#BehindTheCurtain 14: James' Book is Available on Amazon & Audible! (& How We're Doing Promotion Differently)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:08.869 Hey there, this is James Carberry, founder of sweetish media and one of 2 00:00:08.910 --> 00:00:11.630 the cohosts of this show. For the last year and a half I've been 3 00:00:11.669 --> 00:00:15.349 working on my very first book. In it I share the three part framework 4 00:00:15.390 --> 00:00:19.230 we've used as the foundation for our growth here at sweetfish. Now there are 5 00:00:19.350 --> 00:00:23.620 lots of companies that have raised a bunch of money and have grown insanely fast. 6 00:00:23.780 --> 00:00:26.739 We've talked to a lot of them on the show. We've decided to 7 00:00:26.780 --> 00:00:32.259 bootstrap our business, which usually equates to really slow growth, but using the 8 00:00:32.380 --> 00:00:36.649 strategy outlined in the book, we're on pace to be one of inks fastest 9 00:00:36.689 --> 00:00:40.810 growing companies in two thousand and twenty. The book is called content based networking, 10 00:00:41.049 --> 00:00:45.210 how to instantly connect with anyone you want to know. I'm thrilled to 11 00:00:45.289 --> 00:00:49.210 tell you that the book has officially launched. If you're a fan of audio 12 00:00:49.329 --> 00:00:52.280 books like me, you can find the book on audible, or if you 13 00:00:52.359 --> 00:00:56.159 like physical books, you can find it on Amazon. Just search content based 14 00:00:56.359 --> 00:01:02.679 networking or James Carberry. That's car be aary in audible or Amazon and it 15 00:01:02.719 --> 00:01:06.709 should pop right up. If you're listening to this between January seven and January 16 00:01:06.709 --> 00:01:10.430 ten, you can snag the kindle version of the book for just ninety nine 17 00:01:10.469 --> 00:01:15.430 cents. All right, let's get into the show. Welcome back to be 18 00:01:15.590 --> 00:01:19.459 tob growth. I'm logan miles with sweet fish media. Today is another episode 19 00:01:19.579 --> 00:01:23.299 in our behind the curtain series and a special one. We're talking about the 20 00:01:23.379 --> 00:01:26.340 launch of James, this new book, content based networking, and hoping to 21 00:01:26.500 --> 00:01:30.219 not only just, you know, talk about the launch because we're excited, 22 00:01:30.299 --> 00:01:34.290 but give you some strategic, some tactical thoughts on some things we did differently 23 00:01:34.609 --> 00:01:38.930 in launching and promoting the book in the in the first couple of weeks. 24 00:01:38.170 --> 00:01:42.170 As always in the behind the curtain series, I've got with me and my 25 00:01:42.290 --> 00:01:45.969 buddy founder and CEO of sweet fish, James Carberry, and now the author 26 00:01:46.049 --> 00:01:49.519 of content based networking. James hasn't going. Man, that feels super weird. 27 00:01:49.599 --> 00:01:52.280 I started putting it in my email signature and I'm just like, man, 28 00:01:52.840 --> 00:01:56.200 this feels weird. But Yeah, man, we're super pumped. I'm 29 00:01:56.280 --> 00:02:00.239 super pumped about the launch of the book. This has been a year and 30 00:02:00.280 --> 00:02:04.750 a half long process and is rewarding as it's already shaping up to be. 31 00:02:05.189 --> 00:02:08.430 It was a grind and so I'm super pumped to to be launching this and 32 00:02:08.550 --> 00:02:13.270 wanted to share some things that I'm learning just as I've gone through the book 33 00:02:13.270 --> 00:02:16.340 launch process, you know, several weeks leading up to it. They're different 34 00:02:16.379 --> 00:02:20.979 things that you're doing and thinking about leading up to it so that you can 35 00:02:21.580 --> 00:02:24.379 optimize for that launch and hopefully, you know, hit some some best seller 36 00:02:24.460 --> 00:02:28.539 lists and so so, yeah, I'm pumped about this one. Yeah, 37 00:02:28.539 --> 00:02:30.409 man, so, as you started to think through, I mean as I've 38 00:02:30.449 --> 00:02:32.490 known you over the years, man, I know that you put a lot 39 00:02:32.530 --> 00:02:36.729 