I tried to post this earlier and, you may have noticed, there was an obvious issue!
Rather than concentrating on the fun stuff (dissecting the behaviors, characteristics and motivations of toxic leaders), this post is specifically to express gratitude for your support in my publishing and marketing adventure.
It has been a mixed bag of emotions since I published The Intrepid Brotherhood over two years ago. There was a flurry of activity after the initial release with reviews coming in fairly rapidly. I received many personal messages of support from former colleagues and friends, had several newspaper interviews, and began the process of learning how to conduct myself on podcast interviews (chuckle). Amazon print-on-demand orders were fairly robust initially and the posted reviews were generally full of praise, and very humbling.
Then the work began. My marketing company was very successful finding a series of podcast opportunities that, in my opinion, have progressively increased in quality and relevance. They, and I, embarked on a number of targeted marketing campaigns to attempt to identify that segment of the population to which my book would appeal to the most (my “audience”). We’ve had an Amazon Ads campaign going for about two years, which is really a keyword system that is meant to drive people to your book to see if it appeals to them. Then there is this blog, my bi-weekly catharsis of sorts. But, for some time now things have been just sort of percolating. I do a podcast or two, sell a few books, do my blogs ……. but there is nothing very different from one month to the next.
But August was different.
The numbers are still not huge, but my most recent marketing summary showed printed book sales almost five times greater than any previous month. The ebook promotion we ran for a week in early August produced sales ten times greater than the average. My LinkedIn profile views doubled. Five more book reviews were added on Amazon with the average reader rating remaining at 4.5 stars. I received two calls from contacts in the Wenatchee Valley providing me very positive feedback from conversations they had with current or former Chelan County PUD employees about my book. Lastly, the host of one of my most recent podcasts has contacted me since our initial interview to drill down further into the “toxic leader profile” subject to help him solve problems for current clients. He has suggested that I might be asked to participate in virtual “Salon Room” discussions that he hosts on management topics. The downside to all of this, if there is one, is that I don’t know what the catalyst was for all of this activity. Obviously, my next job is to find out so that I can try to keep the momentum going.
Most importantly, thank you if you purchased my book, especially if you have written a review. Thank you to everyone who reads these blog posts and takes the opportunity to discuss the content with friends, colleagues, family members …… anybody. Thank you if you take the time to listen to or watch the podcasts that I have participated in.
And thanks for “not forgetting”, because as soon as you forget the past it has a nasty habit of repeating itself.
Stay Courageous,
Gordon