You’ve put in the work and finally have a brand new book that is ready to be shared with the world. What’s the next step? This is where any published author will tell you that it’s time for the real work to begin. Writing a book is the easy part – it’s the successful selling of it that’s tricky.

Ask any business author nowadays – whether you publish your book traditionally, through a publishing company, or self-publish it yourself… marketing and publicizing your book comes down to you.

There are lots of ways to get the word out about your book, but understanding how to do book marketing right will help you hit the ground running. Here are some of the basics I learned during my first book launch (that I’ll be using again in my next!) that I’d like to share:

1. Know Your Target Audience

Determine who your book will appeal to before setting a full strategy in place. Get to know who your ideal readers are, what their problems are and how your book can serve them.

2. Set Your Budget

Establish how much money you are going to spend on promotions such as travel expenses, paid ads, hiring a publicist or strategist, etc. For some this might be very little, if nothing at all – but, for others there might be a budget in place. Either way, stick to it.

3. Media Kit

Help make it easy for people to spread the word about your book, by preparing a media kit. This includes a short and long biography, professional hi-resolution photos of you and your book cover, as well as links to your social profiles.

4. Build a Book Home

Consider creating a landing page, or even a full website for your book to keep your readers up to date on its progress, along with any book signings or announcements. This is also a great way to add people on to your launch email list – so when you officially launch your book, you do so hitting the ground running with lots of pre, or initial sales.

5. Social Media Blitz

Use the flexibility of social media to your advantage. This is where you can provide sneak peeks to pull readers in, hold giveaways and contests, prepare quote images pulled from your book to give them an idea of what it’s all about. Build that buzz! I remember Periscope coming out just after my first book launch and saying to myself “Man, I would’ve been all over that if it was available to me at the time!”. Get active!

6. Do ‘The Rounds’

Hold a virtual book tour by making appearances on book review sites, contributing guest posts, ‘touring’ around relevant podcasts, hosting webinars, and more to help get the word out.

7. Book Launch Bundling

Package together some goodies along with your book to add more value for your readers. Try adding in options such as ebooks, videos, workbooks, courses or audiobooks to make it a no-brainer for them to purchase a bundle instead of just a single copy. Your hardcore fans and followers will be more than happy to buy a few copies to give away, as soon as you make it worth their while.

8. Utilize Your Email List

Reach out to your email subscriber list and keep them well-updated on your launch. You can also offer them exclusive promotions, or sneak peeks of the first chapter of your book – give them the inside scoop. They’ll love it!

9. Blurbs Matter

Start collecting blurbs before your book launch by providing advanced copies to relevant influencers. You can use them on the book cover, inside the book itself as ‘advance praise” and all over social media to help promote the launch when it comes about.

10. Post-Launch

Use all the steam built from the pre-launch and keep the buzz going by continuing to post on your blog with calls to action along with updates on any additions such as audiobooks, live events, book signings, etc.

Remember, a good book (much like a puppy!) is for life… not just for the launch (or Christmas!).

I know it seems like a lot and really, these are only the basics compared to advanced book marketing strategies that are out there, but if you are ready and willing to put in the effort of learning how to do book marketing the right way, then that already puts you ahead of the pack.

Writing and marketing a book is one of the quickest and easiest ways to position yourself as an expert in your industry. If you don’t have this active part of your Youpreneur Ecosystem in place already, you should consider getting to it at your first opportunity!

What comes to mind when you think of the word entrepreneurship?

Before you answer, really think about it.

• Do you think of the freedom it has to offer?
• Do you consider the risk that’s involved?
• Do you admire the leadership that’s needed?
• Or maybe you imagine the thrill of innovation and making a dent?

Whatever it is, there’s usually one word that’s not discussed when the topic of entrepreneurship comes up, and that is accountability.

Don’t get me wrong… I get it.

Accountability is NOT sexy.

I doubt many people are searching online right now for more blog posts, or videos about how to become more accountable. But without accountability it will be nearly impossible to achieve your goals.

Let’s begin by defining what accountability is. And what accountability is not.

Accountability is…

Having your end-goals known by people you value. There’s nothing wrong posting your goals on social media, or YouTube for the world to see, but it’s also important for the people within your inner circle to know your goals too.

A verbal commitment to your goals – this can be between you and someone else.

Owning your mistakes – yes, you will make mistakes on your road to achievement. Lots of ’em!

Having someone, or a group of people that will ask you about your goals and support you in achieving them.

Accountability is the business advantage you need, simply put.

Accountability is not…

Writing your goals down and then keeping them to yourself. It’s impossible to be accountable if you’re the only one that knows about them.

