120 Creative Writing Prompts for Business Books: Find the Stories Hiding in Your Expertise

You probably have more stories worth telling than you realise.

The difficult customer that you replayed the conversation with for weeks; the recession that taught you more than a business degree ever could; the opportunity you turned down; the decision that seemed reasonable at the time and ridiculous now.

To you, these are things that happened. You can recall them easily enough. They’re probably etched into your memory by now! They are badges and scars that shape who you are.

To someone reading your book, they could also be the most useful pages in the whole thing. Your readers are behind where you are in the context of the journey your book is taking them on, which means you have to allow them to relate to you. You have to keep taking pit stops to see they’re still with you. You have to highlight points, simplify complexity and lead with experience.

One of the best ways to do that, if not THE best way, is to do so with storytelling.

Business-book authors often approach their manuscripts as exercises in transferring knowledge. They have a framework to explain, a methodology to introduce, a problem to solve or an argument to make.

All perfectly reasonable.

But information alone rarely makes a book memorable. Readers need to recognise themselves in what you're describing. They need to understand what was at stake, what changed and why it matters to them.

That's where storytelling comes in, and you don't need to be a novelist to use it.

The creative writing prompts below are designed specifically for entrepreneurs, consultants, coaches, executives and other experts writing nonfiction books. Some will help you remember experiences you've overlooked. Others will make you question your assumptions, understand your ideal reader more deeply or discover a better way to explain a complicated idea.

Before you begin: how to use these writing prompts

You don't need to work through all 120 exercises. In fact, please don't attempt them in order unless you have a particularly unusual relationship with homework! Simply choose a section that addresses something your manuscript is missing.

• If your writing feels dry, try the exercises about forgotten experiences, sensory details and surprising moments.
• If you're struggling to connect with readers, start with their fears, ambitions and unspoken frustrations.
• If your book contains plenty of advice but not much personality, explore your mistakes, abandoned goals and difficult lessons.

Set a timer for ten minutes, write without editing, and resist the temptation to produce something polished. The objective is to discover material, rather than to manufacture a finished chapter. And remember that an exercise doesn't necessarily produce a story for publication. Sometimes its value is helping you get into a flow, or communicate more clearly what you already think.

1. Forgotten stories

The experiences you no longer notice because they've become part of who you are.

1. The photograph that doesn't exist. Imagine someone took a photograph five seconds before a moment that changed your career. Who is in the picture? What are they doing? What does nobody in the photograph know is about to happen?

2. The ordinary day. Describe an apparently unremarkable working day from ten years ago. What would surprise your younger self about the way you work today?

3. The first £100. Remember the first money you earned independently. How old were you? How did you earn it? What did you do with it? What did it teach you about value?

4. The room. Think of a room where something important happened professionally. Describe the furniture, lighting, sounds and people before explaining what happened.

5. The thing everyone laughed at. Recall an idea you shared that somebody dismissed. Were they right? Were you? What happened next?

6. Your first difficult customer. Who was the first customer or client who really tested you? What did you misunderstand about their expectations? What still frustrates you about the situation today? What do you feel they misunderstood? And what would you say to them if they were standing in front of you right now?

7. The sentence that stuck. What is something a boss, colleague, customer, mentor or family member said that you still remember? Why did it stick? Was it good or bad? How does it make you feel now when you put yourself back in that situation?

8. The object on your desk. Choose an object you have kept for years. Tell the story of how it came into your possession and what it represents. Why do you hang on to it?

9. The moment you felt like an imposter. Recall a professional situation where everyone else seemed more qualified than you. What did you do to disguise your uncertainty? How did it go? Why did you think you weren’t as qualified or as worthy as the others?

10. The day nothing worked. Describe a day when several small things went wrong. They built up until you snapped. Which one became the final straw, and what did your reaction reveal?

11. The person you underestimated. Who surprised you with their competence, generosity, intelligence or judgement? What had you assumed about them beforehand?

12. The unexpected compliment. What is the most meaningful professional compliment you've received? Why did it matter more than other more obvious measures of success?

13. The invisible achievement. Name something you're proud of that wouldn't impress anybody reading your CV. Why does it matter to you?

14. The conversation you nearly forgot. Remember a short exchange that changed the direction of your thinking. What was said, and what did you do differently afterwards?

15. The story you always tell at dinner. Which professional anecdote reliably gets a reaction from friends? What makes it work when you tell it aloud?

