I participated in a VIP Entrepreneur Mentorship organized by Norman Müller, founder, and CEO of Genius Alliance, from November till January 2021. Here are some key takeaways I got from these weekly live mentorings.

• Group live sessions are a lucrative digital business model

In one of the first sessions, Norman Müller introduced us to this concept of organizing group live sessions with participants. The idea is simple: you create a sales page about your expertise and deliver on a weekly basis a live mentoring about subcategories of your topic. The good thing is that you charge a modest price but because you can teach 15 or 20 people at the same time it becomes lucrative for you. Norman records these calls and uploads them in a membership area where people can watch the recordings even if they missed a session. The good thing is that this whole process is very interactive and Norman also gave spots for other experts who also presented about their own niche (me included). Here are some of them:

• Create your personal brand story

Anja Kuhn, who is an expert on the topic of the personal brand story, introduced the group to this idea of being unique with your own story. There are many entrepreneurs and business owners out there who may offer something similar to you. Nevertheless, you’re very special because of your own story and it is important first of all to be aware of this fact and also use it also in your own communication channels. Create a long version and also a shorter version that you tell people and constantly work on your own personal story. The easiest way to do this is through working with somebody like Anja or writing your own personal story down.

• Sales conversations

Anja Wiebe, who coaches and trains people as a strength coach, spoke about the topic of sales conversations and how to become better at selling. Her main approach is that you first identify your own strengths and based on that create a win-win for your clients. Before pitching all the people around you, you need to actively listen to your clients and really understand their needs. Through paraphrasing, you make sure that you really understand what they need and then offer your product as a solution to their problem.

• How often do you think about taxes?

Honestly, as an entrepreneur, we want to get things done! At least this is my own approach, so we often focus on creating new and bigger things, which is important, but we seldom think about tax strategies. How to save taxes or invest so that it makes the most sense for my business? Therefore Myrjam Ross, former chief financial officer, spoke about this topic. She also gave me great advice about an online business model: The E-Residency initiative by Estonia! This is especially interesting for digital nomads because you only pay taxes when you distribute dividends. If you reinvest all your profits you don’t have to pay taxes! A very interesting business models for digital consultants

• Do you need a competitive advantage? Use AI!

Florian Schild is the founder of boot.ai a company that develops artificially intelligent products. They also offer a training program for managers who want to make a difference with their work in combination with AI. Florian gave the advice to focus on a specific niche and deliver so much value that people respect you as an expert in a specific topic. Through this niche strategy, you can collect data, about the user behavior of your audience. The best way to find out about user behavior is to create your own platform where you constantly collect data and deliver value to your target audience.

• Use LinkedIn for lead generation

Jascha Görres helps small and medium enterprises with their LinkedIn strategy and in his presentation, he gave the advice to position your personal brand on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is growing organically very fast and especially in the b2b, there are many opportunities to grow your following and create your own community. The sales navigator of LinkedIn is therefore a very powerful tool to use. You can cluster people regarding industry fields, interests, positions, years of experience, and much more. The sales navigator helps you to find the targeted audience that you want to reach.

• Video, video, video

As a content marketer, I always recommend my clients to create video material! It is strange for me to say that video is a trend because I’ve been doing this almost for ten years but still today in corona times I meet entrepreneurs who are not willing to invest in video. This is sad because the data is very convincing. People are likely to watch videos more often than static pictures and when you’re seen in videos you can build authority much easier than without video material. The other cool thing is that you can re-use your videos for podcast episodes. I describe this method in my free whitepaper.

It is really unbelievable how your mindset changes and you get the right ideas and contacts if you participate at mentorings like the Genius Alliance Mentorship. I always think about this quote from the Think and Grow Rich book author Napoleon Hill:

“If You Find Yourself Weak In Persistence Surround Yourself With A Mastermind Group” — Napoleon Hill

Doesn’t matter how good you are in one area, there are always people who are far better than you in other fields. I always focus and get in touch with people who have a specific superpower in their area. Through speaking with them I become more aware and a better entrepreneur. The VIP Entrepreneur Mentoring is finished but I’m going to participate in a Podcast Mentoring also with Norman Müller from Genius Alliance.

