Gearing up for last day at Milwaukee Ave Art Festival

While critical paperwork piles up at home and in my office, going out and meeting people and showing the things we have to offer - books, healthy coffee, art-poetry broadsides, custom stationery products, book distribution, Send Out Cards, and our book publishing consulting business, I see the challenge of being involved in too many things. It's hard to be good at one or two things when you have a world of stuff going on: -- it can also be a turn-off for some people. But not all people. It's a question of finding the right people, and not becoming too involved in the outcome. Some people you can engage, others not. If you can inspire one or two of them you get what is called leverage. They work for the good of themselves, and while they build their own business they are helping you as well. The quest for applied leverage continues ...

My regular job is to sell books for clients to bookstores. Bookstore people in the Midwest are my long-standing customers. I have a commitment to them and to my client publishers to do a good job. My network of bookstores is the one that crosses all the paths of everything I do, all the stuff listed above. It's always been like that. The bookstore network, the one-on-one customer service, the engagement, the approach to understanding what the bookseller's needs are and what kind of books they can sell best, the development of a trusting relationship between us is what drives my business. It has always been the case through 26 years as a book traveler in the Midwest territory.

And dealing with the general public, the book buying public, has never been a strength of mine. My core audience has always been business owners, especially bookstore owners, managers, and buyers. And so the shindig at the Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival is a new skill set for me. I've been trying to build up an e-mail list. A mailing list, direct mail and greeting cards, is the ultimate goal, but you need to take small steps. The goal is to develop an audience; people who are interested in what you do and what you have to offer. I'm working on it. It's a balancing act.

Showing up is half the battle. Everything else is in your positive attitude, save 2% which is intangibles and sheer luck. "You're a good man," a fellow who stopped by my table at the Milwaukee Avenue Art Festival told me. Raising that kind of awareness and increasing engagement with these kinds of people is the key to success over time. You need to be in it to win it!