Writing technique: Start as close as possible to the interesting moment. Instead of opening with your career history, put the reader in the room. Describe the environment as if you are in that room now. What can you see? What sounds are there? Are there any particular smells? What’s around you? What can you reach out and touch? Who is with you? What are your senses telling you?

2. Mistakes, regrets and near misses

Stories become interesting when something is at stake. Fortunately, business provides plenty of opportunities to get things wrong.

16. The lesson. What is the most money you've lost through a decision you personally made? What did you believe at the time? What happened? What did it teach you?

17. The warning. Who tried to tell you something you didn't want to hear? What made their advice so inconvenient? What did you then do or not do as a result? What was the outcome?

18. The email you wish you hadn't sent. What happened before you pressed send? How would you write it now?

19. The deal you should have walked away from. When did you recognise the red flags? Why did you continue anyway? What would you do differently today?

20. Wrong person, right job. Recall a hiring decision that didn't work. What did you mistake for competence, compatibility or potential?

21. The thing you didn't ask. Describe a meeting where one question could have changed the outcome. Why didn't you ask it?

22. The successful failure. Tell the story of something that failed commercially but improved your judgement, relationships or future opportunities.

23. The near disaster. Describe an occasion when a small intervention prevented a much larger problem. What nearly happened? And what were the steps that prevented it?

24. The cost of being agreeable. When did avoiding an uncomfortable conversation create a more expensive one later?

25. The cost of being right. Have you ever won an argument and damaged a relationship? What did winning achieve? Why did you fight so hard for it?

26. The assumption. Which belief about your industry or clients did experience eventually disprove?

27. The apology. Describe a time you had to apologise professionally. What did you find hardest: admitting the mistake, understanding its impact or repairing the damage?

Writing technique: Don't rush to the lesson. Let the reader understand why the mistake seemed reasonable at the time. Write with hindsight without feeling pressure to spell it out as wisdom.

3. The road not taken

Every business is partly the result of decisions that were never made.

28. The parallel universe. Imagine meeting someone who is exactly like you, except they made the opposite decision at a pivotal moment ten years ago. What was that, and what is their life like today?

29. The offer you refused. Recall a job, partnership, investment or opportunity you turned down. What might have happened if you'd accepted?

30. The company you didn't start. Describe the business idea that never left your notebook. What stopped you? Was that a mistake?

31. The career you nearly chose. If you'd pursued your second-choice profession, which of your current strengths might never have developed?

32. The person you didn't work with. Imagine the professional relationship that might have followed had you said yes to a particular collaboration.

33. The five-year plan. Find an old plan, journal entry or set of goals. Which ambitions disappeared, and what replaced them?

34. The decision you would repeat. Choose a difficult decision you made that you stand by, even if it caused pain or financial loss. Explain why you would make it again.

35. The moment you stayed. When did you decide not to leave a role, business, market or relationship? What did staying cost and what did it preserve?

36. The risk you never took. What opportunity do you still occasionally think about? Are you regretting the lost outcome or the person you might have become?

37. The better alternative. Imagine that your most successful business decision had never happened. What would you have built instead?

Writing technique: Counterfactual stories can illuminate a real decision, but don't present imagined outcomes as facts. The useful question is what the alternative reveals about your values, assumptions and critical thought.

4. Luck, coincidence and the unexpected

We tend to tidy our professional histories into coherent narratives. Real life is considerably less organised.

38. The glitch in the Matrix. Trace an important opportunity backwards through the unlikely chain of events that produced it. Which link was pure chance?

39. The stranger. Describe a person you met briefly who later influenced your career. How close did you come to never meeting?

40. The wrong turn. Recall a mistake, cancellation or delay that unexpectedly led to something valuable.

41. The introduction. Who connected you to somebody important? What would your professional life look like without that introduction?

42. The coincidence. Describe an event that seemed implausibly well timed. What made it memorable?

43. The opportunity disguised as a problem. When did an unwelcome development force you to discover something better?

44. Accidentally on purpose. Describe an occasion when luck favoured you because you had quietly been preparing for years.

45. The unexpected no. When did a rejection redirect you towards a more valuable opportunity?

Writing technique: Try to avoid rewriting luck as inevitability (unless it was). Acknowledging uncertainty often makes a business story more credible.

5. Step into your reader's shoes

Your reader is a person before they're a target market.

46. The stranger in the lift. You enter a lift and find yourself standing beside someone who would benefit enormously from your book. You recognise them immediately as your ideal reader, although you've never met. What are they wearing? What are they carrying? What has happened in their life today? What are they worried about that nobody else can see?

