Turbo Leadership Systems^™

Act as if

At our quarterly mastermind check-in meeting, Bill asked me, “What’s new?” I told Bill how our middle son, Barry, had secured his Hay House publishing contract and advance at a time when book sales are declining and major publishers are more selective than ever about first time authors.

Barry and his wife Heather enrolled in a book writer’s “seminar at sea” along with several hundred other would be authors. They knew in advance of registering that one author would be given a special contract with a considerable advance. A part of the scoring criteria to determine who would receive the contract and advance was the author’s ability to make a stand up group presentation. Barry knew this would give him a competitive advantage. He didn’t know that not everyone would have an opportunity to make their presentation live. (Everyone would have the opportunity to submit a book proposal and a video of their presentation.)

What becomes very clear early in the book writing business is that publishers want more than good writers. They want someone who can write, and equally as important, someone who can sell their book. Selling your book means that you can speak effectively in front of groups, do a great job in radio and television interviews, and have a following, a natural market.

On the first night of the cruise, there was a typical welcome orientation to the coming week and get-acquainted introductions to the Hay House staff. Barry thought it was at 7:00. Heather was sure it was at 6:30. They went down to the meeting hall at 6:30. There was no one there except the president of Hay House, Reid Tracy, so they had his captive attention for the next thirty minutes.

On the third day of the cruise, several people were randomly chosen to make their live presentation. After several

presentations, Reid announced, “After this presentation, we will take a break.” Barry left the meeting room to practice his 5-minute talk. He practiced the speech with two different endings. The first version was exactly 5 minutes. His alternate endings made the talk go over by 2 minutes, a total time of 7 minutes.

When the break was over and everyone returned to their chairs, Barry noticed empty seats up front, so he sat down right in the front row. Then Reid announced, “We will only have time for one last presenter.” He looked down at the front row and said, “Barry, come on up.” When Barry’s presentation had gone five minutes, the timer was so captivated that he just couldn’t cut him off. Barry went over by the extra two minutes with his longer 7-minute presentation. Barry feels sure his live 7-minute presentation won the day and secured the contract and advance.

Today act as if – plan and prepare – then act as if you are invited to the party. You will be the winner!!

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