Made the top 10%. Yippee!! Thanks for all your support : ) My sample chapter is posted if you want to take a peek, please vote in March for round 2, which is going from 70 authors down to 25 on March 31st. Warning: my sample chapter is in draft form – hasn’t been through the editing process!
http://www.nexttopauthor.com/profile.cfm?aid=11
Wanted to share something difficult that has shown up. My in laws forwarded me an email from the competition that I made it through the first round, and it included some promotional material. I was surprised, and to be honest a bit disappointed. Given the option, many friends and family would have opted off any mailing lists because “self development” isn’t an interest. I immediately contacted the founder to share authentically (after all this is the message of my book!), and apparently I hadn’t read the fine print that all registered voters would be receiving “other valuable information from the creators”, and details were on a separate FAQ page, which included being on 3 mailing lists.
Whoa. I apologize to all my voters that I didn’t take the time to read this up front so I could communicate it fully. I do understand the enormous value of building email lists, that business needs to be win-win, and I don’t want to shoot myself in the foot since my goal is to win this competition, but I believe so strongly in being upfront, and authentic so people do not receive unwelcome surprises.
Friends said “it’s ok – I expected something like that – that’s how all these things work”. My sister-in-law was worried about giving out her email because of SPAM. We now operate in a world where people expect, and have to battle against unwelcome email (SPAM). If we have now simply come to expect this, it has become ‘acceptable’, and “just the way it is”, but aren’t we then being part of the problem? Not being fully transparent is a choice. On the front page voters could have been given an opt out for any mailing lists which I’ve seen done before.
What was disappointing was my mother and father in-law asked “would it hurt you in the competition if we unsubscribed because we are getting duplicate emails messages, and it’s overwhelming.” I don’t know who voted unless they let me know personally so I cannot even communicate to my voters that it only takes 30 seconds to unsubscribe, and they can still vote through the 3 remaining rounds of the competition using their login and password, and it won’t re-register them on any email lists.
It is extremely difficult to speak my truth here, but this is part of my journey, and what I practice in my life. I have attracted so many authentic people who support my truth, and though it is rare in the business world – these are the 1% who have become uber-successful. Why? The speed of trust moves much faster than any marketing ploy. I am now questioning the intention of something due to a lack of transparency. My trust diminished a degree. This is how we end up wearing disguises. We question someone’s real agenda. Disclosure is one thing, but the experience people have is reality.
This course, and competition has been more than fair. I feel truly grateful for this opportunity, and for the massive amount of work that has gone into the content. AND I feel a pang of disappointment. I am not right, and someone else wrong. We are simply living our own choices the best way we know how for what feels good according to our own values. How something was done simply didn’t feel authentic to me based on my values, and my vision is to create a more authentic judgment free world. Will you help me? Please vote!!
http://www.nexttopauthor.com/profile.cfm?aid=11
