Dr. Marc Kossmann and
Charlie Seymour Jr hit
#1 on Amazon thanks to you!
June 29, 2010 was already an important date on our calendar – we'd been aiming our Official Amazon Book Opening at that date for a month or more.
And then just before 4 PM EDT, Amazon started to crash, told people they had no more copies of our books (and no more copies of LOTS of people's books!), and it looked like our dream, our intention, our hard work would fly away in a cyberspace crash.
Blog posts and Tweets by others told the tale and confirmed our suspicion: Amazon was suffering one of its infamous meltdowns.
Was it, as some people said, our book that took Amazon down? Was it all the activity we sent their way? Was it because YOU jumped in to get our book just as everyone else did?
That's for others to sleuth out. We just knew that we were at No 2 as Amazon crashed and burned and wondered if we could recover the activity and sales.
Many people emailed us directly: "Amazon won't let me buy your book!" "Amazon says your books are all gone!" And worse yet: "Amazon says you don't exist, and though I can find your personal profiles, there is NO book page for you! What is going on?"
But you persevered. You kept knocking at Amazon's shopping-cart door. You wouldn't give up on The Book and you DIDN'T give up on US… for which we are very, very grateful.
So we're pleased (and humbled) to announce that not only did we make the Best-Sellers list, we became the #1 Best-Selling-Entrepreneur Book on Amazon. You can see attached to this note some of the screen captures we made as this happened. And on ONE of them, you'll see the date and not just the time (Oh, the clever Dr. Marc – he shows the time AND date on HIS computer… I was only showing the TIME!). June 29, 2010 just after 5 PM.
So we celebrate YOU! We celebrate all those who helped us! We're thrilled with what people are telling us about the extra bonuses by Marshall Wayne, Mike D, Victoria Ipri, Justin Stranere and Josh Cassel, and JoAnna Brandi. And the five audio and transcript bonuses that we made available are still available now ( at http://bit.ly/DrMarcNCharlieBook )
We're thankful that people like Dave Dee, Daven Michaels, Jim Palmer, Bill Parlaman, Rick Tashman, and all those adding Bonuses went directly to their people and told them about us. Lorraine Ranalli interviewed me for her terrific radio program on wbcb1490.com. Many others told their friends. And our families were there for us too!
We're grateful for all the extremely supportive reviews we've received on Amazon.
We're thrilled that all of this worked so well (even while Amazon did not). We're thrilled that we were listed above Dan Kennedy's latest book NoBS Wealth Attraction In The New Economy, Gary V's Crush It!, and Michael E. Gerber's E-Myth Revisited… for a little while, anyway (believe me – those books have real "staying power" that, for now, we can only envy). By the way… if you don't have those books, they are great and you probably should add them to your library. We recommend them on our website here: http://personalsuccessmarketing.com/blueprint/books-we-recommend/
So for a day or so, we'll celebrate – celebrate that good planning, strong marketing plans, and the help of lots of people paid off. Celebrate that we've created a "map" for you to do it too – write a book in under 91 days and then get it to Number 1 on Amazon (more on that another time). And celebrate that the goals we set when we started our business partnership in January, 2010 are on target.
Thank you for your help, your best wishes, and for buying our book Hey, You… Don't Stand Out – Get Out! (The PersonalSuccess Marketing 40/20/40 System To Rescue The Highly-Trained Professional).
Now onto our next adventure. Will you join us as we Get Out, head through the Online Jungle, make The Shift, and journey to the Summit of our Careers?
Our DreamDestination is a day closer… how about yours?
Best,
Dr. Marc Kossmann and Charlie Seymour Jr
"Amazon Best-Selling Authors"
Remember, Sign Up NOW! PersonalSuccessMarketing.com has free-giveaway contests, helpful downloads, resources to help build your business, and so much more. Read more on Amazon Best-Selling Authors – Dr. Marc Kossmann and Charlie Seymour Jr Survive Amazon Crash…
I still do book by the hour, but only one day per week at this point. Certain transitions need to happen gradually over time. But booking by the hour is ultimately going to be a thing of the past for me, and I would encourage you to examine the problems this business model is creating in your life right now.
