Yes, I know, shame on me for not getting a post up in the last few weeks.  It’s been a little crazy but believe me the tattoo has been screaming like Harry Potter’s lightning bolt.  The last few weeks however I have been traveling and focused on working with conventional media such as Television and Radio.  Some of these media opportunities have come through planned marketing and some were the luck of being in the right place at the right time.  Warhol was likely correct in his famous quote. “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”  But note he doesn’t say how famous and what impact it will have.

Many authors and business people are striving to grab that 15 minutes and make the most of it or better yet stretch it into a longer period of fame.  It’s not easy.  But I will share with you here some examples of how I am gaining some media exposure and how I am capitalizing.

First and foremost I can’t say enough about media training.  I was blessed to have networked into a relationship with 5 time Emmy Award winner Shawne Duperon.  Shawne taught me valuable lessons on how to build relationships with the media and the results have paid off big time.  In April I attended her workshop and was fascinated as she helped entrepreneurs, authors and even a congressional candidate find comfort and authenticity on camera and radio.

Shawne’s approach was largely responsible for my success in getting a gig with Fox TV, not to mention the happiness of the producers with my segment.  Apparently I will be invited back soon.  Here is my clip from the show.

I hired a Radio Tour specialist to get me on the air and have done about 14 interviews around the country.  I had to have a land liner in the house but it was worth it just for the practice.  This interview with Vicki St. Clair in Seattle was one of the best.

I also did this great Internet radio piece with Mike Brenhaug.  I take every opportunity for airtime I can get.  I try to leverage every opportunity for more airtime as well.

2 weeks ago I was invited to be on the Faith Middleton show for WNPR in Connecticut.  Faith has a big following and wanted to dedicate a show to my other Amazon #1 Best seller Green$ense For the Home.  I told her about ROAR! and my New York Times tattoo before the show and she was so happy with the interview and my story she told her producer right there and then to book me to come back and speak on ROAR!

The best coverage to date has been a regular stint on The Big Biz Show.  These guys are hysterical! Thanks to networking with fellow Wiley author and great speaker Troy Hazard, not only did I get 5 weeks of airtime on the CBS and Armed Forces radio network but I got TV time as well.  These interviews went out to an audience of more than 2,000,000 all told.  Here is a highlight clip.

Of course with all this I have to keep up with getting into the Blogs.  Luckily I met another Wiley author Business expert Kathy Lien while sitting in the Fox Greenroom. We connected on the subject of book marketing and I gave her a copy of ROAR!  She loved the book and wrote this great Blog post. We also got a beautiful Blog review from NYT Best Selling Author Christine Comaford.  Christine runs a great workshop for Entrepreneurs and has been a great supporter.

Most importantly the book has been bringing clients steadily.  With little effort or negotiation TAE has signed several contracts in the last few weeks proving that compelling messaging can attract customers predisposed to buy at a premium price.  Many of these prospective clients have also bought dozens of books for their sales teams.  One prospect CEO bought 60 books after reading it.  While these sales are fantastic and impacting the momentum of the book, unfortunately these sales will reflect as bulk and won’t move the needle on the best selling lists.  But consistent sales will result in steady growth and momentum that could easily put us on major lists by Fall.  Stay tuned.

Summer is almost here and graduations are all around us.  While I haven’t had to attend any graduations this year I have spent some time with some recent college grads.  There is fear and concern among them.  Let’s face it.  This is the most challenging job market most of us have witnessed in decades.  With tons of layoffs and a larger pool of graduates then before the competition is fierce.  As an employer I found difficulty in similar times discerning between candidates.  Most resumes look alike and many are embellished. Everyone says they have management experience, when most likely the only thing many of them managed was their own desk.

I was struck by the contrast of two people I knew heading into the job market this year and their approach to getting their dream jobs.   The first, we will call him “Tom”, is a recent MBA graduate from a respected Mid-western university.  Tom, 29, has been focused on academics.  He has held some decent positions in marketing as a coordinator and participated in internships.  His dream is to work for a major products corporation like Proctor and Gamble.  In the past I have offered to make connections for Tom but he never really showed any interest in meeting people.

Tom recently came out to stay with us for an interview with a major corporation as a product manager.  He seemed frustrated by the lack of response on the part of the interviewer.  I wasn’t surprised.  Tom’s description of the interview was typical.  He went to the meeting, gave them a presentation on himself and answered their questions.  He didn’t deviate from their prescribed interview.

When we got together Tom sighed about it being a long process and how tough it was out there.  This was typical I noticed of Tom over the years.  He was content to let the marketing world accept him as he was.  He felt the MBA would be enough to make him qualified as a marketer and hoped that would yield him $90,000+ annually. He was willing to scrape by and wait until they saw the value he believed he would bring.