of thought into things and you know, one of the things that was in 40 00:02:36.810 --> 00:02:39.449 your head is, okay, we're launching a book. What a most people 41 00:02:39.569 --> 00:02:43.729 do? Tell me a little bit about kind of the the things that popped 42 00:02:43.770 --> 00:02:47.120 into your head of okay, what could we do a little bit differently or 43 00:02:47.520 --> 00:02:50.360 you know, this is what most people do, and then we're going to 44 00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:53.080 get into some different things that that you decided to do with us. Yeah, 45 00:02:53.240 --> 00:02:55.560 so I see. You know, I get a lot of emails. 46 00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:00.150 I've this year, for whatever reason, I've I've been actually mentioned in a 47 00:03:00.189 --> 00:03:04.509 lot of books, and so I I'm getting these emails letting me know when 48 00:03:04.590 --> 00:03:08.550 books are going live, when they're available can you buy one? Can you 49 00:03:08.870 --> 00:03:13.219 leave a review and Amazon, which, for whatever reason, Amazon does not 50 00:03:13.419 --> 00:03:16.659 make it easy to leave about you. Yeah, so it's a painful process. 51 00:03:17.219 --> 00:03:21.219 So you know. And I was like, you know what I if 52 00:03:21.259 --> 00:03:23.860 I'm honest, when I get these emails from people, they're like hey, 53 00:03:23.939 --> 00:03:29.370 can you leave the Amazon Review One? It's usually from someone. Now, 54 00:03:29.409 --> 00:03:31.330 if I've been mentioned in the book, I obviously I know them a little 55 00:03:31.330 --> 00:03:36.009 bit better. I'm probably actually good friends with them if they've mentioned in the 56 00:03:36.050 --> 00:03:38.810 book. But I get a lot of emails that I'm just like, I 57 00:03:38.849 --> 00:03:44.159 don't know you, like you clearly sent this to four thousand people like no, 58 00:03:44.360 --> 00:03:46.719 I'm not buying your book and no, I'm not leaving you an Amazon 59 00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:51.039 Review. And so I thought about that because we've got, you know, 60 00:03:51.120 --> 00:03:55.189 a list of four thousand are so folks on our email list and and I 61 00:03:55.349 --> 00:04:00.629 was like, how can I communicate the launch to, you know, a 62 00:04:00.750 --> 00:04:02.469 large group of our audience? I'm not, you know, I don't time 63 00:04:02.509 --> 00:04:08.030 to send four thousand individual emails or text messages, but how can I send 64 00:04:08.030 --> 00:04:13.060 it in a way that's fun and gets their attention and doesn't SCRA dream? 65 00:04:13.460 --> 00:04:15.740 My book is launching because that. I think that's really the fastest way to 66 00:04:15.740 --> 00:04:18.939 get your email deleted. And so instead I was like, you know, 67 00:04:19.060 --> 00:04:23.779 I'm just going to be honest and vulnerable about what the process of writing a 68 00:04:23.860 --> 00:04:28.410 book was like, because it was a grind. And so in the email, 69 00:04:28.930 --> 00:04:32.089 the the subject line of the email is punching a raccoon question mark, 70 00:04:32.610 --> 00:04:36.170 which instantly is going to make somebody want to open that email, like we're 71 00:04:36.290 --> 00:04:41.399 subject mynd writing. Man, is just is is epic. It's just it's 72 00:04:41.480 --> 00:04:44.720 just first engineering the result you want. You want me to pay attention. 73 00:04:45.120 --> 00:04:48.360 They got a crap ton of emails in their inbox. met like put an 74 00:04:48.399 --> 00:04:51.990 email raccoons. Yeah, like there's there's no email that's going to be in 75 00:04:53.069 --> 00:04:58.149 anybody's inbox that that says punching a raccoon question mark. And so I basically 76 00:04:58.350 --> 00:05:00.589 talked about the story of writing it, how it's been really hard. There 77 00:05:00.629 --> 00:05:03.870 are points, you know, where I wanted to punch a raccoon and I 78 00:05:03.990 --> 00:05:10.139 even kind of like raccoons. And so so by reverse engineering what I want, 79 00:05:10.139 --> 00:05:13.379 