The beginning!

A couple of weeks back, I had a chance meeting at my local Barnes and Noble. As I was reading through some material, Dora Robinson approached me to ask if it was ok to share my table. "Please do" I responded and than I think I said "that space has been waiting for you!". Typically, I don't believe in karma but I think some strange forces must have been at work that day. After spending some time talking about what each of us do, she told me that she hosted a show at a local radio station (KOOP FM91.7) and that she would like to invite me to appear as a guest speaker. Indeed, it was my good fortune that she decided to share a table with me that day.

The show is coming up fast, in one week time in fact (December 30th), and I have been thinking about how I can make this experience worthwhile for the listeners . The program is called 'Writing on the Air' and it's targeted to Authors, Writers and anyone in the publishing business. If you are wondering, I am not an author and also not in the publishing business. But I know something about marketing products and building credibility to support marketing strategies. As Dora told me, there are many great writers out there who are struggling to market their products, be it books, articles, or animation artworks. These folks are great at writing but they are not necessarily good at getting the word out, the marketing part, to the masses about their work.

So by now, you are probably asking, why then write a blog? Why not just go on the radio show and tell people how to market books using the most powerful marketing tool in the modern history, one that gives power to the masses and levels the playing field, namely the Internet?

I know I am leading the witness but I believe that 'show me' is a lot more powerful than 'do as I say'. Adding a blog is part of a well designed marketing plan to inform, share, educate, invigorate and to build lasting relationships (ok, there is a hint here on what's coming). I will document my journey as I prepare for the show on Wednesday Dec. 30th with the following goals:

1) Share some thoughts and material about what works (short term goal)
2) Walk through the 'new rules of marketing' concepts that small business owners should know about and practice religiously (medium term goal)
3) To forge new relationships and create a network of like-minded people who can learn from each other and grow together (long term goal)