Why I’m Not Writing a Book This Year
Posted on 31. Jan, 2012 by Jay Baer in Amber Naslund, Blog, Convince & Convert News, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, The Now Revolution
I was all set to write another book this year. Solo this time, as my book spouse Amber Naslund has her hands full with her new social business consultancy Sidera Works. I loved writing half of The NOW Revolution
I was ready to jump back into the fire in 2012, with a nifty new topic, interested publishers, and a plan to use this new book as a real springboard to the future. But sometimes, life conspires to make you focus on the present.
On January 6, my life got shaken up like a snow globe. My little brother, Jeff Baer, died in his sleep of a heart attack at age 39. Jeff was my only natural sibling, and even after the services and paperwork and craziness, it’s difficult for me to process and accept that he’s gone forever. As I said in my eulogy, he was a bon vivant. A raconteur. A scallywag. Everyone who ever met Jeff remembers him, and that’s a rare quality in this world.
(Many thanks to the dozens of friends and clients who donated to the scholarship fund in Jeff’s memory. With your support, my parents and I are endowing two, full-tuition Jeffrey A. Baer Memorial Scholarships to the new Arizona State University – Lake Havasu City campus that opens this Fall)
As you might have surmised if you’ve read this blog or followed the progress of Convince & Convert, I’m a hard charger. Type A. Overachiever. Whatever label you want to put on it, you know the deal. And until Jeff died, I had never intentionally done less of anything. But something like that will force you to take a long look at what you’ve wrought.
As my Dad said to me at lunch a few days before the memorial service, “Jay, what are you trying to prove?” I’d never been asked that – even by myself – and the fact that I didn’t have a good answer was telling. It’s not that I’m ungrateful for the life and extraordinary career I’ve cobbled together over the past 20 years – much less my amazing wife and smart, perfect kids. I even have a cool dog, Mr. Cheeto. It’s not so much that I take all that for granted (although I often do). It’s more that I am wired to believe that good enough is not enough. That within my field there is no reason I can’t sell books like Godin, pack the room like Vaynerchuk, and build a large consultancy like Dachis. Maybe it’s ego, or hubris, or folly, but I’ve just never put psychological constraints on what I can accomplish.
I still believe I can do those things, but I’m going to tackle them at a more modest pace, leaving me more time to focus on my health and my family. And that’s where the book comes in. From experience, I know that if you have a busy day job, the book writing happens at nights and on weekends. Once the book is published the real work begins, which is promoting it. Very few business books sell themselves. The authors make them sell, hence the tour Amber and I undertook last year.
So, I’m not going to do it again. Not yet. I’ve got to use my time a bit more wisely for now. Even before Jeff, I had every single genetic and behavioral risk factor for heart disease and so forth (except smoking, which I quit 11 years ago). The last time I worked out with any degree of rigor and consistency was 1985. Yes, Reagan was President the last time I lifted a weight. I’m no expert, but that’s probably a sub-optimal fitness regiment. I have been a recent member of the Bacon-of-the-Month Club….and without irony.
Play time is over for me. I have a personal trainer. A nutritionist. A dermatologist. A new doctor. My payroll is increasing in inverse proportion to my waist line. But it’s worth it – or it will be. I’m joining the ranks of Brogan, Falls, Shankman and others who have decided that paying attention to your health is a worthwhile endeavor.
So, I’m not writing a book this year. I’ll still be plenty busy, of course. We have a ton of great clients at Convince & Convert. A new podcast – Social Pros – that debuted last night. A ton of speaking gigs (just not 65 cities’ worth). And a family that will hopefully see more of me.
I wasn’t always the best brother to Jeff, and that makes me sad – and always will. But I loved him, and he knew it. And he loved me, and I knew it. He gave me countless gifts through the years, especially laughter. I’m hoping his greatest gift will be this one: a wake-up call.
Whew! A NOW Revolution Thank You
Posted on 09. Jun, 2011 by Jay Baer in Amber Naslund, Blog, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, Social Media Book, social media books, The Now Revolution
Our famous TequilaNOW party at SXSW
Yesterday marked the official end of the book tour for The NOW Revolution. Amber Naslund and I will continue to support the book, talk about the book, do presentations about the book, etc. long into the future. But, the official end of the tour is a milestone that I didn’t want to let pass without saying thank you.
Thanks to each and every person who dodged traffic, work obligations, hail, tornados, and many other obstacles to come see me and/or Amber on The NOW Revolution trail. We ended up in more than 35 cities, and met many thousands of people trying to find a way to make social media about something bigger than coupons and Twitter. Hopefully, we helped in that endeavor.
From Victoria, BC to Montreal, and from San Diego to Boston, I’ve spent most of the past 150 days criss-crossing the continent (and even Europe in Amber’s case). It has been exhausting and exhilarating. I have a newfound respect for traveling circuses, carnivals, rock musicians, and stand-up comedians. It has truly been an experience I will never, ever forget.
In Austin, we learned how to sign books with a Sharpie from our friends Ann Handley and CC Chapman. We learned how to work a giant casino showroom stage from our pal Matt Ridings in St. Louis. In Orlando, I learned to not be afraid of an 80-foot HD screen showing my face. I learned how to be away from loved ones more than ever before, but learned as well how to take comfort in having so many people want to read and discuss what we wrote. I learned about bedbugs at one point, and Amber even learned how to fight off pneumonia during a book tour!