The biggest reason is that you’ll easily be able to let yourself off the hook at any time, without anyone knowing about it.

Making excuses for why you’re not able to hit your goals – let’s be honest. It’s going to be impossible to achieve your goals without making mistakes. This doesn’t mean you’ll never slip or fail, but entrepreneurs being held accountable don’t focus on the excuses.

They focus on what they can learn, and what their next step is.

Measuring your success against others: Thanks to social media!

Why Accountability Trumps Willpower

It’s easy to feel motivated at the beginning of a project.

No mistakes have been made… yet.
No challenges have been encountered… yet.
You’re still feeling the “buzz” of starting something new.

But what happens when the challenges start showing up?

How do you ‘do the work’ when the motivation has faded?

Typically this is where entrepreneurs turn to their willpower (and caffeine!) to help them power through. But that only goes so far.

What makes accountability so powerful is that your goals now have a voice. Something that people pay attention to. Something that you ‘put out there’.

This comes in the form of conversations with people in your trusted inner-circle who are allowed (and asked) to bring up your goals and ask how your progressing. This means openly sharing BOTH progress and failure with your audience and social circle.

All of which contributes to the desire of not wanting to let anyone down, and fulfilling your word.

None of which happens if you keep your goals to yourself.

This happened to me recently. I attempted to launch a high-end mastermind version of my successful Youpreneur Community. High price, private coaching, monthly commitment, etc. Even though I knew from speaking with many of my members that they wanted something like this, I was off target on what they could afford. So, the launch failed.

But, it genuinely didn’t bother me all that much. Why? Because I held held myself accountable by promising people it was coming. And, more importantly… when it failed, I talked about it – which opened up a load of brilliant conversations and feedback that has now helped me develop something new, which will be launched soon, and I know the likelihood of it ‘hitting’ this time far outweighs the changes of it ‘missing’ the target.

How To Bring Accountability into Your Life

Becoming accountable is no different than growing muscles.

It doesn’t happen by accident. You must be intentional about becoming accountable. This begins by surrounding yourself with likeminded individuals that get you, the mission that you’re on as a business builder, and will stand by you in your pursuit of business success. The perfect example is my Round Table Mastermind, or the aforementioned Youpreneur Community, which continues to grow month in, month out.

It takes resistance training. Every time you encounter a fork in the road on whether you should go in the direction of your goals, or take the easy way out – it’s an opportunity to develop your accountability.

Proper nutrition intake. Just like your body needs nutrition to grow, your ability to become more accountable is dependent on the thoughts and environment you feed yourself. Being aware of this and making the proper adjustments can be life-changing. Read. Listen to podcasts and always be learning.

So with that said, you can start today. You do this by identifying the people in your life that can hold you accountable – in turn creating the business advantage you need.

Here’s a few ideas to begin with:

Your spouse.
A mastermind group.
A personal best friend.
A sibling.
A coach, or mentor.

Bruce Lee once said “As you think, so shall you become”.

Think. Put yourself out on that ledge a little.

The most important thing to remember when choosing an accountability group, or person is that you’re 100% honest with them about what you want to accomplish, share the areas of weakness in your life that will be your biggest obstacles and then remain 100% honest about your progress.

With these steps in place your business will change, your life will change, and you will become nothing less than the best version of yourself in the process.

I promise.

I can make an argument that the most important aspect of any business is not marketing or sales. And it’s not product development or branding—it’s customer service. The funny thing is that whenever the topic of customer service comes up, most business owners’ eyes glaze over, and they mentally move on to the next topic. To be a successful Youpreneur, you need to change your position on customer service and take a proactive role in keeping your customers as happy as possible.

Before you start pitching your customers, you want to know what they really want. The sales process is usually one of the more intimidating and trickier aspects for entrepreneurs when it comes to business, which is why it’s important to get into that customer mindset and learn how to create the right customer experience to create brand loyalty.

Once you know what they want, and have created that loyalty, it’s time for you to flex that sales muscle.

Making Customer Service a Priority

A few years ago, I had a conversation with a coaching client of mine. When I asked him what his three main focuses in his business were, he said, “Well number one, I’m always focusing on getting new customers. Number two is about making sure that my existing customers are happy all the time. And number three, I focus in on making sure my team is happy, because they’re helping me run my business.”

The team is where customer service begins and ends. It’s got nothing to do with your customers, per se, it’s about how you train your team, and how you treat your team. It’s about whether your team members are either excited, happy, and loyal, or whether they’re floating in a completely different direction.

