TJ and Rita's World: marketing

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5th Marketing Strategy: Being Smart

In the movie The Pursuit of Happyness, Chris Gardner put his life savings into a dead-end investment that has left his family broke and penniless. This was going to be their ticket to the big life--riches and happiness and freedom. Instead, Chris is stuck with a pile of machines that he can't sell and no way of getting out of the hell hole they found themselves in.

He finds an apprenticeship at an investment company. They will train him, but there is no pay for 6 months. And at the end of that six months, he only gets the job if he is the best in the class. One student out of the group will be chosen.

Then his wife leaves him and their son, and he soon finds himself homeless, living on the streets while caring for his boy and trying to be the best in his class. Many things are against him:

he is impverished--homeless--and he's trying to keep it secret
he is black
his teachers are treating him more like a servant boy than a winner, as if they already expect him to lose
he has less time than anybody else to focus on this because he has to take care of his child

They teach him to make cold calls, starting at the bottom of a list that is organized by income. After receiving rejection after rejection, he decides this plan--going to the poorest first--isn't working. So he jumps to the top of the list and immediately gets an interview for his sales pitch. Eventually he succeeds because he thought his strategy through.

In the article How David Beats Goliath: When Underdogs Break the Rules , Malcolm Gladwell says that the weak and powerless have the strength to win when they chose strategies that defy the usual rules of combat. In David and Goliath's time, you were supposed to be decked out in armor, wielding a heavy sword, and pitting strength against strength. But David used his strengths--mobility, skill with a slingshot, passion, and faith--to beat the giant. He won by agility rather than strength.

We too have the ability to win even when the odds are set against us--if we are willing to play by our own rules. You have to let go of preconceived notions and standard philosophies that you had been taught since childhood. I've been reading the Rich Dad Poor Dad books, including one about building a business, Rich Dad's Before You Quit Your Job by Robert T. Kiyosaki.

In this book, Kiyosaki teaches the following steps to success (my paraphrase):

1. Make a plan.
2. Try
3. Fail
4. Get a mentor
5. Try
6. Fail
7. Study (take some courses, get some books)
8. Keep trying and failing.
9. Succeed.
10. Start all over again.

The point is that when you try and fail, you don't give up, but you also don't keep doing the same failed strategies. You learn and analyze and find a new approach until you finally get the winning combination.

However, you don't stop with the winning combination. You find a new idea and make that work, applying the lessons you learned the first time through. And you do that for the rest of your life.

4th Marketing Strategy: Being Friendly

We're sitting at a table in a little, family restaurant/bakery that serves gluten-free pizza, sandwiches, and baked goods. Oh such, yummy, yummy baked goods! * Salivating *

Then someone at another table strikes up a conversation with us. That's the kind of restaurant it is. Most people are regulars. I mean, it's the only gluten-free bakery around, and if you need to live gluten-free like us, that's where you go. It's small and it's family owned and it's customers all have one thing in common. We generally have information we can share to become healthier, and that makes it all likely for someone to talk to you.

This guy talks to us about why he lives gluten-free, about our kids, about books, about life. And then he drops this line, "So do you go to church anywhere?"

Oooooooh, is that why you're talking to us? An agenda!

Gee thanks, mister. I feel so, so, so-- I don't know. Used? Unwanted? I'd make a good pew warmer, is that it?

It was like talking to an overly-friendly used-car salesman. Or a worker in a furniture store, who elbows you and winks and says, "Go to our branch and tell Bob to give you the special. Tell him Jim sent you." Right. Whatever.

So when networking, connecting, being friendly, leaving notes on blogs, sending friend invites, sharing tips, joining conversations, whatever, don't, don't, don't center everything around what you want to sell! People can spot a fake from a mile away and generally run screaming.

So from your friendly, neighborhood spiderman--er, I mean friend--here's some friendly advice on being friendly:

1. Join conversations and DON'T mention your books.
2. Read other people's books and show interest.
3. Be helpful with your criticism and your praise.
4. Be silly and talk nonsense on forums. Be natural.
5. Promote others.
6. Make someone else famous.
7. Be a blessing.
8. Give someone else a chance to shine.
9. Ask questions rather than give all the answers.
10. ___________________________________. I don't know. You fill in the blank.

