The Maverick Marketer Blog

So after my last post I got a ton of folks congratulating me on my new book Joe Vitale and I co-authored that’s coming out next Tuesday.

Thank you… one and all, it is a good feeling… and I’m going to make a suggestion that helps me and you:

Wait to get a copy on TUESDAY when we launch the book because I am doing something special (and no, it’s not a typical ‘book launch’ - though we are shooting for best seller).

So if you wait until Tuesday the 25th, the volume of buying that occurs on that day will help me and you’ll get something else I’ll tell you about soon.

What’s amazing to me is when Joe and I were in Austin Wednesday, Joe saw Inspired Marketing in Barnes and Noble — even though it wasn’t supposed to be even available until today.

Here’s the pic Joe took.

Inspired Marketing at Barnes And Noble in Austin, Texas

Now, that is a moment, I have to admit that just is awesome.

I’m a book nut, as you may know, and to see a book I co-authored on the bookshelves is a mind bender… and a first for me.

Recently I happened to be in Barnes and Noble buying some very cool new books and I asked if they had Inspired Marketing in yet… and there was this moment where the pretty young lady behind the counter said, "no, it’s coming out on March 21st. Would you like me to order it…" and I said, "That’s ok, it’s my book I was just wondering if you had it in stock yet…" and she squealed and excitedly said she’d never met a "real live author in person before" and she reached out and shook my hand.

That was a heck of a fun moment, let me tell you.

Anyway, so reason I’m writing today is that I also got a ton of questions about ‘What is Inspired Marketing about’, too.

Now, you may know that I’ve been an entrepreneur (or at least was trying to be) since the mid to late eighties when I was still a teenager/college student.

So let me say that I have had good times and before that, I had a lot of not ‘bad times’, but, uh, bumpy and scary times along the way.

In fact, back in 1986 when I first got the idea to start a business, if you told me I’d have a book with my name on it in stores I would have chuckled pretty hard.

And from the comments and emails I get from folks who read my emails and blog and all the folks I’ve met speaking at seminars… it’s clear that what Henry Thoreau said about people in general is even more true of entrepreneurs..

He wrote…

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. By a seeming fate, commonly called necessity, they are employed, as it says in an old book, laying up treasures which moth and rust will corrupt and thieves break through and steal. It is a fool’s life, as they will find when they get to the end of it, if not before."

Translated into today’s American english, here’s my 21st century version:

"Most people’s lives suck because they spend all their time chasing things that don’t matter and their heart isn’t in the game."

I’ve met so many entrepreneurs (and those who are trying to start businesses) who wake up every day wondering…

* Where the next dollar is coming in to cover the ever growing pile of expenses…

* How to come up with products that people really want to buy…

* How to stand out from all the competition chasing after the same customers…

* Where and how to advertise to get traffic to their store or website…

* What they can do to finally achieve the level of success they really dreamed of when they started.

And if you’ve ever worked for yourself, you know that the ‘Boss’ can be pretty unforgiving. So you work long, long hours, often staring at the glow of your computer monitor deep into the night (and sometimes never sleeping at all).

After a while, you begin to rebel against the boss (you).

So then you find that you don’t want to…

* Do everything you know need to be doing… so you procrastinate

* Figure out how to do all the things that you are told you need to learn

* Trade every waking hour of your life for the business while your personal and family life goes to Hell in a hand basket

If you see yourself somewhere in all that… the good news is that there is a better way.

Joe and I call it Inspired Marketing.

It’s about living your life so that what you are working on in your business IS something that makes you feel alive, grateful, excited, and confident knowing you are following a higher path.

You’ll draw your product and business ideas from inspiration instead of desperation.

In fact, the best antidote I know of for a ‘life of quiet desperation’ is a life guided by INSPIRATION!

Most people think business has to be a struggle, hard, ugly even, and boring, ‘no pain no gain’ drudgery interrupted by fits of panic and mild terror.

And most people struggle with selling, marketing, and finding a way to actually get customers because they feel uncomfortable with the typical hype, sleaze, and icky feeling that seems to surround us in a zillion marketing messages a day.

Especially in Internet marketing, there seems to be a near requirement that you forget your ‘list’ consists of human beings with real needs instead of a group of wallets to yank money out of.

Inspired marketing connects with people because it is authentic, real, and based on passion and comes from your heart (don’t worry guys, it’s still effective marketing… just not hypey and pushy).

So Inspired Marketing really talks about the kind of approach you hear called ‘Web 2.0′ where you truly connect with your market instead of shovel shinola at them hoping they’ll be blinded by the tap dance long enough to buy.

Inspired Marketing is an easy read, too…

We decided the best way to convey what Inspired Marketing was to actually talk with successful entrepreneurs who lived it.

We interviewed men and women, folks who had just started following the path and those who have already achieved massive success, for profit and even a non-profit case study, too.

I’ll be telling you more about Inspired Marketing the book, and what inspired marketing IS and why it is so different from the way most entrepreneurs struggle with desperation.

Now I know many people who’ve told me they pre-ordered the book already.

But like I said, we’re launching the book on Tuesday with something very special for those who get a copy that day from Amazon.com.

So here’s what I suggest you do.

Go to InspiredMarketing.com and get on the notification list there.

Also, after the launch I will be blogging over there more about both inspiration, marketing, and more.

This will continue to be where I talk about Internet marketing stuff… but you’ll want to get on my new list over at InspiredMarketing.com, too.

Stay tuned… I’ll keep you posted. Keep those comments and emails coming…

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this new direction I’m taking and also, I’m looking for Inspired Marketing case studies, so let me know your story.

Here’s to a life and business guided by inspiration…

Craig Perrine

 

 

This entry was posted on Friday, March 21st, 2008 at 3:36 pm and is filed under Maverick Marketer Insights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.