Amber Vilhauer: Executing an Effective Book Launch

Have you ever worried about not having enough cash on hand? I know you have. We all do. Well, line of credit from Financing Solutions is the ultimate cash backup plan. Because it costs nothing to put in place, it's easy to get in place as a loyal listener to Entrepreneurship Elevated. If you visit FS as in financing solutions credit line FS.com today and put Mike in the referral section, Financing Solutions will give you $400 of credit on file. You never know when an emergency might happen, so you can get your credit line in place today. Now, I'm not a big fan of debt. Do not incur debt. But when you need to leverage cash, it is a good idea to have a line in place before you need it. So check them out fscreditline.com and use Mike in the referral section, and you get 400 bucks. Well, my dear friends, I hope you've strapped on your salty snowshoes, because we're about to discuss what a book launch is all about. Because I know you want to do one. One day. We're gonna discuss that and so much more with Amber Vilhauer today on this episode of Entrepreneurship Elevated. Kels, I bring all the energy. You got your glasses on sitting over here.

I'm giving you your moment of glory.

Oh. How are you doing, Kels?

I'm okay. How are you doing?

Good. Good. My name is Mike Michalowicz. I'm an author on a mission. A mission to eradicate entrepreneurial poverty. You know what that is? Everyone's like, oh, my God, you're an entrepreneur. You must be crushing it. And you're like, the only thing getting crushed is my soul. Entrepreneurship is hard. There's a lack of wealth. There's a lack of freedom. There's a lack of time. There's a lack of joy. But we fix that because you deserve all that. We fix it. On this episode and every episode of Entrepreneurship Elevated. I'm joined in the studio with Kelsey Ayers.

Hello, friend. Thank you for listening to us. And please don't forget to subscribe wherever you're listening.

And also in studio is Jacob Malone. What's up, Blowner?

Blowner.

So me and the blo, we go downstairs to get a bite to eat. I'm like, hey, I know you're on a diet. Do you want some Chinese food? He's like, I'm in. And so we go down there, and the Chinese place is closed.

Oh, that's crazy.

On Tuesday? Always. Yeah.

I thought they were always open.

There was this really faded, cheap sign that Was clearly put up only recently. But it's on poster board, and it faces the sun, so you can't see it now from the distance. It's all faded out. And they say we're closed starting, you know, whatever, a month ago. We're closed on Tuesday.

Okay.

But Jacob loan, in his defense, he came down with me. Cause I'm like, you want, you know, sesame chicken? He's like, no, I'm gonna go with you to pick something that's healthy. So then we're like, so we get Mexican. Like, we don't have enough time. Should we get sush? Not enough time. So let's go to Don's. And I go in there. I'm like, I'm so tired of getting the same sloppy sandwich. I'm like, I'm gonna get something that he can't make. Sloppy.

What?

Listen, I asked for a peanut butter and jelly there recently. How can you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich sloppy? You can't. Don figured out a way. You go there, and there's jelly, like, dripping on your hand. There's peanut butter on the outside of the bread. It's like a mouse trap.

I don't think I've ever heard just to you.

I've never heard of anyone ordering a peanut butter and jelly sandwich from a sub shop.

Oh, I have. Yeah. It blows his mind away when I do that too. I'm like, a PB and J. He's like, really? I'm like, you got. He's out on the board. So then I'm like, I don't want his ham sandwich because it's ham everywhere. He puts, like, 15 pounds of meat. Like, it's just too much. So I'm like. And I try to direct him, which is, like, insulting a professional. Like, you know, don't put so much meat on it. Please. Make it less sloppy.

Like, yeah.

So then I'm like, you know what?

You just have me do it every time I order.

I know, I know. Isn't that funny? Sometimes I. Hey, Kyle, you mind ordering? And she's like, yeah. I'm like, hey, tell them to make it not so sloppy.

Nice.

Yeah. Only one slice of cheese.

You gotta actually.

Moderate amount of meat.

Yeah, you have to say that. You have to say a moderate amount of meat. So then I'm like, you know, he can't mess up a hot dog. The time's running out. We have to be up here to record. I go down there and I'm like, just give me a hot dog with some chili and some onion. You can't make that up. Mess that up. It's a hot dog, Kels.

You also cannot make it neatly. It's sloppy in nature.

No, you can't. You can make it neatly. You. As Jerry pointed out, you toast the bun, you rest the dog in there. You kind of ratchet it in so it settles in. You, then drizzle the chili on top. You put a little bit of onion.

You can make it less sloppy.

You can make it at least where a human being could pick it up and maybe it's little drips in her hands.

Yeah.

It was unpickable, uppable. It was everywhere else. I had to do a knife and fork. And you guys came in here, and you're like. What'd you say? Like, someone, like, smells like a fart. It smells like a dying fart.

