Port - Book Yourself Solid

THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND EXPANDED

Michael Port

Copyright 2018 by Michael Port. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available:

ISBN 9781119431220 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781119431237 (ePDF)

ISBN 9781119430919 (ePub)

Cover Design: Wiley

This book is a love story disguised as a business book. It's a love story between you and all the inspiring clients you will serve.

The first line of the acknowledgments section in virtually every book goes something like this: to list everyone I want to thank for their contributions to this book would be a book in itself. You really don't know how true that is until you write your own book.

I've written six books and each time I finish one, I make the people around me promise that they'll punch me in the eye if I say I'm going to write another one. Needless to say, I make sure to have ice packs at the ready. It seems like books are written by one person in solitary confinement in a cabin in the Berkshires or the French Alps. But rarely is that the case. This book and all my books are better because of the people around me. My family, friends, colleagues, and clients offer their ideas, relentlessly, at times. You and I are the better for it. So, if you determine that what I've put on paper has merit, you can thank the people around me. They're the ones who deserve the credit. I just form the sentences while holding an ice pack on my eye.

Amy, Jake, Leo, and Rubythe goodness in all of you is the fire that fuels me. So is college tuition.

An unfulfilled vocation drains the color from a man's entire existence.

Honor de Balzac

In early 2000 I was utterly dissatisfied and completely disillusioned with my work as the vice president of programming at an entertainment company. The environment felt like a prisonlong hours, unresponsive colleagues, and no personal engagement. Sound familiar? I decided to embark on a new career path as a professional business consultant: a service professional. I secretly passed the time reading, researching, studying, and honing my skills. After much planning, my freedom date was marked on every calendar in my apartment with a huge victorious smiley face. My resignation letter was signed, sealed, and ready for delivery. I could hardly keep my legs from sprinting out the door to follow my heart and head (both of which had checked out long ago).

On that auspicious day, I received the envelope with my bonus inside, ran to the bank, cleared the check, and proudly delivered my letter of resignation. The joy, pride, and satisfaction that I felt at that moment were incredible. I floated home and woke up the next day to plunge into my career as a business owner serving others.

I didn't bask for long in the glory, however, before I realized I was in for trouble.

Call me crazy, but I really thought clients were just going to fall into my lap. I expected them to meet me, fall in love with me, and trade their money for my services. Instead, I moped about my very costly New York City apartment, panicking, feeling sorry for myself, and doing trivial busy work that wasn't going to generate a dime of income.

Within six months I was desperate, which heralded a new phase of my life. I was fed up. I'd reached my limit. I was not going to throw in the towel and give up on my career as a business owner. My innate need to support and provide, to serve the people I was meant to serve, kicked into high gear one chilly New York morning. Plus, what choice did I have? I didn't think homelessness would look good on me. Rather than dwelling on the cold reality of my financial struggle and the bitter temperature outside, I worked every single day for no fewer than 16 hours just to pay the bills (I don't recommend this as a strategy, by the way). I poured myself into more resources and studied everything I could get my hands on about how to attract clients, communicate effectively, sell, market, and promote my services. First and foremost, I wanted to learn how to love marketing and selling by turning it into a meaningful pursuit.

Obviously, it worked, or I wouldn't be writing this and you certainly wouldn't be reading it. Within 10 months, I was booked solid with more clients than I could handle. But the personal checks I cashed were not the most valuable part of my business. The real heart of what I was creating was the marketing system that propelled my business and income every month. I started sharing my marketing process with a small group of trusted clients, and I watched their success unfold before my eyes. I could hear confidence, pride, and accomplishment in their voices. Their businesses took off.

My clients, who were service professionals of all kinds, started to get booked solid: massage therapists, mortgage brokers, accountants, therapists, acupuncturists, dentists, hair salon and spa owners, bookkeepers, web and graphic designers, business consultants, chiropractors, professional organizers, financial planners, virtual assistants, health care providers, insurance brokers, attorneys, personal trainers, travel agents, photographers, physiotherapists, Pilates and yoga instructors, coaches, Realtors, reflexologists, sales professionals, naturopaths, and others were getting more clients than they could handle. Well, not all of them. But most of them didthe ones who did the work.