A Gift Offer To Help You Market With Authority Seven Magnificent Ways

This email contains a thank you gift for my 2,309 subscribers.

Any agency owner or trusted advisor can be an authority if they follow the magnificent seven ways to generate leads detailed in this article.

But that’s not the gift.

My gift to you is a $750 scholarship to my Agency Rainmaker Forum, which will be held September 27 and 28, 2024, at the La Jolla Marriott in San Diego.

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum

Last week, I organized a two-day rainmaker mastermind and public seminar at the Westin O’Hare in Chicago, with ten speakers.

The feedback was intense. My conclusion is that people desperately want to get back together and converse—not be talked at, but to share in the conversation.

Human beings are hardwired to be in tribes, and people long to be with people. In person. Get it?

My annual authors and experts forum is just that. If you are a reader of this newsletter, you are invited to attend with a 75% scholarship. That is the gift.

This code gives the $250 price on tickets, normally $1,000.

Register:?https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/2rp4qkk

Code: AON24

You will interact with authorities like a Greek bearing gifts, Eleni Kelakos, CSP, a New York and Hollywood actress who is a presentations expert (Eleni even had a featured role in the touring production of the musical A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum—Bam! That’s what we call in the comedy biz a callback).

Eleni hated that role, but that's another story for another time

You Will Formally Introduce Yourself Like This

To quote the late great Joan Rivers, “Can we talk?”

Think of the forum as a speaking engagement in front of 40-80 people.

Everyone at my forums gets to formally introduce themselves.

Here was my introduction at the Westin in Chicago last week.

You should write one like this for you.

“Hi, I am Henry DeVries. I run a business called Indie Books International.

“But I am not in the book business: I am in the authority-making business.

“You can’t spell authority without the word author.

“I help agency owners market as an authority by marketing with a book they are proud of.

“In fact, I am proud of having written 20 books, including Marketing With A Book For Agency Owners.

“In the last ten years, I have ghostwritten, edited, or published 150 business books, including my international bestseller from McGraw-Hill,?How to Close A Deal Like Warren Buffett—now in China!

“As a professional speaker, I train agency owners, trusted advisors, and CEOs on how to persuade with a story.

“As a professional journalist, I have written for the Associated Press, Forbes.com, and now the California Business Journal.

“My authors report that books are their number one marketing tool, and speaking about the book is their number one lead generation strategy.

“On a personal note, I am a baseball nut. I have visited 44 major league baseball parks, and I have two to go before I touch ‘em all.”

(My business partner, Mark LeBlanc, author of Growing Your Business, came up with this formula. See our book Defining You.)

My forum is not a conference, repeat not a conference.

There are planned panels, networking roundtables, and meals where you get to share your thoughts (by definition a forum is a meeting where ideas are exchanged and discussed).

Oh, and we have lots of fun too. Our fun meters are stuck on max.

My Premise For You

Any agency owner or trusted advisor can be an authority if they follow the magnificent seven ways to generate leads.

First, let me tell you about the man who was my best friend in life: my father, a Dutch immigrant, Jack Hendrik DeVries, who inspired me to create these seven best practices.

I grew up on a ranch in Southern California with a stable of racehorses, a race track, and 200 head of cattle.

At the age of six, I went to work for my father, and my starting salary was fifteen cents a week. With hard work, I soon made thirty cents a week.

Let me tell you about the boss of the ranch. After escaping the Nazis in World War II, my father came to America and started his business, the Chino Downs. He married a brassy and sassy dark-haired New York waitress named Janice Huff, and he couldn't believe someone that beautiful and funny would marry him.

He was a three-time cancer survivor. If I put him on a spectrum, he was somewhere between John Wayne and God. He worked many jobs to keep his family fed.

With his last bout of cancer when he was in his 70s, he was given a 5% chance of lasting six months. One day I got a call on my cell phone and it was Dad. In a hushed tone, he said: “I need you to tell me what a word means.? The word is remission.”

“Dad, the word remission means you just won the lottery," I said.

“Well, the nurses were giving high fives and hugging me, but I wanted to call you to be sure," he whispered back.

That tough old cowboy lived seven more years until his body just gave out.

When I was delivering his eulogy 50 years after I was hired to work on the ranch, it dawned on me that Jack DeVries did not need a six-year-old to help run his business: he was teaching his six-year-old how to run a business.

People compliment me on my work ethic. I scoff and say: “You know what you call a DeVries with only two jobs: lazy.”

My father was my best friend until the day he died at the age of 82. We spoke on the phone every week.

I helped him achieve his impossible dreams (his favorite song, he listened to it every day on the way to work). Those included attending two World Series games, golfing at Pebble Beach, and seeing his homeland, the Netherlands, play in the World Cup (Hup, Holland!).

Some of his final words to me were: “Henry, did you think I was going to get out of this alive? We’ve had a great run.”

Our favorite pastime together was watching cowboy movies. He was quoting cowboy movies to me all the time.

?“C’mon Henry, let’s get the troops out of the hot sun,” and “Let’s move; we’re burning daylight.”

A favorite of ours was the 1960 film The Magnificent Seven, with Steve McQueen and Yul Brenner. It was based on the Japanese classic, The Seven Samurai.

Maybe you know the 2016 remake with Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt.

The film inspired my magnificent seven ways to generate leads by marketing with a book and a speech.

Remember, you can’t spell authority without the word author. (I tested this in a ten-year, $10 million study when I taught at UC San Diego.)

1.????? Host small-scale seminars (in-person or on Zoom) about the book

2.????? Get booked as a speaker and podcast guest about the book

3.????? Get published with articles about the book

4.????? Volunteer for target-rich-in-your-niche associations

5.????? Network at target-rich-in-your-niche associations

6.????? Share expertise on YouTube about the book

7.????? Conduct workshops about the book that prospects would pay money for

Agency Owners Do Noble Work

Let me repeat for emphasis: My purpose is to help you do more of the noble work you are called and compelled to do.

The magnificent seven is the key to finding the right-fit clients.

If you have a book, leverage it with the magnificent seven. Speak. Speak. Speak. My September forum is one great opportunity.

If you don’t have a book, attend one of my book kickoff classes, and I will help you answer seven questions you must answer before you begin writing the book.

?The next classes are September 5 and October 25.

My parting message to you is this:

You can market with authority if you follow the magnificent seven ways to generate leads.

P.S.—I don’t want to tell you how to live your life, but if you don’t join me at the forum, you are making a tragic mistake of epic proportions. ??

P.P.S. – HR says I have to use an emoji when I make a joke like that.

REQUEST: If you have written a book or plan to write a book, please share it in the comments.