5 Steps to Focusing on Today

Eat and drink and be merry. Because tomorrow this may all be for naught.

Then I commended mirth,
because a man hath no better thing under the sun,
than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry:
for that shall abide with him of his labor the days of his life,
which God giveth him under the sun.

Then I beheld all the work of God,
that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun:
because though a man labor to seek it out,
yet he shall not find it
- Ecclesiastes 8:15, 17a

Let us eat and drink;
for tomorrow we die
- Isaiah 22:13, 1 Cor. 15:32

It is foolish to ignore a dream. It is also foolish to ignore life in pursuit of that dream. So my words today are meant to find the balance between perseverance and focus.

1. Remember what your dream feels like.

My dream tastes of freshly baked cookies and snatches of kisses from tiny little lips covered in crumbs. My dream smells of fresh country air and sounds like the laughter of children playing outside my kitchen window. The aroma of fresh roses wafts in through the open window, and the sunshine melts me into a soft puddle of happiness. The garden of fresh vegetables calls me early in the morning, and my laptop calls me at night. I am right where I should be. With me family. In my home. I am doing what I always wanted. Playing. Teaching. Loving. Writing.

I write because I want to. Because there is a story bursting to be told. Because my heart will die inside me if I don't. Because I love the praise of adoring fans. I love to entertain. To surprise and delight. To put the words together that feeds someone's imagination.

I hate being a slave to someone else's agenda. I want to be free. Running wild like a child. Exploring the forest for adventure. Climbing mountains. Seeking love and peace and goodness.

2. Live like tomorrow has already come.

If you produce a best seller, are you going to stop writing? I'm not. I want to keep going. If I made millions of dollars on a book, I wouldn't retire. I'd quit my day job and keep right on writing. That's because I am a writer. It's in my blood. Success will not change that.

This means that today I must make writing a part of my life and family. It's here to stay. Until I die when I am ninety-six. That gives me over sixty years to write, plenty of time to give the world many wonderful books. No need to do them all in one night.

But my children will only be with me for the next eighteen years. No book is worth wasting my time, especially when it is for them, to be with them, to be a wonderful mother, that I yearn for success.

3. Believe that success will come to you.

Perseverance comes from having the faith that success is possible. Balancing perseverance with life comes from having the faith that success is a gift. It is not earned. Oh, I'm not saying that it comes at no effort. I'm saying it cannot come by our own efforts. Call it karma. Call it luck. Call it blessings from God. If you think you've gotta succeed all on your own, you'll only kill yourself trying. But if you trust that if you move forward at a steady pace, the rest will fall into place, almost by a miracle, then it will happen. Faith is a powerful thing. Even if it is just that people are drawn to the power of your good attitude.

4. Set goals and tasks.

Brian Moreland, in his success story, said that he had a dream but no direction. So he listed his values and set his priorities.

I asked myself, “What do I want most? What’s most important to me about my dream career?” I listed my values in simple words like: achievement, fun, seeing my books on bookstore shelves, sharing my writing with readers, receiving advances and royalty checks, hanging out with other writers, writing a bestselling novel, etc. And then I listed those values in order of importance. Prioritizing your values is key, because it causes your mind to focus on what’s most important to you.

It's really a Stephen Covey kind of thing. Set your goals and list the tasks you need to do to get there. Then keep moving forward. One day at a time. Each and every day into eternity.

My goal at this time is not to produce a best seller. Someday, yes. But now, my values are these: my family, writing great fiction, earning enough money as a writer to quit my day job, being a lover of good books and stories, working from home.

5. Remember your dream.

In the effort to move forward, we sometimes forget why we are doing this. Our goal becomes the task rather than the dream. We need to remind ourselves why we are doing this. We need to stop and smell the roses, take a deep breath and let it out slowly, and smile because there is so much more than just the tasks for the day. There is a dream that we believe in.

