I just had back-to-back calls with two authors who could not have been more evidently on complete opposite ends of the spectrum.
One wrote a specific type of novel. The other, spiritual books.
One came to the call completely prepared.
The other had not prepared at all.
One had already applied a lot of information he invested in from a program he bought from me. The other, had not applied any of the information.
One is getting great results. (Guess which one?)
The other, no results at all.
One eagerly took notes as I “downloaded” lots of ideas specific to his book that he could use in his marketing.
The other kept saying, “I don’t want to do that and that and that… “ with every recommendation I made.
Added Value
I ended up sending the author who is doing the work some specific examples of documents I have created that we use for media outreach to secure interviews. I was more than happy to do this because of how appreciative this author is of the time I shared with him.
To the other author I said, “You know, over the last 15 minutes you’ve done nothing but negate every idea I’ve given you. You’ve made it very clear you don’t want to market, yet you say you want to sell books. Here’s the deal, if you want to sell books you have to market. If you don’t want to market, own this fact, but don’t keep saying things aren’t working. What’s not working is your attitude.”
I also told the author who kept pushing back on every idea that marketing is not easy. Simple yes. Easy… no. It takes work. If you don’t want to do the work, or hire someone to do it, you can hardly expect to sell books.
I wished the woman well and ended the call.
Surprise Message
Upon opening my email, here’s what I received from the author who is applying the information.
“I want to express my gratitude for the one-on-one call you offered me as part of your Book Accelerator Home Study Course. In addition to learning the ropes of book marketing from your course, the call was extremely helpful in helping me come up with new ideas for making my book description better and for marketing the book. I was amazed at the laser-sharp focus you had in eliciting information from me about the book and putting it in context to help in sharpening the marketing efforts. Thank you very much, from my heart.” — venkat
If you want results with anything, you must work for it. Anyone who tells you otherwise is blowing smoke.
Success is not easy, but it doesn’t have to be hard. Success is not achieved by the push of a button, but rather by taking action every day to get to the outcome you seek. Success is obtainable if you’re willing to put in the effort.
Success gives you choices you may not experience without it. Yet, success requires you quit negating proven information and be willing to at least try something before saying it won’t work.
Give 100%
One of the recommendations I made to the “push back” author was to implement three very specific strategies every day for 90 days. I assured her that if she gave it 100%, at the end of 90 days she would likely be amazed at the results.
“I don’t want to work that hard for 90 days!” was her response.
Sadly, she will be in the same spot 90 days from now that she is in today. Actually, she may be worse off by spending money on programs she won’t use, thus putting her further in the hole than she is now.
Too bad, because she is so passionate about her writing, but not about getting her books in the hands of readers who love her genre.
What actions are you willing to take to get what you want?
Check out the full Book Accelerator Program. Click here.
It seems almost every day, I tell myself, “I’m going to get A, and B, and C done when I go to the library (internet) today!” Then I get to the library, check this message and that message and the message that linked to this page, and then the it’s five hours later, my library time’s over, A’s half-done (never mind B and C) and I go “wot happen?” Today, for example, I intended to make up for the emails I didn’t get read yesterday, and “finish with” several tabs that have been open for months, but after looking for jobs on Upwork and sending a few proposals, I’ll be lucky if I manage to “tread water” with my inbox. Where am I supposed to stuff marketing (the free kind, if I had money for the paid variety, I wouldn’t be looking for contracts on Upwork)?
Great points Wendy. There is always something to do and what I find helps is to determine what I absolutely can let go of. For example, I was spending a lot of time on social media in ways that were not productive…. a total time waster. I had to figure out a solution for how to organize my day to capture the precious time I need for marketing. There were things I had to be willing to let go of in order to free up the right amount of time.
something else I’ve found very helpful, as have many of my colleagues and clients, is to use a timer. Give yourself an allotted amount of time on a task and when the time is up, it’s up.
I wish there was a simple answer, but there’s not.
One thing with your inbox that may help is to unsubscribe to anything that you don’t absolutely need to receive.
When I read your title I was already convinced. Attitude makes all the difference with everything. Open mind open heart ready to action. Open to others input especially when you have hired them for their expertise.
For my own business these days I am working a little bit each and everyday to bring myself closer to my goals.
Thanks for sharing this piece.
Baby steps turn into giant leaps. Thanks for your comments Anita.
Your program obviously works when one is willing to have an open mind and willingness to work hard. Great website, to the point article and your program seems filled with winning formulas!
Thanks Nathalie. Appreciate your feedback and my program is based on formulas that do work.
Reading this, all I could think is that we HAVE to be willing to move out of our comfort zone if we want to have results better than or different from those we already get…
Comfort zones can keep us stuck. Thanks for your comment Reta.
Brilliant Kathleen, it is amazing how many people think it all can happen as if by magic and more, thanks for sharing it is very powerful xx
I’ve been one of those people ‘chasing shiny objects’ or the next thing I have to learn. I realize from going through Kathleen’s material that it takes consistent, dedicated focus to achieve results. I have decided to take the advice and ‘implement three very specific strategies every day for 90 days’. For once I am going to stick with the program. Thank you Kathleen for the incentive.
What a great idea to take a short block of time (90 days) with 100% focus. Most everyone (myself included) can be tempted to deviate from our course with the bright shiny objects we deal with every day. The discipline comes from being able to discern what is okay to do and what we must turn away from. Thanks for your comments Carole.