walked on stage had one thing in common. It wasn't their credentials, their AUM, or their years in practice. It was a book.

Episode Summary

Paul and Gabe McManus just returned from four days in Nashville at the EPI CEPA Summit, where they presented the Authority Operating System to one of the most credentialed audiences in financial services. In this episode, they break down all five pillars of the AOS: writing the right book, activating clients and COIs, building a guest podcast tour, optimizing for search everywhere (not just Google), and leveraging AI without the slop. Real client stories throughout. Real results.

About Paul & Gabe McManus

Paul G. McManus is the CEO and founder of The Short Book Formula, a publishing company that has helped 500+ financial professionals write, publish, and leverage books over the past decade. He is the author of The Short Book Formula and Book Marketing for Financial Advisors, and was featured on Michael Kitces' Financial Advisor Success Podcast (Episode 417). Gabe McManus is Director of Elite Advisor Programs and author of Sharpen Your Message: Guest Podcasting for Financial Advisors.

What We Cover

  • Why every award recipient at the Nashville CEPA Summit had a book, and what that pattern means for your practice
  • The three objections every advisor raises before writing a book: "I'm not a writer," "I don't know what to write about," and "I don't have time" — answered directly and practically
  • How Joe Falbo spent 30 years trying to get CPA referrals, published one book, and ended his next lunch with that CPA ordering 500 copies to mail to his entire client list on his own letterhead
  • How Jason Wendt turned a book launch party on a yacht into a recurring financial commentary slot on NBC Chicago
  • Why Google now accounts for only about 20% of search, and where the other 80% of your prospects are asking questions
  • The difference between AI slop and using AI to genuinely extend your reach once the book exists
  • Why the book is the foundation: guest podcasting, media, COI referrals, and AI discoverability all start there

Resources Mentioned

Connect with Paul & Gabe

Support the show

Nashville Summit And The Book Signal

SPEAKER_01

So, Gabe, you and I just had the opportunity to spend four days in Nashville at the Exit Planning Institute CEPA Summit.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

In today's podcast, we're going to get into what we talked about there, which is our authority operating system, which we presented there. But before we get into the details of that, just at a high level, any thoughts or impressions that you had from the experience.

SPEAKER_00

You know, I was thinking about the first when the first meetings that they opened up with on Sunday, that they were giving awards and recognitions, and it seemed like they all had something in common, Paul. What was that thing that they all had in common up there? They're taking those awards home.

SPEAKER_01

It was quite impressive because there were 1200 CEPAs there, and this was a big event. And it was like an award, it was basically like an award ceremony.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I felt like I was at the Oscars.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly. And so the thing that they all seemed to have, all the people getting recognized, there what was it? Oh, it was a book.

SPEAKER_00

A book, yeah. They all had a book.

SPEAKER_01

So the authority operating system, it's a system that we designed after 10 years of helping financial professionals write, publish, and leverage books. And it has five pillars to it. The first pillar of it is to, hey, Gabe, you're gonna be surprised by this, but the first pillar is to write a book. Before the conference, one of the things that I like to do is to do something called insights interviews. So before the conference in preparation, we went and we have dozens of clients or CEPAs, and we invited them to do an insights interview, which means that we just met on Zoom and just asked them questions about the CEPA credential, why they got it, what their goals are for the future, et cetera, just to get those insights from them so that we can make sure that everything that our frameworks and messaging was on point. That's just a useful exercise for anyone before they go to a conference. One of the ones that was a highlight for me was with a gentleman named Rick Krebs, who was the exit planning institute or EPI member of the year in 2025. And Gabe, tell us about Rick Krebs. What did we learn from him?

Pillar One Write The Right Book

SPEAKER_00

You know, we were looking forward to that call with Rick because he had said beforehand that he could tell us stories for days about the different stories and experiences from his practice and the near misses and all the things that he had done to get people to the finish line. And uh, Rick, he didn't disappoint. He did share some amazing stories. And he told us during the course of that conversation that there were two things that he felt had really been so beneficial in his practice. One was his association with EPI, and the second one was writing a book.