47. The secret vision board. Your reader has two vision boards. One is displayed where colleagues and family can see it. The other is hidden. What's on each?

48. The 3am thought. Your reader wakes at three in the morning. What is the first thought that makes it impossible to fall asleep again?

49. The unasked question. What does your reader desperately want to ask someone with your expertise but feel embarrassed admitting they don't know?

50. The expensive pretence. What does your reader pretend to understand because their position makes ignorance feel unacceptable?

51. The private search history. Imagine the last five questions your reader typed into a search engine. Which would surprise their colleagues?

52. The meeting after the meeting. Your reader has just left a difficult meeting. What do they say aloud to their team? What do they say privately to someone they trust?

53. The work conversation at home. How does your reader explain their professional frustrations to a partner, friend or family member who doesn't work in their industry?

54. The treasured possession. What object would your reader rescue from their office if they could save only one thing? What does it reveal about their identity?

55. The imaginary boardroom. Picture the voices arguing inside your reader's head when they face a major decision. Who represents ambition, fear, experience, pride and common sense? Which voice usually wins?

56. The person they envy. Who does your reader compare themselves with? What do they imagine that person has which they lack?

57. The false belief. What does your reader currently believe about success, failure or their own capabilities that your book needs to challenge?

58. The thing they’ve already tried. List five solutions your reader has already paid for or attempted. Why didn't those solutions work well enough?

59. The small humiliation. Describe an everyday professional situation that makes your reader feel inadequate, even though nobody else notices.

60. The first page test. Imagine your reader opening your book after an exhausting day. What would make them think, within the first two pages, this person understands my problem?

Writing technique: Distinguish empathy from invention. You can use imaginative exercises to develop a reader persona, but validate important assumptions through conversations, research and real experience.

6. The goals we set versus the lives we build

Some of the most revealing stories begin with the distance between what we intended and what happened.

61. The goal you still haven't reached. Think of something you intended to achieve several years ago. Why hasn't it happened? Be more specific than 'I got busy'.

62. The shiny new thing. What exciting opportunity distracted you from a more important commitment? Was the distraction a mistake or a better direction?

63. When life intervened. Did family, health, caring responsibilities or another personal change alter your professional ambitions? How do you judge the outcome now?

64. The success you no longer want. What did you once consider the ultimate professional achievement that now holds little appeal?

65. The wrong scoreboard. Describe a period when you measured success by something that later proved unimportant.

66. The moving goal. Have you ever achieved a target only to raise it immediately? What happened to your sense of satisfaction?

67. The unfinished project. What have you been meaning to complete for years? What would finishing it actually change?

68. The unexpected trade-off. Which ambition required you to sacrifice something you hadn't realised was negotiable?

69. The better detour. Looking back, are you better off because you abandoned your original plan? By whose definition of better?

70. The progress report. Write a letter from your present self to the person who made your five-year plan. Explain what you achieved, what you didn't and what you now understand about the difference.

Writing technique: Resist the urge to make every detour inspirational. Sometimes the lesson is that we made a poor decision. Sometimes it's that our priorities changed. Those are different stories.

7. The moral of the story

You don't always need to tell the whole story to share what it taught you.

Some experiences are difficult to discuss publicly. They may involve confidentiality, professional relationships, legal sensitivities or people who could be harmed by disclosure. Others are simply painful. You can still examine what you've learned. Start with the situation and its moral. Decide later whether the underlying experience belongs in your book.

71. The bully. Imagine a business owner who is repeatedly intimidated by someone with more influence, money or power. What does the situation teach about boundaries, professionalism, communication and the difference between confidence and aggression?

72. The person who took credit. Someone presents your work as their own. What is the lesson about recognition, documentation, trust or choosing your battles?

73. The partnership that soured. Two people begin with compatible ambitions and end up wanting different things. At what point should they have acknowledged the change?

74. The customer you couldn't satisfy. A client remains unhappy despite repeated efforts to help. What is the moral about service, expectations and knowing when to stop?

75. The loyalty trap. Someone stays with an underperforming employee, supplier or business partner because they feel responsible for them. When does loyalty become avoidance?

76. The secret everyone knew. An organisation has a problem that nobody discusses openly. What is it? What does that silence cost?

77. The uncomfortable truth. You discover something that undermines the advice you've been giving. What do honesty and integrity require next?

78. The younger self. Return to a situation that once kept you awake at night but would barely trouble you today. What would you tell the person you were then?