Do you need more lessons about content marketing? Then visit my website https://www.contentmentoring.com/ and download my free report: 5 steps on how to create a lot of content and earn money with your knowledge! I also offer a brand new podcast mentoring for consultants, business coaches: https://yakup1988.kartra.com/page/Podcastmentoring

Lesson Number 1: Centralization creates clarity — but it is all about mixture!

This is a great advice from Seth Farbman, CMO of Spotify, whose focus is the global marketing strategy of Spotify across over sixty countries. As a global brand it is essential that you know what you stand for, what your products mean to people’s lives and that you communicate this consistently. But in the case of Spotify it is not only centralization, because music is a very local topic. This means that the marketing strategy involves local labels and licensing and that local marketing teams must support your vision. It is a Yin-Yang between centralization and decentralization of marketing strategies.

Lesson Number 2: Learn sales and be accountable to the numbers

Traditionally there is a gap between marketing and sales teams in companies, so to eliminate this Heather Zynczak, CMO of Domo, gives the advice to see yourself as part of the sales team. Marketing’s purpose is to sell products or services at the end of the day; so make sure that you work on the sales numbers and feel as though you yourself are also in charge of the numbers.

Lesson Number 3: Become a content creator

Brian Kenny, CMO of Harvard Business School, gives the advice to create your own content instead of relying on other people to write about you. Specifically, the media changes so much so, they find it easier to create the context for their own stories.

Lesson Number 4: Forget brand theory, be data-driven

Louis Gagnon, CMO of Audible, says to make sure that the new CMO needs to be a data-driven executive. You should understand what the customers do and who they really are. As CMO, your job is to invest and understand the customer so that you can deliver the optimal value for them. So make sure you’re familiar with analysis tools and ways how to visualize data material.

Lesson Number 5: Engage with your audience

Here are some ways to find out more details about your audience from Kevin Marasco, CMO of HireVue:

• Listen on social: What is it they care about? What do they like? What are they commenting on? What are they contributing to? What are their pain points? What keeps them up?
• Start to engage with them. Connect with them and start to share educational content
• Forget about selling! Just engage with them and share knowledge with them.

Book recommendations from Kevin Marasco:

Daniel Pink’s “To sell is human”

Brent Adamson, Matthew Dixon, Pat Spenner, Nick Toman “The Challenger Customer”

Lesson Number 6: Use a framework and measure your goals

Kraig Swensrud, CMO of Campaign Monitor uses a management framework in order to measure if the organization and the marketing department are successful or not. This is something that not only the marketing department, but the whole company can use:

Management framework — VVMOM:

• V: Vision: Defines where we want to go as a company
• V: Values: What are common values that we share together?
• M: Methods: Exact tactics that we plan to execute this year, quarter, month
• O: Obstacles: Think through what might keep you from achieving the goals?
• M: Measures: How do we know if we have achieved our goals or not?

Lesson Number 7: Be creative and strategic

Patrick Adams, Head of Consumer Marketing at PayPal, highlights the importance of being creative and strategic at the same time. This means that you should not only work on skills like writing but also understand Return on Investment (ROI), be able to read analysis and also interpret data material. Doing all of them is hard, but try to become an expert in different areas and combine your creative and strategic skills.

Lesson Number 8: Be broad-minded and aware of world affairs

Edith Wong is CMO at InvestHK, a department of the government of Hong Kong, and gives the advice not only to work on communication skills but also have a broad education, including in humanities and social sciences. Understanding world affairs and what’s going on in society helps shape your perspective and improves your own marketing skills.

