The School of Greatness - 556 The Mask of Masculinity: Book Launch Strategy and Breakdown

Episode Date: October 30, 2017

If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes and more at http://lewishowes.com/556

Oh, snap. You know what time it is. It is book launch week. Yes, baby. Let's go. Get excited because it's about to go down. This is episode 556. I'm going for it, guys. This is all about the book launch strategy and breakdown. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro-athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. in. So many of you have been asking me to do a solo episode about this. First off, why I launched this book and the whole breakdown of how I'm launching it, the strategy and everything else in between. So I want to give it to you in this episode. I am pumped, guys. This is something I've been working on for two years, ever since my last book

launch. So for those that didn't read the last book, The School of Greatness, it was a big hit, New York Times bestseller, hit number three on the list in the first week, hit number two overall for the month on the New York Times bestseller list. We also hit the USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and pretty much every other list there is. I think we're close to 100,000 sales. Close to that. I don't think we've gotten there yet, but we've gotten close to that in two years. So I would obviously love to be a couple hundred thousand or half a million or more, but it's growing. People are still buying. People are getting excited and it's transforming lives. And it's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. It's been just

as much the second time around that I want to give you an update of what I learned from last time, a couple of years ago. Also what's been working now because so much has been changing with algorithms for the New York Times and all that good stuff. But the book comes out tomorrow. That's right. Halloween, we take off the mask. We reveal ourselves once and for all and let the world know who we truly are. Scary. That's the scariest part about Halloween is revealing ourselves for most people. Scary for me still to do today. There are times where I don't want to talk about certain things, where I want to keep it inside, where I want to shove it down and not tell anyone. It's just been conditioning over many, many years for me not to want to

express certain things for whatever reason. All the reasons that I talk about in the book, The Mask of Masculinity, how men can embrace vulnerability, create strong relationships, and live their fullest lives. And if you haven't got a copy yet, now's the time. If you've been a fan of this podcast, you listen to it, you get this podcast for free. If it's impacted your life in any way, the best way you can support me, because so many of you ask me, how can I support you? The podcast has helped me so much. The best thing you can do is get a copy right now. You can go to Barnes & Noble, grab a copy. If you're in the United States, that's going to be awesome

because you're going to get the retail going and they're going to want to buy more. It's going to help get the book out there even more. You can go to lewishouse.com slash mask to get it on Amazon. You can go to lewishouse.com slash man if you want to listen to it on Audible. That's right. You can listen to lewishouse.com slash man if you want to listen to it on Audible. That's right, you can listen to it right now. Actually, tomorrow if you're listening to this the day before the book launch, but lewishouse.com slash man will take you right to Audible.

Or you can go to lewishouse.com slash sign if you want to get a signed copy over on Barnes & Noble. All these will redirect you to those links. So go ahead and do that right now and take a screenshot of your receipt and send me a direct message on Instagram with that screenshot, at Lewis House, so I can see who here is taking action and just say a quick thank you back over there. Super pumped.

It's going to be crazy, guys. I've been here in New York City the last week. We did Good Morning America. We did Marie Forleo's show, Gabby Bernstein, tons of other episodes and Facebook Lives and interviews and running around the city with celebrities and influencers all getting the message out there. And it's just, I'm so pumped. And last time I had a book out, I was a little more stressed. You know, it was my first book. It was kind of like the coming out for me as an author. And I wanted to make a big impact. I wanted it to do well.

My vision was to be a New York Times bestselling author because that's what I dreamed of eight years prior when I thought about doing a book in the first place. And I put a lot of pressure on myself. I called in every favor there was. And I asked people to buy books and get books in bulk and do all sorts of stuff. I was just doing whatever it took, you know, as a man on a mission to change lives, but also to achieve my dreams and to hit certain visions and goals that I had for myself. This time around, it feels a lot different. I'm still focused, committed, going all in. I'm just giving everything I've got.

I mean, we've had many sleepless nights, but here's the thing, for the last six months, I've been training and conditioning my body and my mind for these moments, for this time, for these weeks and months of slee you know, sleepless nights and doing all these things. The last time I wasn't as prepared physically, mentally, and emotionally. I was, you know, kind of sloppy with my workouts and my eating was really sloppy and it affected me emotionally, mentally. It was kind of threw me off in different moments.