SPEAKER_01

Now, to be fair, the unauthorized version was first the book and then the credential. But because of it was being recorded, I think he switched those on us.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, he switched, and but he said that both of them together were so foundational for what he was doing in his practice because the book he said led to speaking opportunities to his podcast, to getting his message out more broadly with people. And that's how we see the book, too, that it helps to build your credibility, it raises your visibility, and it positions you as an expert in what you do in a way that nothing else can. And Paul, I think that there's three things that a book should really accomplish. And the first one is to connect with your ideal listener, your ideal prospects. And the second thing is about building trust, that the book should really build trust with them. And then the third, and this is important, is the stories in it really should motivate people to immediate action. And Paul and I, we've seen all of these. So the book is foundational, and that the book is such an amazing way to accelerate that speed of trust. And so when you capture in it all of the things that you do, the stories and the frameworks and the systems, and then put that in front of your ideal prospect, they take the time to read it and then they come into meetings with you, what we call pre-sold, because they already understand what you can do for them, how you operate. And so when they come in, they're ready to go and to work with you.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And over the decade or so that we've been working with financial professionals, there's always three questions that we typically get when someone starts thinking about the idea of writing and publishing a book. And so if it's okay with you, I'm just gonna ask you these questions and have you answer these for our audience.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I'm ready. Let's go.

SPEAKER_01

All right, now this first question, I'm gonna warn you, it's a little bit tricky. So are you ready for the first question?

SPEAKER_00

All right, I'm ready.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, good. So, question number one is Does someone need to be a writer to write a book? I told you this was gonna be tricky.

SPEAKER_00

A writer to write a book, interesting. Yeah, we actually do require that the people we work with have at least a master's degree, maybe a fine arts degree in creative writing. And uh no, actually, none of the people that we work with would typically see themselves as writers. In fact, a lot of the people, the financial professionals, see themselves more as numbers people. But the amazing thing that I've seen time and time again is that you work in a world of stories, that there's stories just like Rick had from the practice, your practice, and the things you do every day. And you're able to share those with clients and prospects to motivate them to action. And so that's our process is you work with our writing team. Don't have to be a writer, but you work with a book coach and a professional writer, and then you talk out the content of your book. And so this is through conversations. These are the things that are already in your head that you live with every single day, and that we take them to capture your voice and to present it in what we call it's the polished version of your voice, because this is what Paul says. Paul, he looks at his book sometimes and he says, Oh, this is exactly how I would say it if it was on my best day and if I said it exactly in the way that I wanted to say. And so he jokes sometimes that when we're doing speaking engagements, that he'd rather just read from the book because that's exactly the way that he wanted to say it. Paul, I don't think we should do that. I don't think that's a great idea. I think it's better if you just express it naturally, but that's really what the book does is it captures Paul says it's me, but better because it's exactly the way that you want to say it. And that's what we do through those conversations to capture it for you. And so when you put it in your prospects' hands and your clients, that they really see you in it and they hear exactly what you do and how you do things.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Okay. The second question is, and I find this one interesting because especially the finance professionals broadly, but the CIPAs in particular, CIPA wasn't their first credential. Oftentimes, I think 80% roughly of CIPAs are financial advisors, wealth managers. Oftentimes they have other letters after the name, CFP, etc. The point is that these people are highly credentialed. They have years of experience, oftentimes decades of experience. And this is a little bit counterintuitive, but with all that knowledge, right? So the people around them, like, you need to write a book. You know so many things. And it becomes almost this deer in the headlight moment when they start actually thinking about it, which is what do I actually write about? Right. It's like it's almost the curse of knowledge. I know too many things. What do I actually write about? And so the question is that how do you guide the financial professionals that we work with to choose a topic that's meaningful and impactful to growing their business?