While Tom visited, we talked a little about marketing and I tried to engage him in conversation about how to overcome the challenges today but there was no curiosity on Tom’s end to learn about marketing in a practical manner or leverage my connections for employment.  He lacked curiosity and talked about little of substance other than the work he had accomplished in grad school.  In Tom’s mind, his background and experience should be enough to qualify him as a high paid marketer and he will wait out the job community until someone recognizes his talent.

The yang to Tom’s ying is Van Van.  Van is an aggressive young graduate with a degree from UC Davis.  She strung together a few good internships but at 22 doesn’t have much corporate experience.  This doesn’t stop Van from her dream of working as a consultant for a Big 4 firm like Deloitte or Accenture.

Van found me through her relationship with the National Society for Leadership and Success. I sponsored a scholarship contest for students who could represent themselves in a compelling manner.  Van reached out to learn how she could use ROAR! methods to attain her dream job.

Shortly after Van and I spoke by phone I received an email from her.  She had aggressively contacted recruiters using Linked In and scored a connection and interview with a Big 4 recruiter.  Van was aware that her resume alone was not enough to warrant the chance to work at the firm.  A big fan of ROAR!, Van decided to use the Value Proposition concept from Chapter 2 to set herself apart in the interview.  She did her research on the firm and made the decision to be empathetic towards their needs.  The result is best demonstrated in this email she received from the recruiter the next day:

Hi Van,

I wanted to thank you. I don’t usually get surprised any more but sincerely I was pleasantly surprised today. I am glad that we had an opportunity to connect.  It was refreshing to have experienced a conversation, just sharing without pretenses and to just say what you think. And I could tell by the attention that you gave me that the little that I shared was real and useful to you.  Truthful genuine interest in other people is refreshing.

Thank you for your time and for sharing of yourself today.

Since this meeting this recruiter has helped Van rewrite her resume, introduced her to management of the firm and as of this posting she is close to getting her dream job.  Van contacts me regularly to find out how she can get an edge to succeed in today’s business environment.  Her genuine interest in others and how to make the most of her opportunities will bring Van success faster and easier than Tom can ever hope for.

Needless to say Van has been a big supporter of ROAR!  She came and helped at the Borders signing which was a big success.  More and more, people are connecting with the book as evidenced by calls I have received from potential clients and the number of Webinar sign-ups from the coupon in the back.  As of this posting there are only a few thousand books still out there with the coupon and bonus chapter on using ROAR! for personal accomplishment.  I hope you’ll take Van’s approach and benefit as she has from this material.  You might share it with a recent graduate or with someone looking for work.  It would be a shame for them to suffer Tom’s frustration.

An Inbound Marketing group discussion on LinkedIn asked what is the single most important thing about a blog.  I felt compelled to respond and say that this question is exemplary of why so many companies and marketers are struggling in today’s economy.  It’s not about any one thing.  Good sales and marketing is a complex series of integrated actions and events that help buyers find you, build trust and ultimately purchase or go away if appropriate.

So many companies focus on finding the single thing that is going to save them, the current panacea is social media, hence the reason for so much money spent on social media seminars and best selling books by Brian Halligan, Chris Brogan and David Meerman Scott.   Companies put so much effort into looking for this magical home run they have few resources left to hit singles and doubles that can manufacture runs and help them win the game. (What can I say, I am a baseball fan.) In their hope for the big quick cure, they miss small opportunities that can have big impact for little cost.

Here is a direct example from my own efforts.  My publisher Wiley generously printed up 2 chapter previews of ROAR! which have been useful for giving out at speeches and events.  The thought occurred to me to hand these out for a few days on Wall Street near my home. The demographic is right for the book and the action could start a small buzz.  I noticed a Borders Books a block away and thought, ‘Why not direct traffic to the store?’  I contacted Borders and reached their head of events who said he would consider a signing at the store.

When I alerted my publisher the response was initially less than enthusiastic.  “Kevin why would you want to spend all that time passing out previews just to get a few people to a signing.  You might sell 30 books but so what.”  Note that this was a similar reaction to most ideas I bring to the table.  I am often considered to be a bit overly aggressive and unconventional as a marketer.

That being said, the belief at most publishers these days seems to be that nothing works in selling business books except having a big mailing list, speaking to big crowds 2 -3 times a week and spending lots of money on airport bookstore placement.  I pointed out to my editor that Borders has a large window facing Broadway near Wall Street.  Thousands of people pass this window every day. The window is used to highlight a poster and books from the upcoming signing for 3 to 4 weeks.