The Non-Business Plan
In four years of college and five years of graduate training in clinical psychology, I cannot recall a five minute conversation about the business of being a professional in private practice. It was never treated as a business. So, here was my marketing plan when I came fresh out of graduate school:
1) Find An Office
2) Get Some Business Cards
3) Put An Ad In The Phone Book
I also recall numerous efforts at creating a brochure. Eventually, there came the momentous decision to create a website. A homemade, totally static website. I had never even heard of SEO – wasn't even on the radar.
Heck, I was a pretty shy and introverted guy, so networking was not even a part of my initial game plan back then.
And you know what? It "worked" in some very minimal sense of the word. I offered low rates and worked to fill slots on the calendar. I simply had no concept of doing anything else.
Now, while the world of marketing has been revolutionized by the Internet, and most recently (and most powerfully) by the evolution of Social Media – for the majority of professionals, The Underlying Business Model is not changing or even being questioned.
Well, together with my good friend Charlie Seymour Jr, I am here to challenge your business model. It has at least two fatal flaws that I sincerely doubt anyone is pointing out to you. But let's not spoil the end of the story just yet.
Read more on Trading Time For Money – Do You Book Your Business By The Hour?…
Well That Big Blue Box To The Right Of This Column Is The Answer!
It's a good question! You know, you can't generally keep a lid on me and Charlie. We are on a mission to free our mid-career professional peers from the TimeTrap Plateau. This is a jail break. We have punched a hole in the wall, and we are looking to take as many of you with us as we can. We are off the TimeTrap, we have mapped the Online Jungle, and we are paving the way to The Summit of your career.
Our New Book Is Launching Now! Sort Of…
The reason for our relative quiet this month is that we have been in full book-launch mode. And, as I am sure you can imagine, there are all sorts of loose ends to tie up with last minute edits, changes to the look of the book's cover, getting sales pages up and running, etc., etc…. So that is why we have been relatively silent here on the blog.
We felt that we needed to create the total overview of the 40/20/40 System that we have created for you – so we spent the last few months writing the book.
Our Official Amazon Release Date is Tuesday, June 29, 2010 but since we have to test our sales pages, they are open now for everything downloadable. You will now find Hey, You… Don't Stand Out – Get Out! is available in various formats right here on the site. The print version of our book will be available to you shortly.
You Don't Have To Wait For Amazon
In the mean time, if you are an instant gratification kind of person (hey, I know I am!) then you might actually prefer the eBook and Audio book versions that we have for you right now. The eBook has full color pictures and diagrams (and is immediately available to you) whereas the print version is strictly black and white (and even when it's available on Amazon, you'll have to wait for, and pay for, the delivery).
The Audio book is my absolute favorite. I went pretty well overboard on the audio editing. The truth is that Charlie has a great narration voice (all those years of announcing football and basketball and a family history overflowing with theater experience), so we could have simply released a simple voice-read version of the book. But as Charlie can attest, I do like to play with sound effects and music tracks.
Our best offer is to let you have it all and then some. You can have the eBook in full color, the Audio book with full sound effects and music score, plus we are throwing in four bonus audio tracks where we go into much greater depth exploring background and symbolism that is embedded in our book. These were important topics that simply did not fit into the format of the book. And we offer all of that, our "Best Offer," at a great savings.
Hey, You… Don't Stand Out – Get Out!
See Our Information – Click Here Now!
We Are Only Getting Warmed Up!
But don't think for a moment that because we are now finished with The Book and The Audio Book that Charlie and I have any intention of taking a break or resting. The truth is, from day one we have looked at the writing of our book as a tool to launch PersonalSuccess Marketing.
Coming Soon!
Here is what you can expect from us in the very near future. We are going to be releasing a whole string of question and answer videos. In fact there are forty of them. We recently sat down with British businessman Andy Meehan (who was quite literally on his way to the airport to catch a plane to China), and he spent a whole morning interviewing us about a broad range of online marketing topics. We video taped the whole interview and then chopped it up into nice little, easily digestible single-question-and-answer videos.
