Birthing the Elephant:
The woman’s go-for-it guide to overcoming the big challenges of launching a business took a year and a half to write and promote and it was well worth it. Authoring a book positions you as an expert. You get invited to speak and the media wants to interview you. That often leads to business.
While we were developing the manuscript our book agent and editor suggested to me and my co-author Karin Abarbanel and me that we come up with some book
The one we finally were OK with was a Business of One’s Own, a takeoff on Virginia Wolf.’s essay, A Room of One’s Own.
I received an email Memorial Day weekend 2 years ago from our Ten Speed Press editor that the Ten Speed Marketing committee decided on a totally new directions for the title —Birthing the Elephant. (it takes an elephant 22 months and it takes about that to launch a biz according to the SBA)
Ten Speed Press is located in Berkeley CA. I thought to myself, those crazy people. When I was in college, all those Berkeley people were into drugs and rioting. Well, there’s an old expression, “Keep your words short and sweet, you may have to eat them someday.” I am happily eating those words.
A few months after the book came out, I get an email from a public relations executive in Louisville KY (Matt Kamer of Bandy, Carroll and Hellige). He tells me of an elephant birth (Scotty) in the Louisville Zoo and suggests we cross-promote given the title of our book. I discussed the idea with a few of my professional public relations and publishing friends. One of the suggestions was to contact the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) in Louisville. NAWBO collaborated with the Louisville Zoo and I was invited to go to Louisville to speak
After that event, we established a national elephant tour. Co-author Karin Abarbanel spoke in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. We are speaking with other NAWBO chapter around the country.
Moral of the story: Always be out there. You never know when opportunity knocks. Think out of the box.