The relative value of this 1-month window billboard as compared with a bus-stop sign is roughly $5,000.  I continued to meet some resistance from the publisher as I worked to insure we had an appealing window to market the book.  Finally Wiley supported the effort with posters and shipping 70 books for the signing on May 19^th at 5:30PM. The manager at Borders said they usually only reserve signings for national celebrities so it seems I have landed big league play with some minor league actions.

Many traditional marketers would stop there and decide this was an OK accomplishment.  The ending result of the particular window, signing and Wall Street promotion might result in 30 – 50 books sold, respectable but not a big score.  Of course we can’t directly track how many people will buy the book from the preview or from seeing the window.

So, I decided to manufacture some more runs.  I connected with O’Hara’s Bar down the street. As a neighborhood bar they love to support the locals.  In conversations with the owners Mike, Jimmy and Paul, they offered to support the effort with a party after the signing.  They are passing out more previews to their customers over the next three weeks and offering a special ROAR! cocktail (Rumplemintze, Orange juice, Absolut-Rasberry on the signing night for anyone who shows a receipt for buying a copy of ROAR!  They even asked me to sell books on site for those who couldn’t get them at Borders.  I used the O’Hara’s offer to rally local groups of friends and contacts who are supporting the book and celebrate the success.  Several have assured me there will be no books left at Borders.

I get to blog about the incident, show off the window on Facebook and Twitter which gains credibility and makes for another interesting marketing lesson to share. A number of other authors Like Amilya Antonetti have already asked how I got this window and are sharing the marketing approach with their tribes.

All in all this one effort which some thought folly, brings the following:

4 weeks exposure on Broadway near Wall Street.

Direct exposure to 1000+ Wall Street employees

Direct exposure and recommendation to 300 – 500 O’Hara’s customers (Mostly Wall Streeters)

70+ books sold directly.

Dozens of new customers for O’hara’s

Exposure to 100,000+ thousand Twitter & Facebook Followers with Borders branded credibility.

By themselves each result is not a home run but all together they do a good job of upping the score in sales and exposure.  The goal with any good marketing is to create multiple impressions that engage the loyal followers and attract and encourage new fans to buy the product.  Stringing together a series of hits and looking for ways to add to each opportunity is the best way to do that consistently.  In case you would like to join us on May 19^th.  Here is the info below.  Come get your book signed and have a cocktail.

Borders  5:30 – 7:00 PM

100 Broadway (Btwn Wall and Pine)

O’Hara’s  7:00 PM until we stumble home.

120 Cedar Street (At Greenwich)

Every time I hear a guru like Brian Halligan speak I feel wholly inadequate.  Just when I feel like I am getting a handle on Twitter or Facebook or the metrics for all the marketing work I am doing, then I read a book like Brian’s Inbound Marketing or hear a speaker that shows me how much I am missing.  It would be nice to have the money to hire a company like Hubspot as long as I have an extra 3 full time employees or thousands of spare dollars lying around. (Which obviously I don’t.)

Imagine, unlike today, my SEO – Search Engine Optimization would be perfect along with my SMO – Social Media Optimization and my NPS – Net Promoter Score. Tons of people would flock to me and want to do business.  Maybe.  What Brian spoke about and created at Hubspot was a great series of tools.  In fact some of what they bring to the table is actually tools for measuring tools.  Brian spent 60 minutes aptly listing and organizing all the marketing tools and measuring tools you could and should have to maximize your presence with electronic media.  It was impressive. It was overwhelming.  It might have been futile.   Brian forgot to mention a key point.

You need a compelling message. Just because you put stuff out there on Twitter or the web, doesn’t mean enough of the right people will respond to create a successful business.  All the traffic in the world won’t matter if you aren’t resolving the pain and fulfilling the needs of your constituency.  This is the focus of my book ROAR! To truly get heard in that Social Media jungle you have to make sure the buyers in need know that you get their pain.

Empathy is the magnet that attracts buyers predisposed to buy and at a premium price.  Of course you also have to deliver a worthwhile solution as well as clear differentiation as to why you are the best solution provider to close the deal.  But it’s empathy that gets the attention of the buyer in the first place.

Too many social media marketers love to use snarkyness and features to get your attention but they often garner attention from the wrong people for the wrong reasons.  Then they don’t follow through with a real solution and actual differentiation.  They focus heavily on getting you to their site only to sound the same as their competitors in a self indulgent manner.

I believe marketing should be about efficiency rather than volume.  The concepts in ROAR! are designed not to pull lots of people with little pull-through, but rather to attract the right people and serve their need with little convincing and effort.

