4. A BOOK HELPS YOU GET ON STAGES If you want to do any sort of public speaking, especially paid speak- ing, a book is a near necessity. This is because a book is a basic credential for a speaker. A book is the way people know for sure you are qualified to speak to their group on your topic. And then once you get on stage, your brand changes. This is what happened to Robin Farmanfarmaian. After writing her book on disruption in the medical space, she was booked to speak at over 50 conferences, including Singularity and TEDx. Not only that, but all of that speaking exploded her brand, and got her a new position at a medical startup: The very first company, Invicta Medical, I jumped offstage and walked right into the founder. He’s seen me speak and we got to talking, and I was an advisor within the first couple meetings, and a vice president within a couple of months. For Lorenzo Gomez, his book had a profound impact on him, mainly through his speaking. His book details the struggles he went through going from a high school graduate to major tech CEO, and he was asked to speak to all kinds of audiences, including keynoting the commencement of the University of Texas-San Antonio: If I had known someone would ask me to give a commencement speech, I would have never written a book in the first place. I was terrified, and I’m still terrified just thinking about it, but it was one of the most gratifying moments of my life. 5. A BOOK HELPS CEMENT YOUR LEGACY All of these previous examples have something in common: by sharing the knowledge and experience of the author, they result in people seeing the author differently. 380 · ThE SCriBE METhOD