Honestly. Smells awful.

It smells awful in here now.

Yeah.

So as the grand finale, I put the open tray right in front of Kelsey, and you just rolled your eyes. Zip that puppy closed.

Nice.

And I didn't give you a napkin.

But it's still right next to me. I can still smell it.

Yeah. And it's. I'm just disappointed. How you doing, Kels?

I may.

Okay.

What's going on to your life?

Nothing. But I really love this time of year right now. I feel excited about the holidays, and I have, like, a good morning routine that I really love, and. Yeah.

Do you decorate your house for Thanksgiving?

No. But for Christmas, I do.

You do. And what are you. Because Thanksgiving is a week from this recording day, which this won't even broadcast, I think, till the new year. I mean, it's like, we're so far ahead. This hasn't come out till March. What. What are you doing for Thanksgiving?

I am going to my sister's house.

Okay.

Who lives right in Sussex, so not very far from me.

Okay. That's when we met Jordan, not Delaney. Delaney's where you're going. Okay.

Right. Exactly.

And what about you, Jay Cablone? What are you doing for Thanksgiving?

I'm actually. So usually my cousin Brian holds it, but this year, my mom's getting the torch back, so my brother and I are gonna do.

Do the majority of the cooking, so. Already got one of my bingo board people. All right. I just want to.

Oh, you asked that on purpose. Just so.

No, I did. You say you talk about your mom a lot, so. I have my mom. So just so our listeners know, we have bingo boards, and the first person to get bingo yells it out. I have Jeremy. So any words or phrases that he Uses I mark it off. Kelsey has made. Jeremy has Kelsey. And so I got you on my mom. I knew you talk about your mom.

I have two for Kelsey already.

Oh, what'd you get? What worked?

Love and feel.

I said them already.

Oh my God. That's amazing. Jeremy. So hey, you guys can play bingo along with us. Can we? Did we get the T shirts? Did we do that finally? We were.

I'm working on right now. Yeah, we gotta approve the design and decide if you want long sleeve or short sleeve.

Okay, great. Good. Okay. I want them. I just want the shirts. Maybe we can send out bingo boards to people. Can we do that? Kelsey is a pain in the butt. But have a downloadable PDF bingo board so people can listen to the show and play bingo along.

Yeah, we can do that.

All right, let's do that.

That's easy.

That's it. And then the first they got it. If they get bingo, they get a prize. They get mentioned on the show or something. Okay. Hey, Kelsey, we mean listener shout outs or anything we do.

Are you ready for it?

Mm, I wish that was. That would have been Jeremy's. You're ready for it.

I was waiting.

Yeah.

This comes from Mike. Since following your profit first plan religiously, I've managed to increase my profit from 1% to 4% without feeling a thing. I paid off one of my loans and now have over $3,000 sitting in my account. As I mentioned to you a while back, I opened a new school and was unsure how I was going to pay my office managers without any income yet. Until I heard your podcast where someone mentioned they were able to hire a full time accountant with their profit first plan. Now with $3,000 sitting in a lonely account in Neverland, I am able to do just that. My levels of stress just did a dive bomb. All thanks to you and another amazing episode. Sometimes things are so simple. Makes you wonder why it takes Mike Michalowis to write a book on just how simple it is. Thank you so much, Mike.

You're a stud. May we say his website?

Yeah. So mike from rockoutloud.com so everyone go.

To rockoutloud.com and let's maybe let's get the band back together. Kels.

Yeah. Justin love.

Justin love. And just Kelsey. All right, Kelsey, I think we're ready. Nextiva, our sponsor, our supporter, and thank you Financing solutions too. They're in our same building. That's how they became a sponsor. And nextiva is not in our building, but we can still talk to them because their technology allows Inter building connections.

Amazing.

Yeah. I don't know. I took a tour of the Winchester house and they had a early version of communication internally. Like it used to be like the two cans of this height string and you could talk through it, something, you know, to that effect so you could talk to other people in the same house. Nextiva said, what if we can allow people to communicate not that already face to face, but actually there's a wall between them or there's buildings between them and they have a technology that supports that. It's called.

Incredible.

It's called a phone.

So innovative.

I talked to Don when we were at the sandwich shop. He's going to be a sponsor next week.

Nice, dude. All right, man, let's roll into the topic at hand. Are we cool?

Yeah.

All right. We're talking today about book launch. How to do with confidence and maximize your reach. Her name is Amber Vilhauer and she is an online digital marketing expert who supports authors and speakers and coaches to establish a powerful, integrated online presence that gets results and empowers them to make a difference in their industry. Amber supports entrepreneurs through branding and website development. Done for you online marketing and best seller book launches. And she is our book launch manager with no further ado. Amber, welcome to our show.