With only 140 characters or less than 3 minutes in a video, one has to hit the heart directly and correctly. Otherwise the message falls away and becomes part of the noise.  We try to make this empathetic connection in our ROAR! marketing materials.  In the new ROAR! video we go right for the pain/empathy from the very beginning, show the solution and differentiate all in less than 2.5 minutes.  And we work hard to make it entertaining so people will pass it around.  Will we be the next “Will it Blend”?  (iPad lovers shouldn’t watch this.) Probably not, but we should attract, serve and benefit plenty who need to communicate in a compelling way.

I believe the consistency of my marketing approach explains why ROAR! became an Amazon #1 best seller so quickly. Yet I continue to refine my material so I can get more relevant eyeballs and make greater impact. Whether through my speaking, writing or even the press I try to focus on solving the pain of how to say the right things to the right people in the right way.  Using the ROAR! solution may decrease some traffic by repelling those who don’t suffer that pain but should increase traffic among those who do, providing better efficiency for social media dollars.  Where most marketers fall short is focusing more on the medium than the message.

Our social media program is still far from perfect and I try to learn new methods and practices every day.  Sitting at the speaker’s table at Gazelles I was lucky enough to sit next to Brian and shared thoughts with him after his speech.  The conversation was open and receptive and in true admirable, consistent fashion worthy of a social media guru, his response was “Good point. You should blog about it.”

What started as an unexpected event Friday morning turned into a branding coup that put ROAR! on the path to history.

This Amazon campaign was semi-planned.  I knew there were some concentrated purchases that were going to hit sometime in the next week or so.  I was notified Friday morning that a big buy was happening and started watching the number climb.  Within 2 hours of the call we had hit #2 in marketing.  Since we were close enough I figured let’s get a #1 ranking for bragging rights.  Once you are a #1 best seller you can always claim that brand.  So I called out the troops and the chase was on.  Many supporters stepped up and bought books.  Within 3 hours we peaked at very respectable numbers.

Best result

#1 Best Seller in Marketing Books,

#2 Business Best Seller,

#22 Overall Best Seller

As my friend and Guru Verne Harnish pointed out. ”Hey, maybe it’s not the Jewish Super Bowl ring but it’s the Rose Bowl!”  And definitely a great start!  Here is what we got from the experience.

Value

• ROAR! is officially a Best Seller and an Amazon #1 Best Seller at that.  This brand gives the book and me credibility with media, consumers and customers that will help in generating more opportunities.  Plus it now shows in Amazon Hot Releases and Movers and Shakers lists that will garner more attention.
• Wiley is pleased.  We moved hundreds of books in the campaigned and demonstrated we are serious about making this a breakout book.  They will likely bring more resources to the party.
• We energized the base. Sales are still coming in sustaining our ranking and we got the attention necessary to start the buzz.  Plus all those books sold will be read and hopefully people will talk about the book and share it as well.

Lessons learned

• It takes a lot to beat Oprah and Vampires.  A top 25 ranking is nothing to sneeze at.  But getting to the top 10 and the NYT list will take much greater, widespread effort and consistency.  The books at that level have major money and campaigns behind them.  We will need to continue our guerilla efforts aggressively until we can compete with their resources.
• As my father says, “Man plans and God laughs.”  I had hoped to coordinate and concentrate into many channels in advance.  It was a bit like herding cats and I could not have predicted exactly when people would take action or focus attention on ROAR!  Many people stepped into the game with the excitement.  Keeping tabs on my resources and connections allowed me to concentrate their focus at a moments notice.  Of course looking back I definitely could have planned, coordinated and executed better.
• You will break a few eggs when marketing aggressively.  My base mailing list is about 1500 and growing.  We updated several times Friday afternoon since we needed immediate sales to impact the Amazon number and wanted to keep the fun going.  Most of the email responses we got were very supportive.  We have been using Fanbridge as a great email tool which helps us track list activity.  We lost about 20 subscribers and had a couple of friends say 4 emails in the day was too much.  On the other hand it’s likely that many of those unsubscribers would never have bought a book and there were nearly 100 click-throughs on the bit.ly link from the campaign.  The go-get-um emails outnumbered the complaints by 20 to 1.  Ironically some of the complainers and unsubscribers were marketers.  Go figure.

All in all, the Amazon campaign was a great experience.  We sold a lot of books, fired up the troops and are off and running. Special kudos go to many power players who helped in the campaign.  I hope you’ll check out their links and hopefully support their endeavors.

Verne Harnish and Gazelles – I am keynoting their Summit this week.  Well worth attending online.

Amilya Antonetti – Check out her great new book The Recipe

Gazelles International – The coaches do a great job helping companies grow and really helped.

Len Oppenheimer – A real mensch and the inspiration for ROAR!  Buy a box from Lenny.