Lesson Number 9: Every move has consequences, because we’re all interconnected

Michael Mendenhall, CMO of Flex, stresses the importance of thinking globally, because everything in today’s time has an impact on your company. The more globalized our world becomes, the more impact it has on all of us. So we should work in agile and in informal structures and forget about formalized meeting structures.

Lesson Number 10: Understand the beliefs of your customer and be in the field

Virginie Glaenzer, Vice President of Marketing at Great Eastern Energy, mentioned the importance of knowing the values of your customer. Through social media there are much more active customers who articulate complaints through their social media channels. In times where you can’t control every piece of content, it is more important that you really understand the values of your target audience. This means knocking on small business’ doors and asking people questions!

Book recommendation by Virginie Glaenzer:

Tom Asacker “Business of Belief”

Lesson 11: You need a deep understanding of the product

Ada Chen Rekhi, Vice President of Marketing on SurveyMonkey, highlights the importance of having a deep understanding of the products and services that your business is selling. It is important that marketers also understand the basics of the products in order to communicate them to customers effectively.

Lesson 12: Align the campaign objectives with the marketing and business objectives

The number one rule from Kieran Hannon, CMO of Belkin International: Evaluate your marketing campaigns! Most people lose sight of the business objectives so ask yourself on a regular basis (monthly, quarterly), are my campaign objectives aligned with my business and marketing objectives?

Book recommendation by Kieran Hannon:

Barry Schwartz “The Paradox of Choice”

Lesson 13: Personalize the customer journey

For Phil Bienert, CMO of GoDaddy, personalizing the customer journey is an important topic. The advantage of digital products is that you can personalize the customer journey very easily. The main thing that Phil Bienert focuses on is how to grow businesses by improving the customer experience.

Lesson 14: Be media relevant

When Margaret Molloy, CMO of Siegel + Gale, thinks about Content Marketing. Her and her team consider three variables and three specific questions:

• Does it support our business development goals?
• Is it something the news media or other PR outlets are interested in?
• Does it answer actual client questions?

If you focus on these three questions and answer them with a ‘yes’, then you’re on a good track!

Lesson 15: Create rewarding Content

Tom Buday, Head of Marketing Nestle, mentions two relevant and timeless fundamentals: Content should be attractive, rewarding and business-building. Content that is both attractive and rewarding is especially vital because consumers are in total control over their content consumption and will avoid or reject messaging that they find irrelevant. That means we have to inform them in a way that is useful to them and can share with others.

This was part one of the lessons that I got from the book “Chief Marketing Officers at work” by Josh Steimle. You can find more information about Josh Steimle on his website: https://www.joshsteimle.com/

TikToker Younes Zarou has an ambitious goal. He wants to stay live in his TikTok Channel 24/7 for a complete month. From April 6th till May 6th everybody can watch his daily routines on his TikTok Channel Youneszarou. In this interview, he explains his intentions and why a big social media following means also a big responsibility.

Younes, why this project? How did you come up with this idea?

The idea of my #stayathome challenge was born even before the coronavirus and the consequent curfew, when Adil Sbai (my manager) and I worked together on the TikTok bible for Creators. I have a very young community and I believe that reach is an obligation. My goal was to appeal to my #YZfamily to take the situation seriously and stay at home. And so one thing led to another.

What is your main goal for this project?

On the one side, many of my friends and followers have lived on as if nothing had happened — on the other side, the curfew was a big change in their daily lives. Especially for the younger generation. I wanted to take their fear and show them that life goes on, support them and set an example!

What were the hardest moments during your 24/7 experience?

Definitely the crash of my livestream. This is the worst thing that can happen for me and in fact, it has happened several times already. There are up to 200K user in the stream at the same time and every user has to re-enter the stream again after a technical crash. This is an issue.

You say there is a responsibility when you have a big following. What message would you give to other people if you had the chance to speak to them directly?

As the saying goes “If you can dream, you can do it.” I started with Instagram in 2017 for fun and it took me two years to build my #YZfamily with 30K followers. In October 2019, I uploaded my first TikTok video. Now we are a family with more than 5.3M followers. It’s incredible! I never have thought that one day I would turn my hobby into a profession. Anyone can do it!