Welcome, Amber.

Thank you so much, guys. I'm really excited to be here because this is, this is the first time that I've been on a podcast where in the first few minutes we've talked about dying farts, love and healing and bingo all on the same show.

There's diversity here.

Thank you.

In fact, you stayed with us. That's their big test. Half our guests drop off about the 7, 8 minute mark. So let's get into book launches. What's the importance of an effective book launch?

Well, I mean, I think it can be leveraged to build the rest of your company and to really uplevel your game and spread your influence. And most authors fall short on the marketing and the launch because they've put so much time and effort and energy into writing the book that by the time it's published, they usually come knocking on my door saying, okay, now what? And I think that the authors who start the marketing much, much, much sooner have a really great advantage.

So we've engaged yourself and your team there at ngng no Guts, no Glory Enterprises to do our book launch. And you're launching Fix this next, which actually comes out from this recording broadcast day only a month and a half from now. One thing is just organizing all the moving parts and what impressed me was that master kind of document spreadsheet plan. What's the importance of having a plan, and how do you even go about building one?

Honestly, it's probably easier if you just hire somebody who's already been there, done that, because a lot of authors don't know what they don't know, and a lot of authors feel like they suck at marketing. And so I think it's important that you surround yourself with people who really do understand all of the moving pieces that can help you document. Now, the right person in that role will be able to document a plan for you that you can then repurpose for your subsequent book launch. Right. So it's just important perhaps that you hire this person from the get go go. However, it feels like in my experience, most people get used to that level of support. You know, in the course of a launch. You have so many different moving pieces, Mike. Inside of your launch, you're doing speaking, both offline, on stages, online, through live streaming and podcasts. That's just one piece of this. You have press, you have media, you have leveraging relationships with different influencers in your network. There's a social media team, there's a video marketing team. I mean, there are all of these different moving pieces. So to be able to not only just document those moving pieces so that everybody understands what their role is, so that they can own it, but then having somebody oversee all of that so that you, as the author, don't have to oversee it. You can then just show up and do what you're best at, which is speaking and building those relationships. And everything else can be delegated out so that it's just as effective as if you were doing it yourself.

One thing we did in house here was we made it very clear that my role is best to be a spokesperson, a creator of new concepts and books, but also be a spokesperson. Kelsey has become president of our company and runs all the different elements, which is it represents, at least for me. Yeah, for me, it gives me the ability to get out there and do the promotional components. How much of an author's time would you say, excuse me, is in promoting versus actual creation of books and content?

Hmm, that's a really good question. I feel like a lot has to be actually in the promotion. I mean, it's almost 50 50, because if you don't have great content, your promotional efforts won't take you as far. So you have to spend the time to develop great content that can stand on its own two feet to where other people are. Excited to refer your content so that you aren't the only person doing the promotion. Right. But it's also really equally important for you to be out there in the world. A lot of authors say, well, I just want to sit in my basement and write all day by myself. And that's well and good to a degree, I guess. But like when you create a work of art, that's what a book is. You have this base of followers and readers that want more from you. So if you hide from them, you're really doing them a disservice. And it's them, the reader, that you're doing this to begin with. So. So a lot of the work that I do, Mike, is in helping the author feel more comfortable with getting themselves out there. And with, quote, promotion, there are ways that you can do promotion that feel more natural so that you don't just feel exposed and in fright mode constantly.

Yeah. So, you know, I think a launch for a book is similar to launches or introductions of any other product.

Totally.

Okay. And I also feel that there's certain things that have greater impact than others. So this the old 8020 rule. 20% of the things you do will yield 8% of the impact. So for the folks listening, are there some must do's or actions that aspiring authors or anyone is launching a product or service? These are the things that you have to do because they have the greatest impact. I just want to kind of check off the must dos versus the fantasy stuff.

I'm really glad that you brought this up because a lot of the people that I work with come to me and they feel like they have to do it all. You know, I have to be on all the social networks, I have to be on all the speaking networks. And that's just not true. In fact, even if we just take tackle social media for a moment, if you have, let's say five major channels, you could just start with one and that would be great, right? If you are the Instagram person and that's where you choose to build your following, that could be good enough. Because instead of spreading yourself too thin and doing an okay to mediocre job on all of the networks, now you can go all into one network and really do a much better job and get much more significant results. And a launch is very similar. Just because there are a hundred different ways or more that you can market a book doesn't mean that you should do all 100 of those things. I. You will hear me preach until the end of time that the number one thing that you should be focused on no matter what you're selling is building relationships. That's it. Because if I can develop a personal connection with Kelsey and Kelsey gets a good experience out of our time together, I'm giving her value. She feels seen, she feels heard and loved and valued, then that's going to really make an impression on Kelsey. So the next time Kelsey is out having a conversation with somebody and that person needs a website or they need a book launch director or they need online marketing help, hopefully I'm the one that comes to her mind and she will refer me to that person. Word of mouth is the most powerful form of advertising. When you can get different people in your industry to really support you and you can support them back through reciprocity, those relationships will do far, far more for you than Facebook ads or press releases or anything else that you could use as an option. So I would say relationships are number one. And also I think that podcasts, any kind of speaking on stage or online, that's it. If you were to only focus on speaking and relationships, you would do way better than most people that launch.