SPEAKER_00

And that's the funny thing because when you decide that, yeah, I do want a book to have in my practice, that just those thoughts that you're describing there can really feel overwhelming. It can feel daunting that to have to capture everything that I do and all the systems and all these stories that are going to tell it, it just seems like too much sometimes. And so that's one of those things that can push it down the road. We'll get to it eventually. But like you said, our approach is counterintuitive because really we start with narrowing that focus. And so instead of it being everything, we zero in on who is that ideal prospect that you're trying to reach. And then we narrowly target all of the things that are going to address their specific pain points that speak directly to them. And so when they read it, that they really do see themselves in it, the troubles that they're facing or the problems, and then also the solutions. And that's where they get to, oh, yeah, this is exactly who I want to work with because they understand me, they know what I'm going through and they know how to help. And so that's the narrow focus that leads to really making sure that the person that you're reaching, that the book is designed specifically to help to them. And we're the short book formula because I've got next to my bed on my bedstand a stack of books that one day I really intend to read, but they're all like 500 pages or more. And after a long day at work, honestly, I'm too tired and I would fall asleep. And so I never get to them. But this is designed because these are super important financial decisions that moments in their life that they're trying your ideal clients are trying to work out. And so they will take the time to spend our books or an hour or two to read, or maybe to listen to in an audiobook. And so that investment of time is well worthwhile as they're making these big decisions. And when they do read it or listen to it, then that accelerates the speed of trust. And that's when they come in pre-sold, knowing that what you do will definitely help them.

SPEAKER_01

It's a completely different conversation. What I tell people and the idea behind the book that can be consumed in about one to two hours, which also just for anyone that's wondering translates into about 12,000 to 25,000 words, or a book that's about 100 to 150 pages. When someone has listened to the book or read the book and then schedules with you, what happens is that they already know enough about you. They already know your stories, they already know your frameworks, they already feel like they know you, even though this might be the first time that you've ever met them, it oftentimes is. And something's cool is they start repeating to your stories. I know, just as an aside, Gabe, you've not so long ago published your book. And telling me before we start reporting that people are starting to recite your frameworks and things of that nature. So it's pretty cool, right?

SPEAKER_00

Right. No, it's true. When you hear your words coming back to you, especially since it's the polished version, exactly how you would want to say it, and you really see that your words and your book is having an impact, it's making a difference. And so that's the incredible when you get that type of feedback, it definitely builds confidence. And yes, I want to get my book into more people's hands.

SPEAKER_01

The question the as part of that, sometimes I hear people, it's like, well, you know, are people really going to read a book? And the answer is yes, is that the people that are genuinely interested in seeking solutions and getting help, they want to make a good decision. Yeah. And so when they either read the book or listen to the book and then schedule, or if they haven't done that, you insert the book as part of the next step, meaning that before that second call or the second meeting you have with them, you send them a copy of the book, you provide them the audio book, and you ask them to read or listen to it before that second meeting. And I find that when that's done, very easily, 80% of the people that I talk to in that second meeting, it becomes a closing meeting. And it's very simple because I don't have to persuade, I don't have to twist arms, convince, etc. I just open up the meeting and just ask simple questions. So, did you have a chance to listen or read the book? And sometimes I send two books, not expecting that they'll read both, but I'm just surprised all the time. It's like, yeah, I read both your books. And then I say, So, what questions do you have? And no presentation needed because they've already got the ideas and the content, and it becomes much more of a logistical conversation about okay, so in my case, very specifically timing, pricing, things of that nature. So it becomes a very enjoyable process because you're able to, as we said, accelerate the speed of trust. You can go from a complete stranger, I never heard of you two weeks ago to suddenly I feel like I know you, I can trust you, and I want to move forward with you. And so that's just for an advisor who's in the business of trust, essentially. That's just such a powerful tool to have at your disposal. Yes.

SPEAKER_00

And they come with better questions because when you have those foundational things out of the way, now they know the right questions to ask, the things that are really going to answer for them whether this is the right step. And so the questions they come with are going to be so much better because they know you, those foundational things are out of the way.