A special note of thanks to my clients who put incredible time and energy into hosting The NOW Revolution events; ExactTarget in Indianapolis and NYC; Off Madison Ave in Arizona; Casacom in Montreal; Standing Partnership in St. Louis; Strategic America in Des Moines; Bailey Gardiner in San Diego; Lovell Communications in Nashville; Babcock & Jenkins in Portland; and Flint Communications & AdFarm in St. Louis, Fargo, Duluth AND Sacramento.
Tremendous thanks as well to friends who put events together out of thin air, or twisted arms to support the book. Jason Falls, Chris Moody, Fred Von Graf, Eric Snelz, Rob Ackley, Chuck Gose, Matt Ridings, Mark Schaefer, Sean Rogers, Abbie Fink….thank you!!
To everyone who bought the book, sincere thanks to you as well. And if you haven’t bought it, but have been meaning to do so, it’s not at all too late. Please grab yourself a copy.
Thanks to the companies who helped sponsor the book tour, kick-off party, and other accoutrements. It couldn’t have been done without Radian6, ExactTarget, Tim Hayden and 44 Doors Sweet Leaf Tea, ThinkGeek, Taylor Guitars, North Social, Swix and many more great companies.
Thanks to Ethos3, who did such an amazing job on the slides for the presentation, which I’ve pasted here below for your use. This is the first time these slides have been made public. I hope you enjoy them.
Thanks to my associates at Convince & Convert; Jess Ostroff, Chris Sietsema, and Jason Amunwa for a lot of toil and trouble on the marketing side of things (and to Chris especially for the great infographics he made for the book).
And of course to Amber, for putting up with me for a year. It ain’t easy. See her fantastic thank you post here.
But most of all, thanks to my wife Alyson and my amazing kids Annika and Ethan for putting up with my many prolonged absences, especially when living in a new city with no support system. Your courage and good humor never cease to amaze me, and I always know that your sacrifices are what allow me the extraordinary opportunity to make a living doing what I love.
Lots more to come about The NOW Revolution and future projects. But today, a celebration of a tour completed.
Thank you one and all.
Speak No Evil – Why Trust Isn’t a 4 Letter Word in Social Media
Posted on 20. May, 2011 by Jay Baer in Amber Naslund, Blog, decentralized social media, rashard mendenhall, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, Social Business Design, social crm, social media operations, Social Media Staffing and Operations, social media trust, The Now Revolution
Now is the summer of our discontent. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. For social media, one hand giveth (instant spread of the Bin Laden news) while the other hand taketh away (seemingly daily stories about a company or person doing it “wrong”).
The most egregious occurrence of late was Rashard Mendenhall (running back for the Steelers, for readers who may not be sports fans) firing off a few tweets that were far outside the boundaries of mainstream American thought with regard to 911, Bin Laden, justice, and so forth. The Steelers disavowed his statements, and Mendenhall eventually apologized.
The belief in decentralized social media and every employee being in marketing is taking root in America. The more companies I talk to, the more I recognize that once they have the official company social outposts humming, organizations want to socialize other parts of the enterprise. This is gratifying, as this is the core premise Amber Naslund and I put forth in The NOW Revolution – that social media is about people not logos, and it’s everyone’s job to represent the company on the social Web.
Trust Is Not a Four Letter Word
But there’s a huge obstacle preventing many of these companies from executing on this plan. In short, they don’t trust non-marketers to represent the brand appropriately. The people who oversee social media in companies are afraid that other employees will pull a Rashard Mendenhall and do more harm than good, leaving the “professional marketers” to rush in like a bucket brigade to douse the flames and pick through the smoldering ashes of the brand.
I understand the concern, I really do. But, I have two problems with it as an excuse.
First, it contains a substantial amount of unspoken conceit to presume that marketers are inherently better at social media than non-marketers. Social media success is more about being social than it is doing social, and while knowledge of the tools and tactics are helpful, common sense and good judgement is not the sole property of a department, educational or vocational background, or any other circumstance.
I’ve been in meetings and heard these exact words spoken, “It would be great if we had a lot more people active on Twitter, but we’re scared to death to encourage sales reps to set up accounts.” Seriously? These are the same people that communicate for a living, persuading people to part with hard-earned cash to purchase whatever magic elixir you purport to provide. They build rapport and overcome objections for a living, and given that they often do it in a commission-driven environment, they have more at stake in their ability to do so than most marketers ever will.
Second, nobody is disproportionately bad at social media, it’s just that social media missteps are public. Let me give you a challenge. I’d like you to work with your IT department so that you can read all of the emails sent by your employees to non-employees. Not forever, one day should suffice. I guarantee you will FREAK OUT. Your employees are saying all kinds of crazy stuff via email right now as you’re reading this. Insensitive. Poor grammar. Too salesy. Not salesy enough. It’s all there for you to obsess over. But you don’t because it’s not easy or culturally appropriate to read all those emails. Or to listen in on phone calls, for that matter.
You don’t think Rashard Mendenhall has been sending wacky emails for years, that if published in a newspaper wouldn’t send alarm bells ringing at Steelers headquarters? Wake up and smell the keyboard.
At least on Twitter you only have 140 characters to give people the impression that you’re stupid. In an email you have limitless space to confirm the notion.
As Amber so succinctly and eloquently says, if your employees aren’t “good” at social media, you don’t have a social media problem, you having a hiring problem.
So when you’re ready to expand your social media program beyond @companyname and get everyone on board, set aside your biases, engage in rigorous training with all participants, and recognize that social greatness can come from anywhere.
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