But even now, you know, I went on Good Morning America last week, and it was an amazing four-minute segment. And I didn't have much sleep the night before. I had maybe three and a half, four hours, and I was just kind of going through some stuff emotionally. And I think if I would have done that last time, I would have been too nervous and probably blown it on live television. But this time, I was exhausted.

But I was able to turn it on and use the principles, the practices, the lessons that I've learned over the last few years from all the interviews I've done and apply it to be able to turn it on, be effective, get results. And it's probably the best piece of press I've ever done besides Ellen because Ellen is amazing. So I want to dive in and talk about the game plan, the strategy, the game plan, and the breakdown for this book launch because a lot of you have been asking me this. And here's how I've broken it down in a number of key factors. The things I've executed so far, the things I'm going to be executing for the next three weeks, next four weeks, and the things I'm going to continue to execute. And I will do a recap probably in the next month, breaking down what worked and what

didn't work at the highest levels. And, you know, a lot of these things are based on results. Did you hit the New York Times bestseller list? Did you sell a certain amount of copies? You know, all these things. So that's where it gets started. Did you get results? So we're going to be focusing on this. So the first thing I started with was, okay, this New York Times bestseller list has changed. A lot of my friends who are big time authors in the past who were New York Times bestsellers haven't been hitting the list. And if I want to go all in and set myself up to win, I want to try to hit that list in a big way because it does help with a lot of different

things, credibility. Now, is it the end of the world if I don't hit the list? No. If you would have asked me this a couple of years ago, I would have said yes. And if I didn't hit the list last time, my ego would have been hurt. I would have been defeated feeling. And you would have asked me this a couple years ago, I would have said yes. And if I didn't hit the list last time, I probably would have been, my ego would have been hurt. I would have been defeated feeling. And I would have been just frustrated and down because I put so much energy and emphasis on trying to do that. Now it's changed and people aren't hitting it who used to.

And there's a couple reasons why. A couple reasons why. One is the numbers. They're not getting the numbers. I think it's harder to sell books right now. It's a lot harder just because there's so many different books. There's so much content out there. People are listening to audio books. They're just going on Instagram and getting information there. They're listening to podcasts, whatever it may be. But I said, I got to focus on getting mainstream press because a lot of these authors aren't

getting the press. And that's something that I know the New York Times list looks at. Are you getting mainstream press, national press? Because that's what really helps, especially more so today because they've cut down the number of people who can make the list. So mainstream press, we've gotten a ton of stuff so far. I mean, just in the last couple of years, Ellen Show, Oprah Magazine, Fox and Friends, Fox News, Glenn Beck Show, Oprah Magazine, Fox & Friends, Fox News, Glenn Beck Show, People Magazine, Men's Health, Women's Health, Cosmo Magazine, Success Magazine, Inc., Entrepreneur. All these things have happened. Good Morning America, Good Day New York, Good Day LA, all this stuff. I've been getting the press and we're getting

more. I've gotten big radio shows. I'm doing regional news. I'm doing all the stuff I can do, covers of magazines. I've just been trying to load it up for this book, and that's a key. You want to get as much press as you can to be able to show the New York Times list and to really get the message out there. Now, is it going to sell a lot of books? Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

When I went on Good Morning America last week, we were at, I think, 1,000 rank on Amazon, and then it went to 250 within the next couple hours. So I think that definitely helped because it got a bunch of sales and a bunch of orders came through. So number one thing is mainstream press. Now, something that I do that a lot of people don't do that well, but I feel like I've done a good job of building relationships is the second thing, which is bulk orders. Now, I am constantly thinking about, okay, how can I, instead of getting paid to speak and charge $50,000 for my speaking fee, how can I get them to just do a trade for books? So I'll say, hey guys, it's $50,000 for my speaking fee, how can I get them to, you know, just do a trade for books?

So I'll say, hey guys, it's $50,000, but you actually don't have to pay me. You're actually going to buy my book and give it as a gift to all the attendee members that will make you look like a rock star. So I'll come in and give an amazing speech or workshop. You give the attendee members a free book as a gift and you're going to look like a superstar. So you essentially get me for free, and you buy a bunch of books for everyone there. The money is going to either come to me or go to the books either way. So if you want me there, you got to get books. And that's powerful because it allows me to, now, I lose out on making money.