We will also record podcasts on all forty of these questions to provide much more detailed content on all of these important topics, from Facebook marketing for professionals to how you can publish your first book in 87 days following a simple formula.
Let's see… what else do we have in store for you…. We have begun work on what will become a great online course on the entire 40/20/40 System. Stay tuned for updates on our progress on this project and when the projected launch date will be.
We Want To Speak At Your Group's Next Event!
Just because we hate to have even a shred of a chance of getting bored, we are also working on our public speaking calendar. So look for the Dr. Marc and Charlie Show coming soon to a venue near you.
And, by the way, if you have a business or professional group that you think will benefit from what we are creating – then, by all means, let us know. Most people hate public speaking… but let's face it – we are a little unusual. We really have a ball doing it. When you watch our videos, you get a pretty good idea of what we are like on stage! Send us an email at PublicSpeaking@PersonalSuccessMarketing.com and let us know about your group.
Well… that's the news update for the moment. There is MUCH MUCH MORE TO COME! Stay Tuned.
Read more on Book Publishing – Why So Quiet This Month, Dr. Marc and Charlie?…
How Can We Help You?
The highly-trained professional has a problem: trading Time for Money in what we call the TimeTrap Plateau.
Have you ever noticed how some professionals struggle to keep their waiting rooms filled, always looking for new sources of income while others have their clients and patients coming back to them over and over again?
Mid-career, Mid-life professionals need some marketing help to reach the summit
Exciting things are happening in my new venture with Charlie Seymour Jr. We have created PersonalSuccess Marketing with a very specific audience in mind. And let's face it, it goes along the lines of "Teach What You Know!"
You could consider Charlie and me to be mid-career, mid-life professionals. Although you might have a hard time pinning down exactly what those careers are! I mean Charlie has been the Wharton MBA, the commercial real estate sales guy, the professional photographer and videographer, the stage director of musicals and plays, and the serious online marketing consultant. While I have gone from clinical psychologist to real estate investor to marketing consultant with a few other side ventures along the way as well.
The reason we have launched PersonalSuccess Marketing is quite simply because we keep having the same interaction with lots of professionals we meet at meetings and networking events. And these people are generally your mid-career, mid-life professionals who have been quite successful at building their businesses (birds of a feather, right?).
We start talking marketing (because, let's face it, neither Charlie nor I can stop talking about the subject), and people very quickly start to feel a little lost. They get overwhelmed as we start talking about how blogs, websites, and social media need to be arranged and organized to function synergistically and with a clear sense of purpose.
Frankly, people feel that they just don't have the time to do it.
But I think it goes deeper than that – and here I have to put my shrink hat on for a minute. People avoid having the time because this involves moving outside of their comfort zone.
Can A 13-Year Old Run Online-Circles Around You?
One thing that we all tend to hate very much is feeling foolish. It's why research shows time and again that most people fear public speaking more than they fear death.
No joke.
We generally hate the feeling of being incompetent. And when we see 13-year-old kids using social media with such ease, it makes us feel that we SHOULD be able to do this. I mean, "If a kid can do it, why can't I?" And so the default answer becomes, "Well, I would do it, but I just don't have time."
And, of course, there is truth to that explanation.
The people we are speaking with are busy professionals and business owners. The thought of having to sit down and figure out how to set up a blog, post to it on a regular basis, optimize the website, link things to Facebook and Twitter, and on and on…. Just the thought pushes them to say, "I can't do that. I'm too busy right now."
The Online Jungle Seems To Be Swallowing Us Up!
So the world seems to be dividing itself into the technological haves and have-nots.
- There are those who dive right into the Online Jungle and pull out the machete, hacking away and taming their little corner of it.
- And there are those who retreat behind the castle walls of the known universe, returning to the traditional marketing tools that have worked well for them in the past.
The problem is, if you look up at those castle walls, the jungle vines have already grown over the top. The jungle is growing in, engulfing everything in its path, and it is threatening to engulf you as well.
New tools are needed. New skills are needed.
Read more on PersonalSuccess Marketing – Dr. Marc Kossmann Explains It All…
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