Grow Your Nonfiction Author Business in February

This month’s short tip to help your grow your nonfiction author business is: Schedule a get-to-know your chat with someone you’re connected with on LinkedIn. Take this opportunity to see how you can help them in their business. You may find your own business grows in unexpected ways.

Here’s an article I wrote about how I do this.

I’d love to get to know you and your business better. Use this link to schedule a call with me so I can know who best to refer to you.

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Communication Mirroring

communication mirroringWe all have our favorite method of communication. Mine is email. One friend rarely emails more than three words, but will stay on the phone as long as I’m willing to.

Just like we don’t get to choose how we’re perceived by others, we can’t successfully shove people into our communication method. A prospect who emails should get an email, not a phone call, in return. While the email should be sent off just as quickly as you’d answer the phone (email-oriented types tend to expect email to be almost real-time) a phone call response to an email can feel pressuring and invasive.

On the other hand, if someone leaves you a voicemail, or you’re following up on a phone call, use the phone; email will seem impersonal to phone-oriented communicators. Email always sounds a bit less friendly than you write it; write a friendly message and it sounds flat and direct; write something that’s flat and direct, and it sounds angry and rude—especially to someone accustomed to the warmth and instantaneous reaction of a human voice.

And, yes, if someone writes you a letter, you write a letter. Even further, if they hand wrote their letter, do the same.

Be what people expect, not what you’re used to being.

**This is an excerpt from The Commonsense Virtual Assistant – Becoming an Entrepreneur, Not an Employee by Joel D and Sue Canfield. Get a copy from Amazon here