which is people to pay attention to the email and to actually help me 80 00:05:13.420 --> 00:05:15.980 out. One I need to build a little bit of story and I need 81 00:05:16.139 --> 00:05:19.100 to not just say hey, the books live, you should go check it 82 00:05:19.180 --> 00:05:23.290 out, but instead show the story in the process of what it was like 83 00:05:23.970 --> 00:05:27.689 to get a book to where I can send an email like I like I 84 00:05:27.769 --> 00:05:31.769 can today. And so the messaging and the copy for the email is very, 85 00:05:31.850 --> 00:05:35.959 very different. I'm sending another email later in the week where I'm basically 86 00:05:36.120 --> 00:05:39.399 just letting know, hey, you know, the book is no longer ninety 87 00:05:39.399 --> 00:05:42.120 nine cent starting tomorrow, so this is the last chance to buy it. 88 00:05:42.639 --> 00:05:47.120 And again injected, try to inject some humor, some some personality into that 89 00:05:47.360 --> 00:05:51.430 email. The other thing that I did a lot of thinking about was, 90 00:05:51.990 --> 00:05:55.709 you know, hand to hand combat. I said earlier, I can't, 91 00:05:55.750 --> 00:06:00.069 I can't text message four thousand people, but I probably could text message two 92 00:06:00.069 --> 00:06:03.819 or three hundred people. And and so if I'm thinking through, who are 93 00:06:03.819 --> 00:06:08.620 the people that I'm just that I am going to text message on the day, 94 00:06:09.259 --> 00:06:12.540 on the day of that the books goes live, and then when I 95 00:06:12.819 --> 00:06:15.540 need them to leave a review, you know, two or three days later. 96 00:06:15.019 --> 00:06:18.410 And so was thinking about how that message would look and I thought, 97 00:06:18.410 --> 00:06:21.529 you know what, what if, instead of having the call to action for 98 00:06:21.610 --> 00:06:26.170 them be buying the book, what if instead I said Hey, you know, 99 00:06:26.490 --> 00:06:29.649 you can buy the book or not. I hope you would want to. 100 00:06:30.250 --> 00:06:33.240 But what would really be actually more helpful is books actually grow by word 101 00:06:33.279 --> 00:06:36.199 of mouth. You buy a book because somebody told you to buy a book. 102 00:06:36.439 --> 00:06:40.800 And so if you could tell three people that you think are interested in 103 00:06:40.920 --> 00:06:44.720 growing their business or growing their career about this book, you don't even have 104 00:06:44.759 --> 00:06:46.470 to know. I'm not asking you a lie to him and say that you 105 00:06:47.389 --> 00:06:50.470 read it if you haven't, but just tell them about it, like, 106 00:06:50.709 --> 00:06:54.350 Hey, this my buddy, James. You wrote a book. Think you'd 107 00:06:54.389 --> 00:06:57.509 really be into it. It's about, you know, reverse engineering your network. 108 00:06:57.949 --> 00:07:00.660 And so, by asking them to share it with three people, if 109 00:07:00.699 --> 00:07:04.420 I send text messages to two hundred people and let's say half of those, 110 00:07:04.420 --> 00:07:08.980 let's see, a hundred people, tell at least three friends. Well, 111 00:07:09.220 --> 00:07:15.339 I just magnified the reach of the book in a significant way just by changing 112 00:07:15.459 --> 00:07:17.810 the call to action a little bit in the personalized message that I send to 113 00:07:17.930 --> 00:07:20.410 people. Now I've got some friends are like, Oh, James, I'm 114 00:07:20.410 --> 00:07:24.370 going to tell way more than three people about it. I've got like fifty 115 00:07:24.370 --> 00:07:27.930 people that I'm going to tell about this book. So those are obviously outliers 116 00:07:28.009 --> 00:07:30.360 and you know you can't count on that from everybody, but there's just a 117 00:07:30.399 --> 00:07:34.160 couple ideas there. The thinking about how you're going to email with that messaging 118 00:07:34.199 --> 00:07:38.839 in the email needs to be as well as thinking about what you're going to 119 00:07:38.920 --> 00:07:42.439 do from a hand to hand combat standpoint, which your strategy is there by 120 