But what I do is set myself up for success for the long run. You know, a lot of people are just trying to make money right now. I'm saying, you know, I'd rather the book do well and actually impact millions of people's lives who read the book or who are impacted by the book because that's what gets me off more, you know, as opposed to making, you to making just 50 grand in a check right now, and that's it, I'd rather put that towards making an impact on more people who can have access to the book and the resources in there. So I am making trading, speaking fee deals. I'm also just reaching out to friends and business partners and sponsors for my podcast and other people,

anyone and everyone, and saying, hey, can you buy 1,000 books? Can you buy 500 books? Can you buy 100 books? Can you buy whatever it is? And doing different trades. A lot of people have been asking me for interviews. I'm getting, I don't know, five to 10 requests a day for a lot of different podcasts or online summits. And I'd love to do them all, But most of these podcasts who are smaller would get maybe like one or two book sales. And yes, every book counts. Every sale matters. But when it's an hour of your time, and you're already doing a lot of interviews, I just don't have that time to do it for a couple of books. So a lot of people have been interviewing me and just buying

200 copies. And that's great too. So I say, hey guys, I would love to do this, but I don't have the time right now because we're already booked of other interviews. But if you want to buy 200 copies, then I'll come on and I'll share it out to my audience as well, which helps them get traffic. So you make it that win-win. So the bulk orders, I'm just getting as creative as possible to set myself up because the New York Times list and these other lists, if you want to reach for them during a book launch, you need to get the numbers. You know, the rankings don't all matter based on the numbers because there are some books

that sell more that don't make the list than other books. So it's a combination of many, many different things. But you need to at least get some numbers. Otherwise, it's not going to have any chance. And then the third thing that I focus on is my bonus offering landing page. So if you go to maskofmasculinity.com, it features a beautiful book design where a lot of people have been saying, hey, who designed this for you? Who's your designer? Because they want to do it as well. I'm trying to constantly differentiate the book from every other book out there.

And I work on design to make that happen. I work on, you know, the style, the book cover. You know, everything that I do is very intentional to stand out and make a difference. And if you go to maskofmasculinity.com, you can see the design. And you can see that there's no other book site out there that really looks like it, in my opinion. And I'm very grateful for our team for building that. And it's been an amazing added value to our messaging and to our offering. And you can see we have different bonuses up here. I'm up on the site right now,

and we've got bonuses. If you buy one copy, we give you a bonus. All you got to do is submit your receipt. If you buy three copies, if you buy 10 copies, and so on and so on. So we're adding value for people when they want to buy multiple copies, we incentivize them. And we've done a full promotion to our email list on this and people take us up on the bonus offer. So offer a bonus when you're doing a book yourself as well for multiple books. The fourth thing I've been focusing on, this is pretty cool, is the podcast tour. Now, podcast tour, what does that mean? It means I've gone on like the top 25 podcasts in different areas, different categories that make sense around this book. And there are some podcasts that I tried to get on that people didn't have me on, unfortunately. And so that was a

bummer because I was hoping to hit on a few of these who have big audiences that I know would sell probably like a thousand or 2000 copies. So I missed out on a couple, but maybe they'll come around and they'll have me on another time. But I got on so many others that were just as powerful and big ones as well. So it was really cool because this week, a bunch of them came out, excuse me, last week. And someone screenshotted their phone and it just had like seven podcasts that they have subscribed to. And it all had my name and my book title

in the titles of the podcast, of the episodes. So you just see my name, you know, covering people's podcast streams. So hopefully one of the ones you listen to that week, you'd heard me being interviewed. And that's my goal is to be everywhere, create that everywhere effect, the press, the podcasts, and everything else, and just infiltrate the content that people are listening to, watching, reading, and be there. You know, people aren't going to buy necessarily the first time they hear about it or the second time. Maybe it takes three or four times where they see everyone talking about it and they say, huh,

