Connect

In case you are wondering how I made out in The Next Top Spiritual Author competition, well at the writing of this page, the jury is still out. There are 10 days left before the semi-final 25 authors are announced. The first round was a whirlwind of insecure activity. Over 2800 authors had to show their marketing stuff and motivate their base to vote for their book pitch. The pitch would be a 2-5 minute audio or video clip that would be listened or viewed through the competition’s website along with a book description. The top 10% of vote getters would advance to Round 2. I had a three-day late beginning since we were getting back from a vacation in Mexico when the starting bell rang. First order of business, connect with my friends. You would think in the age of facebook, twitter, and linkedIn, this would be an easy task. I sent an email to my contact list of about 250 friends and received three responses. Uh-oh.

I posted the audio pitch the first day you could. I just felt moved to do it right away. I told my daughters that daddy needed complete quiet for 10 minutes while I dialed a number provided by the competition and recorded my pitch. This was the first action I took that felt inspired. “You have the energy, the passion coursing through your veins. Why wait? Just do it.” So I did.

The second was creating a facebook page. I did not look to see if anyone had one going yet. I figured many must have since it was three days into the competition. I hear a small voice:

“Call it The Next Top Author”

“Okay.” It wasn’t taken yet. It was mine.

“Use a book cover with The Superman Effect instead of a profile picture of you.”

“Really? Alright, if you say so.”

So I created a facebook page called The Next Top Author and invited all my friends to join. A whopping two fans joined the page. Time for my first freak-out moment. “What have I done?” I felt immediate guilt since I am not the best at keeping in touch with my friends. Now I need them and it serves me right that they are ignoring me. I decided to focus on those that were supporting me instead of those that were MIA. A friend had taken it upon herself to create a flier and I went and plastered it all over North Denver. Another friend put a notice on the University that I had resigned my position’s intranet about me in the competition. She astutely left out the part about being a previous employee, and instead advertised “University alum Dennis Rodriguez is in The Next Top Spiritual Author Competition.” I called my three sisters and cried “HELP”. They came to the rescue. My sisters invited all their friends to join my facebook page. I’m up to 10 fans! I asked my invisible friends the question: How can I get more fans to join my page? People won’t join a page with 10 fans. I need to break the ice, get the ball rolling and any other figure of speech that will get me more fans.

“You need a facebook connector.”

“Yes! I need a facebook connector.”

I called my 15 year old nephew.

“How many of your classmates are on facebook?

“All of them.”

Can you get 20 friends to join my page?

“No problem.”

He came through and it got easier.

I started sending out emails from my yahoo account. “Just do it. It won’t be pretty yet, but there is plenty of time for pretty.” So I just did it.

So I did not do any “shoulds.” I did not concern myself with having a perfect audio or video pitch, a flashy book cover or snazzy emails. I just did what felt right not what I thought would look right. My wife and I did hit the road to pass out fliers and garner votes. Campaigning felt really good.

I was scheduled to attend an introductory Hakomi workshop in Boulder the weekend before the round 2 authors were to be announced. At the last minute my intuition told me to drop that plan and go to Boulder to write my book proposal instead. I spent 2 days in a hotel room. “Mr. Rodriguez. We have noticed that you have had a Do Not Disturb sign on your door for two days. Is everything alright?”

“Oh yes. I’m a writer, you see.” That also felt good.

Even with amateur looking marketing, I was informed that I had received enough votes to advance to the second round. I would be one of 271 authors submitting a book proposal for public voting and selection by a panel of experts.

When the time was right, an email came across my iphone and at the bottom it said “try Constant Contact for 30 days free” so I clicked on the link and within one hour I had created my first professional looking email with images and links. No problem. No forethought. No stress. Inspired action. I had an atrocious looking book cover for four weeks made from a word document. I finally thought, the time has come to get a better one. I called my best friend who is an illustrator and he created a beautiful book cover. No fuss. No muss. Inspired action.

We were encouraged to add a give back feature in round 1 so that voters can make themselves known to the author. I didn’t do it until the time came when I did in Round 2. I believe Round 2 has gone well. I have heard from many who have voted and I will hold a drawing for 12 free intuitive life coaching sessions right after Round 2 is announced. Stay tuned for the breaking news.