00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:46.230 me asking for kind of three referrals, so to speak, as opposed to 121 00:07:46.350 --> 00:07:49.189 just a book purchase. Yeah, I'm potentially tripling book sales. Yeah, 122 00:07:49.269 --> 00:07:51.910 and not just telling people. Tell a friend, give them, give them 123 00:07:51.949 --> 00:07:57.750 a number. Three act very strategic one right up, because now they okay, 124 00:07:57.870 --> 00:08:00.740 now they start thinking, who are those three? It's like if you 125 00:08:00.860 --> 00:08:05.060 ask someone you know name a song, they stay in there forever and they're 126 00:08:05.060 --> 00:08:09.660 like then if you're like name your favorite rap song, your favorite s country 127 00:08:09.699 --> 00:08:11.300 song, I'm going to go two different directions here, but they paint a 128 00:08:11.420 --> 00:08:15.850 very, very specific picture in your mind. Three people. I'm like, 129 00:08:16.050 --> 00:08:18.930 Oh, Sang Raum Vajra, John rougie and Ethan. You okay, and 130 00:08:20.089 --> 00:08:24.290 they're in my head and I'm much more likely to take action, and the 131 00:08:24.050 --> 00:08:28.839 more likely, if someone's going to take action, they're going to either do 132 00:08:28.920 --> 00:08:31.399 it quickly or it's not going to happen at all, because if they put 133 00:08:31.399 --> 00:08:33.279 it on there to do list for two weeks out, it's going to fall 134 00:08:33.320 --> 00:08:37.240 off. So I think that's the other pieces give people. You know, 135 00:08:37.320 --> 00:08:41.549 we talked about in marketing all the time. You know, think very hard 136 00:08:41.590 --> 00:08:43.549 about your call to action and this is a, you know, another example 137 00:08:43.789 --> 00:08:48.309 of that. Put a number in someone's mind and even if you're not asking 138 00:08:48.389 --> 00:08:52.389 for book reviews or supply, that doesn't knowing. Yeah, another thing that 139 00:08:52.549 --> 00:08:54.629 is a more recent thought of mine, as I thought, you know, 140 00:08:54.669 --> 00:08:58.019 I'm going through the list and go through my facebook friends. We're going to 141 00:08:58.019 --> 00:09:01.379 see. Okay, who, who? Do I have enough relational equity to 142 00:09:01.539 --> 00:09:03.100 make this ass because this is a significant ask. I'm not just going to 143 00:09:03.139 --> 00:09:07.019 ask everybody on our email list to tell three friends about it. I don't 144 00:09:07.019 --> 00:09:09.690 think that would be very effective because most people on our email is don't really 145 00:09:09.690 --> 00:09:13.850 know me. But if you know me, there's a good chance that you'd 146 00:09:13.850 --> 00:09:16.129 be willing to do something like this. But a lot of these people that 147 00:09:16.169 --> 00:09:18.929 I'm running down on this list, I haven't talked to him maybe two or 148 00:09:18.970 --> 00:09:22.009 three years. They were an old roommate, you know, there's somebody I 149 00:09:22.090 --> 00:09:26.039 worked at a camp with, and so I thought, how can I how 150 00:09:26.120 --> 00:09:30.399 can I go about like making it more effective? Whenever I go to ask 151 00:09:30.440 --> 00:09:33.919 somebody that, I because that feels kind of slimy, like I'm reaching out. 152 00:09:33.960 --> 00:09:35.080 I haven't heard, you know, you haven't heard for me in two 153 00:09:35.120 --> 00:09:39.509 years and now of a sudden I'm asking to promote my book, like kind 154 00:09:39.549 --> 00:09:43.830 of a douchebag move. And so instead I'm thinking about like, okay, 155 00:09:43.230 --> 00:09:48.110 well, the three weeks leading up to the book launch, Can I text 156 00:09:48.149 --> 00:09:52.750 message, you know, a group of those people on a Saturday to just 157 00:09:52.860 --> 00:09:56.820 say like hey, thinking about you, hope you're doing well, and sending 158 00:09:56.820 --> 00:10:01.740 out a text message like that so it's not as out of the blue whenever 159 00:10:01.779 --> 00:10:03.980 I text him a few weeks later. Now part of me thinks like that's 160 00:10:05.019 --> 00:10:09.090 kind of manipulative, but it's also like it's helping me get a better result. 