So I turned this client upside down. I said, “Well, you’ve got it all wrong, my friend. Number one, most important, is your team. And that’s purely because of the customer service element of your business. If your team is happy, then they’re going to do a better job when it comes to customer service.” I said, “Number two, you should be focusing on your existing customers. Number three is focusing on getting new customers.”

Why should you focus on your existing customers before going after new ones?

It’s way easier to continue to get a “yes” from existing customers, than it is to get the “first yes” from a prospective one.

I talked a little bit about this earlier on in regards to membership sites as a business model for your ecosystem, because you’re getting a recurring “yes” on a monthly or quarterly basis.

When it comes to growing your Youpreneur-based business, you want to make sure you focus on (and in this order) 1) your team, 2) existing customers and 3) new customers.

A lot of companies out there are taking their customers for granted. That’s a major mistake on their part. Happy customers are a cornerstone of a successful business. This is why I think making customer service a major focus for your business should be a priority.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a coach, speaker, and consultant that is working closely with private clients, event organizers, and high-level customers—or if you’re a huge multinational organization that is dealing with customers all over the world.

Don’t ever take your customers for granted.

Make Making Contact Easy

Customers want to be able to reach you, so one key to making them happy is providing a number of different ways they can contact you. It’s not just your support email address that you have to worry about anymore. If you have a Twitter account, you better make sure that it’s manned. If you have a Facebook page, be sure your customer service team is looking after that also. Have your team really make customer experience a priority so you know that when customers need you, they can reach out to you at any time.

Protect the perception of your customer service.

People will almost always form an overall opinion of your service based on one interaction.

Do all you can to make sure that each customer experience is a good one. For instance, if you’re not going to have anybody working over the Christmas holiday, tell your customers in advance via an email or a message on your website, that if they contact you during that period of time, they’re not going to hear back until after the holiday. Being proactive in protecting your reputation is a great way to make sure you always have a good one to protect.

You want to hear from your customers. Don’t listen to people when they tell you otherwise. A lot of experts say that when you don’t hear from your customers that’s a good thing, but I would rather have good, engaged, and happy customers than ones that are not active at all. I want to talk to my customers so I can hear about their issues or even to get some praise from them too. If you don’t know what’s working and what’s not working, you’re going to be stuck playing the guessing game.

I like to make calls every now and then to my existing customers. These are calls that I, myself, make to people chosen randomly just to engage them in communication. By the way, the word call doesn’t necessarily mean a phone call.

I could use Zoom or something as simple as a Facebook message or direct tweet. The point is I like to reach out to my customers on a regular basis. You can schedule this contact to make it easy to maintain, and you don’t have to reach out to all of your customers at one time. Set up a specific time, once a week or once a month, select a number of people, and simply contact them. Do it just to make sure they’re happy regardless of where they are in your process. If they’ve got questions for you, then go ahead and answer them, right there and then. That’s how you take a proactive approach to making sure your customers stay around year after year.

As much as I want you to be engaged with your customers, you can eliminate so much customer service volume in terms of ticket requests, support emails, social media questions, and so on by having a really well thought out and put together FAQ (frequently asked questions) section on your website. You can include a whole bunch of info in there, such as warranty information, exchange policies, guarantees, all that type of stuff.

When establishing price points for your products and services, you have to start by checking up on your competitors. However, for Youpreneurs there’s one quite strange, yet obvious truth.

When you build the ‘Business of You’, there are no ‘real’ competitors.

Here’s the reasoning behind this statement. You’re basing your business and marketing around you, your personality, your experience, and the people you want to help out and serve the most. Regardless of what industry or niche you’re in, there are no real competitors out there competing to be you, because you are unique in every way and no one else could possibly be you better than you can.

However, chances are there’re certainly other people out there that are competing for the attention of the same market you’re trying to attract, and doing it in a very similar fashion.

You’ll Always Have ‘Competition’ to Deal With!

Let’s say you’re someone helping people create online courses, for example. You’ve got a lot of experience in the educational field, you’ve been involved with universities in the past, helping them create curriculums and things like that, and now you have developed your own side hustle and are working on building up your own profile as a course creation ninja.

Here’s the problem, there are other people that are out there already doing that.      

In fact, actually, I’ll go out on a limb and say that there are probably people out there doing exactly what you’re doing in the same industry that you’re doing it in right now. And, they may have already been in that marketplace for quite some time.

But, they are not you; they don’t have your experience or your personality.

As a Youpreneur, you want to keep a keen eye on what they are doing. You’ve got to look at what they are offering, how they’re offering it, and what they are charging for access to those products or services. Obviously, you don’t want to start copying them, but look at what’s working for others so that you can develop your own ideas. You don’t have to be the originator all the time. If there is a proven method or standard already in place, it’s good to use that as a platform from which you launch your own efforts to a specific audience.