Now, when it comes to relationships, I think there's many influencers. I can get the word out there. They're big time influencers. I'm a little guy comparatively. It almost feels like I would be more of a burden to them. So how do I approach them? Or are they not the right ones to approach? Like, what are the relationships I'm going for?

Oh, such a. You ask the best questions.

I kind of do. I kind of do. Kelsey's not. Did you just nod, Kelsey? Like, yes.

Yeah, I told you the same thing.

That's so supportive, Kelsey. All right, keep going, Amber.

Usually we. A lot of people look at the big time influencers and think, oh, if I could just get Tony Robbins to promote, then all of my problems would go away. And that's not necessarily true. What I have found is that most influencers that have the biggest number of followers and connections usually have the weakest engagement and conversion. Very interesting. And so sometimes it's the little guys. Right now, Mike, you call yourself a little guy, but honestly, there's. The vast majority of people are even beneath you in terms of the amount of followers and raving fans. And sometimes those are the people that are going to create the biggest conversion and the biggest impact in terms of spreading your message. And they're also more hungry. Right? So somebody who has only 5,000 people on an email list, they will promote the heck out of your book because they want you to approve them and accept them. They want to feel like they're, they belong in your network because you're just so superior to where they feel they are. Right. So I think that there's a good balance of the two. When you approach somebody that doesn't have a very big following, it's usually easier to get them to say yes. When you're approaching somebody that's much bigger and has more influence, obviously it's going to be more challenging because everybody is knocking on their door saying, can you promote my stuff? And they're really tired of it. So when you are trying to approach somebody that is bigger in status, you have to understand two things. Number one, this is a long term play. It could take you six months to build a relationship with that person if you're very strategic about it. And the second thing is that you want to be really creative and how you approach them, do not, do not send them an email that's like, hey, Toni, can you please promote my book? Oh my gosh, that would just be terrible. It would immediately go into the trash bin. But if you were to start following Tony and you were starting to like engage in comments on his posts and then, you know, send a private LinkedIn message saying, Hey, I saw this video. I was really impacted by it. Just want to say thank you so much. Then maybe you're figuring out who Toni's team members are and then you're engaging with them on social media and giving them. So what's happening is they just start noticing like, who's this Amber person that keeps popping up everywhere? I just want them to feel my support first before I ever even consider making an ask. Then I might try to look for opportunities to give to them. So if I see Toni is doing some sort of a promotion, then maybe I could give them some sort of a tip or I could introduce them to somebody that would be valuable to, to their next launch. And so basically I'm supporting them, then I'm giving to them. Then I try to start getting creative about how I can ask for whatever it is that I want. And I might happen to find myself at the same conference as Tony. Or, you know, there's always some creative in. You could send this really cool gift box to Tony and I don't know why I'm picking on Tony Robbins, by the way.

He listens to the show, so he loves this stuff.

I'm channeling the giant within right now. But the point is, is that you find some really unique and creative way to approach and then you are Far more likely to get a yes. So I think you just have to be in it for the long term and you have to be creative about it.

What about the timing? Meaning? I think you said earlier people write the book and then they market it. I don't know if that's the right approach. When do you start preparing the marketing for your book?

I am currently in the process of writing my own book. It's my first one to be published and I have been thinking about the marketing of this book for the past decade or more. Well before I even knew what topic I was going to write about in the book. So your marketing actually starts pretty much day one that you decide to open up your business. It's the reputation that you have, it's the way that you interact with relationships because again, building those relationships, allowing like getting interviewed on different podcasts and the reputation that comes with that, are you a great interviewer or not? I mean these all are decisions and stepping stones that enable you to have a bigger and more successful launch. So it really like you have to be thinking about marketing from day one. And when it comes time to actually sit down and write the book, having that, you know, foundation for marketing in place is definitely an advantage. For example, I'm currently working with a client who had, I think it's 25 case studies and stories in his book that's about to be published in the summer of 2020 based on the relationships that he has. So he handpicked 25 people in his network that now he is featuring in his book. Do you think those 25 people are going to heavily promote that book for free because they are featured in it? Yes, that is a really powerful marketing strategy that's now baked into the book that's going to last fore. That's the advantage of starting to think about your marketing strategy before you even start writing.

