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.

As we end the first month of the big push to get the word out I am able to see more clearly which promotional actions are working and of course which actions aren’t.  Since people tend to learn more from failure than success, I am pleased to report that while there have been some strong successes for myself and the team of supporters helping me, there has been a whole lot of learning to share as well.

The personal networking has paid off nicely. I have commitments for roughly 1,100 pre-orders so far plus the orders already hitting Amazon. I am working with Wiley and independent bookstores to evenly distribute the sales so they count individually which is required for the New York Times List.

Additionally, people are broadcasting the word more and more.  The excellent graphic designer Sara Noto just blasted out a promo in her February newsletter and it has already popped up the Amazon number.  Thanks Sara!

Here is the learning part:

Engaging the press is hit or miss without the SUPER-WOW factor. We had hoped to get some traction during Super Bowl week for the human interest sections of the press and media. Between Haiti, The Massachusetts election and the economy there isn’t much room for a fun story about a Super Bowl Ring Quest. Our PR Wire press release was picked up by 30+ websites but not much coverage beyond.

We refocused towards the sportswriters.  Our approach was enough to get some response and listening but mostly they felt while the story was cute and funny, it wasn’t really news relative to the Super Bowl so no one has picked it up for a story. Apparently we are about as exciting as the Pro-Bowl, which also got little or no coverage despite its move up date.

In moving forward with the press we are identifying target demographics such as the Jewish community, mom-preneurs, etc., where we have connections, and finding the specific angles that work for them. It takes several tries to find the right angle but at least these attempts are not as time sensitive so we can keep pounding past the book release in April.

Connections by themselves are not enough. I am certainly blessed with a strong network and I have been working it hard, especially when it comes to gaining learning and promotion through other gurus and best selling authors. It has been a real hit-and-miss to engage respected leaders in the business and social media communities. A number have already been helpful such as Verne Harnish, Jack Daly, Peter Shankman, Jennifer Openshaw and Sam Horn. Several best-selling authors are also being supportive such as Bill Bartmann, Ken Fisher, Michael Gelb, Harvey Mackay and Christine Comaford. These supporters are sharing insights on book marketing and raising awareness of ROAR! in ways sure to make a positive impact on the Quest.

Other best-selling authors have been difficult to engage despite personal connections.  Here are some of my challenges:

David Bach – A fellow member of the New York chapter of EO, David and I have communicated about books in the past.  Several friends have suggested he speak to me but my last email to him suggesting coffee here in NYC has gone unanswered.

Tim Ferris – A couple of fellow EOers  including speaker Mark Friedler put books into Tim’s hand.  As of yet I don’t believe I have hit Tim’s radar.

Seth Godin – Several friends have emailed Seth about me and I have had some short replies from my own emails to Seth.  He has a copy of ROAR! I admire that he does his best to respond to everyone. However,  I have yet to get him to fully engage.

Other connections have been attempted with other best selling authors which has also met with similar results.

I don’t fault these authors for not responding to me and this list is not intended to shame them.  In fact it’s quite the opposite: I am the one who is ashamed. As promised, I am transparently sharing my failure to create a compelling enough reason for these authors to engage with me and support ROAR! in a public manner.

It’s quite possible they will need a Trust Agent such as the New York Times List or other major media to deem my work worthy of comment. Until then it’s up to me to find a way to bring significance to their world so they will bestow their most valuable commodities of time and endorsement.

That means there is still plenty of creative work ahead on my part.

I believe I am probably sitting at the most critical point in this Quest. There was much excitement in the planning and preparation of all the marketing tools like the video.   When I launched after the first of the year I took satisfaction in seeing a couple of Sneak Peeks being ordered every day.  Now that I am into the meat of the process with only 90 days until the book release I recognize the scale of the goal I have set.

We have some great early wins.  The press from the first few weeks created buzz and attracted several people who are now volunteering their time to help with PR, social media.  The 1500 advance copies and speaking gigs are now turning into sales, 20 here and 30 there.  Our Amazon # has been lifting steadily and I have emails committing to roughly 650 pre-orders that have not yet been executed.  The big endorsement broadcasts are just starting.  Jack Daly sent out a beautiful endorsement to his 30,000 Jackaholics today.  Thanks Jack!  Every day we get a new win that proves we are having impact.

But at the same time the hill gets steeper.  The math is clear.  We need roughly 85 sales per day from here to hit the New York Times in the first week.  For every day we don’t hit that number we increase the amount we have to get the next day. With my travel schedule and consulting work (I have to make a living) I have been slow to get the word out to everyone that can help.  I am working 18-hour days to get as much attention as possible and in some cases it’s a challenge.  The reality is clear. If we don’t make it in the first week we have to get 8000 sales every week to make the list.  At that point there is not much I can do to influence sales.  Some best selling authors have spent over $1 million to influence that market which is certainly not an option for me.