they walk in the store, they see the copy, they finally say, you know what, I'll spend 17 bucks and get this book. Sometimes it takes people a while. Other times, people buy it right away. You know, right when I first announced it to my email list, I had tons of sales. So it just kind of depends on the relationship someone has with you. So that's something I'm doing is the podcast tour. Then we've got the book tour. Now, originally, I was going to do many more cities,

but we've had some other things come up in our business that has not allowed me to travel as much. So right now we have New York City launch happening tonight, sold out. Then we've got Chicago this week. Then we've got Los Angeles. We've got San Diego and Charlotte all coming up. And we may open up a few more spots. But we've got five cities hoping to sell out all of these and just have an amazing time

connecting with people, giving a speech, doing a Q&A, signing everyone's books, hanging out, bringing influencers to the party, and creating that experience. And this is another key thing that I believe was missing from some of my friends who haven't hit the list is that they didn't do a book tour. And I believe from what I've heard in the underground, that mainstream national press and having different cities on a tour is what they look at as well. So I am going for five cities and potentially more. And if you guys want to learn about that, you can go to lewishouse.com slash tour to see the cities and get a ticket at one of those cities as well.

dot com slash tour to see the cities and get a ticket at one of those cities as well. The next thing that we're focused on is a street team. That's right, a street team. Now, the goal originally was to have 500 to 1,000 passionate supporters who joined the street team, which is essentially you'd get an advanced copy of the book early. You'd be a part of a private Facebook group, but you'd have to be committed to leaving a review, reading the book, leaving a review on Amazon, posting about it on all your social media channels,

all those things to be a part of the street team. That's kind of the agreement you make. And the street team has just been passionate. Man, I see them tweeting constantly with the links to the book. I see them posting photos of it, writing reviews already, early reviews, talking about it on Facebook, everywhere. Instagram, they're just sharing it everywhere.

And that's powerful. Again, you want to be everywhere. And even if they have only 1,000 followers, those 1,000 people, maybe they get 10 sales each. That's powerful. That's a powerful way to get your message out there. So think about a street team for yourself as well if you're looking at doing a book.

The next thing is guest posting. And this is something that I was planning to do more of, but I actually have kind of dropped the ball on this so far. I'm looking to step it up here in the next few weeks. I think I'll be doing more of this kind of post-launch week because I believe that the book is going to take off in a big way. I believe that the timing is right. What's happening in our society right now with all the negative messages that are coming out

in the media because of what men are doing who are angry or who are guarded or defensive. There's a lot of negativity in the media around men right now. So I think this book will be a great point of topic and solution for a lot of people to dive in and understand themselves a little bit better and learn how to start opening up and expressing themselves in a better way. So I had a bunch of different sites that I was looking to do some articles, guest posting on. And there's some that are out there, but we're looking for more over the following weeks and months. The next thing is the School of Greatness podcast contest. So working on different contests on here, on the podcast, on Instagram, on Facebook, I'm kind of doing like Instagram live contests a

lot, but figuring out ways you can do a contest with your audience, even like 48 hour window, seven day window, whatever it may be, focusing on a contest is another way to help you launch your book. And it's something we're doing as well. The ninth thing that we're doing, we did a book trailer. If you go to my YouTube channel, it's youtube.com slash Lewis Howes. We did a beautiful, powerful book trailer that is all about sharing vulnerabilities, what it means to be a man, redefining masculinity, all these things. And really proud of it. Really cool. So make sure to check that out. And it's all, again, all these little things add up. All these little pieces add up. It's a lot of time, a lot of energy, money, resources, being intentional, thoughtful, writing, planning,

scripting, all these things. But I believe if you want to be great, you got to put in the work. And this has been two years of work to try to make it great. And the first thing is you've got to write a great book first. You've got to be committed to writing a great book because if it's an average book, people might buy it, but they won't read it and they won't share it. So you've got to write a great book first. And then you've got to have a great plan and execute the marketing and promotion because if it's a great book and no one knows about it, then it's probably not going to get out there. The next thing has been social media. I've been, like I mentioned, been doing a lot of videos on Instagram and Facebook and long form messages and

posts about masculinity and taking off the mask and revealing yourself and opening up and just having more harmony and inner peace. And it's working. Everyone's like, man, I'm so excited for this book. I can't wait to get it. And then I'm doing a lot of this. Here's the kicker. I personally do a lot of one-on-one replies to people on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. My team is in there on some stuff, but if it's on Instagram, it's usually me one by one replying to people. If they left a comment, if they liked it, if they sent me a DM, I'm replying back and I'm saying, thanks so much, replying to whatever they ask. And then I'm like, hey, my book is coming out. Can you pre-order it? Here's the link.

