book must be about what you know that no one else knows and how you can help people. The goal of a business book is to help the reader succeed. Think of the audience’s goals first, and your goals second, and you’re on the right track.

You may imagine that you are as talented as one of the most successful nonfiction authors in the last two decades, but you almost certainly are not.

If you think a book will be a business card for your business, I’m not the right person to help you. People don’t read “business card” books, they pass them around like totems. It doesn’t much matter what’s in them. So they don’t interest me (and realistically, they shouldn’t interest you, either).

Fear looks like this: “Something bad is happening. If you don’t act, you could be in big trouble.” Greed looks like this: “You are missing out. If you don’t act, you won’t take advantage of something great.”

There are two main ways to scare the crap out of the reader: fear and greed.

The first chapter must scare the crap out of the reader

What is the narrative thread of the book? The best business books don’t just contain stories, they are stories.

Talk Triggers has 22 case studies; collecting them was crucial to making the book believable and memorable.

But when it comes to business books, smart and talented by themselves are insufficient.