79. The broken promise. Someone makes a commitment they cannot keep. What matters more afterwards: their original intention, the consequences or how they respond?

80. The moral without the confession. Write down a difficult professional lesson in one sentence. Now invent an explicitly hypothetical situation that illustrates it without revealing the real people or events.

Writing technique: A moral is not necessarily a universal rule. 'Never trust business partners' is an understandable reaction to one experience, but a weak principle. 'Agree how decisions and exits will work before either becomes contentious' is more useful.

8. Your reader's future self

What does meaningful change look like after the final chapter?

81. The meeting five years from now. Your reader meets their future self, five years after applying the principles in your book. What has changed? What hasn't? Why?

82. The future they fear. Describe what might happen if your reader continues making the same decisions for another three years.

83. The future they secretly want. Remove the expectations of colleagues, family and industry peers. What would your reader choose if there were no barriers?

84. The first visible improvement. What small change could your reader make that would produce a noticeable result within a week?

85. The person who notices. Who would be the first person to recognise that your reader is behaving differently? What would they observe?

86. The old problem returns. Six months after finishing your book, your reader faces a familiar challenge. How do they respond differently this time?

87. The surprising consequence. Imagine your reader achieving the outcome they wanted. What new problem might that success create?

88. The letter of thanks. Write a fictional letter from a reader who applied your ideas successfully. What specifically do they thank you for?

89. The disappointing ending. Your reader finishes the book, agrees with everything and changes nothing. Why?

90. The next question. Once your reader has achieved the transformation your book promises, what will they need to understand or accomplish next?

Writing technique: A credible reader transformation should involve changed choices, behaviour or understanding. Not simply a collection of nice sentiment about what they’ve read, but real action. It’s your job as the author to inspire that action. It can be big or really small. They just have to move away from Point A and towards their Point B, even if it’s by just one step.

9. The customer experience of your book

A book is also an experience. Your reader invests money, time and attention. What happens in return?

91. The restaurant complaint. What irritates you most when you visit a restaurant? Describe a specific occasion. What expectation was broken, and how could the establishment have prevented it?

92. The best service you've ever received. Describe an extraordinary customer experience. What did the organisation understand about you without being told?

93. The worst service you've ever received. What happened? How was the complaint handled? How many people did you tell afterwards?

94. The hotel manager's lesson. If you could make every hotel manager remember one thing about the guest experience, what would it be? Why?

95. The business travel disaster. Describe your worst business journey. Which problems were unavoidable, and which resulted from poor communication or indifference?

96. The mastermind you left. If you've belonged to a business mastermind, membership group or professional community, why did you join? Why did you stay or leave?

97. The irritating coach. What is the most frustrating thing a coach, consultant or mentor has asked you to do that ultimately proved valuable?

98. The cancellation point. What behaviour from a coach, consultant or service provider would make you terminate an otherwise valuable relationship?

99. The subscription you didn't renew. Think of a subscription you cancelled. Was the problem price, usefulness, engagement, expectations or simply forgetting why you'd subscribed?

100. The book that abandoned you before you were done. Recall a nonfiction book that made a convincing argument but left you unsure what to do next. Where did the author lose you? Why? What could they have done differently?

101. The book you recommended. What business book have you actively recommended to others? What made you tell someone else about it?

102. The final-page handover. Imagine your reader closing your book with glowing enthusiasm. What can they do next, whether or not they ever become your customer? Is it explicit and obvious to them that this next step exists, or would they have to guess?

Writing technique: Apply what these experiences teach you to the design of your own book. Does it anticipate the reader's questions? Are its examples relevant? Can readers act on the advice? Do you offer useful next steps without assuming everyone wants to buy something? A business book should be commercially valuable without being salesy.

10. Complete the sentence

Sometimes a sentence starter reveals more than an elaborate question.

Finish each sentence quickly, without trying to sound impressive or polished:

103. I used to believe ________, until ________.

104. The most expensive lesson I ever learned was ________.

105. People in my industry rarely admit that ________.

106. My ideal reader is probably embarrassed to admit ________.

107. I wish someone had told me ________ before I ________.

108. The advice everyone repeats but I disagree with is ________.

109. I knew something had to change when ________.

110. The thing I was most afraid of turned out to be ________.

111. My reader doesn't really need more ________. They need ________.

112. If readers remember only one thing from my book, it should be ________.

Writing technique: Look for answers that contradict conventional wisdom or reveal a tension. Those often contain the beginnings of a compelling argument.

