I recently attended a ‘free’ masterclass event, hoping to get some tips on how to market my book, Changing Lightbulbs, and get more speaking engagements. The presenter was a charismatic multi-billionaire. I liked him. He was engaging and entertaining. He got the audience participating and beginning to believe that we too could become charismatic multi-billionaires.
I could only attend for half a day and subsequently booked a ‘free’ follow up interview. I wanted to show them my book and see if they could help me to market it. The upshot of it all was that they wanted me to sign up for a very expensive boot camp, that would, they hoped, lead to an even more expensive year long ‘protégé’ programme.
They weren’t interested in my ‘product’. They wanted me to buy theirs. Without even reading it they said I needed to rewrite my book using a formula. They told me I needed to buy one of the charismatic multi-billionaire’s books that would tell me how to do that.
‘Can you help me to market my book,’ I asked. ‘We can do that further down the track’ they said, ‘but you’re not ready yet. First you’ll need to sign up for (spend a lot of money on) our workshops and masterclasses.’
Between the masterclass and the follow up interview I’d identified a one-day course on their website that I felt might suit me and asked about that. ‘No, if you don’t do the boot camp you’ll need to do at least three full day events,’ they said, ‘then see how those go and what other training you need before we can mentor you further.’
I thought about it for half a second, got in the lift at the top of the corporate tower, left the building and walked into the sunlight.
I don’t want to rewrite my book to a formula. The essence of Changing Lightbulbs is that it is my unique journey written in my unique way. I don’t want to synthesize it into a series of ‘how to’ steps.
I would rather tell my story in the hope it will inspire others to follow their own path and find their own way out of the darkness into the light.
My name is Sue Tredget. I am just an ordinary person, I love reading stories, and Changing Lightbulbs is mine. What is yours?