So let's do a worst case scenario. Someone wrote a book or they have a product because again, this translates for both. They don't have the relationships, they haven't been working on this in advance and now they're weeks or months away from D day. They're going to be promoting and launching this thing. Is there certain things they can do without relationships? Even though it's the most important thing to have to get some more sales?

This happens all the time. I can't tell you how many books I've launched where they're like, I need to launch in two weeks and I have no platform and I have no money. So now what do I. And by the way I want to sell 10,000 copies, something really intense. But look, it's really easy to start building a social media following. Honestly, all you need is an iPhone and you can do some really serious marketing. You don't need an entire marketing team, you don't need an entire budget, you don't need a humongous plan. Take out your iPhone and just give. Like literally, if that's all you do, you turn on your phone and you record little videos about lessons that you learned that day that relate to teaching points in the book. Or go live. You're. You're going live on Instagram, you're going live on Facebook, you're going live on LinkedIn and YouTube. Just give. Go on social media and start connecting, doing outreach, just giving tips, advice, compliments. Right? People want to feel seen and heard and valued and loved. Right. We talked about that. And so people also want to feel like you're not just in it for you. Because when I look online, a lot of people claim that they're about authenticity, but it's not like they're taking the most authentic approach. We are all so over committed and so busy and so distracted, so overwhelmed that we do think a lot about ourselves. And if we can just calm down and be present in the moment and think about the people that we're trying to serve, just one person that we want to make an impact to, we pick up our phone and from our heart, we say something of value that relates to a teaching topic in the book and we put it out on social media. I am telling you that will go viral. The more you do it, the more people will start to catch on. They'll start to share your message because they can feel something is different about you. You're actually taking the time and nobody takes time anymore. So it's going to make a really powerful impact. I think you can make a whole lot of progress in your launch literally just by doing that. And those relationships that you can develop will come out of the social interactions that will naturally occur. You're just building it more organically.

Over my 12 years of being an author devoted to the small business entrepreneur, I've discovered the biggest challenge. And you know what it is? It's profitability. That's why I wrote Profitability. Profit first. And that's why I'm now hosting a two day workshop here at my offices in Boonton, New Jersey where I will teach you and my team will teach you how to become permanently profitable. Go to profitfirstlive.com right now to get details again. Profit first, live dot com. Find the dates that work for you, and I'll see you here at my office. You read that book, the Traveling Pants. Whatever. What was that book?

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

Yeah, I believe it was that author. Her marketing campaign was that she went bookstore by bookstore or library by library and just spoke to whatever group would gather about the book, but did hundreds of these events. And the attendance was maybe 50 or 100 people. But she started to win over such a following that that caused the book to trigger. She didn't have a marketing plan, so that became the marketing plan. At least that's what I love it.

Yeah, I really love it.

And I think it points Amber to what you're saying about just give. Like she just wanted to share these stories. What about some rough time frame? So always be building relationships, but what happens, you know, six months in advance or two months in advance the day of, like, those type things? Can you give us a sense for that, Amber?

I think it really depends on what kind of launch you're having. And this, again, can go outside of even a book launch. But I've launched books within two weeks of having the first conversation with an author. And. And, you know, we didn't. We had a very different plan than somebody that has engaged my services for, say, 15 months. Right. So the timeline changes also based on the goals. I have clients that really want to go after, number one, New York Times, and I have clients that their big goal is to sell 500 copies of their book. And I always say, like, you need a bigger goal. But so I think it just depends. I think in general, I prefer to have more. At least four months. Notice anything less than that, you're just cutting corners and making sacrifices. And it's not to say that, you know, we don't continue promotion beyond the launch, but there is a responsibility that I have because every day that that author was writing the book, they were dreaming of the moment of launching it. And so if you don't have proper marketing and build up and momentum toward that launch, even if you do have a little tiny splash, you'll be disappointed. And that could derail you for months beyond the launch just because emotionally, you didn't get the outcome that you were originally hoping for. So it's worth it to push it back a little bit to make sure that you're achieving that fulfillment. What were you gonna say, Mike?

Well, I was at this event. This is years back, Amber, and there was a local TV celebrity, like a local news type guy, and he Did a presentation which was actually particularly good, and he was selling a book. In the end, he said, yeah, everyone, I wrote a book. Buy my book. I really want you to buy my book. Like, that was his ask. And it was, for me, uncomfortable and awkward, and maybe some people bought it, but it was so, like, he's gonna gain. So do it. Is there a better way to ask, Amber? Is there a way to. To ask that's comfortable, appropriate, but inviting? You know.