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Perseverance: Brian Moreland's success story

Three years ago, I lost a lot of weight after my third child was born. I would study up on all the success stories--I loved looking at the before and after pictures. That will be me someday, I knew. I believed it. And because I believed it, I was very successful. I am certain, that if I had doubted myself for an instance, I would have failed.

So now my goal is to be successful as a writer, and I have to have that same kind of faith. Only if I believe that my efforts will reap a reward can I find the will to continue. If I didn't believe that, I'd have given up long ago.

I guess what I am learning is that perseverance means to be faithful--full of faith. It will happen. There is no reason to give up when tomorrow holds so much promise. And today, I can work to get ready for what tomorrow will bring.

Brian Moreland is a self-published author whose book Shadows in the Mist was recently picked up by Berkley/Penguin in New York. He wrote an article on his blog about dreams and his uphill battle to reach those dreams. Very inspiring. His mantra is, "Never give up. Keep climbing until you reach your goal. No matter what, stay persistent."

Which is very similar to my own: Keep moving forward.

3rd Marketing Strategy: Being Persistent

Things may not look so good today. Nobody cares pinto beans about the fact that you are a writer. Nobody visits your blog. Nobody's flocking to Barnes and Noble to pick up your latest book. Nobody's looking you up on Amazon. For Pete's sake, you haven't even gotten a bad review, just no reviews at all. Nobody's listening. Nobody cares.

But perhaps tomorrow will be better.

As my friend and editor Joe Gergis says, it takes 15 years to become an overnight success. We hear about these people who threw caution to the wind and took up pen and paper and made millions. J.K. Rowlings wrote Harry Potter out of her car as she lived on the streets and then was rejected 12 times before an editor finally decided to take a chance with her. Stephanie Meyer dreamt her story and started typing. Even Stephen King started as nothing more than an English teacher. He threw his first novel in the trash. It was his wife who pulled it out and put it back on the desk with a note, telling him it was good and to keep at it.

The lesson is this: It may take years of effort before you see any returns, but without that effort, you won't get anywhere. It might be a miracle that finally gets you noticed, but it is only with that work behind you that you can have anything to offer once you are noticed.

For example, I now have over 50 blog entries. Someone coming to my blog will have much more to hold their interest than when I started.

For another example, I have been writing a lot of smaller pieces at varying lengths. Now if someone discovers one of my stories and enjoys it, they will have other stories to gobble up.

Guest writer Robby G said this on ProBlogger:

The great thing about perseverance when it comes to blogging is that the longer you push your log, the more you get out of it. It doesn’t matter that topic you write about, because there are a ot of people out there that have the same interests as you no matter what they are.

Perseverance gives your blog backlinks, it gives your blog a higher rating on search engines, and it gives people time to learn more about you and spread your blog’s name through word of mouth. If you read this blog and a bunch of other “making money online” blogs, it opens your mind out to how to market your blog properly, and if you connect perseverance to marketing, there is no stopping you. All that’s left is time to allow someone big and famous to come along and mention your blog in a review or just mention a little bit about your post to really help you explode onto the Super Blogger level.

It's not the miracle that makes you successful. It is the time and effort that happened before that moment. Your job is to keep moving forward, trusting that day will come when, miracle of miracles, you are discovered and loved and fans pour out of the woodwork. In the meantime, you will grow and strenghten and deepen and mature. The dirty edges will be washed away and the ugliness will be burned to dust. You will become the hardened, seasoned, naked artist that makes a story that pulls on the soul.

You will be ready for your miracle.

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Other topics on marketing:
1st Marketing Strategy: Being Humble
2nd Marketing Strategy: Being Naked

5 Baby Steps to Parading Naked

To market books, you must bare your soul. You must be naked. But people don't throw off the confines of proper demeanor and modesty easily. They don't burn all their clothes and then parade down Main Street or go to work in one day without a bit of discomfort.