How can people support you? Do they need a TikTok account or can they support you also with other channels?

My goal is to make my social media family happy and fun with my content! I want to inspire them, motivate them and set a message. The support and energy I get from individual followers is incredible. It doesn’t have to be TikTok, I also get DMs on Instagram every day which makes me smile. I am happy about every single active participation and it gives me the energy and creativity for further content!

Do you have any advice for people who want to start with TikTok but don’t have ideas on how to create content? Any resources, websites? Or people to follow?

Read the TikTok bible I wrote with my manager Adil Sbai! 200 pages about growth, branding and monetization. It’s for free. :) Otherwise, I can only say — try yourself and don’t be shy! It is important to find your own niche which you enjoy most and in which you feel comfortable.

Accounts which inspire me:

• Dance content: addisonre
• Creative content: youneszarou :)
• Comedy content: anwar
• Daily content: brentrivera

Thank you very much for this interview!

The Hanseatic Blockchain Institute in Hamburg organized a speech about how blockchain is changing marketing. Keynote speaker Dirk Koppert explains, how the role of the consumer is improving through blockchain. Here are four features of how this is already happening today.

When you look at marketing you have two big players: First, you have advertisers who push marketing messages and on the other side you have a publisher or content creators who are creating content, which is relevant for a specific audience. Consumers are the aim of both big groups. Through blockchain, the role of the consumer dramatically improves and they even can reward their favorite content creators and decide which advertising they want to see.

How Blockchain is changing advertisement

Brave Browser https://brave.com

Earn rewards and give back to your favorite creators and support your favorite sites with micropayments. Brave features blockchain-based tokens which can be used to reward content creators.

AdEx https://www.adex.network

AdEx is a blockchain-based ad exchange aiming at disrupting the existing online advertising landscape and address its significant problems: advertising fraud, privacy and consent to receiving sponsored messages.

How blockchain is changing publishing

Coil Web https://coil.com

Monetization: Donations for visited websites and support of paid content with independent Browser Plugin.

SatoshiPay https://satoshipay.io

Micropayments für WebContent withWord Press Plugin. Super-small payments: Charge users per download, second of video, or for an extra life in your game.

Conclusion and hypothesis:

The result is communication at eye level by rewarding consumers for their time and attention. Blockchain creates the basis for new communication and ensures a completely different readiness to receive advertising. The result is a direct and more intensive digital relationship between customers and companies.

Consumers can decide for themselves which advertising they want to see and to what extent. A new opportunity arises for advertisers to communicate with the right and relevant target group, even with a low marketing budget.

Dirk Koppert — Founder of Riptide Digital: As an independent consulting agency, Riptide Digital helps companies leverage technology and data-driven digitalization opportunities for marketing, sales and business model development. More information about Riptide Digital: https://riptide-digital.com

Hanseatic Blockchain Institute in Hamburg aims to help promote transparency, fairness, and sustainability through the use of blockchain technology: https://blockchaininstitute.eu

Vaultitude uses the Blockchain to protect intellectual property. Managing Director Dominik Thor explains to me why in the 21st century ideas are more valuable than mineral resources and therefore need to be protected.

Vaultitude protects intellectual property with a blockchain. Can you briefly explain the concept?

Blockchain technology represents a new form of database with a number of advantages. As a decentralized network installed on thousands of computers, it offers hackers no central vulnerability and thus the highest level of security. Once uploaded, data is more unaltered and generally accessible. Blockchain technology is therefore ideally suited to document the existence of an idea, a work, a brand or a trade secret (in this case encrypted), its own authorship, any transfer, sale or mere communication of confidential information. By using Vaultitude, users for the first time receive reliable evidence to assert their interests in legal proceedings or against authorities such as patent offices. All the user needs to use the software is an up-to-date Internet browser.