We are coming to the wire on getting press attention based upon the Super Bowl News cycle.  Unexpected, important news issues like Haiti and the Massachusetts election dominate the feature sections so we have shifted to go after only the sports media since they have to report on sports, but it’s a noisy press environment out there and our Super Bowl connection will be gone after the Jets win on February 7^th.  We postponed our Sam Horn interview because it seems not everyone is back in the swing of things.  We’ll shoot for March, a consistently successful time for the 10,000 Friends of Sam Horn audience.

We have made some traction with our efforts in getting Wiley’s media engine engaged.  They are definitely rewarding our efforts with more attention and services than a typical unknown author would get this early but it’s been made clear by their head of PR that we need a big media win or large bulk sale for them to spend money before the actual release.  After consulting with other best selling authors our holy grail from Wiley’s marketing department would be a satellite radio tour.  Richard Strauss is great at putting these together but they can get pricey for a bootstrapping operation like ours.  Obviously for Wiley to spend the thousands they have to firmly believe it will result in comparable book sales and they are not overwhelmingly convinced… yet.

Don’t get me wrong; I firmly believe getting 8,000 pre-orders for the book is achievable.  But the numbers confirm my suspicions that this process will not be steady and linear.  It will require a big push up a hill with the hopes of coasting after the crest to success.   This is the point where faith becomes crucial.   I have seen many companies start marketing programs of this type only to give up when the original idea seems insurmountable and just before they were ready to breakthrough.

Short time frames can be deceiving.  I know intellectually we are on track and ignore the concern or at least dampen it with a good martini at the end of the day.  As the target gets closer the tattoo burns on my skin not unlike the famous Harry Potter lightening bolt scar but I continue easily because I am committed to the goal, and the process. Small wins help me manage my impatience. Today I challenged several well connected friends to bring 1500 pre-orders to the table.  They have the connections and are willing.  I will have to manage the logistics to make sure the sales are individual sales that count since bulk orders don’t.

Everyday I learn a little more, leverage each new opportunity and course correct as needed. People are waking up and taking action. The momentum is building.  The tipping point is out there. Every action taken adds to the leverage necessary to make the Quest a reality.

This adventure is best described with my wife Deanna’s description of life with me… “Not always pleasant, but never boring.”

Now that New Year’s empty bottles are in the recycling bin and people are getting back to work the time has come to officially kick the Quest into gear.  I spent the last three months making sure my ducks were in a row.  The website is ready with the first video, the book is available to order at both B & N and Amazon and the 2 chapter Sneak Peek is ready to download.  All this is fine but it’s like a tree falling in the forest with no one around if I don’t get the word out effectively.

I have to leverage my network of contacts broadly and efficiently to spread the word and call people to action.  This is a tough task for three reasons.

1.  People are busy – I have to get their attention from other things they are doing and get them to take valuable time to help me.

2.  I am busy – I have close to 1000 contacts by the time I count my email connections, organizations, Linked In and Facebook friends.  Sending blanket emails seems self-defeating if I want to address problem #1 so I will have to appropriate time to send 1000 emails.

3. It’s a personal favor – Asking for someone to spread the word and buy a book isn’t a big “ask”, but it’s still an “ask”.  Some people find it easy to ask for money or ask for business or any sort of favor.  Being Jewish I naturally feel guilty so asking for help automatically kicks in my guilt gene making me question to myself, “Have I done enough for this person to warrant my asking them a favor?

Luckily, I stared at the tattoo this morning (as in every morning) and was reminded of my commitment, which I define as the willingness to go out of my comfort zone.  I am uncomfortable asking favors but it’s now or never to get that Jewish Super Bowl Ring so I am ready to ask away.

The key is to ask in a smart inoffensive way so I maintain my relationships with those who are not inclined to engage just yet.  This is a big conundrum for many marketers.  You want to engage people to do something.  You have to make it something they want to do whether or not it directly impacts them naturally.  So you have to establish the value for them in the way you present it.

My approach is to first separate my network into three categories and address different emails and calls to each.  Here they are.

1.  People close to me whom I can ask anything. – The direct approach is best.  These people are strongly tied to me and I will be blunt, specific and direct about what I want, why I want it and most importantly how to do it. – These people get value from helping a friend and being part of the adventure.

