SAP003: Fears & Successful Book Marketing with Alex Echols

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][fusion_text]I know what you’re thinking “these interview series are getting more serious with every guest” and I have to tell you that I’ve put my soul into creating them and presenting them to you.

Today, it’s all about fears, perfectionism, mentors and successful book marketing with my guest, and friend, Alex Echols.

About Alex Echols

He is a best-selling author for entrepreneurs and individuals who want to create profitable online businesses closely related to their passion.

You can find out more about him and follow his work at alexechols.com or over at his new venture ultimatebizbuilders.com (catch the webinar on March 24th about building a business from your passions!)

Did I mention that Alex has worked with companies like DreamWorks, TEDx, IMAX, Paramount or Mindvalley?!


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Hit PLAY!

Video Version

 

Get His Book: Two Week Notice

Less than a year ago, Alex published a book (not his first one, watch the interview to learn why) together with Andrew Gottlieb and Sulinya Ramanan. The book is a user-friendly guide to discovering your passion and building a successful business around it.

I’ll be honest: I got the book, but I haven’t read it all, but what I read was fantastic especially for young entrepreneurs like myself.

You can purchase the book on amazon.com!


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The Questions That I’ve Asked Alex

NOTE: these were not the only questions of the interview, but the questions that started the conversation.

  1. What were some of the fears and doubts you had when you first started on this path of entrepreneurship?
  2. Who inspires you? Who can you say were your mentors? Direct or indirect, it does not matter 🙂
  3. How do you deal with a bad or stressful day? How do you deal with failure? (you’ll love his reply!)
  4. How do you deal with perfectionism on a day to day basis? What advice do you have for fellow entrepreneurs?
  5. In your book “The Two Week Notice” you talk about discovering your passion. What would you say are the fundamental steps for doing so?
  6. What does it mean to write a book? How much time should you allow yourself?
  7. What would you say are the biggest myths of writing a book?
  8. What marketing strategy played the most important role in the success of your book?

Resources Mentioned During The Interview


 

Key Lessons

Quote by Alex Echols via mihaiherman.com

  • Most important doubts and mindset blocks that he had “am I good enough”, “do I have the right resources”, “do I have the money”, “was I old enough”.
  • His first mentors while growing up were his parents and his sister.
  • “One of the most powerful things that mentors can help you with is to see.”
  • The fundamental step in living a wonderful life, is discovering true passion.
  • While working on discovering your passion, you need to put in the work, take action, try new things, jobs and eventually you will find the one that feels right.
  • In order to successfully market a book, you need brand ambassadors, aka people that love you and are more than happy to promote your book.

 

Alex is young, super inspiring and an example for all youngsters out there doubting themselves if they should pursue entrepreneurship or not. It is possible and it can be FUN!

My goal is for you to always get at least one big idea from these interviews.

I’d love to know what resonated with you the most (in a comment below).

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SAP002: The Anatomy of A Good Brand Story with Julia “Juju” Hook

Today, I get to feature another inspiring entrepreneur and one of my favorite people from which I’ve learned A LOT even if she doesn’t know how much of a big impact she’s made in my life.

 

About Julia “Juju” Hook

Julia Hook has been helping companies build brand identities for the past 25 years and you can follow her work over at strategicjuju.com.

She also launched an online course that promises to make your brand unforgettable and is currently accepting new students. Check it out at unforgettableu.com


[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][fusion_tagline_box backgroundcolor=”” shadow=”yes” shadowopacity=”0.3″ border=”3px” bordercolor=”#4eccc3″ highlightposition=”top” content_alignment=”left” link=”” linktarget=”_self” modal=”” button_size=”” button_shape=”” button_type=”” buttoncolor=”” button=”” title=”Spoiler Alert” description=”Learn the difference between the brand story and back story + WHY one is more important than the other.” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”5px” animation_type=”0″ animation_direction=”down” animation_speed=”0.1″ animation_offset=”” class=”” id=””][/fusion_tagline_box]

Hit PLAY!

 

Video version

Freebies From Julia

The Anatomy of a Brand – free download!
10 Steps to Building a Brand – free download!


Great Reads From Juju’s Blog

Julia is an amazing writer and I don’t know how she does it, but she publishes an article twice per week and they are not 400 words long. I’ve scanned through her blog and selected these three articles for you that are super valuable:


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The Questions

Among other stuff, these were the main questions in our conversation.

  1. Tell us a bit about yourself and about your story, how did you started and, more importantly, why did you started.
  2. What were some of the fears and doubts you had when you started out as an entrepreneur?
  3. How did you get to know yourself better, your body and listen to what your intuition is telling you? Can you recommend an exercise, a book?
  4. How do you deal with failure, bad days or days when you feel like not doing anything?
  5. Who are your mentors?
  6. What makes a good brand besides color, logo and business cards, of course?
  7. If you were to pick just one, what would be the most important aspect of a brand?
  8. What is the anatomy of a good story?

 

Resources

 

Key Takeaways

Julia Juju Hook Quote on Perfectionism

  • Initially, as an entrepreneur, you don’t get the luxury of choosing your clients, mostly because you don’t know with whom you’d like to work with, but also because you need to make money in order to grow the business.
  • “The concept of fixing yourself indicates, in some way, that you are broken.”
  • “I don’t believe anymore that I need to fix anything at myself and that’s a tremendous weight off my shoulders. It’s not egotistical.”
  • “Comparison is a thief. We compare to other people and it robs us of our self-esteem, our ability to move forward and it robs us of the ability to see ourselves clearly.”
  • “The impostor syndrome was one of the biggest mindset blocks I had.”
  • “Balance is a practice. Entrepreneurship is a practice. Everything is life is a practice.”
  • “Perfectionism can torture you, but it’s also the driving force behind your success.”
  • The brand story is more important than the back story. The back story is your story and its point is to validate your expertise.

 

Hope that you’re feeling a bit more relaxed after watching this interview, not trying to fix yourself that much, but I also hope that you’re walking away with at least one big idea about branding that you can implement this week. Julia has a way of making branding fun and easy to understand.

Julia has a way of making branding fun and easy to understand, doesn’t she?!

Had an “AHA! Moment” while watching this interview? Share it with me in the comments section below!

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