SPEAKER_01

The third question I have on this that we get all the time is time. And so that so one of the common characteristics that we see with our clients is that typically they're all finance professionals, typically they're the practice owner, the business owner, and they also don't have a lot of free time, meaning that they're successful, they're busy seeing clients, they're busy managing their team, they're busy seeing their family, you know, what have you. And so they lead full lives. And so does someone, in order to write a book, do they need to go on sabbatical and rent the proverbial cabin in the woods? I think I saw this in a movie once. Snowing. I want to just paint the picture. It's snowing cabin in the woods, start growing out their beard, maybe smoking a pipe. Are all of these things necessary to write that book?

SPEAKER_00

I mean, it sounds good, Paul. I'm ready to go off to the cabin, the snowy cabin in the woods, and write my book right now. Do we offer that program?

SPEAKER_01

I think we should. I think we should. I've already started, I've already started growing out my beard, so I am ready.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, sounds great because that probably there's not enough time or ability to be able to do that. Yeah, that's one thing that I do notice. The financial professionals that I work with every day, if I see their calendar, there's no white space on it. I know how busy you are and how many meetings get scheduled in your week. And so it can seem a little daunting to add writing a book. But when you realize that this is such an important piece to have in your practice, our process is designed specifically to help busy, successful financial professionals like yourself. And the way we do it is we go from blank page to the finished book in your hand, ready to use in your practice. And it's only an hour or two per week. And we accomplish this in eight to 12 weeks. And so seeing the value that it can have, that investment of time really becomes worth the while. And the great thing about it is that when I work with people, I work through busy seasons and I try to build momentum with the clients that I'm working with. And so we stay on track in order to get the book done. And that can seem at first, how are we going to fit this in? But then we find that time. And the great thing is that the ones that have pushed it off a little bit and said, maybe next summer, maybe I'll do it at this point. Typically, once they have that book in their hands, they look back. And what I hear from them more often than not is they say, Why did I wait? This was such a good process that I wish I'd started sooner. And we really do have fun because the conversations that we're having, this is talking about the things that are near and dear to your heart, that you're loving living every single day. And I'm asking questions to draw out all of those good stories and the frameworks. And so it's not draining. The I find the process is actually refining. That's the feedback I get, is that it helped me really think through the things that we do. And now the conversation with teams and with clients, it changes because of it, because it really does crystallize and refine everything, the way that it flows in your mind.

SPEAKER_01

There was something that Scott Snyder, the president of EPI, said that I heard at the summit in Nashville was exit strategy is business strategy. And to me, and I think that's absolutely correct. And so to me, I think writing a book is business growth strategy because it forces you to clarify your ideas, right? You know, how many people, when we say, okay, who's your ideal reader? And I work with a lot of people clarifying your niche, clarifying your message. I was just talking to someone the other day, and it's just getting that positioning where they see you as relevant. Specifically, it was about exit planning. And he was, he needs to he wants to and needs to talk to business owners 10 years before the exit. And if you come to them and say, yes, let's talk about your exit planning, sometimes that messaging doesn't quite seem urgent enough. And so by going through this process, you really do think through that messaging that who is that ideal reader, what are their specific pain points and desires at the time that they reach out to you or read your book? And how do you craft that narrative in such a way that you can meet them where they're at and then take them to where you can take them? And so it's just writing the book is marketing strategy, it is business growth strategy. The two things are intertwined.

SPEAKER_00

And what I hear a lot too is that as we narrow that focus to an ideal reader, because sometimes they serve different markets, that becomes book number two, book number three, and four. That we start with one, we really make sure that the book is effective for addressing their pain points, but then thinking ahead, who else can we serve and communicate those ideas in a book?