And I have literally a one-on-one conversation with people every single day, asking them to buy my book, because I am committed and willing to do that. Now, some people say, you're crazy, that's a waste of time, and listen, it's like a couple hours a day of me replying to people, but I'm selling 10, 20, 30, 40 copies a day by doing that, and it matters. People are grateful that I'm having the conversation, that I'm replying, that I'm thoughtful. Taking the time to connect with people one-on-one is not scalable, but it's effective. And I'm doing it because I'm committed to getting results. I'm committed to this message getting out there. I'm committed to helping people. I'm committed to

making an impact. And I believe this is important right now. More important right now more so than ever because of what's happening in the media and our society. The 11th thing, I'm doing Facebook Live interviews. Man, I've done some big ones. We did J.P. Sears last week. We did Gabby Bernstein. I'm going to be doing Jack Canfield this week. I'm going to be working on many otherss this week. I'm going to be working

on many others. We did John Aseroff. So we're doing a bunch of Facebook lives and I feel like those are going to be doing well. So I'm excited about that. And they've been a lot of fun just doing Facebook lives because it's getting a lot of views and people are engaged and they're sharing it. And again, it's just like, where can you be? Be everywhere that people are right now, be there. So I'm looking for pages that have over half a million likes and that helps because they're getting a ton of views. So that's what I'm focusing on. And you can also boost some of those pages with Facebook ads. Then the next thing I'm doing is email newsletter campaigns to my list and other people's lists and asking them to mail it out. So doing that along with YouTube videos, which I did with my friend Matthew Hussey,

which got over 100,000 views in less than 12 hours, finding the bigger YouTube pages and email lists that you can get direct mailings to from those individuals. So again, all these things, this is just the start of it. There's some other things behind the scenes that I will talk about later in the follow-up to show you exactly what worked and what didn't work. But this is really kind of the start of the main things. And it's all about just having a clear game plan. I've had that game plan for almost a year and I've tweaked it based on what's been working

for other people and what hasn't been. I'm asking a lot of questions for other authors. I'm getting feedback. I'm doing whatever I can with the time that I have and the team that I have. And here's the thing. I'll tell you this. I've felt a lot less pressure. I I felt a lot more pressure in the fact

that this message is really important to me and it's a vulnerable topic. And it's people are like, wow, you're doing something completely different than we thought you would do after your last book. And I'm revealing so much about my past and myself and my insecurities and my vulnerabilities. But I feel like this has helped me a lot. You know, this book has helped me a lot, continue to hold myself accountable. And in a lot of ways, I continue to fail as a human being every week, you know, in my business relationships, personal relationships, every week in my business relationships, personal relationships, family relationships. I feel like I let people down all the time and I'm not up to the standard that I want to be, but it's holding me accountable and making me aware of it when it happens. And I'm owning my stuff at a much higher

level and I'm less reactive and less aggressive and all these things that I used to be. And so for me, this is like a healing process for me to write this book. But I also feel like it's going to help heal a lot of men in our world and a lot of relationships that men are in with their intimate partners. So for me, I'm so excited about this. And I appreciate you for being a part of this, whether you're just listening to this right now. If you have pre-ordered a book, then

thank you. If you haven't, then I would love for you to get one right now and take a screenshot and send it to me. And if you feel like it's not for you, I'm telling you it's for someone in your life. A lot of women are asking, well, maybe I'll get this for my boyfriend or my husband. And I keep telling them, you need to get this for them and you need to read it first because if you want to have a more harmonious relationship, you can't just hand them something and expect them to change. You get to come from a deeper sense of understanding and awareness about why the men in your life are emotionally disconnected or guarded or maybe don't share their emotions at certain times. You get to understand why. And I think that will help you in your relationship. Not just expecting them and say,