Dennis Erokan and Placemaking group – Their blasts are still pushing sales as we speak.

Herta Kriegner of Uber inc. Design – Fabulous Graphic designer

Gary Tuerack of National Society of Leadership and Success – Every college kid should belong

Adam Wolfson – My most trusted insurance guy

Gary Cohn – Great employee benefits adviser

Michael Roderick – Great blogger and our theatre world connection

Dr. Steve Green – Pounded out the word.  Check out his blog on coaching

Sue Mondeel of Sadie Deys Café -  Fun for Mom, Dad and kids

Mary Jane Mapes – Great communications speaker and trainer.

John Papaloukas – If you visit Victoria, grab some pizza

Dan Turner – ROAR! Co Author – set me up with auto updates every 15 minutes so I wouldn’t call and bug him every 15 minutes

Thanks to everyone who spread the word and bought books. There is lots more fun to come.  I confirmed today that the book is in stores now and the first print run with the special chapter and coupon will only be around for a short time so tell your friends, now is the time to buy!

It’s amazing how things always seem to come together just at the right time.  I wasn’t originally planning a launch party since I didn’t think my network in New York City would support a big party.  The cost of the launch party and promotion wasn’t likely to be worth the book sales and in NYC a book launch doesn’t do anything for press unless you are a celebrity of some kind.

But then I was offered the chance to speak at Go Green Expo in Philadelphia on April 16^th and 17^th and found out we would have books ready and waiting.  Hmmm, I thought. “I have been speaking in Philly and working with Gazelles coaches down there and Smart Business Magazine has a strong following.  Why not have a launch in the city of brotherly love?”

So we are!  On April 15^th Smart business Magazine and Joseph Fox Bookstore are having a ROARing book signing party at the Sofitel!  Come and join me!

I was able to quickly create a promotional blast through several of my channels and I used bit.ly links to track the traffic as it comes in.  I am hoping for 75+ for the launch but it could possibly exceed 100.

I am working with 5 time Emmy award winning media expert Shawne Duperon to push for TV media around the launch.  Shawne has been a godsend in networking and teaching me how to go after TV media.  Now I have the chance to use her techniques.  “It’s a process not an event.” as Shawne would say, so I will keep my focus high, my expectations low and my mind open to learn from my mistakes.  Ironically the media pitch approach benefits strongly from ROAR principles.  Reporters are definitively the Buyer unwilling to ask and the Pain/Solution/Differentiation structure of the Value Proposition makes for a solid template as idenitfied in the ROAR! 2 chapter Sneak Peek.

Speaking of media, yesterday I secured my dream for the big push, a radio tour!  I was able to make affordable arrangements with a very knowledgeable radio/PR specialist (more about her to come).  We are working to get 20 – 40 interviews in late April and early May.  Many should be on NPR. Of course I will chronicle our success so you all can listen.

I actually got an actual copy of ROAR! from my editor last Thursday. The timing was perfect! I was having 16 great friends over for a Passover Seder and was able to share the joy connecting the Four Buyers concept from the book with the Four Sons in the Seder.

It’s a special moment for any writer to take pride in the first hardcover book.  It’s a great package.  The cover is terrific and the smaller size makes the book what one friend appropriately coined as “Yummy!”.

After my last post several people asked how they could help make ROAR! a success.  From here on out I will provide a couple of suggestions in each entry now that the book is ready to launch.

1. Buy the book – If you haven’t ordered, now is the time.  Whether it’s online or at your local store, the books were shipped this week and now you can finally see what it’s all about.

2.  Tell a friend – Send out an email with a link to our Website so other people will enjoy the book as well.

Thanks to all for your support.  The fun is just beginning.

We are coming up on the launch of ROAR! in just a couple of weeks and everything is starting to bubble.  I am in full swing now focused on speaking engagements and launches.  My calendar of dates is starting to fill and I am excited about the release.

I have had some significant conversations with my editor of late discussing which of the many approaches I have taken to market the book are most effective.  The truth is that none of them on their own will do the job.  I believe the trick to making the book successful is to take every opportunity to market myself and the book and make the most of it by integrating it with everything else I am doing.

So if I get a piece of press I need to leverage it through facebook and twitter to build it into exposure and hopefully a speaking gig.   It has an exponential reaction.  For example,  book marketing expert John Kremer promoted my blog which made connections for me and then publishing and publicity expert Rick Frishman reposted it again.  Just this caused pre-orders and boosted our Amazon number from #300,000 to #35,000 in a day.

Doug Davidoff posted this great review and I have been able to send out links helping to gain credibility for speaking.

I wrote 250 individual emails to friends asking them to promote the book for Passover which turned into two online interviews, orders and a couple of people volunteering to promote me further.