Pillar Two Activate Clients And COIs

SPEAKER_01

So that was pillar one foundation writing the book. And in the authority operating system, we have five pillars. And before we get in, and the next four pillars are all about okay, how do you leverage the book? And so I want to frame it this way is that in all the conversations that we have with people that are considering writing a book, there's whether or not they articulate them or not, there's really two questions that I find that they have. And the first one we've addressed is that is it really possible to write and publish a book in eight to 12 weeks? And so we've talked about that. The second question, which sometimes they articulate, sometimes they don't say, but they want to know is what's the payoff? How do I make money from this? The statistic I'll share is that the average business book on Amazon sells around 200 copies. And so you know 200? Yeah. So if you're playing, if you're playing the royalty game, let's see, that could translate into a whopping, I don't know, 500 or$1,000. And so that is not the reason to write a book, right? At least from our lens, at least for the people that we work with. The people that we work with, and the way that we frame it is that a book should help you generate at least a million dollars of new revenue, not necessarily in one year, but over one, two, three years. A book has that kind of impact. And the key thing is that it's not about, it's not like a separate funnel where you measure it specifically, the specifically to in terms of book sales. It's about how you integrate it into everything you do. The book becomes your personal brand, the book becomes an extension of your company brand. A book has to have the level of quality so that you are 100% confident to put it into the hands of your best clients, your prospects, your centers of influence so that it can really go to work and leverage. And so, bottom line, quality of the messaging is very important. I just had a conversation recently with someone who had been working on the first draft of their manuscript, and they reached out to me and said, Can you help? I said, Absolutely, happy to have a conversation. They sent me the manuscript, and they're not a writer, right? And so there's someone who has decades of experience, but the manuscript that they shared with me did not do them justice. And we talked and said, hey, let's take this as the first draft, and now let's go through our process so that we can get you a book that really does you justice. Because at the end of the day, a book is a reputation asset. And it's an asset that can either grow and you can benefit from, or it can be an asset that you don't want to put out there because you're not, you don't have that level of confidence. And foundationally, it's how do I build trust. So, with all that being said, let's get into some of the strategies about how to leverage it. And pillar number two is all about activating your clients and your centers of influence. The thing that I hear finance professionals say, and I just want to highlight not to do, is that once you write your book, one of the things that people say, hey, I'm gonna send it to all my clients. And this and the expectation implicitly is that then the floodgates are gonna open, the referrals are gonna happen, and that rarely happens that way. If only it was that easy, right? Exactly. We've developed a process called the inner circle soft launch, which I outline in detail in my own book, Marketing for Financial Advisors. And it's all about bringing the people into your world so that they're engaged, that they read the book, and that you can start building strategic relationships with them where they're more than happy to go and essentially share the message, if you will, to the people that can benefit from it. You, Gabe, you were just in traveling recently and you had a similar experience along these lines. Can you share a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. I feel like, Paul, I have a natural referrers' heart that when I get excited about an idea, I want to go out and share it. And when these conversations come up, I don't want to be pushy or salesy. And so sometimes I'm on the golf course and somebody says something about a financial challenge, and I don't just want to send it to the case. You should talk to my financial advisor. Exactly. It doesn't work. Not typically, but what happened in London? I was just in London a few weeks ago. My oldest daughter is graduating from high school. So we took a graduation trip. And on a Sunday morning, I went to a London laundromat to take care of our laundry. And I'm sitting there, and an American couple, they walked in the door. And while we're waiting for the clothes to dry, we have a conversation. And eventually this gets around to the topic of money and retirement. And they were about my age, and they said that they admittedly had not selected a financial professional because they were worried about fees and about whether the person would truly be representing their interests. And I was able to share when they said that, I was able to share ideas that I thought addressed that from a book. And so we started talking about this book, and they were really happy to hear that. And the great thing was is that because I was going to talk to them about a book, it didn't feel pushy, it didn't feel salesy. And in fact, it felt, I would say, more educational and more helpful. And before we left the conversation, I asked them if they'd like to be introduced to the author. Because I thought if you have any more questions, you could ask. And they said that they would love that. And you know, that I was walking away from that laundromat. And I thought, I bet that the author of that book had no idea when he was writing it, the far-reaching impact that his words and his ideas would have. That people would be talking about them in a London laundromat at 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning. And that's the power that the book can have. Your ideas get out there more broadly and are shared. And so to me, that represented also a way that people can share them that is in a way that doesn't feel pushy. It does feel helpful.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I'll add to that that one of the dynamics there is status, right? Just like I jokingly said that no one wants to hear, you should talk to my advisor because it comes across the sales that they're not asking to be introduced at that point. When you talk about what do people talk about at the let at the launch of banner in London? What do people talk about on the golf course? They talk about probably relationships, the good and the bad and the ugly, money, the good and the bad and the ugly, health. These are the conversations that are happening all the time. And so when you have the ability to just share helpful ideas and then say, Oh, by the way, I know the author, it completely flips that script because it goes from you should talk to my advisor to suddenly as oh, and by the way, I happen to know the author. And there's a complete difference in status there. And so now when you say, and if you I can introduce you, really, you've just elevated your status in the process. When you use what we call the inner circle soft launch, it really empowers your clients to be able to spread the word in a much more effective, more powerful way that they actually feel good about and want to continue to do. There's a couple more examples I want to get into when it comes to pillar number two. And one is one of our clients, Jason Went. He's an advisor out of Chicago. And what's funny is that we have this online business. And so I don't typically have the chance to meet with clients in person, but he was one of our existing clients that happened to be at the summit. And we spent some time with him and a couple other clients that were also there. And he's done something that's just remarkable. Tell us about what Jason Wentz has accomplished as a result of publishing his book.