Why do you think such a kind of intellectual property protection is necessary?

In the globalized world of the 21st century, ideas are more valuable than natural resources or manpower. Intangible assets, such as intellectual property, have long been the most important asset class. Over 85% of the value of the companies listed in the S&P 500’s is based on this form of asset. Industrial espionage is responsible for billions in losses every year and is also a door opener for counterfeiting and illegal trade. The protection of intellectual property, which also includes trade secrets, is an indispensable prerequisite for the commercial success of innovative companies. This importance has led to the introduction of new laws, such as the EU Trade Secret Directive, which came into force in 2018. However sensible these laws may be, they also define the legally impeccable proof of sufficient efforts to protect intellectual property as a new task for the company. Vaultitude is the ideal tool for this.

For which target group is Vaultitude suitable or who are your existing customers?

Vaultitude was developed in close cooperation with IP experts and tailored to the needs of innovative companies, university and private research institutions, lawyers, artists and private inventors. Due to an advanced global harmonization of intellectual property laws, the users of our software come from all parts of the world.

After registering with Vaultitude, you can upload protected content for a fee, which is then protected by the Ethereum Blockchain. Does this registration replace going to a notary or patent office?

Vaultitude’s notary-like Blockchain features make it ideal for secure storage of intellectual property, proof of authorship, transfer, purchase and licensing of data and IPs, exchange of confidential information, and documentation of actual use of trademarks and proof of trade secrets. There are countless applications in these areas. However, the way to the notary and patent office is still necessary in certain cases due to the regulations specified by the legislator.

Do you already know legal examples in which the digital signature was used in the blockchain to prove the authorship of intellectual property?

It was not until the summer that a spectacular verdict was reached before a Chinese Supreme Court in a copyright dispute, in which the responsible judge based his decision on evidence documented on the blockchain. This is particularly exciting because China is often perceived as a country where it is difficult to enforce its IP rights. Many other countries also support the evidence character of the blockchain and even the EU Commission actively supports the use of this technology as evidence in the IP context.

How does Vaultitude differ from classical “defensive publications”?

Defensive publications of inventions prevent a subsequent patent application and are used millions of times to protect already existing industrial property rights or in the field of academic research as a means of safeguarding one’s own freedom of action. In contrast to existing service providers who only send information to individual patent offices, Vaultitude can make the information freely available online and thus make it accessible to around 3.5 billion people. This is faster, simpler and more cost-effective, creating clear added value for the user.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) also supports your idea. What are the next steps for Vaultitude? What trends do you see for 2019?

We are extremely grateful for the support of WIPO and many other stakeholders and international organizations, such as the WTO, OECD or EUIPO, for our ideas, at whose events we regularly present Vaultitude as a means of solving existing intellectual property problems. The blockchain’s potential for IP purposes continues to gain attention and will remain one of the most exciting issues in the legal tech sector in 2019 and beyond. As a pioneer in this field, we are pleased to inform intellectual property owners about this technology and make a significant contribution to better intellectual property protection with our Vaultitude software platform.

Dominik Thor:

After studying economics and pharmacy, Dominik Thor worked for several international banks and was responsible for the conception of the SME segment of the Vienna Stock Exchange. As a shareholder of a biotech company, he was intensively involved in the protection of innovations and founded the idea for Vaultitude. As managing director of Vaultitude, he regularly speaks about the possibilities of improved IP protection through blockchain technology at international conferences for inventors, researchers, IP experts and tech transfer managers.

Jumpstart your publishing dreams

Your working as an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing. Can you describe in a few sentences what you’re exactly doing?

I’m often the first person that an author or a literary agent approaches with their book proposal or manuscript. We receive over 5,000 submissions a year and only publish about 150 books that are sold into 98% of the bookstores in North America including the brick and mortar bookstores. Morgan James Publishing is based in New York and one of the top independent publishers and has often been on this Publishers Weekly list. Here’s a two-page handout about the publisher and my work email and phone is at the bottom of the second page: http://terrylinks.com/mjponesheet

When you read book proposals/manuscripts what are often read mistakes by authors? What are 2–3 common mistakes they make?