Every day I wake up and see the tattoo on my chest, which guides my path.  Here are a couple more examples of how.

A few weeks ago I was at lunch with a friend in Hollywood and comedeanne Sarah Silverman walked by.  Hard to believe but I actually get a little shy with celebrities.  I realized this was an opportunity to give her my book.  Who knows, she might like it.  Of course she also might call the police.  Normally I would have decided not to bother her and just leave but I realized I would not have been true to the Tattoo.  So I walked up and introduced myself.  I gave her the book and she was very kind.  She may not ever read it but at least I had honored my commitment and you just never know.

The toughest example of honoring my commitment resulted this week in this article appearing in US News and World Report.  Many of you may already know that my life was turned upside down by the financial crisis.  ROAR! is the bi-product of my reinvention after my 25 year mortgage business collapsed.

Part of being a New York Times Best Selling author means putting yourself in the public light.  Rather than hiding my financial failure and trying to represent myself as only successful, my wife and I chose to be public about our bankruptcy and foreclosures sharing with others how we struggled and are now prevailing.

I learned early in this game from a great book mentor Peter Economy that being a successful author requires one to be a shameless self promoter.  If you are going to be a shameless self promoter, it helps to hold your head high with no shame.  The article does a good job of telling the story of failure, learning and success and allows me to focus forward on the opportunities ahead.  For those of you struggling in this economic environment I hope you get value from the article as well as the tools in ROAR!

After my last post many asked what role a Trade publisher plays in the marketing of books.  They have limitations as well.  Most trade publishers have over 100 books to market this year and like any big company they have to streamline their process to stay profitable.

Since many authors wonder what marketing comes from big time publishers for unknown authors, here are some of the things I have learned from my previous trade experiences and talking I have done with other authors and agents.

• Posters and flyers – Some publishers will at their cost create and ship for speaking events
• Postcards – Some publishers will participate in postcard campaigns.
• Advance copies – Often publishers will send out a certain amount of advance copies to the press and reviewers but when those run out expect to buy your own at your author price.
• Liaison with Booksellers – Most publishers will help the booksellers buy at discount for events if they expect 50+ books are likely to be sold.
• Videos on Amazon –  The trades have good Amazon relationships and can help with video posting which has shown to increase conversion by 30%
• Pair Roar! on Amazon –  As a self publisher I learned it costs money to request those pairings on the Amazon page but some publishers will foot the bill to have the book show up with their top sellers.
• PR – The publishers will often send a release announcing books and post on their own press page.
• Email blast – Most trade publishers have there own mailing lists with thousands of names.  Obviously they promote all new volumes to this list.
• Specialty Book Promos – Bigger publishers may offer special promotions in their mailers and catalogs to their bigger bookstore buyers
• Ad design – My past publishers were willing to offer graphic help where needed if they could spare the resources.
• Author connections – You can ask for connections to other successful authors. It give you a chance to learn from their successes and failures.
• Distribution – This is a trade publisher’s best tool. The bigger and more powerful the publisher the more likely your book is on every shelf in America.  This means more coverage in the stores and is a major reason for going trade.  Every book on the shelf is a billboard for your book.

In addition to all this of course once you have a deal, trade publishers have already invested tens of thousands of dollars in the project and provide the use of their brand, which personally has helped me with speaking and writing opportunities.  Other items like Radio satellite tours and paying premiums to put ROAR! in airport books stores are usually out of the question unless the book sells tons right off the bat. Although I know one author whose publisher set up a series of speaking engagements first time out.  Fyi, it costs thousands of dollars a week to have your book in an airport bookstore and the sales rarely pay for the expense.

After this week I can see why publishers are pushing their authors to speak.  I spoke to 100 people in Philly and Michigan, which resulted in about 75 pre-orders.  I am always looking for more speaking opportunities so if you know of one bring it on.  Here is where I will be speaking next.

As the launch date approaches in April things are heating up.  Although the pre-order numbers will likely fall short of the original goal, the momentum I have built is setting up nicely to take a serious run at making this book a New York Times Best Seller. All the pre-work over the last several months is resulting in new opportunities daily.  Of course along with the opportunities comes more work.  Since I don’t have a staff or deep pockets it’s a little hard to keep up.

This is a typical entrepreneurial challenge.  I know what needs to be done, but I struggle with the resources to do it.  The campaign I am attempting generally requires several full time employees and well over $100,000.  Since I have neither of these available I have to constantly edit the opportunities or find creative ways to keep up.

All the help from Wiley is appreciated but still the bulk of the marketing responsibility is on me as we move into this crucial time for the Quest. The workload is heavy since I have no paid staff.  Here is a basic list of what’s required in time and effort.