SPEAKER_00

And his book just came out recently, but he's putting it to incredible use because he just had his book launch party. He had, I think it was 50 people on yacht that was sailing or going through Chicago, and they were talking about the ideas in the book. And that sounded incredible. He said it was a huge success, and people were looking to share his book with other people. And then he went to breakfast recently with a friend who happened to be a producer at NBC in Chicago. He already knows this friend for a long time, but that they started talking about his book. And the friend suggested, he says, I want you to come on and to be the financial regular contributor on our morning program on NBC in Chicago. And so Jason just did his first appearance. It's going to be recurring. And this is also leading to saying that now he's going to be speaking at a couple of the universities in the Chicagoland area. And so to me, these were incredible steps to take the book and to put it to incredible use. Because without the book, those opportunities don't necessarily come up. That he could have had breakfast with his friend and his friend would have gone on booking somebody else. But because of the book, now all of a sudden he's positioned in a way where let's bring you on. We want to ask you questions. And so that's the way that the book can be leveraged to share those ideas. You can't get more much more broadly than sharing them on NBC in Chicago. So we were incredibly happy to hear about all the great things that Jason's doing.

SPEAKER_01

The final example I want to share here is with, I think the challenge that many financial advisors, wealth managers face is that oftentimes they know the power of centers of influence. And most financial advisors, they've worked at developing relationships with CPAs because they know if a CPA would only be willing to refer their clients to them, they can sit back and just be able to help these people because you have that transfer of trust. And at the same time, I would say 90%, this is my educated guess of advisors who try this are largely frustrated. And they're largely frustrated because they proactively send referrals to the CPAs. They might take them out to lunch. And then if they get one or two referrals in a year, that's probably the best that they have experienced. And so one of our clients, Joe Falbo, he's a really great guy. He's an advisor out of New Jersey. He's been doing this for, I think, for about 30 years. And he recently published his book, Retirement Success. And he, like many advisors, same pattern, has a couple of relationships. He doesn't get the referrals that he would like. Using the inner circle soft lunch, he involved one of the CPAs in that process, got him to read the book. And then for the follow-up, he took him out to lunch. Except now the CPA had read the book, and the purpose of the follow-up was to get his feedback, to get his ideas about the book. And long story short, the lunch ended with the CPA saying, send me 500 copies of your book, physical copies, and I will send these out to all of my clients on my letterhead and essentially my endorsement. So that I'm gonna start proactively recommending and endorsing you and your services.

SPEAKER_00

That's pretty incredible.