I’ll give you some common mistakes.

1. Poor writing and storytelling. I’ve read thousands of submissions and can tell in a few sentences.

2. No identified market for the book or the market is too small or says “everyone.” Every author needs a solid market for the book and the author needs the ability to reach that market. Every publisher is going to expect the author to do 80% of the marketing. Every author needs a practical marketing plan in their pitch to the publisher.

3. Missing a key element in the proposal. Last week I saw a proposal that did not have an author bio. It’s easy to leave out a necessary element. Here’s a free book proposal checklist: http://terrylinks.com/bookcheck

What would you encourage authors to do when they are rejected many times by publishers?

Many authors pitch a few times and get rejected and give up. Every writer is looking for the right publisher for their material and the process often takes time and trying again and again. People forget the co-authors of Chicken Soup for the Soul were rejected 144 times before they found a publisher. Now it is one of the most published series of books in the world. Mark Victor Hansen tells that story in the foreword for my Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams: http://terrylinks.com/jypd

You also published many books throughout your career. What would be your author advice if you could speak with your younger self who is working on the first book?

Build a body of published work. Don’t be in a hurry to publish books but build your audience in the magazine world — and learn how to craft a good story in the shorter magazine format. Much of the publishing world is outside of your control but control what you can and let the rest go. For example, you can control your own blog, your own website and your own email list. Every author needs to have their own email list to touch their readers. You can get my free ebook on this topic at: http://terrylinks.com/pb

What are in your opinion trends within the publishing industry for the next 2–3 years that authors have to have in mind?

Trends are hard for any writer to capture since they change constantly. In traditional publishing it takes 18 to 24 months normally to get a book into print. Self-publishing ill continue to grow but the number almost no one says is the average self-published book sells less than 100 copies during the lifetime of the book. However you publish, you need to have multiple ways to touch your readers: email list, twitter, Facebook, etc. Ebooks have topped out for their growth and print books continue to thrive. Also get your books into as many formats as possible because different readers consume in different formats (ebook, print, audiobooks, etc).

I have a lot of information on my blog: http://thewritinglife.ws (over 1400 entries) and mny other ways for people to reach me including my free ebook, Straight Talk From the Editor, 18 Keys to a Rejection-Proof Submission: http://straighttalkeditor.com

Thank you, Terry for this interview.

About Terry Whalin:

Terry has written more than 60 books through traditional publishers in a wide range of topics from children’s books to biographies to co-authored books. Several of Terry’s books have sold over 100,000 copies.To encourage writers of nonfiction and fiction, Terry is the creator of Right-Writing.com at: www.right-writing. com. Also his blog about the writing life at: www.thewritinglife.ws includes over 1,200 searchable entries. Terry and his wife, Christine, live in Colorado.

I wrote a transcript of an interview with Paulo Coelho — the author of the Alchemist — and here are four ideas that you can also use as an author in order to reach more people with your message.

1. Don’t try to capture ideas; live your life in the first place

Paulo Coelho was asked how he captures ideas and he just responded that he doesn`t do that. He tries to live his life and then when it is the time he writes sometimes also about his own experiences. The important things will be in your memory and the unimportant things will be forgotten, so don`t worry about trying to capture ideas. He emphasized also that often times it is the book that is ready to be written that decides when it is time to start the book project and not so much the author. So, when the book is ready the author is just the medium who is typing the whole thing. Be open and don`t try to capture every idea because you will not have a life if you do that.

2. The biggest mistake of authors is to underrate their work

You have to be self-confident with your book and your story. “You cannot underrate yourself, you cannot feel insecure, you cannot sell your next book by despising or underrating the book that is just published”. In the interview, Paulo Coelho explained that when he speaks with author`s they often times say things like “Oh, wait for my next book. That one will be much better” and he doesn`t really understand why authors are doing this. You have to be self-confident with your book and also communicate this with your audience.