Don’t be concerned with looking similar to other people in your niche. You have something none of them do.

The secret weapon for a Youpreneur is simply just being you all the time.

That’s the differentiating factor. That’s the MVP part of your business. You are the most valuable player when it comes to keeping yourself ahead of the competition. So look for people trying to attract the same audience that you are. Watch and see what they are doing. Follow their lead as to what to offer, how to offer it, and how much to charge. Then implement the secret weapon by adding your flare into the mix.

The Simple Way to Develop a Pricing Strategy

Once you know what others in the space are doing, you can figure out how you’re going to build out your pricing options and structure on the products and the services you want to offer. These might include items from our Starting Five, such as coaching, online courses, a membership, even tickets to a live event.

Whatever you choose, you can now start to price your offerings in a way that shows the value of your expertise.

The overall focus when it comes to pricing is that you’ve got to charge what you’re worth, and as I have said before, don’t apologize for it.

So many people just don’t see the actual value they add and undercharge for their time as a coach or consultant, or undercharge for their courses. If you do this, you set a standard that you may not be able to recover from later.

I have been guilty of undercharging in the past. I’ve had friends, mentors, and coaches come to me and say, “Chris, what the hell are you doing? You are so undercutting your value here.” Sometimes it can be difficult for you to see your own worth, but trust me, you are more significant than you think you are.

I use a specific technique to help me avoid undercharging for access to my expertise. I double my pricing. That’s right, I will get the price point to where I think it needs to be, and then I will double it. That seems scary, I know, but when I do this, I sell more as a result of it.

Here’s the thing to remember when you start setting your prices. You can start high and decrease from there, if things don’t work out. However, it’s so much harder to start low and increase incrementally over time.

People will feel like they’re getting a raw deal – especially if you’re not adding anything more into the mix.

Charge What You’re Worth

It doesn’t get any more simpler than that, does it? And… it’s the single most important thing you can do.

What are you doing when you become a Youpreneur? You are selling your expertise. You’re selling your experience. People are going to pay for access to your knowledge.

Price your information accordingly, price access to you and your expertise equally accordingly… and make sure you prove the value!

First impressions are crucial, especially in the noisy landscape of podcasting where dozens of new podcast shows are launched every day.

The truth is, your next potential listener will probably judge your podcast based on its artwork before even getting around to listening to your first episode.

Great artwork means investing real time, thought and effort into creating a quality image that will stand out in the iTunes store and make potential listeners want to hit the play button. Here are a few guidelines on how to get podcast artwork looking great in iTunes and beyond – getting the attention is deserves!

Design for Different Sizes

Create your podcast artwork that works on both a large and small scale to have it fit in areas like the iTunes Podcast Page, New and Noteworthy Section as well as other podcast apps.

Keep Words to a Minimum

Remember: your cover art isn’t your podcast’s about page. A good rule of thumb is to stick to five words or less to make your podcast artwork easy to read when it’s at thumbnail size.

Stick to Clean, Legible Fonts

Your podcast artwork needs to stand out. Stick to fonts that make it easy to read, like Sans Serif fonts instead of Script fonts that might get lost in the details of the other elements of your podcast’s artwork.

Avoid the Cliché

Use images that are relevant to the topic. Skip the artwork that involves microphones, headsets and other overused podcast gear.. unless your podcast happens to be about podcasting, of course!

Branding Consistency

Your podcast is part of your overall brand, so remember to use consistent imagery like sticking with the same colors, logos, and images to help your followers recognize you!

Test it Out

Test out your artwork by shrinking your image and placing it on a screenshot of the iTunes podcast section to check how it shapes up against others. Ask yourself, does your artwork standout? Does it relay the right message?

The content of your podcast is what will ultimately determine if your listeners will stay and become loyal subscribers, but having eye-catching artwork is what can help elevate your image as a professional podcaster with a real message to share.

What’s your favorite podcast artwork so far? I’d love to check them out – let me know over on Twitter and via Facebook – I’d love to hear from you!

I’ve worked with a lot of people on their brands and sites, and one of the most notorious areas that entrepreneurs tend to neglect is their About Page.

After your homepage, your about page is probably the second most visited static page on your site. So my mission for today’s post is to bring you up to speed on what you should and shouldn’t be doing – yes… we’re diving deep (but, quickly!) into what to include on your about page.

First Up – The Headline

Your headline should be benefit-driven and answer the visitor’s question of “what’s in it for me?”. This should be tackled right at the top of the page to confirm that your visitors have come to the right place for their questions and needs.