• Blog – I try to do this once a week but as you can see it’s been more like every 10 – 12 days.  It takes me 2 – 3 hours to write and post with all the links.
• Linked in – I add new connections daily and work through 38+ groups to gain awareness.  It has limited impact because I really need other people talking about me instead of self-promotion.  I try and put in an hour a day on this when I can.
• Facebook – I add friends and with help update the Fan page.  This takes 1 hour a week.
• Twitter – I add followers and update every time anything happens.  I have help with this  so it only takes up 1 hour a week.
• Networking – I set up 2 to 3 calls and meetings with new people every day when possible to excite CEOs, authors, bloggers and other influencers about the book and my quest.  This can pay off in speaking opportunities like my gig at Author 101 University in LA on March 4^th.  This requires 1 hour a day in actual networking plus 3 – 4 hours a day for the meetings.
• Smart Business Magazine – I write a new column and create a new video every month.  I also work with their people to create webinars, speaking events and promotions that will give them and ROAR! greater exposure.  This month I created a great opportunity in Michigan for March 11th from this work.  On average I invest 15 hours per month into this process including interviewing the subject writing the article and making the video.
• Gazelles – I work with their 100+ coaches to improve their marketing.  In return they talk about ROAR! to their clients and set up speaking opportunities like this one in Philly March 9^th.  This takes roughly 3 – 5 hours a week at the moment but demands are increasing since more coaches are engaging.  This relationship paid off big with a speaking gig at their conference April 21^st.
• PR – Placemaking Group has been generously helping me with basic PR like putting out Press Releases and contacting media but the real campaigns are just beginning and the weight of that is on me.  I am creating a media package and campaign that will include postcards, lumpy mail and phone follow up to roughly 1000 media people.  It has to be creative and will require the help of volunteers to support the effort since I have little money.  As it is the hard cost of the campaign will be roughly $3500 at it’s cheapest.  I expect this will require 1 – 2 days a week for my wife Deanna and me plus the time of the volunteers.  Additionally we are spending an hour a week brainstorming ways to get the media interested in the book.  Haven’t unlocked the magic idea yet but hopefully soon.
• Universities – I am compiling a list of emails for every business professor in the country so I can send them announcements and samples of the book in hopes they will suggest it to their students.  I am also working with the National Society for Leadership and Success to sponsor a scholarship essay contest based upon ROAR!  This is a new approach for them and will require 2 – 3 hours a week of my time to get off the ground.
• Promotions – I am constantly creating new ways to get the ROAR! message out through other people’s channels.  Whether it’s creating events or contests I try and devote an hour a week to come up with new executable ideas.
• Articles – Aside from my column I am getting increasing opportunities to publish in other magazines.  This has been happening about twice a month, which takes roughly 5 – 6 hours.
• Video – The Roar video will need updating as the pre-order deadlines pass.  New, shorter, funnier videos are in the works to stir up more buzz as we get closer to launch.  I am starting to get some volunteer help with the editing.  All in all each video takes roughly 10 – 20 hours of work and we will need to post a new one every 30 – 60 days.
• The Jewish Community – Since ROAR! extols Jewish culture I am aggressively trying to get the Jewish leaders to promote the book.  I sent 200 preview copies Jewish Leaders and am now following up to discuss their active promotion of the book.  It requires some chasing but I am starting to make some headway.  I spend 2 – 3 hours a week on this effort but am stepping it up.
• Sponsorship – A new trend has developed in corporations paying money to authors to get their names in fromt of people.  There are agents now focusing on this but often they charg $3,000 – $5,000 to sign you up and prepare your package.  If they get you money they’ll take 20%.  It’s fair dollars if they come through but beyond my current means so I am trying to put together the opportunities myself.  Currently I put roughly 1 – 2  hours a week into this effort.
• Consulting – This is luckily a revenue generator for me.  My consulting clients obviously love my material and are helpful spreading the word.  I have been slowly and steadily building this side of my business, which is now just covering my overhead in this challenging market.  I am averaging 10 – 15 hours a week in consulting work at the moment.
• Speaking – This is a major focus for the next year.  There are three types of gigs.  Paid which are the best kind.  Unpaid but expenses covered which I do whole heartedly to move books and at least create additional consulting opportunities.  Unpaid and no expenses.  These are challenging only because I need the exposure but have to come out of pocket $200 – $600 plus time to get the word out.  As more of these stack up it impacts cash flow.  Promoting for the speaking process is also very time consuming.  I have to customize emails and flyers depending upon the audience and often have to modify the PowerPoint and speech itself.  I often help the host with their marketing approach and I also collect video to edit. All in all this process is taking roughly 10 hours a week of time and increasing as the opportunities get more frequent.

