Leap Day

Today is February 29th,
Leap Day.
It is an extra day in the year.

Do you know what you did
with the extra day
in 2012?
Was it a year
you did more,
experienced more?

No?

It should have been.
Time is our most precious resource.
Every day is to be valued,
utilized to make a difference.

This year,
we have an additional day.
Don’t waste it.

Do some remarkable today,
something different,
something a little bit crazy,
something you’ll remember
in four years.

Remove Bottlenecks

One of my series
(product lines)
is very successful right now.
Readers (buyers) are waiting
for the next release.
The sooner I release the next story,
the faster I’ll build my sales.

So I reviewed my process.
It turned out
one of my bottlenecks
was cover art
(packaging).
I would wait
until the story was completed
to ask for cover art.
Cover art is a big part of marketing.
I didn’t want to request it
until I knew how I was marketing
the book.

I noticed,
however,
that my view of how to market
the story
was pretty much set
after I’d written the first three chapters.
I didn’t have to wait
until the entire story was written
to request cover art.
That one small tweak
saved me a month.

Mike Michalowicz
shares

“You don’t have to
make everything run faster.
You just have to fix the parts
of your process
that slow the whole works down.
Fix what’s broken,
and everything may run smoother.”

Remove the bottlenecks.

Entrepreneurs And Dating

When should you share
your entrepreneurial dreams
with the person
you might be spending your life with?

Today.
On the first date
if at all possible.

Why?
Because being an entrepreneur
isn’t something we do.
It is something we are.
It affects every aspect of our lives
and the lives of the people we love.

When I turned 40
and I started my transition
from corporate employee
to entrepreneur,
many friends and family members
were shocked.

My husband wasn’t.

I had been sharing my plans
with him
since the weekend
we first met.
I was honest about
what it would entail,
about the uncertainty of income,
the need for investment,
for time,
the sacrifices required.

I didn’t share this
with all of my friends
but I shared it with him.
Yes, I risked
him walking away.
Some people can’t handle
that vision of their future.
But I figured if he couldn’t handle it,
he likely wouldn’t appreciate
and love me.

He didn’t walk away
and,
knowing what he did,
he then had decades to prepare.
He also knew it was a core part
of my personality.
He knew it had ALWAYS
been that way.
To love me
meant loving that part of me.

Don’t hide
the entrepreneurial part of you
from the people you love.

Being Brave And Reba McEntire

You and I are building businesses.
These businesses
will change the world.
They might change the world
in a big way
or in a small way
but the change will happen.

That’s some scary sh*t
right there.
Some people don’t like change.
They won’t like us.
They might hate us.

But we have to do this.
We have to be brave.

Whenever I feel like chickening out,
like backing away
from building this business
I feel passionate about,
I play Reba McEntire’s
“She thinks his name was John.”

Reba McEntire is
one of the top selling country singers
of all time.
She’s an icon.

Country fans are extremely loyal.
They can also be extremely conservative,
very narrow in their usually Christian views.
Some are unabashed homophobes.

“She Thinks His Name Is John”
is about AIDS.
Reba McEntire was so passionate about the cause;
she risked the ire of the country world,
risked losing ALL of her fans,
risked her place in country history.

If she can risk that,
WE can risk the harsh judgment
of a handful of people
to build our businesses
and put our own stamp on the world.

Be brave.
Change the world.

Supernatural And Lasting Success

Supernatural is heading into its 11th season,
making it the longest running
North American Science Fiction show.

Supernatural was ranked #165
in the first season.
In season 10,
it was ranked #156.

It wasn’t an easy pitch
to networks.
The show spent 10 long years
in development.

And the reason,
I suspect,
it remains on the air
is because everyone involved with the show,
including its two stars,
work their a$$es off
promoting it.
Outtakes are posted.
The stars are at almost every convention.
There’s a steady stream of extras
for fans.

Are you working as hard
to promote your business?
(I know I’m not – winces)

Success, especially lasting success,
doesn’t happen
without work.

Get to work.

Newsletters-Your Best Marketing

My goal with any Facebook party
or any tweet
or any mention in the back of my books
(my products)
is to sign readers (prospects) up
for my newsletter.

Why?

Because I control my newsletter.

Social media comes and goes.
The rules for social media
can change from day to day.
Facebook has decided,
for example,
that my romance novels are adult content.
I can’t boost my posts
so my readers see them
and I can’t place Facebook ads.

This doesn’t happen with my newsletter.
And email addresses are less likely to change.

Invest in your newsletter.
Promote it.
Grow it.
Own it.

Published
Categorized as Marketing

Doers And The Winter Blahs

This is the time of year
many of us
struggle with the winter blahs.

People who don’t know us
will tell us
to take it easy,
to go watch a movie
or disappear into a TV show.

They’re not doers.
They don’t realize
that for doers,
doing nothing makes
the blahs worse.

For us,
the best way
to shake the winter blahs
is to do something,
hopefully something
we can complete.

I wrote a short story.
A buddy of mine
built a dog house.
Another buddy created
an awesome spreadsheet.

Doers feel happiest doing.
Fight the winter blahs
and get something done.

They’re Not Your Customers

There are a group of readers
who expect
every book to be free.
They complain if a book isn’t free.

When they complain to me,
I simply think,
“You’re not my reader.”
These freebie hunters will never pay
for my books.
Why should I care what they think?

I don’t consider them
when I’m writing my books.
I don’t take them into account
when I’m pricing my books.
I ignore their feedback completely.

There are customers
who aren’t your customers also.
Maybe it’s the lady
who buys the latest dress
from your store,
wears it once,
and returns it.
Or maybe it is the customer
who complains so loudly
about everything
that he makes you
and your employees miserable.

You can’t refuse to sell to them
(that would probably prompt a lawsuit)
but you certainly don’t have
to take their input or preferences
into account
when you make business decisions.

It is okay to simply say
to yourself,
“He/She is NOT my customer.”

Published
Categorized as Sales

Productivity Matters

There’s a bit of luck
in every success
but the biggest factors
are hard work
and constant learning.

I currently have a series
that is selling very well.
However, I have 100,
yes, 100 other stories
that don’t sell very well.

I simply continued to write,
continued to learn
about the craft, the business,
continued to grow my readership,
and I eventually got ‘lucky.’

Seth Godin
shares

“Now, more than ever,
attitude trumps background,
productivity defeats ignorance,
particularly when it comes
to the work done on the frontier,
on the edges of creativity,
where answers are still being found.”

Just do it.
Nike coined this slogan
in 1988
and it still holds true today.

The Not-As-Helpful Blogger

We ALL know them.
They’re the bloggers
who encourage guest posts
but then don’t make the links
from guest bloggers active.
THEIR links are active.
Any links benefiting the guest blogger
aren’t.

What they want
is for the guest blogger
to send traffic their way.
They look helpful,
yet they’re not,
not truly.

The thing is…
we know
what they’re doing.
We know
they’re being passive-aggressive,
stingy with the universe.
And when we’re stingy with the universe,
the universe is usually stingy with us.

If you want to be viewed
as helpful,
truly BE helpful.

Published
Categorized as Marketing