No, they start small. Maybe unbutton the top few buttons and wear capris. Then it's shorts and tank tops, then skimpy shorts and mini skirts, then a one-piece bathing suit, then a bikini, and then they go topless. Finally, it seems ridiculous to still be wearing those bikini bottoms. Each step takes time as people grow comfortable with themselves and their bodies.

Same goes for marketing your soul--er, I mean, your artwork. You start small. You start with the exposure you are comfortable with. You start with what you can handle. Don't rush it because the nakedness of your soul needs to be natural.

1. Develop one-on-one online relationships.

Using those popular social sites like Goodreads, Facebook, or MySpace, connect with a potential audience. Don't use this as a means to tell everybody about your work. Instead share conversations, listen, and take an interest in others. You never learn anything with your mouth open. Those who are only there to promote themselves appear fake.

2. Meet the needs of a small group.

Start a blog -- not with a look-at-me clamoring but rather a let-me-offer-what-help-I-can generosity. People have a tendency to ignore the Look-At-Me's of the world. Use your blog to promote others by reviewing stories and other blogs, conducting interviews, promoting the work of others. Build a connection of people, a community that exists outside you.

3. Seek reviews from those with a small following.

"Hey, I wrote this short story. Will you read and review it please?" Whether it is good or bad feedback, be professional and let it teach you and make you grow. Apply the criticism to your editing process. Get used to rejection. Get comfortable with all your flab hanging out.

4. Offer generosity.

Contests. Rewards. Free publicity. Use your imagination. What can you do to bless others? People flock to that. People talk about it. You need people who will market for you. To do that, you gotta be more than a name on a good book. You gotta be a Purple Cow.

5. Seek reviews from those with a large following.

So you've refined your work. You've let the fire of criticism burn the crap out of your stories. You've studied. You've stripped down to your undies. People have laughed at you and mocked you. And people have praised you. Now it is time to peel off that last layer. Now it is time to take it to someone you admire and seek their review. Seek their word of recommendation.

Hey, I'm sure there are many ideas I missed. Please leave comments to share your ideas. Marketing is something I would love to learn more about.

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Humility Marketing Resources

In her blog Conversation Agent, Valeria Maltoni wrote an article, entitled Top Ten Reasons Why Your Content Marketing Strategy Fails. One reason for failure, she says, is because...

Your content is all about you, not your customer - the surest way to bore someone or to become irrelevant quickly is by not even trying to relate to them.

Self-focus is the problem that keeps many from meeting the needs of their clients. You can't listen to the needs of others, if you are centered on your own greatness. And if you can't listen to their needs, you can't meet their needs. And if you can't meet their needs, you have nothing to offer and you won't succeed.

On Problogger, Darren Rowse says something similar in his article 10 Techniques to Get More Comments on your Blog:

Be humble - I find that readers respond very well to posts that show your own weaknesses, failings and the gaps in your own knowledge rather than those posts where you come across as knowing everything there is to know on a topic. People are attracted to humility and are more likely to respond to it than a post written in a tone of someone who might harshly respond to their comments.

Nobody enjoys talking to a know-it-all. People want to be respected, and they want their own knowledge to be honored. In short, people like to be listened to, and you can't do that if you think you have all the answers.

My Humble Self-Assessment

I know myself well enough to know that I don't know myself very well. (Now try to say that ten times fast.)

I struggle with self-doubt. I sometimes feel like giving up. I desperately look for that pat on the back or that word of praise, as if my own opinion isn't enough to carry me through. I worry about my looks. I worry about money. I worry about failure. And people's bad opinions of me can really tear me down.

Those are my weaknesses. And I know them very well. I fight them. I try to let go of the need for approval and the fear of failure. And some days, I manage to win that battle. Other times, I'm just dragging through life, celebrating nothing, and resenting people who seem to have it all together.

On the other hand, I know my strengths too. I am learning how to write good stories. Oh, there is plenty of room for improvement. But at this point, it is the practice that will make the difference, not the lack of skill or talent. That sounds very vein to say, but it's not. Because I can honestly see the improvement over the years, and I know what I'm doing right.