3. Don`t focus too much on critics

Your real work as an author is to write and be open to new ideas. There will always be many people that will criticize you and you should be ok with it. Think of it like this: you should be very proud of many people who criticize you because that means that you have a lot of people who are reading your books and your publications. Isn`t that a good thing?

4. Put your soul out into the writing

At the end of the day things that authors write are very private and sometimes this process can be very hard. Your writings are part of your soul and should also reflect it. This should be the only thing that you focus on; put your experiences, emotions and your soul into the writing and share it with other people.

Paulo Coelho had also tough times when it comes to writing. His bestselling book The Alchemist didn`t sell at the beginning and the publisher gave the book back. He had to find another publisher and then the book became a world bestseller. He deeply believed in his story and his skills as a writer and that`s also what you have to do.

If you`re an author who wants to master marketing and selling skills you can download my FREE Author-preneur Guide — How to publish, market and sell your book. Just follow this link and download your free copy: https://yakup.mykajabi.com/p/author-preneur

Ceyhun Yakup Özkardes is the creator of the online course Author-preneur — How to publish, market and sell your own book where he teaches marketing and selling strategies for authors.

Paulo Coelho — On writing was originally published in Thrive Global on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Publishing your book is one thing; marketing is a whole another story. Jack Canfield, author of the Chicken Soup for the soul gives some insides how he sold millions of books. This helps also you to sell more books.

1. Rule of 5.

After finally finding a publisher for Chicken Soup for the soul Jack Canfield and Marc Victor Hansen started the marketing process for their book. What they used was the Rule of 5, which means they did five things EVERY day for marketing of their book. So they sent five e-mails to people who could be interested, they made five calls, they send five books to people, they held five speeches, they contacted five newspapers ….

They did this rule of 5 for over two years until Chicken Soup for the soul became a bestselling book. Jack describes in his book “The Success Principles” (which I highly recommend!) this process and mentioned that it was a lot of effort but in the end, it was worth it.

2. Have strong and written down whys.

Jim Rohn already said that if you’re why is strong your how gets easy. That sounds obvious but how many of us have goals without real whys? Common sense is not always common practice. Jack Canfield was very clear; he wanted to reach more people with his books because he deeply believed that the stories in his book will motivate people to get to another level and improve their lives. He wrote the goals down and his whys and also met once a week for an imagination sessions. This session was a mastermind group where they just brainstormed about the outcomes and how to accomplish their goals. So find your personal why, write it down and if you can, make it even stronger.

3. Success leaves clues.

Jack Canfield and Marc Victor Hansen also made their homework before their marketing process. They interviewed 15 bestselling authors like John Grey and asked for their help and what they did for their book promotion. They also bought the book of John Kremer 1001 Ways to Market Your Book and spoke with Marketing Guru Dan Poynter who gave them information. So they looked around and asked themselves who had already the success with book promotions and what can we learn from them? Success leaves clues and your job is to make your research about these clues. These clues are just the starting point because knowledge without action is worthless. So take these rules and use it also for yourself.

Was it worth the effort? I think so, yes. The time magazine called Chicken Soup for the Soul as “the publishing phenomenon of the decade”, the book became a bestselling book and boosted the careers of Canfield and Victor Hansen. They both started small but I believe everybody can also do it. What you need is persistent effort and daily routines to accomplish it.

If you`re somebody who wants to master marketing skills you can download my FREE Author-preneur Guide — How to publish, market and sell your book. Just follow this link and download your free copy: https://yakup.mykajabi.com/p/author-preneur

Ceyhun Yakup Özkardes is the creator of the online course Author-preneur — How to publish, market and sell your own book where he teaches marketing and selling strategies for authors.

