Personality Not Included is a new marketing book for entrepreneurs, marketers and all businesses about the importance of personality and a guide on how to use it.
Personality Not Included - The Official Book Website

Making of PNI

pni_makingofgraphic.jpgWelcome to the making of PNI! This section is like the bonus footage on a DVD … the behind the scenes story on how I wrote the book and what I am doing to promote it now that it is out. The original title of this book was “Marketing Personality.” That’s how I originally sold it to the publishers, and it stayed that way until realized I couldn’t get the URL, and that a title needs to create far more intrigue than that. The idea of calling the book “Personality Not Included” stemmed from the popular disclaimer on gadgets and toys of “batteries not included.” Something essential was missing. You need the batteries for the toys, and you need personality for business. So I set out to write a book about how to put that back.

At the right, you’ll find a gallery of images on Flickr from the writing and marketing of the book. In addition, the links below are to an assortment of files designed to take you inside the process of creating PNI - from original sketches, to content that inspired me, to a look at the marketing strategy behind promoting the book. My idea behind this site, to a degree, is the same one I share throughout the book … that personality matters and you need to build a story that people can believe in and retell to others. My hope is that the more you know about what went into writing the book you are holding in your hands, the more likely you are to tell other people about it.

  • The First Idea - when looking through my blog posts on my personal blog, I came across a post called “The Importance of Having A Personality” which I wrote back in October of 2005. I think it was the first time I ever started thinking about the idea of personality - not realizing that about 2.5 years later it would be the subject of my first book.
  • The Original Book Proposal (the one page outline I used to sell the book idea to my agent and eventually to the publisher - though this obviously changed significantly)
  • Positioning the Book (this is the slide I used to position where the book would fit in the overall landscape of books already out there and how it could occupy a unique space)
  • Rejected Cover Design (before we settled on the chickens, we were still exploring creative concepts and all liked one design that I had done based on an image that depicted a duck standing apart from the crowd. It was an interesting thematic approach that ultimately led to the cover we ended with, even though this version linked above was rejected.
  • Original Sketch - Today’s Buying Cycle (a scan of the original hand drawn sketch that was eventually turned into the graphic on page 165 of the book describing how today’s buying cycle works)
  • Original Sketch - The UAT Filter (a scan of the original hand drawn sketch that was eventually turned into the graphic on page 81 of the book that outlines the key method I describe of uncovering the personality of your brand by using this filter with the three key criteria of personality)
  • Original Sketch - The Attention Paradox (a scan of the original handdrawn sketch that was eventually turned into the graphic on page 33 of the central paradox in much of marketing that holds many companies back.

I’ll be continually posting more updated materials on the Personality Matters blog and adding them here as well so be sure to check back in the coming weeks for more of an inside look at the making of Personality Not Included.