I’m happy to announce that Personality Not Included was chosen as a book of the month by Soundview Executive Book Summaries. In case you aren’t familiar with them, they are a group that review thousands of business books a year and select two each month to summarize in both audio and downloadable PDF format for subscribers. It is a huge honor to be chosen and I’m thrilled to be among titles like Influencer, Meatball Sundae, and The New Age of Innovation. Check out their site to see how you can get a download and summary of the book - or if you already have a copy, be sure to read page 185 where I take my own shot at summarizing the whole first section of the book in just 60 words. The most profound ideas shouldn’t take long to explain. Hopefully I manage to live up to that truth.
When I was traveling in Beijing I had the thrill of finding the book in one of two big English language bookstores in the city. The Wangfujing Bookstore had three copies of PNI (pictured in the photos below). The other bookstore didn’t have it, because they were sold out! Also in the gallery below are some shots from a few media interviews I did with press in the Ogilvy Beijing office:
One of the frustrating things about writing a book is that the “metrics” you get back from the publishing industry are less than complete. As an internet marketer, I’m used to getting a certain level of detail with reporting and when you write and publish a book you need to quickly get used to the fact that you will never have those kinds of metrics. Still, over the past few months since my book came out, I’ve developed my own sense for reading between the lines to pay attention to metrics that really matter. Here are just a few that I’ve uncovered that I use to better understand how my marketing efforts for the book are doing:
- Quality and quantity of speaking invitations - Since the book came out, the fastest return (almost overnight) was the types of speaking invitations I have been getting. Instead of leading panels, I have consistent offers to do keynotes, Instead of me proactively reaching out to groups for speaking invitations, they are now emailing me. I attribute this to two things - the first is the fact that I have a book, and the second is positive word of mouth from my previous speaking gigs. Lots of these invites are coming from people who have heard me speak at another event. So if you have spread the word or recommended me for a speaking gig - thanks!