2.  People I know reasonably well but are not accustomed to asking for help. – Here is where I stretch out of my comfort zone by asking favors.  The key is to be confident that the blog, video and book provide value.  Certainly the book endorsements and overwhelmingly positive response to the video help here. – These people get value from what the product has to offer and engaging in an entertaining story.

3.  People I know but with whom I have little political capital – I don’t want to offend these people by soliciting them directly.  My approach here is to simply inform and engage in hopes they will see the video and/or read the blog to be inspired and act accordingly. – These people may or may not see the value directly but hopefully something appeals to them and provides them some aspect of entertainment.

It’s a delicate process, particularly with my Entrepreneur’s Organization relationships and Linked In where direct solicitation is frowned upon or in some cases prohibited.

The fun is in figuring out how to inspire and engage all of these people to make a powerful impact in pre-orders and spreading of the word.  Stay tuned to see the results since we will start to chronicle the pre-orders, Sneak Peek downloads and web visits as we get closer to the goal.

So far in the last couple of weeks we have had more than 50 downloads and over a dozen pre-orders and we are just barely getting started.

Thanks as always to those that are already spreading the word.  This week was very exciting.

We were featured in The Examiner book section with this article.

Smart Business Magazine also launched the first edition of my new column this week.  This is a national monthly column so I hope you will follow along.

Next week you can hear the great author and speaker Sam Horn interview me on Tuesday January 19th at 8PM EST/5PM PST.  It’s only $19 and you can sign up by calling Cheri @ 1 805-528-4351 to register for the live event.  Hope you’ll join us.

OK, It’s a fair question.  Here I am asking you to spread the word and part with $18 – $25 to pre-order ROAR! so I can make my dream of being on the New York Times Best Seller list come true.

What’s it to you?  Maybe nothing.  But let me start by telling you why it’s important to me and then I’ll suggest some ways you can get value as well.  I’ll start with my mission in life.  My “Why” as Simon Sinek calls it.

My mission is to inspire people to pursue The Awesome Experience.

Wow, lofty.  I would love to tell you that this is an altruistic endeavor brought on by my love of humankind.  Uhh, not really.  The truth is, most of humankind annoys me.  (Ah truth!) See that’s the point.  I want to inspire people to pursue The Awesome Experience because I just can’t stand mediocrity.  And yet we are surrounded by it, every day, sometimes every hour.  (You know you agree.)

Each moment in business and in life I believe most people have a choice to be responsible for their own experience.  So why is it they choose to make it a crappy one?  I believe the thought of making it an awesome one just hasn’t occurred to them, or maybe they just don’t know how.

If everyone chose to make things awesome, that means none of us would have to suffer mediocrity, including you and me.  Now I understand not everyone can be awesome all the time (Even me.), but at least if people are trying we can decrease the amount of mediocrity we all have to endure.

Narcissistic you say?  That’s fair.  I believe most entrepreneurs and thought leaders are what I call Benevolent Narcissists.  We are narcissistic in that we have our vision or idea that we will push through to success regardless of those nay-sayers around us.  However we are benevolent in the fact that we love to take our friends and supporters along for the ride.

I get joy from involving people in the journey.  My hope is that the Quest for the Jewish Super Bowl Ring benefits the people around me as much or more than it helps me. That it inspires people to mount their own quest for success. Now for you Cynical Buyer’s, (You’ll learn this term in ROAR!) I will admit to there being plenty of benefit for me.  In fact I will list my top 6 benefits here in the spirit of transparency and to educate other New York Times best selling wannabes.

1.  Status – The NYT list is the pinnacle for authors and establishes instant renowned credibility.

2.  Money – I only make about $1.50 per book so 10,000 pre-orders certainly won’t make my retirement but the status will increase my writing, consulting and speaking fees considerably.

3.  Attraction – Being on the list means customers and opportunities will come to me.  That saves me a ton of time and money in sales and marketing.

4.  A sense of accomplishment – It will feel good to show without a doubt that I am one of the best in the world of marketing.

5.  Fun – This whole process is a blast including the writing, the talking and the sharing of this experience with friends, family and even complete strangers.  (Londoners on my trip loved the tattoo.)

6. Significance – Making the list gives me a voice to improve the world.  Publishers will give me more book deals. More publications will print my articles.  More groups will hire me to speak.  This allows me to better meet my mission of inspiring people to pursue The Awesome Experience.

So what about you? That makes the point for the narcissism, how about the benevolent part?  I wanted to make sure I wasn’t being completely selfish about this so I have worked hard to come up with real value to pass on to those who help.  I can only speculate what you’ll truly get out of being a part of the Quest but here are some thoughts.