161 00:10:09.090 --> 00:10:13.250 I was going to text message these people anyway, and so I might 162 00:10:13.289 --> 00:10:16.490 as well start leading up to that text message where I'm going to ask them 163 00:10:16.529 --> 00:10:20.610 to do something, with a text message where I'm not asking them for anything, 164 00:10:20.649 --> 00:10:22.480 I'm just saying hey, thinking about you, hope you're doing well and 165 00:10:22.519 --> 00:10:26.120 it's probably going to end up starting a really, like, really good conversations 166 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:28.519 with because that's what I was going to say. Man Like you, you 167 00:10:28.799 --> 00:10:33.480 can look at that and it's all in the the execution and what you're actually 168 00:10:33.480 --> 00:10:37.549 going to do, because I know you and I know that if you open 169 00:10:37.590 --> 00:10:43.269 up that conversation and you end up talking to some old friend and they end 170 00:10:43.269 --> 00:10:46.669 up, you know, like I'm going through this really rough patch or something, 171 00:10:46.669 --> 00:10:48.149 or I'm going to be in Orlando in two weeks, you're going to 172 00:10:48.190 --> 00:10:50.700 meet up with them. You probably going to take them to the parks if 173 00:10:50.740 --> 00:10:54.100 they're in Orlando, or if they need someone to talk to, or if 174 00:10:54.139 --> 00:10:56.620 they need, you know, they're looking for a new job, you're going 175 00:10:56.659 --> 00:11:00.580 to connect them with someone. So it's not like you just send that out 176 00:11:00.580 --> 00:11:03.500 and they're like Oh, and they send you, you know, a paragraph. 177 00:11:03.500 --> 00:11:05.450 If you get some of those genuine responses, you're just going to let 178 00:11:05.529 --> 00:11:09.850 them fall and then send them promo like yeah, that would be another douchebag 179 00:11:09.929 --> 00:11:13.809 move. But if you can do it in a way that aligns with your 180 00:11:13.850 --> 00:11:18.570 personality, like you're doing here, I think that's the difference. So that's 181 00:11:18.570 --> 00:11:20.919 kind of what I see there, because I think you're right. You can 182 00:11:20.919 --> 00:11:24.799 kind of manipulatively try to warm people up for an ask and people can see 183 00:11:24.799 --> 00:11:31.360 right through that. Yeah, imagine it, a spreadsheet filled with rows and 184 00:11:31.519 --> 00:11:35.470 rows of your sales enablement assets. You've devoted two years organizing this masterpiece, 185 00:11:35.870 --> 00:11:41.389 only for it to stop making sense. This was Chad forbucoes reality. As 186 00:11:41.429 --> 00:11:45.590 the head of sales enablement at glint, a linkedin company, he's responsible for 187 00:11:45.710 --> 00:11:50.100 instilling confidence in his sales reps and arming them with the information they need to 188 00:11:50.139 --> 00:11:54.460 do their jobs. However, when his glorious spreadsheet became too complex, he 189 00:11:54.700 --> 00:11:58.059 realized he needed a new system. That's when Chad turned to guru. With 190 00:11:58.220 --> 00:12:03.529 Guru, the knowledge you need to do your job finds you. Between Guru's 191 00:12:03.570 --> 00:12:07.809 Web interface, slack integration, mobile APP and browser extension. Teams can easily 192 00:12:07.850 --> 00:12:13.370 search for verified knowledge without leaving their workflow. No more siload or staled information. 193 00:12:13.850 --> 00:12:18.360 Guru acts as your single source of truth. For Chad, this meant 194 00:12:18.399 --> 00:12:22.600 glent sales reps were left feeling more confident doing their jobs. See why leading 195 00:12:22.639 --> 00:12:28.200 companies like glint, shopify, spotify, slack and more are using guru for 196 00:12:28.279 --> 00:12:35.149 their knowledge management needs. Visit BB growth dot get gurucom to start your thirty 197 00:12:35.149 --> 00:12:43.899 day free trial and discover how knowledge management can empower your revenue teams. So 198 00:12:45.179 --> 00:12:48.620 I think the big thing