Moxie Books
Hurrah! Your Launch Bonuses Are Here
Thank you so much for taking part in my Big Book Launch Extravaganza. As promised, there are some goodies here for you – from me, and from some clever people who are experts in all sorts of business areas.
Mosey on down and claim your swag.
Expert Help, Advice, & Resources
Check out the resources below. Some extremely smart people have helped me launch this book and have kindly provided advice and information to help you grow your business. I urge you to follow the links and find out more about them.
Andy Bounds
Andy Bounds is a keynote speaker, award-winning consultant, international speaker, best-selling author, and master communicator.
He has created 3 videos to help you make more sales and communicate better. Click the images to watch...
How to start a conversation using LEGO
Lovely sales: what the world's best sales people do
My 3 H's: an easy, quick, free way to win sales
Olayinka Ewuola
Yinka is a Women's Business Champion, Consultant and Coach, Marketing, Strategy & Systems Savant & Founder at CALLA SUCCESS SYSTEMS.
She's writing a book (I cannot wait) and has this wonderful advice for you...
- We stop ourselves writing books because we are not perfect examples of the ideas we are promoting – that has to stop... You don't need to be perfect – you just need to care. Check out the Gabby Bernstein interview on the Lewis Howes' Podcast.
- Write every single day – even if it's not your best work. It's your vote for getting your message out there and it matters.
- Don't neglect other forms of creativity: I am a writing beast after I've had a sing and a dance (and maybe or maybe not had a spontaneous underwear dance party)... But whether it's sketchnoting, drawing, origami or colouring, or Playdoh modelling – be sure to do that too. Playing will unlock sides of you that you need for your best writing to come out.
To find out more about Yinka, follow her on LinkedIn. She writes the most wonderful, insightful articles. Then message her and ask to join her email list. Hers are one of the few emails I read pretty much every day.
Rory Sutherland
Rory Sutherland is Vice Chairman at Ogilvy UK, a TED Global speaker, and author of Alchemy: The Surprising Power Of Ideas That Don't Make Sense. He is incredibly entertaining and one of the smartest men I've ever had the pleasure of speaking with.
Here's his advice on writing...
- Most people can't write in snatches of time – you need to set aside long swathes of time with no other distractions. Do not even check email for three days in which you are writing intently.
- Don't agonise too much about overarching structure. If the theme of your book is consistent enough, a series of short 800-2000 word pieces might be more readable than anything else.
You can buy Rory's fantastic – and beautiful – book on Amazon.
Julia Brown
Julia is a book cover designer, illustrator, and fine artist – and she creates all my gorgeous book covers. I wouldn't go to anyone else!
Here's her 5 Essential Tips for Planning Your Book Cover Design...
To find out more about Julia, visit her website and sign up for her excellent emails.
Jon McCulloch
Jon is a grumpy and autistic husband, father, business owner, author, speaker, and fearless and outspoken small-business advocate. He helps construction firms and traditional trades break through the invisible ceiling stopping them from growing their businesses.
He's giving away a 12-pager on what to do with your book once you've written it...
When you click the image above, you'll go to Jon's website where you can enter your details and download the freebie.
You can also find Jon ranting on LinkedIn.
Kevin Whitehouse
Kevin is an accountant and business coach who helps other accountants and business owners have an easier life.
He's sent me three pieces of advice for business owners to help them get their numbers under control...
Click the image above and you'll go to Kev's website, where you can watch this video and get a free copy of his book.
Before that, though, click here and get his 3 pieces of advice.
Jamie Veitch
Jamie is a PR expert who provides effective communications for business leaders & social entrepreneurs. He's a consultant, trainer, radio presenter, mentor, and smart cookie.
Here's his advice for getting more of the right attention for your business...
Wondering if a little PR may be worth it for your business?
Perhaps you don't know where to start when it comes to pitching journalists?
Hop over here and download Jamie's short, sweet, powerful advice.
Then mosey on over to his website and listen to his excellent radio show on Sheffield Live.
Ryan Wallman
Ryan Wallman is creative director and head of copy at Wellmark Pty Ltd in Melbourne, Australia.
He's the author of a fab book called Delusions of Brandeur and is the funniest marketer on Twitter.
Go and follow Ryan on Twitter here.
Buy his very funny and helpful book here.
And stalk him on LinkedIn here.
Here's his advice on avoiding clichés and judging whether creative work is any good...
On avoiding clichés...
On judging creative work...
How do you know whether your creative work is any good?
Some people advocate for the use of creative pre-testing. But unfortunately, pre-testing can’t predict how people will actually respond to creative work. As David Ogilvy once quipped: “The problem with market research is that people don’t think how they feel, they don’t say what they think and they don’t do what they say.”
In fact, Peter Field has demonstrated a negative correlation between the use of quantitative pretesting and the success of IPA award entries. This implies that if you use quantitative methods to pretest your creative work, you might be doing the opposite of what you intend, thereby reducing its likelihood of success.
The evidence for qualitative pre-testing is more anecdotal, but there are many examples of great campaigns that almost didn’t happen because of such testing. As Lucian Trestler recently noted: “some of the most effective ideas of all time were slaughtered in qual”.
So if you can’t rely on pre-testing, what can you do? My recommendation is that you loosen your grip on the creative process. Creative work is like a rebellious teenager – the more you try to control it, the less it will do what you want.
Drayton Bird
Drayton Bird knows more about direct marketing than anyone alive, according to David Ogilvy. I think Ogilvy was right.
Drayton is the author of several books, most famously Commonsense Direct & Digital Marketing (one of my bibles) and How To Write Sales Letters That Sell. He recently wrote his autobiography You Did What? (with my shoe kicking his butt).
And he's provided some sage advice on marketing for you right here...
Drayton's Advice on Marketing
- Be a complete marketer, not a partial one. If all you do is rely on one medium, like email, you are like an army which only has one kind of weapon. Which is insane. Study all media. The more media you master, the better you will do, and the more opportunities you will find. Most marketers make this mistake of relying on one medium. It is death to long-term, large-scale success.
- Read the best book ever written about advertising or marketing. This is the book that David Ogilvy said changed his life. It is Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins. Written nearly 100 years ago, it remains the best and shortest book on the subject I've ever come across. You can get it by going to draytonbird.com and looking at the top right. Then you can download it for nothing.
- If you take the second piece of advice I have given you, you then have the opportunity, if you wish, to see if I can give you other advice. I'm afraid this will not be free. You'll have to risk $1. You can afford that, can't you?
Good luck in your career. Those who study do best. Most people do not study. If you take the advice given here and the advice in Vicky's book, you will do extraordinarily well. I guarantee it.
(Note from Vicky: I was a member of AskDrayton for about 5 years, and it's fantastic value.)
