First Word

Now these stores have these so-called "rewards" programs in which participation requires your email address. My favorite bread store Panera keeps trying to shove a "card" at me and telling me to sign up online. My answer every time, "No, you want my email address, and I'm not going to give it out." My favorite bookstore, Borders -- same thing. What gets me is that some of these so-called "rewards" programs don't give you any real advantages anyway yet they've now plundered my email address and deluge your my box with various hyped-up programs and offers -- none of which are really all that valuable either. I mean come on! Today with inflation as horrible as it has become and a trip to the grocery store costing $150 or better for just a few items, what is .10 cents off really going to give me? The point is, I should not have to give these big corporations access to my private email just to get a minuscule discount. The exchange is noth...

We got asked a fun question by a client, "What is your favorite part of your job." My response was instantly writing. Malia, of course, admitted the wins on the PR side gave her a charge to which I responded, "Yeah, that gives you an instant boost." I joked that it's like Sally Fields infamous Oscars speech where she cries, "You like me! You really like me." The real reason for the rise is hidden in the satisfaction that your hard work is being accepted by the media as a good job. It's really an ego boost friends. As if we need mass acceptance to know we did a good job, but you know ... it helps. I have to tell you that response is my second favorite thing about what I do. It's the "yessss" moment we in the PR business work hard to achieve. And even better -- this week I had five of those moments! "Yessss!" Want to gleefully cry, "You like me," contact 3L to start your campaign today.

Whenever I give my talks on building your marketing platform for your book or business, I get a lot folks who look at me with a grimace when the answer to, "How often should I blog?" comes back with "every day." Most people hold their groans only to replace it with an uncontrolled frown and a brisk, "Including Sunday?" Yes, friend-Os including Sunday. I know the horror, the horror. If you miss a weekend, don't despair; but I can tell you my analytics show that a decent number of readers show up on Sunday, because my weekly newsletter First Word (another horror ... "weekly" newsletter) drives traffic to my blog. Why do I blog so much? Is it that I have so much to say I can't constrain my type-hungry fingers? Not exactly. I watch my analytics (if you don't know what is analytics, Google it) and if I don't miraculously manage to make my fingers do the tapping, my readership drops. I know this is an ugly truth for the less prolific; b...

Success in business isn't arbitrary, airy-fairy stuff. No magic-wand waving and poof! You have a successful and profitable business. I see people make it. I see people try to make it. I see people who want to make it. What I know with absolute certainty is that success and making a business work takes tenacity to overcome and plow through. Wear-with-all to hold up under fire. And a whole of persistence to make it work even when it clearly looks unworkable. You maintain your passion and dream, but also be open to retool and rework and reinvent when things don't go your way. I've had my moments to be sure when I watched my often shaky house of cards get a little shakier, but I've also been open to trying something different -- something with a fresh twist on an old model. Sometimes you just have to sit back and re-evaluate the what's next. And here is something super important: Be prepared to move your fixed thoughts out of the way. Sometimes those fixed thoughts may ...

I have recently been challenged with some absurd moments or comments out the mouths of folks who should know better. I have to tell you, I think other people's absurdities -- especially when these observations are made about others -- are pretty entertaining. You can't take these things seriously, because they are so ridiculous. I thought I would throw out for your amusement some of the moments I found ridiculous or just plain absurd. Here you go. "You don't understand what it's like to have a new baby." This statement came from a primary source of the ridiculous, and might I add, the invalidating. I have two children for the record. So, before I tell you why this statement was really just a way to invalidate my capacity to understand the difficulties of young mothers, my daughter is only seven-years-old so she is not that many years passed baby or toddler. For someone to make that suggestion about a mom who has two school-age children is absolutely absurd....

The other day I recently received what I assume was a mass "request" in the email. I assume a net cast to a wide audience, because it didn't say ... Dear Michelle ... but launched right into the request. And the request was for me to spread the word that this person could help our authors understand marketing better. And would I please forward this information? Now this request is an example of someone who obviously sent out a mass request to do a personal favor, which is never good. And the request for 3L Publishing to open its contact vault to this person was absolutely inappropriate. First, it showed that the person doing the request either wasn't paying attention to the fact that what she wanted was, in fact, part of what we do and she was dismissing our value and benefit ... or equally as bad, she wasn't paying attention to who she was making this absurd request to in the first place. If you're an individual or company, the worst thing you can do is be so...