You have to do you. I mean, even if, like that. That was him doing him, and in my feeling, Mike, if that didn't resonate with you, that's okay, because you are not the type of person that he's trying to ultimately attract in. So you kind of have to start with, like, just do you and know that the right people will be attracted in, and those are the people that you really want to serve anyway. So that's kind of part of it now. That is definitely not the approach that I would have taken. For me, I'm always about service first giving. So depending on the audience that I'm speaking to, being mindful of the fact that every audience is different, they have different needs, they use different language, then I would just do my research in advance to really understand who this audience is. Whether it's live streaming, podcasting, I'm on a stage, and I would just try to appeal to their needs and pain points and my ask. So I would say, look, I understand that you're feeling XYZ and abc, and that is why I have slaved over this book. This book is not about me, it's about you. And so if this is resonating with you, then I encourage you to go get a copy today and read it. And then let's start a dialogue to see how else I can support you to get these things done, you know, but that's very Amber, right? And that's really turn off some people that wish I would have had a more direct ask or would have made it more about me. I mean, I don't know. There are people like that in the world.

Your team's come up with some really innovative stuff that we're doing for the fix this next launch, which, as this podcast goes live, people should be experiencing some of it now there's more to come. Do you mind sharing a few of the kind of out of the box things that your team devised?

Well, one of the big things that we are doing for your launch is we're having a strong focus on live streaming. And there are these. There's this thing on Facebook called watch parties. And so you and I could be doing a live streaming right now, and we, we could invite viewers to start a watch party. And when they do that, a copy of the video player that they're watching will then go on to their personal page and their friends will be notified that they are starting a watch party. So it's a way to really get massive viral attention very, very quickly. And so one of the things that I've been trying to think of is how do we get the word out as fast as possible in a very short period of time? You always want to be thinking that in terms of a streaming is definitely one of the most powerful opportunities that we have to do that. More traditional things in the past would be Mike could be getting interviewed on podcasts for the past eight months and then ask all of those podcast hosts to drop and publish the episode the week of the launch. So it looks like Mike is all over the place, even though he's been working on this for the past eight months. Right. That's definitely one way that you can go viral and get a lot of attention very, very quickly. Live streaming is another. And if you can combine the two together, well, then it's even more powerful. We are also really coming up with different ways to make our connections, our friends and colleagues feel like they get to win as a result of this launch. So that it's not all about Mike. We want it to be about collaboration, community. We're co creating this outcome together. So how can we help Mike's friends win and get exposure and get more leads and get, you know, more sales or more whatever followers, you name it, street cred, exposure status as a result of all of the effort that he's putting into this launch. And sometimes we can do that in consistent ways, such as live streaming. So if Mike can go live with several of his friends, then they will all get exposure and win as a result of Mike's launch. That's one example. And then there are even things that we're doing on a really micro level that's custom to each of the relationships. So it's always keeping that creative hat on and challenging your thinking and trying to go outside of the box in service to all. And I think that's really the important note here.

And to your point of being authentic, you know, we were talking about, do I launch? Do I do a launch party? A lot of authors do that. It's not consistent with who I am and what came out of it. Just an ideation today was maybe we can do a fake celebrity red carpet walk and. And just do these really funny things around it where we kind of have these posts, like, it looks like a cheesy attempt at me doing a launch party. You had, through your father, create these artifacts, which are artifacts. I mean, gifts, which are large wrenches that are going to have people's names on and stuff. So just really cool things that are disruptive to just the traditional launch. And I think that. Well, we'll see, but I think those are gonna have extraordinary impact.

I know. I can't even wait to see what we come up with next.

I know. I know. Amber, it's been a joy having you on the show. Before we let you go, I know some of our listeners are gonna want to hire you for their own book launch or maybe even their product launches. How can they reach out to you?

Thank you, Mike. So the easiest way is just to go to my website, Amberville Howard dot com. But just Google me. I'm all over the place. I've got tons of YouTube videos where you can learn more free. Just connect with me on social media. I'm super easy to talk to, and I really just want to help, so I'm happy, especially Mike's crowd. Oh, my gosh. I love you guys. Thank you for having me.

Oh, it's a joy having you. You know, actually, I don't know if Kelsey told you, we. We have to do kind of secret shopper type stuff. So we recorded you. This is what, our first call. We recorded it. We just wanted to give us. Yeah, I know, I know, I know. We're kind of schmoes like that. So record it. And my question, just to lead up to it, I take Amber. I don't really know if I want to do a launch party. I'm not good at it. And here's what you said in response. Do it.

Just do it.

Yeah. So. All right.

Your voice got so messy.

I know. So deep. God, you got to stop smoking cigarettes. Amber, thank you for joining us. Thanks, Amber. No, no, don't. All right. Hey, we're gonna recap what we learned here. Jay Bone, I saw you taking down notes. I can't wait for you guys to start talking so I can. I can mark my bingo board, which I just lost.