How Jack Canfield sold millions of books was originally published in Thrive Global on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

How Jack Canfield sold millions of books (and how you can too!)

Publishing your book is one thing; marketing is a whole another story. Jack Canfield, author of the Chicken Soup for the soul gives some insides how he sold millions of books. These advices are valuable for every author.

1. Rule of 5.

After finally finding a publisher for Chicken Soup for the soul Jack Canfield and Marc Victor Hansen started the marketing process for their book. What they used was the Rule of 5, which means they did five things EVERY day for marketing their book.

2. Having strong and written down whys.

Jim Rohn already said that if your why is strong your how gets easy. That sounds obvious but how many of us have goals without real whys? Common sense is not always common practice. Jack Canfield was very clear; he wanted reach more people with his books because he deeply believed that the stories in his book will motivate people to get to the next level and improve their lives.

3. Success leaves clues.

Jack Canfield and Marc Victor Hansen also made their homework before their marketing process. They interviewed 15 bestselling authors like John Grey and asked for their help and what they did for their book promotion. They also bought the book of John Kremer 1001 Ways to Market Your Book and spoke with Marketing Guru Dan Poynter who gave them information. So they looked around and asked themselves who had already success with book promotions and what can we learn from them?

If you`re somebody who wants to master marketing skills you can download my FREE Author-preneur Guide — How to publish, market and sell your book. Just follow this link and download your free copy: https://yakup.mykajabi.com/p/author-preneur

Ceyhun Yakup Özkardes is the creator of the online course Author-preneur — How to publish, market and sell your own book where he teaches marketing and selling strategies for authors.

Everybody is talking about storytelling for your marketing plan. The power of storytelling can increase also your personal brand as an author — but how can you use it?

1. Why storytelling is powerful

In a nutshell: Storytelling is the way how we connect with other people. Through telling stories people feel emotions and these emotions can be remembered much longer than just only data. I will always remember how I read the Aladdin comic as a little child but I will not remember how many pages the comic had. So, people, I included, like to read, listen and watch stories. That`s also how Hollywood earns money — through telling stories in the best way. Big corporations are using storytelling as a marketing tool, so also authors should use this as a way of communicating with their target group. So, how can you as an author include your personal story in your marketing plan?

2. How to use storytelling?

The important thing is: you have to know your target group! In my case: authors. I know that many authors, me included, have criticism by other people. I also had this, in one point of my career I got a hurting E-Mail by my journalist mentor and he criticized my writing style. This was hard for me because I thought it was well done. This criticism changed me and I started to attend to workshops, seminar and also bought video-online courses and improved my writings. For me, this moment was a game changer.

The reason why I tell this short story about my own life is that because many authors had also in one point of their life criticism. They dealt with rejections or they have to compromise some of their work in order to satisfy customers. So, the first way to tell your story through bad things that happened in your life that are related also to your target audience. When you tell this bad moment, you get this connection with your audience because they also can feel this moment. This story, by the way, has to be real; you can`t just create some story because you`re audience will fell it.

3. How NOT to use storytelling

Within marketing, we have this so-called “superhero marketing” where marketers show people rich, famous and powerful. This worked well maybe in the 90s and early 2000s but not in 2018. Today marketing shifted to authentic and real stories because the consumers are smart enough to differentiate between fake and real. You have to be very careful not only to tell about your success and your achievements because but also about your real struggles and fears. If you do this authentic and consistently people will believe you and then they will believe also your message. So, tell first your struggle which is related to your target group and then paint the big picture and show them what your book or service can do for their life.

If you`re interested in more marketing strategies about how to reach more people as an author than you can download my FREE Author-preneur Guide — How to publish, market and sell your book. Just follow this link and download your free copy: https://yakup.mykajabi.com/p/author-preneur

Ceyhun Yakup Özkardes is the creator of the online course Author-preneur — How to publish, market and sell your own book where he teaches marketing and selling strategies for authors.

The truth about storytelling was originally published in Thrive Global on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.