Michael Erath's Five Obsessions of Elite Organizations Became the Best Lead Magnet at Next Level Growth
"Because of the amount of context that the book provides the reader, it's without a doubt the best lead magnet that we have."
Michael Erath · Founder, Next Level Growth
Michael Erath spent two decades running a family manufacturing business before he became a business coach and consultant, and then an author three times over. Today his books are the engine of Next Level Growth: he mails 75 to 100 copies a month to targeted prospects, and calls the book the best lead magnet his firm has.
From a Half-Million-Dollar Betrayal to the Page
For about two decades, Erath owned a family manufacturing business that made hardwood veneer for the kitchen cabinet industry. Then, in 2008, a business partner he had brought in embezzled over half a million dollars and committed bank fraud. The partner went to federal prison. The loss was massive.
When Erath moved into coaching and consulting and started telling that story, people kept saying the same thing: that needs to be a book. A referral from a friend and fellow Scribe author was all it took to get started.
"Cameron Herold is a dear friend of mine and he's written a couple of books through [Scribe]. And he had recommended me speaking to [Scribe] at the time. And that was kind of all it took."
— Michael Erath, Founder, Next Level Growth
His first book, Rise, came out in 2017 as a personal memoir. It got his story out, and it built credibility. That mattered more than he expected. When he researched his market for his third book, he found the field had become crowded.
"As of 2023, there were over 53,000 people in the U.S. on LinkedIn that call themselves a business coach. It's become that saturated. So I really wanted to be able to get my story out there as a differentiator."
— Michael Erath, Founder, Next Level Growth
The Book He Decided to Write Himself
Erath had used a ghostwriter for his first two books. He planned to do the same for the third, Five Obsessions of Elite Organizations. But the book was technical, built on the framework his firm teaches, and in the outlining stage it became clear that getting a ghostwriter up to speed on the material would not work. Working with the Scribe team, he made a change.
A Scribe coach, a former writing professor from Colorado, came alongside him instead of writing for him. He wrote every word himself, typed every revision himself. It took longer. He did not expect how much that would matter.
"I actually wrote all the words in this book. It wasn't me translating it or giving it to someone else to translate and write. So that was kind of a fascinating outcome that I didn't expect to be as positive as it was."
— Michael Erath, Founder, Next Level Growth
Writing it himself did something else: it drove the material deeper. Erath said the constant loop of writing, rereading, and rewriting locked the content in far more firmly than handing it off ever could have. The absorption, in his words, got so much deeper and stronger.
The Best Lead Magnet He Has
Next Level Growth is a team of nine coaches and consultants, so Erath wrote the book to carry the whole brand, not just his own name.
"I wrote the book intentionally to be the voice of our brand, not just me as kind of a solopreneur or the sage."
— Michael Erath, Founder, Next Level Growth
The firm gives books away constantly. It mails 75 to 100 a month to targeted lists, hands them out at sponsored events, and asks associations it sponsors to distribute copies to their members. Erath sends each book by FedEx ground in a branded package, so a delivery driver hands it to the reader. His all-in cost lands around $16 a book.
He treats it as customer acquisition math. If one in fifty books ever turns into a client, the cost pencils out fine. And unlike an ad, a book earns hours of a reader's attention in a high-prestige format. The second chapter of the book spells out exactly how the firm differs from the standard operating-system playbooks, so a reader hears the differentiation said the way Erath wants it said.
The books are tracked, too. Each one goes into the CRM by name and company. The book points readers to downloadable tools with opt-in pages and to an AI clone Erath built as a companion, so when a reader engages, the firm can connect the recipient back to the lead it already logged.
What Readers Actually Do With It
The proof shows up in how people use the book. In a recent discovery meeting, Erath met a CFO he had never spoken to before who already owned his book.
"He had a copy of the five obsessions of elite organizations and was telling me that one of his direct reports had a really difficult conversation later that day [...]. He had actually highlighted several pages in the book and had given that to them to prep for the meeting, because he felt like the content, and if they understood it, would help them navigate that conversation."
— Michael Erath, Founder, Next Level Growth
The vulnerability in Rise opened a different kind of door. Erath wrote openly about a stretch when success went to his head and strained his marriage, to the point that he and his wife separated for a time before working it out. Readers keep meeting that honesty with their own.
"I've had so many people that have read it come up to me and say, gosh, let me tell you what happened to me. As entrepreneurs, we don't talk about failures and mistakes. Everybody talks about the country club conversation about how great everything is."
— Michael Erath, Founder, Next Level Growth
A Voice That Will Outlive Him
For the Rise audiobook, Erath first hired a voice actor. Hearing someone else read his story, the emotion was not there. So he went back into the studio through Scribe and re-recorded it himself. Listeners told him they felt more connected to the vulnerable parts. And he realized he had made something he never set out to make.
"I now have in my voice a digital recording that will live forever of me telling my story. So my grandkids, grandkids who will never see me, never know me can actually hear a great, great grandfather in their voice telling their story."
— Michael Erath, Founder, Next Level Growth
His Advice After Three Books
His counsel to a first-time author is to trust the process and not try to shortcut it. He draws on how a private equity firm wears a seller down at the end of a deal, betting on fatigue to make them accept a lower standard. The same trap waits in the final rounds of editing, so he says to stick with the editing and revision process as long as it takes to get the outcome you want.
"Do the work. It will absolutely be worth it because you're going to have this thing forever."
— Michael Erath, Founder, Next Level Growth
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