The Gift of Knowledge interview series, more than 40 conference calls, is one of the most popular marketing tools for LoanToolbox members. Each 45 to 60-minute audio arms you with informative interviews with national business leaders that can be burned onto branded CDs and used to develop meaningful relationships with REALTORS®, CPAs, Financial Planners, Bankers, HR Directors, and even consumers.

These powerhouse interviews with Les Brown, Ben Zander, Dave Jenks, Ken Blanchard, and Mark Victor Hansen, to name just a few, allow you to solidify a new relationship or enhance an existing one as you educate and inspire professionals in your community.

In this week's Toolbox Tutorial, we'll show you how to burn a GOK CD and use it to create or strengthen relationships with referral sources and consumers alike.

First, click on "Conference Calls" in the "News & Events" tab.

This will take you to LTB's Conference Call archive, where you can select the GOK you want to burn. The red-and-white CD icon to the right of a call means the call is a GOK. As you can see, there are currently more than 40 GOKs available in the archives. Scroll down and review some of the titles.

The GOK CD icon located just above the 2008 archive has a link to the "Gift of Knowledge" section of LTB. Click on that link.

In the GOK section of LTB, you can learn more about these powerful marketing tools. You can also watch a short movie on how to effectively use GOKs to create and strengthen relationships with referral partners.

In this section you'll also find a separate GOK archive and a label-maker for your CD (which we'll get back to later in this tutorial). For now, click on "The Gift of Knowledge Interviews" link or scroll down to the GOK archives.

It's important to visit the GOK archive before you burn any CD because each call is designed to target a specific audience or audiences, which include REALTORS®, CPAs (Accountants), CFPs (Financial Planners), Insurance Agents, Bankers, Human Resource Directors, and Consumers. The green checkmarks to the right of each call lets you know which audience the GOKs will benefit most.

Notice how the Bob Burg GOK is only for REALTORS® while the Ken Blanchard call is considered appropriate for everyone, except consumers.

Let's click on the Bob Burg call and burn it onto a CD to share with a REALTOR®.

On the Bob Burg Conference Call page, scroll down to the audio downloads. Here you will find the interview in two versions – the Conference Call and the Gift of Knowledge Interview. Be sure you're using the right version. The conference call version is for you to listen to. It's the unedited version of the original call, which may include extra information (websites, links, discounts, strategies, etc.) which is no longer a part of the GOK call. The GOK call is edited and has a professional introduction and a conclusion for your referral partners.

To burn this GOK onto CD, right-click on the "Download Now" button, select "Save Target As…," and save it to your computer's desktop.

Next, go to your desktop and locate the file you just saved. Right-click on the saved file and select "Add to Burn List."

If you have Windows Media Player (which LTB recommends), it should open automatically. If not – be sure you have a CD in the appropriate disk drive – open your CD Burning software, and follow the prompts. Be sure to create a "music" or "audio" CD.

Next, select the file you saved in your Burn List. Then click "Start Burn."

If you don't have a CD burner, you can order the GOKs from Lithco, a printing and direct mail servicing company that provides LoanToolbox members the ease of ordering professional quality print and CD replication services, directly from the MyLTB interface. To learn more about Lithco, visit the Member Benefits or access them directly from the GOK Label page.

Now that you have a GOK burned onto CD, let's create a label.

First, click on the MyLoanToolbox button from the conference call page or the Gift of Knowledge page, and follow the instructions.

Notice the Introductory Letter that you can download or email to yourself to help get you started. There are also several GOK calls with matching Business Boosters (currently there are six) that introduce the various GOK calls. The Bob Burg GOK is one of them. The others are David Allen, Robert Cialdini, Walter Sanford, Ken Blanchard, and Dave Jenks. As our list of GOKs grows, so will these special Business Boosters.

To access these Business Boosters, click on "Templates" and select "Business Boosters".

Under the Self-Improvement category, you'll find them under Power Reading.

Each of these Business Boosters has a review of the book written by the GOK interviewee, a detailed explanation of how the recommended book relates to the referral partner's business needs, and a call to action that offers a free GOK interview.

You've heard the saying, "Knowledge is power!" and that's certainly true. But knowledge without action is a waste of that power. Use the Gift of Knowledge CDs and unleash this power with your referral partners. Provide them with informative and inspiring interviews with today's business leaders and call them up and provide them with solutions you can implement together to increase your businesses. If you don't plan on following-up your Business Boosters and GOK CDs with a phone call, don't waste your time handing them out. Without action, without following up, you're just a CD distributor.

See you next Wednesday for another Toolbox Tutorial:
Lesson Ten: Maximizing the Talk to the Experts Calls