Any Subject Can Be A Manual

I’m often told by professional speakers that because I speak and write about marketing, I somehow have some kind of advantage over them. They claim that marketing is a natural subject for a manual, but whatever they speak about is not. That’s just an excuse not to write a manual.

I believe if you are an expert in something you can speak about it—and if you can speak about it, you can write about it.

The National Speakers Association defines 65 topic areas its members speak about. I wish I had the space here to demonstrate how you can use manuals and other educational materials for every one of those topics—I’m pretty sure I could.

Recently, I spoke with a professional speaker who claimed her topic did not lend itself to educational materials. Her topic was humor in the workplace.” For fun, I said to her, “I didn’t know you were a humorist.” She said, “I’m not, I teach people how to use humor in the workplace.” Without any more thought, “how to use humor in the workplace” could be a topic for a manual.

But, I don’t know how many people would invest large sums in educational materials for humor in the workplace—unless they saw some tangible outcomes and benefits for using humor in the workplace.

So, I pursued the speaker further, “Why would anyone want to use humor in the workplace?” Her reply was, “For one thing, to relieve stress.” “Aha” I said. “So you’re a stress relief expert then.” “Well, yes, I guess I am” she sheepishly replied.

Seems to me you could write and market a manual on 1) ways to relieve stress in the workplace (humor being just one) and 2) ways to use humor in the workplace (stress relief being just one). 

My colleague’s emphasis had always been on humor—humor in the workplace. She really wasn’t a humor expert—and even if she was, humor is merely a means, not an end. She really was more of a “workplace” expert and a “stress relief” expert.

The distinction is critical. Unless you are a comedian or a humorous entertainer, it’s difficult to get paid big money if your expertise is humor. You’re more likely to get work as a “workplace environment” or “stress relief’ expert.

My colleague can not only speak and get paid for speaking on subjects people need and want, she can develop educational materials for these subjects as well. I can easily imagine a “how to” manual on all the ways “one can use humor to live a happier life” or “all the ways humor can be used to make work more productive” or “all the ways one can relieve stress in the workplace.”

She probably needs to become even more of an expert in these areas and will surely need more content, but she will become much more marketable in both speaking and educational material development.

You can take virtually any topic area and look for those elements where people need your expertise to accomplish various objectives.

My motto is always, “If you can speak about it, you can write about it.” Why would anyone pay you to hear your ideas but not pay you to read your ideas? Nearly every topic area has information within it that people need to affect some change or achieve some desired result. That information is the content of your manual.

The more specific you can make your topic the more specific the outcome and the more applicable your materials become.

In which would you have been more likely to invest:

“Use Your Writing to make More Money” or “The Manual for Manuals…How to Develop and Market Educational Manuals With 4 & 5-Figure Results—Every Time You Speak!”

I never claimed I was a “writing” expert, I said I was an expert on the development and marketing of manuals as a means of helping our clients implement our ideas to help them become more successful. The distinction is what identifies a market for me and lets me sell to them.

Besides specificity, the more result-oriented you can make your topic area you differentiate yourself in the marketplace and the more applicable and profitable your manuals become. If I was just a marketing expert, I’d be lost in a huge crowd of other generalists. But, I’m a small business expert. That narrows it down a little but not enough. 

So I’m a small business expert who helps business owners and salespeople “get 100% of the business from 100% of their customersSM.”

Can you see how that description positions me among a much smaller group of marketing experts?

And—if my speeches and educational materials focus on the outcome, not the general topic—they become more desirable and as a result, more profitable to me. I never say, “I’m a marketing expert” or “I write marketing manuals”—me and the whole world. I say, “I write manuals for small business owners to use my marketing ideas to get 100% of the business from 100% of their customersSM.” 

So if you tell me your topic area doesn’t lend itself to a manual and other educational materials, which of the following is your excuse, I mean reason:

- you’re really not an expert?

- you’re not focusing on outcomes?

- your topic isn’t specific enough?

The good news is if you didn’t answer “yes” to all of those questions, you soon can.