11. What if? And one-word story starters

Exercises for breaking predictable patterns of thought.

113. What if your industry disappeared tomorrow? Which parts of your expertise would remain valuable, and who would need them?

114. What if your reader couldn't use your preferred solution? How else could they solve their problem?

115. What if the opposite were true? Take one of your strongest professional beliefs and argue against it for five minutes.

116. What if your biggest competitor wrote your book? What would they say differently? What would they deliberately leave out?

117. One word: WAITING. Write about a professional moment when waiting changed the outcome.

118. One word: DOOR. Describe a door you wanted to open, one that closed unexpectedly or one you should have walked through sooner.

119. One word: ENOUGH. Write about a time when you had to decide what enough meant.

120. One word: RECEIPT. Choose a receipt, invoice, contract or other ordinary document that could tell a larger story about you or your business.

Writing technique: Lateral thinking is useful because familiar subjects tend to produce familiar language. Unexpected connections can help you explain an idea without relying purely on voluntary recall or on the same examples everyone else uses.

12. Turn your expertise into a story

The exercises above help you discover material. This final section is about using it.

You don't need to turn every piece of advice into an anecdote. Some ideas are better explained directly. But when a concept feels abstract, a story can make the stakes and consequences visible.

Exercise A: Show the problem before naming it

• Choose a problem your book solves.
• Instead of defining it, describe someone experiencing it.
• Where are they? What are they trying to do? What goes wrong? What does it cost them?

Only then introduce your explanation.

Exercise B: Give your framework a before and after

• Choose one step from your methodology.
• Describe a person attempting the task without that step. Then describe what changes when they apply it.
• Make the difference observable.

Exercise C: Find the decision inside the data

Take a statistic, research finding or piece of evidence you plan to use. Ask:

• Who would care about this information?
• What decision might it change?
• What would happen if they ignored it?

A number becomes more interesting when readers understand its consequences. Data tells stories too; just make sure you answer your reader’s “so what?” question so they can easily understand the relevance and keep track of the narrative thread.

Exercise D: Explain it to someone outside your industry

• Imagine explaining your most important concept to an intelligent friend who works in an entirely different field.
• Which technical terms would you have to remove?
• What everyday situation might help them understand?

Exercise E: Make the reader choose

• Present a realistic dilemma involving two imperfect options.
• Explain the competing pressures. Ask the reader to decide before revealing your recommendation.
• This can be particularly effective when your book is about judgement rather than following a fixed process.

From a writing prompt to a passage worth publishing

Let's take an example. Imagine you're writing a book about business growth. You complete the prompt about an expensive lesson and write:

I learned that hiring too quickly can create problems. It's important to recruit carefully and have good systems.

That's a perfectly reasonable point. It's also, sadly, unlikely to make anyone turn the page.

Now imagine your notes reveal that you hired somebody because you were desperate to reclaim your evenings. You ignored concerns from your colleagues or coach because the candidate could start immediately. Three months later, you were spending more time managing mistakes than you had previously spent doing the work yourself.

That's a story, and one every founder can relate to, if that’s your audience. It has a recognisable motivation, a decision, a consequence and a lesson.

You could open the passage like this:

By the time I hired my first operations manager, I would have employed almost anyone who could spell 'spreadsheet'. I was working late, answering client emails at weekends and congratulating myself on being indispensable. The new hire was supposed to solve that problem. Within three months, I had acquired an entirely different one. I wasn’t only back doing late nights picking up their mistakes, but the rest of the team were getting worn down by it too and I didn’t have the time or the budget left to recruit all over again. I felt totally stuck.

This is a fictional illustration, but notice what has changed. The lesson hasn't. The reader can now relate, they can imagine the scene, and they have a reason to care about it because they can understand the impact the situation had.

Five ingredients that make business stories work

1. A person. Someone has to want something, fear something or make a decision.

2. A situation. Give the reader enough context to understand what was happening.

3. A tension. Something is uncertain, difficult, unfair, surprising or at risk.

4. A change. A decision, discovery, mistake or consequence moves the story forward.

5. A point. The experience helps the reader understand something relevant to your book.

Not every anecdote needs a dramatic ending and in fact, it’s generally best to avoid hyperbole in business texts (unless it’s a fable and it fits the character or narrative). In business nonfiction, a simple realisation is almost always more useful and believable than a theatrical triumph.

