Another rich source of ideas comes from the results you’ve already helped people achieve. Every success story you’ve witnessed is a potential roadmap your readers can follow.

Your work has likely led to dozens of small transformations; some dramatic, others subtle but life-changing. A good nonfiction book captures those real outcomes and distills them into teachable steps.

Start by making a list of the most common results your clients experience after working with you. Do they communicate better? Sleep more peacefully? Manage money confidently? Lose weight and keep it off? Build thriving teams?

Exercise: Before, During, After

Pick three real or representative examples of clients, patients, or students. Write a short paragraph for each using this structure:
Before: What were they struggling with?
During: What did you teach, do, or guide them through?
After: What improved?

You’ll start to see patterns in how you create results. Maybe most people begin in chaos and end in clarity. Or they start overwhelmed and finish empowered.

Those patterns are your framework; the invisible system you already use without naming it. Naming that system gives your book shape and structure.

For instance:
A business coach might notice that her clients always progress through the same four stages—Confusion, Alignment, Strategy, and Growth. That can become her book’s chapter outline.

A therapist might realize that her clients always transform after mastering self-awareness, emotional regulation, and healthy communication. Those become her “three pillars of change.”

Your readers want that same journey. They want to see themselves in the “before,” learn through the “during,” and aspire to the “after.”

Finally, connect this lesson with the last one: what you wish everyone knew plus the results you create forms your book’s promise. It tells the reader, “If you understand these principles and follow this path, you can experience the same transformation.”

Your Assignment:

• Write a list of ten truths you wish everyone knew before working with you.
• Write three before-during-after case summaries that demonstrate your most consistent results.
• Combine both lists into a sentence that defines your book’s mission, like this:
  I want readers to understand that [core truth], so they can achieve [core result].

That single statement can guide your entire book. It captures your purpose as both a professional and a writer: to help people see what they’ve been missing and walk them toward the success you already know is possible.