SPEAKER_01

It's incredible given that for years, if not decades, it's like, how do I get some referrals here? And so what just happened? And what just happened is that you you leverage the book appropriately, right? You just because again, back to the example earlier, he just didn't send it to the CPA and say, I hope he reads it. He had a process, the Inter Circle Soft Launch, and he engaged in that process and he was able to bring him into his world. So now the CPA could say, Hey, this guy's legit, he's an author, there's that status. I've read it. This is messaging that sounds that resonates with me. I'd be happy to put out in front of my clients. And so he just created the mechanism which made it much more achievable for the CPA to take action because CPAs are busy people, right? But if you can give them the tool and the confidence to be able to do something like this, you can build these incredible relationships with them. He then took this and immediately seeing the success of it, he went to the other CPA that he'd been working with and just said, Hey, I'm doing this, but just the confidence because he knew that it worked, he got the second CPA to say to say yes. And so those are just a couple of examples of the power of a book. That's pillar number two to activate of the authority operating system. So let's get into the next pillar, which we call the virtual speaking tour. And Gabe, I think this pillar is near and dear to your heart. Tell us about the virtual speaking tour.

Pillar Three Guest Podcasting Tour

SPEAKER_00

I love this one because my book is Sharpen Your Message, Guest Podcasting for Financial Advisors. And so this is one of those ways that we see as being extremely effective to share your message broadly, to get those ideas out there, because you can only have so many conversations one-on-one with people at a time where you share it. But when you get in front of your ideal listeners on a podcast, then that can make a tremendous amount of difference for your practice. And a lot of people are thinking about doing their own podcast. I have my own podcast. I have 10 episodes now. And Paul, I've learned from my podcast that it's a lot of work that between finding guests and preparing, and then you have the good conversation, but then you've got to edit it, you've got to distribute it, you have to build an audience.

SPEAKER_01

And so there's I will say though that most people that start a podcast never get to 10. And so you've already achieved the first milestone. I'll also add though, is that having your own podcast is generally it's all about the other person, right? It's all about bringing the guests on and making them feel special and not talking about your favorite topic, which is oftentimes yourself.

SPEAKER_00

And that's the great thing about doing guest podcasting, is that you let them do all the work. They take care of growing the audience and they take care of the editing. And then when you go on, they're asking you all the questions to help you talk out your best ideas and to share them. And also there's this trust transfer because people listening to this podcast, they already have trust. They already like the host. And because they've brought you on as a guest, that trust transfers. And so they listen and they tune in to your best ideas. And so this can be a fantastic strategy to get in front of ideal prospects and get the word out there about what you're doing.

Pillar Four Search Everywhere Optimization

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And everything that that Gabe and I talked about and recommend to clients, we do ourselves. And so a couple of years ago, I published my then first edition of my book, The Short Book Formula, and I immediately went on the guest podcast, the virtual speaking tour. And over the course of about two years, I got on about 20 podcasts, two of which specifically helped me to triple my revenue over the course of about two years. And so you can see the dramatic impact that first having the book and then expanding it into guest podcasting can have. But I'll say this is that those two specific podcasts who were both with very influential people that really helped drive those results for me. I would never have been, I would never have the chance to meet them. I would never have been invited to be on the podcast if I didn't have the book. And so this is why we say the book is so foundational. It's foundational in everything that we've talked about from being able to empower your clients, to be able to empower your centers of influence, to be able to create media opportunities like Jason did, to be able to get on guest podcasts and create enormous opportunities that might not that you may not have either thought about or may not have been accessible previously. So the fourth pillar is something that we call search everywhere optimization. And that's very directly contrasted to the traditional term, which is search engine optimization or SEO. And the core idea is this is that today, Google accounts for roughly 20% of all conversations and search traffic happening online. 20%. The other 80% is increasingly happening on platforms such as Chat GPT and the like. And especially for a SEPA, the business owners, when they're starting to think about selling their business, they're you need to be in the place where they're having the question, where they're asking these questions, where they're having this conversation so that you can be discovered and chosen to help them. And of course, referrals are great, centers of influence are great, but increasingly these conversations are happening on platforms like Chat GPT. I know myself, I talk to ChatGPT daily, probably a little bit too much. My wife is starting to get a little bit jealous. And but it's about everything, right? It's about, hey, I'm gonna, it's for us. Our mother needed a new hearing aid. So what do I know about hearing aids? Nothing. And I said, okay, so this is the situation, this is the problem, this is what we're looking for. Who do you recommend? And it came up with a couple options and did all the sort of the research for me. And it came, and based on that, I trusted it because it does a lot more research than I would do on my own. And our mother ended up going in to the one that I recommended to her, which where did I get that recommendation from? Well, ChatGPT. But the business owner looking to sell their business increasingly is doing this in the same manner. And if you want to be found and discovered and ultimately chosen, you need to be where those conversations are happening. And the way to get there so that Chat GPT and other platforms like it recommend you, refer you is it goes back to the whole system, which is the book, the frameworks, the stories, getting it out on guest podcasts so that multiple people are now sending the same signals that you are the expert, you know what you're talking about, and that's how you increasingly get cited, referenced, and recommended by things like ChatGPT.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