How to make your business writing less predictable

Business writing has an unfortunate habit of making interesting people sound identical when the standard conventions and advice are followed. The language often becomes abstract. It’s because business authors are generally (and understandably) quite unsure of how much personality to add, when to delve deeper, how much detail to go into, what to reveal… there is plenty of scope for confusion. Consider these familiar phrases:

Rather than replacing one set of stock phrases with another, the objective here is to get to the interesting part and stop hiding behind safe language that could describe almost anything. Specificity is persuasive.

Can you use AI to help find and develop your stories?

Yes. But there's a distinction between using AI to help you remember and using it to invent experiences on your behalf. AI can be useful for interviewing you. You might give it one of the prompts above and ask it to question you, one question at a time, until you've recovered the details of an experience.

It can help identify missing context, unclear chronology, weak transitions or places where the reader needs more explanation. It can also suggest different ways to structure an anecdote. What it cannot reliably do is know what happened to you or how it felt.

If it fills in the restaurant, the conversation, the expression on someone's face or the result of a decision without your evidence, those details are the AI’s (or potentially another author’s it’s stealing from) and not yours.

In a business book, readers rely on your experience as evidence for your recommendations, so it’s really important you represent yourself authentically and where you do change names or alter events for dramatic effect or privacy, make sure you’re still the one checking and overseeing what your AI gives you.

Use AI to help you investigate your memories, by all means, just continue to check it for accurate recollection.

What if the story is confidential?

Some of the most valuable professional lessons arise from situations you can’t describe openly. Client relationships, employment disputes, sensitive commercial information and other people's names, reputations and personal experiences all require care.

You have several options:

• Tell a true personal story using only details you are entitled to disclose.
• Use an anonymised example where anonymity genuinely protects the people involved.
• Obtain permission to describe a real case.
• Create a hypothetical or composite scenario and clearly identify it as illustrative.
• Explain the lesson directly without telling the underlying story.

Changing someone's name doesn’t automatically make a story anonymous. A combination of industry, timing, job title and circumstances can still identify them. And a fictionalised example should never be presented as an actual client result. Your credibility is more valuable than any anecdote.

You've found a story. Does it belong in your book?

Not necessarily. A good story and a useful story are different things. Before adding an anecdote to your manuscript, ask yourself five questions:

• Does it help the reader? The story should illuminate something they need to understand, decide or do.
• Does it support the book's argument? An entertaining detour is still a detour if it has no meaningful connection to your central message.
• Is it credible? Are the facts accurate, the claims supportable and the limitations clear?
• Is it distinctive? Does it reveal something specific about your experience, thinking or subject?
• Have I earned the space it occupies? If the story takes three pages, does it deliver enough value to justify the reader's time?

A useful test is to remove the anecdote temporarily. If the chapter becomes clearer and loses nothing important, you may not need it. If the chapter suddenly feels abstract, impersonal or difficult to follow, you've probably found a story doing its job.

One final exercise: the book after the book

Imagine your ideal reader has finished your manuscript. They've highlighted passages, disagreed with some of your arguments, recognised themselves in several stories and tried at least one of your exercises. Now they close the book. What happens next?

• Do they know how to put your advice into practice?
• Can they return to a useful framework?
• Is there somewhere to find additional resources, examples or support?
• If they want to go further, is the next step obvious?
• And if they never spend another penny with you, have they still received something valuable?

A business book is an opportunity to change what somebody understands, believes or does. And through the forging of that connection, it can also introduce readers to your wider work, establish trust and create new commercial opportunities. So, it goes way beyond being a container of expertise. It’s a great opportunity. But the order matters.

First, make the book worth reading for your ideal reader (not just any reader). Focus in on them, really help them. Then, make the customer experience worth continuing with and make the bridge from the book into your customer journey nice and simple and clear.

The stories are already there

You don't need to have climbed Everest, sold a company for billions or survived an extraordinary crisis to write a compelling business book. You just need to notice what your experience has taught you and be a couple of steps further along than your reader.

Sometimes that means revisiting a difficult decision, or remembering a conversation you've told so often that you've stopped noticing its significance. And sometimes it means recognising that the person you're trying to help is facing a problem you've already lived through, although you didn't recognise it in quite those terms at the time.

There is some research that shows people actually find it easier to learn from someone who is just a few steps ahead of them, rather than this massive unreachable guru. It’s more relatable. Plus, not everyone expects a book to change their life in one sitting. They’re just looking for the lightbulb moment that will help them get to the next stage.

The best business stories help the reader see something more clearly and make one decision as a result.