I know very little about marketing, and that could be my downfall if I let it. Failure scares me, because I want so much to succeed. But this is one thing I will never give up: writing and learning to market. Maybe tomorrow, I'll figure it all out. Maybe tomorrow, I will find what it takes to succeed.

12 Evidences of Stinky Pride

If humility is knowing yourself, than pride is not knowing yourself. People who don't know themselves invent charicatures--scarecrow images of themselves--to project to the world.

It is much easier to recognize pride than humility. It is the people who don't know themselves--don't know their strengths or their weaknesses--that get really threatened if someone should reveal their scarecrow for what it really is. Prideful people lash out at others to make their scarecrows seem even better.

Twelve ways to recognize pride in yourself:

1. You hate someone because they might be better than you.
2. You love insulting people.
3. You hog the conversation.
4. You criticize other people's work.
5. You frown at someone because they're good looking.
6. You never try anything new because you're afraid to fail.
7. You have all the answers.
8. You whine when things don't go your way.
9. You get really depressed or angry when you don't get the praise from others you think you deserve.
10. You are overly concerned about your physical appearance or money.
11. You want to keep up with the Joneses--having the best house, the best car, the best clothes, the latest gadgets.
12. You don't like anything I just said.

So what's the cure? Take a good hard look at yourself in the mirror and then go back to my previous post on humility.

12 Secrets of Humble People

Humility is important to marketing. But what the hell is it? I mean, come on, everyone preaches, "Be humble," but nobody tells you how.

So here it is. The ultimate definition: Humility is knowing yourself. That's it. Plain and simple.

Of course, when you know yourself, you realize a few things.

You are not God's gift to the world.
You don't know everything.
You cannot survive alone.
There is more than one way to do something.
Someone else might have the answers you are looking for.
Failing isn't the end of the world.

And you realize something else:

You do have something to offer the world.
You do know some things.
You can survive through troubled times.
The way you do things just might be a pretty good way to do something.
Other people can be a lot of fun.
Failure is the path to success.

It boils down to this. A truly humble person celebrates life. They celebrate themselves and their accomplishments with the same heart that they celebrate strangers and elephants and art and coffee and good movies and great books and little children and dancing. And sex. They definitely celebrate sex.

1st Marketing Strategy: Being Humble

I've been thinking (and reading) a lot about marketing--what it is and how to do it. I'm noticing some patterns or common themes between different authors, and I'm gonna just say a few thoughts on the topic. It's almost more of a way for me to format the mumbo-jumbo in my mind. So here goes...

I think the most important thing to have as a marketer of one's own self is humility.

I have this acquaintance (I was gonna say friend, but that'd be lying) who knows how to talk big. She can paint a picture about herself that makes her seem so competent and capable. I know this because I worked with her. And I knew how incompetent and incapable and ignorant she really was. So much so that I'm wondering who she slept with to get her MBA.

She always knew something about everything. She was the expert on finances, construction, children, education, politics, business, banking, management, health care, or whatever else we discussed.

She has a daughter, aged 13. I have three daughters, ages 7, 5, and 3. Who has more experience with young girls? I do. And mine's more recent. That never stopped her from spouting to everyone what she thought she knew.

OK, I do have a point here. Something more than just a tirade against someone I didn't like much. She taught me something: when you talk too much about yourself and what you know, people walk away feeling like they never connected with you.

As a writer, I need to market myself, not just my writing. I have to share who I am with others, but not at their expense. I can't be the one with all the answers, because if there is nothing to share, give and take, then there's nothing that the other will want. People want to feel important. They want to be heard. They want to be known.

Fans want to feel like you know them. Not that they know you.

You can't give that with your mouth open. You can't give that while you're showing off how much you know. It's the listeners that make good managers, good salesmen, and good negotiators.

So let this be a lesson to me: Shut your mouth, Rita, for five minutes, and let someone else have a chance to speak.