Here's my question about that. Does it have to be in a row, or is it just three?

Three in a row. Have you never played bingo before?

These questions you're asking.

You've never played bingo.

Now she's getting me. Look, it's the pressure's off you.

I know this feels good. And I'm teaming up. You've never played bingo?

No, I just didn't know if the rule was any three if they had to line up.

Well, clearly you've never played bingo. You have. It has to be a diagonal, horizontal, or vertical.

Okay, let's just.

Just go right. Kelsey, where'd you get these guys? All right, so here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna recap what we learned from Amber Vilhauer. We're going to also do a. A game. I got a fun one today, and I think that's it. But first, I want to thank our corporate partner. Let me get a good punch for that. There it is. Next. Eva voiceover IP phone system. Oh, Jerry Bone, you love this. This. I did. I think I told you, Kelsey. I did a keynote a week or two ago in Arizona for the Richard James event. And nextiva was a sponsor, and so there's a couple hundred people there, and I arrived early. So I'm walking around and just checking out the sponsor booths, and nextiva goes, hey, Mike, we heard you like our rubber feet on our phones. And I said, what do you mean?

Stop it. They listen.

Yeah. So a lot of people listen to the show, and they started going to the nextiva booth, and we're, like, making fun of nextiva. In a good way. In a good way. Yeah. So they're like, oh, Mike talks about your. The rubber feet you invented for phones and that you have this slinky type of cord and the True Voice. They pounded them on. True Voice. I love that. So we got back to nextiva, and they're just a wonderful company. A brand new technology they have, Jeremy, I'm not sure if you're familiar with it is. It's called On Hold.

I saw the wheels there.

I know.

Yeah.

I still wrote this one down in advance. On Hold. And what you can do now is if you and I are talking on the phone, Jeremy, and you want to talk to someone else, you can push this button. It puts me in hold, and I can't hear you.

It's crazy. It's amazing.

Yeah. Next to you, it's Wild Inventors at True Voice and Rubber. Something crazier I should prepare for that one. It was pretty fast. All right, Kels, what'd you learn today from Amber Vilhauer?

So I really love this. I feel like the thing that resonated the most was when she said, tell me.

It resonated because she always says that, dude.

She always Says that almost. I almost, dude.

Always do resonate with her. That's the middle square.

If it was love, I would have won, like, 30 times.

Yeah, yeah. Love. Put that in the middle. So you love. You love how it resonated?

Yes, I loved and I loved everything. But what resonated the most was when she talked about how to market yourself. And the feeling of authenticity is really calming down. Being present and truly thinking about how you want to serve your audience and then just deliver the best content of your book. Right. And I think that's so true in any practice of your business. Just being present and thinking about why you're actually doing it and who you're serving.

I concur. I concur. J Bone be very.

I know about what I'm give a.

Lot of detail on yours. So what does your mom think?

Yeah, basically the. The fact that you should put the marketing first before you even attempt the book. I think that that's really, really smart, and that makes a tremendous sense to.

To.

To think about how you're going to market it before you. Even before you even write it.

Yep.

Because then it'll also determine maybe some of the content.

Anything else you want to share?

No, I'm not giving you any other words.

You have.

I'm not giving you anything else.

Okay. Yeah, the just give was. Was really powerful. And she kind of concluded the. The stuff she was sharing with us with the concept of just give. I also really liked that you an author. She didn't say these words, but an author is a promoter. You generate a concept and you promote it. A writer is just the one who writes the book. So I think you can be a writer and author. And I. But I think they're distinct. It's a proponent for an idea purportedly. That was for you. Oh, yeah, that was no problem. I gave you one. We want to know what you thought too. Are reading friends. So when you do a rating and review, put your comments in. We'd love to see what you thought of Amber and give us some feedback. All right, Kels.

All right, Mike, do we have a game?

All right, here's a game. Amber, you still with us?

Yes, I am.

Okay, so here's a game. It's the products. I'm going to read off three products. Now, here's the funny thing. These are all entrepreneurial endeavors. Two of these products are real. Shockingly, one of these is a fake. Now, I write the copy for all of them so that you can't tell from the copy which one is which. But two of these are true products. Now your job, Amber and everyone else in the studio here, is to guess what the fake product is. And just recent episodes, I've been doing pretty well. I've been faking you guys out a lot recently. Before that, you guys were getting me every time. So I've really tried to amp up things. Let's see how I did. So I'm gonna read off the three products. Amber, you're gonna the opportunity to go first. But let me read the three products off first. Here they are. The wine rack. A wine rack. That sounds innocuous enough, doesn't it? Until you hear what it is. It's a fully functional bra that comes with a hidden function. A built in.