The final pillar of the authority operating system is to leverage AI. Now, Gabe, you work very closely with clients, both on helping them write and publish the book, but you also work with them on coaching them and guiding them in their book marketing. Briefly, what are your thoughts when it comes to AI?

Pillar Five Use AI Without Slop

SPEAKER_00

This is funny because while you want to make sure you have the polished version of your voice when it comes to writing the book, you don't want that to come across as like I see so much content being generated right now and books too, that it's called AI slop. And that I see it on social media all the time, and it stands out and it's story driven, but they all start the same with I wake at 2:30 in the morning. I was too. And yeah, exactly. And I had a problem, and then it leads to these, and it just stands out in such a negative way at this point. But once you have the polished version of your voice in your book, the great thing is that you can use that, use AI to leverage it. And so to create content from it, you can create blog posts, you can create so many things based on what you've already, that foundation that you've already laid. And then that's helping to increase those signals that Paul, you're talking about, that when somebody searches with AI to find a financial professional, that you're rising to the top of the list because of the book, because of the podcast that you've done. All of these are signals because of the blogs that you create that are super easy. Now it takes minutes or seconds because the content is already there in your book. Now you're just giving a prompt that helps to generate it and you can get that out there. And those signals help to position you at the forefront.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So, Gabe, in wrapping up our podcast today, we've gone over the five pillars of the 30 operating system. We just finished hanging out together in Nashville with a bunch of wonderful CPAs. Any final takeaways or thoughts for our audience?

Author Showcase Takeaways And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00

I think that we talked about at the beginning that the people getting the awards that were walking up on stage at the beginning of the summit, that they all had a book. I want to get an award. Yeah. The interesting thing was that they were all talking about these other things too, that they were using that to go on podcasts, to share their ideas, to speak. And so that's where there's a tremendous opportunity that by starting with that foundation of having a book, that you can use that to leverage into so many different ways of sharing the things that you do best and the ways that you help people. And the timing is right now to be able to go and to do this, and also, like Paul said, to raise your visibility with the way people are searching to find people that offer your services today. So it's a great time to go ahead and start with that foundational writing a book.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and I'll add this is that at the event, again, 1200 SIPAs, they're a part of it, and they had lots of stuff going on. But one of the things was they had an author showcase. And so they had 14 SIPAs who had written a book, who had their own section and table and book signing, which was pretty cool. And when I went over them, thinking, I'll just spend a few minutes, I'll shake hands, I'll get a copy of the book, and I'll be done. Oh my goodness, these people had lines. Every single one had a line of a dozen or more people, and people were waiting and they were having conversations, signing the book. But what they were really doing, and for they were becoming the center of influence themselves, increasingly within this community of 11,000 people, right? Because they're looking to be the one chosen, selected, not just by the business owner, but by the community of people that are looking for professionals like them. And so again, if you want to stand out, if you want to differentiate, if you want to have both business owners and centers of influence increasingly want to work with you, writing a book and then leveraging it in the ways that we're talking about can be so effective and rewarding.

SPEAKER_00

Yep.

SPEAKER_01

So I guess that's all for today. If you want to learn more about how we can help you, just go to influential advisor.com and our contact information is there. And we look forward to talking to you then. All right. Bye for now, everyone.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, bye.