More on humility:
10 Secrets of Humble People
12 Evidences of Stinky Pride
Humility Marketing Resources

Other Marketing Articles:
2nd Marketing Strategy: Being Naked
3rd Marketing Strategy: Being Persistent

Recommended Marketing Books:
Purple Cow by Seth Godin

Book Review: Purple Cow by Seth Godin

My day was unremarkable. In other words, it was boring. I got up--more like stumbled out of bed--much past the time my alarm went off, showered quickly, ate my breakfast--the same breakfast I eat almost every morning--without tasting it, and ran out the door to get to work late, my coffee in my hand.

I'm late to work, but they still don't have anything for me to do except to browse the internet and pretend to look busy. They are still trying to get the system up. And I think what am I doing here? I could be home with my kids. Why do I have to sit in this seat, caged like a monkey, to earn a paycheck?

I come home late because I got to work late. We take the kids to the library--a special event that used to be a weekly event before we got too busy--and come home to make pancakes for dinner. Put the kids to bed. Exercise. Sit down to write. Maybe later I'll actually watch a movie. And then I'll get to bed late to start the whole thing over again tomorrow.

And don't ask me what I ate for lunch or what I wore today because I don't really remember. Don't ask me about yesterday or last week. Or last month. The days all run together in one empty blur. Unremarkable.

But I can tell you about the worst days and the best days of my life to the minutest detail. I remember my wedding gown and messing up my wedding vows and lighting the unity candle. I remember holding each of my babies for the first time, and I can tell you how many hours of labor each one took, what time they were born, and what day of the week it was. I can tell you about my sixth grade teacher making my 12th birthday a miserable day, but it snowed, which made it all better. Especially since it never snows in December in Texas. I remember missing an airplane flight and spending all day looking for my lost tickets.

What does all this have to do with my Purple Cow book review? Those moments--the best and worst days of my life--were remarkable to me. They are stories that will stick with me for the rest of my life, and I will bore people to tears telling them again and again. Remarkable things are what stand out in our minds.

Just like a purple cow would be remarkable if we should ever see one. It is remarkable products that market themselves, splash headlines, cause long lines at stores, keep you up late at night, make you tell all your friends and every stranger you meet. It's not that these items are just better than everything else, they are remarkably different.

Harry Potter was different. It was a fantasy set in our everyday world, and it made our world seem more magical. As if we might turn a corner and discover wizards walking among us Muggles. And everybody talked about it.

Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog was different. Not quite a move, not quite a TV show, and definitely not sanctioned by the standard producers. Great story and great music and brilliant acting, lovable characters, and a bad guy who was nicer than the good guy. My friend Chuck once said that Joss Whedon did a better job in 3 15-minute sessions explaining how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader than George Lucas did in 3 feature-length movies.

And those works of art that are just plain awful get more mention than those that just fit in with all the rest. Vaniel blogged about a book that was so terrible that he had to tell everyone just how terrible it was! So many people responded, asking for more, that he posted more about it. And believe me, it was so terrible that you just keep reading because you are so shocked by how bad it is. Check it out here.

And I will happily tell you about my favorite movies or groan about the ones I hated with such a passion that I love to list what I hated about them. But all the ones that were mediocre--I don't tell anyone about them. They were good, but nothing to talk about. Just another movie to fit in with all the rest.

And likewise, many of the good stuff--Girl Genius, Eragon, Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, Full Metal Alchemist, The Gamers--were all raved about to us by friends who said, "You gotta see this!" And we did, and then we raved about it to others. Passing it on.

The book Purple Cow by Seth Godin explains how word of mouth works, how you find the "sneezers" that will market your product for you, how you focus on building your cow and finding your sneezers, and how to let that mindset build your business. Godin talks about why, what, and how, and gives many, many examples along the way. And this applies to whatever your product may be--art, music, books, technology, clothing.

Marketing is one of those things I don't really understand very well, and this book put the whole thing into proper perspective. It gave me a better understanding, not just of marketing and business, but also my place and my self-image as a writer. I realize I'm not going to make it if I just try to fit into my genre. I have to stand out. I have to do more and be more. I have to give more.

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