here's just be thoughtful. Think about how you would 199 00:12:48.899 --> 00:12:52.820 how you would feel if somebody reached out to you out of the blue and 200 00:12:52.059 --> 00:12:56.299 asked you to do you know, asked you to do them a favor, 201 00:12:56.740 --> 00:12:58.330 that you somebody you haven't talked to in a couple years. So and think 202 00:12:58.370 --> 00:13:01.730 about like, how's the person feeling on in there? You know that you're 203 00:13:01.730 --> 00:13:05.850 about to send four thousand emails to and their inbox. Think about like just 204 00:13:07.049 --> 00:13:11.289 think about how it feels. Be Empathetic. Think about how it feels for 205 00:13:11.450 --> 00:13:16.360 them, and it's probably gonna Change what you end up doing in the execution 206 00:13:16.480 --> 00:13:18.320 of, you know, whatever it is you're doing, in this case, 207 00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:22.440 obviously a book launch. Yeah, absolutely well with that man, we're going 208 00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:26.519 to wrap today. How can people find the book? So if you're listening 209 00:13:26.559 --> 00:13:28.990 to this, you're probably a regular listener of the show. You might be 210 00:13:28.110 --> 00:13:31.990 interested. If not, no harm, no foul. We're not going to 211 00:13:31.350 --> 00:13:35.470 we're not going to twist your arm in the in the spirit of the conversation 212 00:13:35.549 --> 00:13:37.950 today. But, James, what would be the the best way? If 213 00:13:37.990 --> 00:13:41.779 folks are interested in content based networking they want to pick up the book, 214 00:13:41.220 --> 00:13:45.019 where can they easily find it? Man, yeah, so audible. If 215 00:13:45.059 --> 00:13:48.620 you listen to to audio books like you and I do, and you're listening 216 00:13:48.620 --> 00:13:50.659 to this show, so you probably do so, just search content based networking, 217 00:13:52.059 --> 00:13:54.580 there's a dash between content and based. Or you can search my name, 218 00:13:54.659 --> 00:13:58.289 James Carberry, see a R B R Y, in audible. You 219 00:13:58.409 --> 00:14:01.809 find the book there or it's on Amazon. It's ninety nine since this week 220 00:14:03.090 --> 00:14:07.490 we're trying to to get as many purchases as we can, obviously, and 221 00:14:07.049 --> 00:14:13.399 if you buy it before Saturday you get the Ebook version for ninety nine cents, 222 00:14:13.000 --> 00:14:18.519 but there should be hardcover and paperback on Amazon as well. So content 223 00:14:18.559 --> 00:14:22.879 base networking, how to instantly connect with anyone you want to know, definitely 224 00:14:22.879 --> 00:14:26.629 check it out. Awesome, man. As we talked about in a previous 225 00:14:26.629 --> 00:14:28.350 episode, we are actually, you know, launching the book with both the 226 00:14:28.429 --> 00:14:33.029 Audio and the physical copies, so you can get either on Amazon. This 227 00:14:33.149 --> 00:14:37.230 week. Will put links in the show notes if you are interested. Otherwise, 228 00:14:37.269 --> 00:14:41.019 if you're listening to this and we're not yet connected on social look up 229 00:14:41.019 --> 00:14:43.740 James and I on Linkedin. We would love to connect with you. James 230 00:14:43.820 --> 00:14:46.899 Carberry and Logan Miles on linkedin pretty easy to find. Luckily, we've both 231 00:14:46.940 --> 00:14:50.980 got fairly unique names. I think we're the only one of our kinds on 232 00:14:50.460 --> 00:14:54.809 linkedin. As always, folks, thank you so much for listening. We 233 00:14:54.049 --> 00:15:01.529 greatly appreciate it. We to totally get it. We publish a ton of 234 00:15:01.809 --> 00:15:03.769 content on this podcast and it can be a lot to keep up with. 235 00:15:05.289 --> 00:15:09.600 That's why we've started the BOB growth big three, a no fluff email that 236 00:15:09.720 --> 00:15:13.440 boils down our three biggest takeaways from an entire week of episodes. Sign up 237 00:15:13.480 --> 00:15:20.429 today at Sweet Fish Mediacom big three. That sweet PHISH MEDIACOM Big Three