Master Your Introduction

This is a pretty common mistake that a lot of people make, where they start everything off with talking about themselves. What you need to do is focus on your visitor and make it about them. You will want to highlight four to five key selling points and sell them as to why they should stick around.

Social Proof

Make sure you leverage social proof by including logos of press mentions or features along with displaying testimonials from previous clients to further drive home the point that your brand is the real deal.

Now It’s Time For.. YOU!

While it’s important to initially show your visitors what you can do for them, you will also need to give them a clear look of what you are all about (that’s what they are there for, right?). Give a quick background, talk about your passions and focuses and tell them how you are going to help them.

Get Personal

Here is where you can add personal touches to your About Page to show your fun side. A quick video clip is a great way to give your visitors an idea of who you are and what you can offer them.

CTA Offer

So many entrepreneurs make the mistake of offering several different offers, confusing visitors. What you will want to show is one attractive, clear and concise offer that focuses on a ‘quick win’ to gain momentum straight off the bat for your visitors.

Show Your Best Stuff

Many visitors will go straight to the About Page before searching anywhere else, so why not make it easier for them by showing two or three pieces of your highest converting content or even an exercise to promote action to turn your casual visitors into real followers.

The Invite to Connect

The final element you need on your About Page is how people can reach you on social media. Place links to your social media profiles and let them know where you like to hang out specifically so they know which platform they can engage with you the best.

The fact is, your about page is just as important as your product and sales pages so you need to treat it as such. You need to figure out what to include on your about page early on, and keep it updated on a regular basis.

Placing a quick bio and a photograph isn’t what is going to get visitors to connect with you so go the extra mile and take the time out to build your About Page right and make the right first impression.

What did you think of today’s post? Let me know if there are any cool elements you’ve included on your own About Page. Tweet me, or drop me a message on Facebook!

Even with different formats and media types joining the game lately, no one can deny that ‘Content is King’.

No matter the type, whether it’s video, podcasting or blogging, creating quality content will always be a staple in determining the success of your brand. So here are my favorite tips and tricks to help you get serious about your content creation and to inspire you to figure out how to improve your content creation – fast!

Schedule It

Make sure that you take your content marketing seriously by creating a content calendar, where not only your blog, podcast and video content are included but also your social media and YouTube content as well. Remember: if it doesn’t get scheduled, it doesn’t get done!

Take Inventory

One of the first steps to creating killer content is to take stock of what is working for you and your audience right now. It’s time for you to spend some time with your analytics and see how are you serving your audience and what kind of content do they respond to.

Pay Attention to Your Community

When we first start out with our blogs, we create content that we think our audience wants. As our brands grow and we pay attention to our community, we then start creating content that our audience needs. The easiest way to make this happen is by simply asking. Whether it’s through your comments section or being available to reach on social media, it’s important to ask your audience and really listen to them.

Social Media Trends

Take note of what’s going on around you online by paying attention to social media hashtags (ex. #entrepreneurstruggles, #solopreneurproblems) or visit Facebook to see what topics are being discussed in your industry circles. The information you can glean from social media platforms could be priceless.

Industry Competitors

Check out what others in your niche are saying, this could mean your peers or even major industry influencers to see what topics are interesting them. It’s important to remember however, you don’t want to copy what they are saying – instead, react to it. There’s no need to copy a Gary Vaynerchuk video. Making a blog post and sharing your thoughts on it pushes your brand even further than if you were just going to make an imitation of it.

Conference Agenda Ideas

Conference topics are always a great way to see check out industry trends and what they can expect to be the next big thing. Make a list of industry conferences and take note of any hot topics that you feel you could create content on.

Guest Content

You don’t have to do content creation alone. You can bring on guests for podcast interviews or ask guests to write for your blog. Getting different perspectives and opinions is a great way to keep your content fresh for audience, but remember that guest posting shouldn’t be seen as an easy way out of creating content for the week so only do it when it makes sense for you and your brand.

Content Curation

Not every piece of content you produce has to be 100% original and brand new, you can also curate content that aligns with your brand like round-up posts or ‘best of’ lists. This is also a great opportunity to backlink to any older content you feel could be promoted again as well.

Don’t Forget to Breathe

It can be very easy to get on that hamster wheel of constantly creating content until you find yourself burned out, so don’t forget to take some time out to recharge and restart the creativity you will need as a content creator. Figuring out how to improve your content creation is just the beginning – it’s the hard work connected to it that’ll help grow your business fast!

There are so many ways to come up with different kinds of content, but the most important rule to keep in mind is to generate solid content consistently so that your audience can grow to trust and respect your brand as an industry authority.

How do you keep up with content creation? Let me know over on Twitter and via Facebook – I’d love to hear from you!