1.  An entertaining read – ROAR! has already been endorsed by hundreds of business people who think the story is fun and interesting.

2.  Some valuable sales and marketing skills – Companies and individuals are already using ROAR! techniques to improve  their sales and marketing results and reach their goals.  Check out the Sneakpeek and see for yourself.

3.  A special extra Chapter and Webinar – We are including these only in the first print run so pre-ordering by March 7th assures you of a first edition.

4.  Insight into achieving your goals – I am sharing my experience in my writing and speaking so you can learn from my successes and even more from my mistakes.

5.  Fun – Most likely you enjoyed the first video and this blog.  (That’s why you’re here.) There is more to come and I intend to make it consistently entertaining.

6.  Access to a NYT Best Selling Author – I answer all of my emails and will continue to do so.  Obviously I will spend more time and effort helping someone who has helped me. As I said before, I’m not necessarily focused on helping all people, but I am certainly committed to using my influence and connections to help MY people, which I define as those who see the world in a similar manner. A simple pre-order shows me that we are aligned.  Spreading the word will help eliminate mediocrity sooner.

Many people have already done many good things for me in this process. Just this week Matt Weiss, prominent NY traffic attorney and member of the Entrepreneur’s Organization posted a blog for the New York Enterprise Report about my commitment and tattoo. Also this coming week Mike Michalowicz, The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, is interviewing me online.  Thanks to Matt and Mike.  I try every day to give more than I receive.

I want to keep that karma going and am willing to help anyone of my supporters to the best of my ability with their own Super Bowl Ring Quest.  Simply send me an email or respond to this blog.

Oh and if you’re not convinced yet to join the Quest for me or you, consider Dan.  He’s the geeky co-author in our video.  Dan, G-d love him is the least likely person to ever end up on the New York Times Best Seller List.  But he gave his time and heart to this project and now stands a realistic chance of making it with your help.  What fun to take a couple of underdogs and tell people you were part of making them heroes. Imagine what Dan gets to tell is young daughter Miriam later in life about how the world in 2010 eliminated mediocrity for a while and put him on the New York Times Best Seller List.

Do it for me, for you and most importantly…  do it for Dan.

I hope you’ll join our Quest for the Jewish Super Bowl Ring and help bring The Awesome Experience to us all in the New Year.

Best,

Kevin

1 year ago today I was sitting in my den with a snowstorm outside debating about writing my first work of fiction.  My previous work had been successful non-fiction including numerous business articles and a Dummies book.  While I certainly appreciated telling a good yarn I defintely didn’t consider myself a fiction writer.

2 days earlier I was sharing the new concept I had for an upcoming speech with a prolific business writer/friend Peter Economy. (Yes that’s his real name.)  I told him about how my marketing clients were responding to finding a clear and compelling Value Proposition and was discussing the need for business to identify the different types of buyers to whom they were speaking.  When I told him I had found a 3500-year-old process I identified from the Jewish Passover Seder he got very excited.  He insisted it would make a good parable book.

I balked at writing a story but figured what the heck and sat down December 23^rd 2008 to peck out a chapter on my Macbook.  I started the opening, which you can read in the SneakPeak.  When the chapter was finished I sent it to a close friend Dan Turner who runs a technology company called Turner Consulting Group.  They are busy saving the taxpayer $1 billion.  Dan is (admittedly) the geekiest person I know.  (And I mean that with love and respect.)

He called me and told me he thought it was great and he could make it better.  “What?!” I said, “How can you make it better?  You’re a computer geek.”  “Yes,” Dan replied. “But I also have a creative writing degree from Rutgers.”  And that’s how the partnership started.

I spent the next 8 days (just like Hanukah) cranking out a chapter a day.  Dan would coach me on back-story and characterization.  He would take my rough chapters and enhance them with pithy additions.  Together we went on the Internet to find real kosher restaurants and pick items from their menus that sounded tasty.

All in all we were able to get most of the book done.  We have of course since added and improved it along the way (53 times to be exact) but the core of the book remains the same. We knew by January 5^th from sending it out to friends and critics that ROAR! was something special.  Looking back a year ago, seeing all it’s activity, following and the Wiley contract certainly supported our instincts.

The downtime around Christmas and New Years was perfect for providing quiet time to complete the essence of the story. It allowed me to focus and partner with my closest of friends and supporters. In fact it’s such a good writing time I am currently in London researching and writing my next book.   The next 9 days should be exciting.

Thanks and Happy Holidays to all my friends and supporters.  May you all tap into your creative selves during this special time.

Kevin