As soon as you said rack, I knew it. Did you?

Yeah.

As soon as you said rack, I knew that was coming.

A built in wine or beverage bladder. Simply fill up the wine rack with your favorite beverage. Stores up to two. A whopping two liters of liquid. Those are double Ds. Run the filler hose down your shirt and voila. There you have it. Drinks on the go. Perfect for sporting events, nights out in the town. Or funerals.

That has to be real.

Or funerals. Note a filled bladder will increase your chest size by two sizes. Okay, next product is the. Jeremy's. Already familiar with this one. It's the three in one family sized breakfast station. Jeremy, a good breakfast includes coffee, toast and eggs. We all know that. But why on earth do we need a separate coffee machine and a separate toaster and a separate frying pan?

Good reason.

Shouldn't it be a single appliance? Of course it should. And that's why we created the three in one family sized breakfast station with a full size skillet, 12 cup coffee pot and a toaster oven. You can even prepare a Thanksgiving dinner as long as your turkey is a ganish. A Cornish game hen ganish. You can make one mistake. That's the. That was the big delivery of my joke too. I was gonna. I couldn't wait to deliver that joke. I got. I got too excited about.

What is it? The four in one.

The three in one. Ideal for people with big appetites living in small apartments. Also, check out our 3 in 1 sandwich station. Our buddy Don could use that. That includes condiment, cooler, meat carving station and toaster. Okay, that's the 3 one. Next one. Wheat and weed. Wheat and weed. Finally, a cereal infused with cbd. That's the hot thing nowadays. Cbd. It's in everything. Dude. I. There's cbd. Gummies. Did you know that?

Yeah.

Well, now there's never heard that before.

Now there's a wheat and weed. Finally, cereal infused with cbd. While Wheaties may be the breakfast of champions, wheat and weed is the breakfast of champions who want the extra edge or the edge removed. The most effective natural drug and it has in air quotes of modern times. Instant pain relief, instant healing, instant health. One bowl gives you the equivalent of one bowl. Get it? Get it. I wrote that part myself. I wrote that myself. All right, Amber, two of those products are real and available right now for purchase somewhere. Don't Google it.

It.

Which one's the fake, Amber?

Wheat and weed. That's the fake.

Okay, Kelsey, I say the same thing.

Okay, Jeremy, I'm gonna switch up. I think the fake one is the. I'm gonna go with the boobs.

The. The wine rack. Jeremy has our best track record of sniffing these out. Right, right, right. Historically, the wine rack, a fully functional bra, comes hidden with a hidden function. A built in wine and beverage bladder is a real product. Jeremy, I can't. I hate to say this, I just didn't want to. Available on Amazon today, but thanks for shaking it up. Now here's interesting. The three in one. Who would have a three in one breakfast station? Coffee.

I think I've seen something similar to that before.

Really? It's one.

Maybe not with the coffee maker, but I've seen something with the skillet and the toaster.

Yes, a skillet toaster. Well, you know what? You're right. That is a real product. So Amber and Kelsey nail it. The Wheaton weed. Which I think it was just the title. I should have named it something less.

You know what? Yeah, it was totally a title and it was so super creative that I would have thought for sure that was the real one. But it was the title, man.

Yeah, I should have done some innocuous title you guys like. Oh, yeah, it should have been like, you know, cheery hoes. I don't know. It doesn't even make sense. No, I just made something brand new. Like I'm trying to think of something. It's just been like granola crunch.

Cheerios.

Cheerios. Cheerios. Where's the wine rack?

Same thing with the bowls. I actually really liked your tagline. So that was a good one, right?

One bowl gets the equivalent of one bowl.

Yeah, totally.

All right, well, thank you for that. All right, Kelsey, I think we're done Ish.

I think we are done Ish.

No questions.

If you do have any questions, you can always email them to ask mikemikalowitz.com and we'll create a little video for you and put it on YouTube.

And here's how I pitch my book. So fix this. Next is coming out a month and a half from the day this broadcast. I've put my soul into writing this book. I think it's the most impactful book I've ever written. More impactful than even Profit first and Clockwork. Because the biggest challenge entrepreneurs have is identifying the challenge that needs to be worked on. This is your compass. This will find it. So here's the deal. The book is available on Amazon for pre order. Now I think it'll be your very well spent because all of my knowledge went into it. Pick a copy up. Oh, God. The music's camping. It will serve you and keep a copy of receipt because when we launch, we're going to reward people that have pre ordered the book. That's the big hook. All right. That's it. All right. Let's get out of here. Of here. Did you just whoop?

Yeah.

Whoa.

Oh, geez. Blended on that. That was pretty good. After.

Thank you.