hey, read this and change or do things better or express yourself in a better way. That's not going to work. Just pushing something on someone isn't going to be effective. But you understanding the psychology of why your man might be wearing the athlete or the aggressive or the sexual or the know-it-all, the joker mask, why they might be wearing these masks, how you can connect them with different energy and support them and lift them higher and have compassion for them so that they are willing to feel safe around you to express themselves as opposed to feel disconnected. That is going to transform your life no matter who you are. If you have a father, if you have a brother, if you have a

husband, if you have a son, understanding the men in your life is going to be powerful if you're a woman. And if you're a man, I'm telling you, this is going to be a game changer because there's been too much suffering, too much pressure that we've faced for many years. And that pressure of needing to be a certain way, look a certain way, talk a certain way, react a certain way has hurt us for many years when it creates negative results. So for the men who are listening right now, it's time to rise up and become the man you were born to be, become the man that you are supposed to be, And become the man you were born to be. Become the man that you are supposed to be, which is an incredible man.

A man that leads with service, that leads with integrity, that leads with leadership, that leads with humility, grace, but also strength and courage and all those things that make men great. That's what you're supposed to be doing. And I'm so excited for you to get access to this and to dive in. And I just ask that you read, you know, just a couple pages, just dive in and read two or three pages and let me know what you think. And if it's not resonating with you, then all good. At least you gave it a shot. Again, you can read it on Kindle. You can get the hardcover. Again, you can read it on Kindle.

You can get the hardcover. You can get the audible version. I don't care how you access it. I'm telling you, get access to this. It's going to help you or someone in your life. So get a copy for yourself and someone else. Again, lewishouse.com slash mask. You can check out the full page at mascofmasculinity.com.

Share this with your friends. Share it out. Message me. Let me know what you think I'm excited guys the book comes out tomorrow it's freaking here and I'm so pumped and I appreciate you for

for all your support whether this is your first episode or your 556th episode that you've listened to you mean the world to me you know all these things I do are first for me to continue to learn and to grow and to be curious about certain things.

And the reason I put them out there in the world is for you. My goal is to not be selfish and just learn these things only for me, but to give back and share with you. And that's why we do this podcast for free. We've invested a ton of money and time and energy, over 556 episodes, almost five years now. Can you believe it? It's crazy. And we've got a book now. I think it's like 17 or 18 bucks online. So if you've gotten value from this in any way, then it would mean the world to me if you support and pick up a copy any way, then it would mean the world to me if you support and pick up a copy or a few copies for your friends. Holidays are coming up, so feel free to grab 20 of them. And also, if you go to Barnes & Noble or your local bookstore, this is

really important. Make sure to ask them if they have copies of the book. If they don't, please order them. Have them order a few copies. People can't buy it if they don't see it in the book. If they don't, please order them. Have them order a few copies. People can't buy it if they don't see it in the stores. And we got to get them in all the stores. They should be in Barnes & Noble right now. But if they're not in your Barnes & Noble or local store, please ask them to pre-order or to buy it or to get the mask of masculinity. It mean the world to me. Guys, I appreciate your support this week. It's a big, big week. I'm like birthing a child and I don't know what that'll ever feel like because I'm a man, but I can only imagine what that would feel like. So for me, I'm very excited, very appreciative of all of you. Hopefully this was insightful where I talk about the book launch strategy

and breakdown. And keep me posted. Send me some positive vibes. Send me a tweet. Send me a message on Instagram. If I don't get back to you right away this week, you'll know why, but I'll do my best to.

And stay great. Keep growing. Keep learning. This is your moment. You're here for a reason. And never allow yourself to be held back by negativity or by negative minds or by anyone's limiting beliefs. If you've got a dream, do it. Go for it. Give it a shot at least. If you fail, who cares? At least you went for it.

You know, if this book doesn't sell millions of copies and hit all these goals that I want to do, then at least I went for it and I gave it everything I've got. And I can be happy about that. I can be satisfied at the end of the day knowing what? I went for it. I gave it what I got. I put my heart on the line and that's all you can ask for. Give everything you got today, this week, this month. This is your moment. I love you guys. And you know what time it is, as always. It's time to go out there and do something great. Outro Music Bye.