The biggest challenge with getting all of this done aside from the lack of time and money is that it is very difficult to promote yourself at this level.  People want to hear from someone else that is promoting you. It adds to the trust and elevates your position as a thought leader.

It gets a little daunting some days.  I am always looking for people to help and try to make sure I give plenty of value back to those who do in the form of learning, connections and opportunities.  If anyone of you out there want to learn from my experience and get involved let me know.  I’ll take any help I can get in the form of connections, consulting referrals, speaking opportunities, or even making a few phone calls.  (I’m not picky.)  It’s a challenging adventure but fun and rewarding.  How often does one get a real chance to go after a dream and make it reality?

Don’t worry, The “Stupid” of which I speak is me.  As I sit roughly 60 days out from the release of ROAR! I know clearly what must happen to put this book on the New York Times list and fulfill my quest.

It’s time to worry less about getting people excited around the tattoo, Shlomo, Super Bowls, etc and focus on the message of the book.  Don’t get me wrong, those stories have gotten us attention and will continue getting us initial exposure opportunities but ultimately it’s the value of the book itself, which will translate to sales.

So far I have racked up commitments for around 1,500 pre-orders.  While that is respectable this early it’s not likely going to give me the needed boost required for hitting the list first day out. After talking with a few best selling authors and a list consultant named Mike Drew whom my agent and I call “The Listinator” I learned and confirmed a few new things:

1. The list reflects proportionate sales of which Amazon is 12% to 14%.

2.  All sales considered bulk sales (For a variety of known and unknown reasons) by major booksellers are counted as 1 sale.

3.  I can use bulk sales but must get them to purchase as individual single orders which makes getting bulk sales challenging.

4.  Even though Wiley will ship the book on a certain date there is no way without heroic efforts to get the retailers to report the sales at the same time, meaning sales will likely report over a couple of weeks.

5.  Truly manipulating the system costs well over $250,000, which I don’t have and probably wouldn’t spend if I did.

OK, so I have learned that it will be very hard to coordinate everything necessary to assure being on the list. That doesn’t mean my presale effort has been worthless. Every book sale counts and the work done has already led to speaking and press opportunities, blog postings, and increased attention from Wiley’s marketing which starts up in another 30 days.  Here are the most recent wins for which I am thankful to all:

Shel Horowitz – Author of  several marketing books including his latest Guerilla Marketing Goes Green with Jay Conrad Levinson, Shel posted a rave on ROAR!

Eric Herrenkohl – Eric blogged about us and has his own Wiley book on hiring A players launching in April.  I’ve read it.  Very useful.

Doug Davidoff – Doug is a respected fast growth consultant, blogger and columnist who posted this great post about ROAR!.

Hilary Topper – Hilary posted this review last week.  Hilary is a PR and Social Media specialist with her own how-to book on getting the word out digitally.

On top of that my Smart Business Magazine relationship has really kicked in.  They are promoting me in a Webinar Friday February 19^th, and writing about me in the March issue not to mention my column itself just this week has led to promoted gatherings in 3 cities (More on this next week).

All of this is setting up a steady schedule of ways to get out the word on the book.  And the book is what this is really all about. Thank God people love it. So this month my attention is focused on aggressively pushing the content of the book in a compelling manner.  We know the concepts of the Value Proposition and the Four Buyers are creating ROAR! believers around the country.  We are getting several daily downloads of the SneakPeak.  More daily since we took away the email request.  (Thanks Doug.)

My strategy over the next 60 days is to refine compelling pitches to the media and bloggers that stress how people can and are using ROAR! methodology to succeed in this crappy economic environment.  The tattoo may get them to listen but it’s the content that will get them to buy.

It’s the compelling and entertaining nature of ROAR! itself that lately has been attracting people to the movement to help this book be a success. One friend that’s helping me with Twitter has increased my followers by 500 percent.  Several are working the bloggers to get them to read the book.  But I need to give them compelling messaging to cut through the noise.

Over the next few weeks I am aggressively targeting those groups that I know will connect and benefit such as the unemployed, the author community, the Jewish community, the marketing community, the entrepreneurial community.  These groups are all suffering from mediocre messaging.  I will give them tools to grow and show them rather than tell them.  Each message will be carefully constructed in line with the VP from ROAR!  Additionally I am looking for ways to entice bigger sales in these groups.  I have offered to waive my speaking fees where 200 book orders are assured.  I am also willing to help groups with their Value Proposition if they assure 500 pre-orders.

From here on out I am focused on making clear the book concepts  in my writing, my press and from the stage, which is the real push once the book launches. It’s time for me to ROAR! and prove the power of truly compelling messaging.