This guest post is by Danny Iny of Firepole Marketing.
On March 8, 2011, Guy Kawasaki released Enchantment, his latest book.
There was media attention befitting his star status. There were reviews on periodicals like Forbes, and major blogs like Startup Nation and Brazen Careerist.
Oh, and an exclusive interview on Firepole Marketing.
What? You haven't heard of Firepole Marketing?! Well, that's no surprise, because unlike Forbes, Startup Nation, or Brazen Careerist, whose subscriber count numbers in the hundreds of thousands, Firepole Marketing's subscribers number in just the hundreds—no thousands.
So how did a little fish like Firepole Marketing land a giant ocean liner like Guy Kawasaki? It all started with Jon…
Jon Morrow, that is. Jon Morrow of Copyblogger.
Step 1: Being nice
Back in 2008, I was running a flailing start-up. We ran out of money just as the financial markets crashed, and there was very little capital to be found.
I've been a fan of Copyblogger for a long time, and have bought almost every product they've released. At the time, I was a member of Partnering Profits, and I received an email from Jon Morrow. He was looking for case studies to help (basically, he offered free consulting) as part of the program. I had nothing to lose, so I reached out.
We exchanged emails, and this was his eventual conclusion: "My advice: stop trying to raise money until you’re already making money. If you can’t do that, then shut down your company and do something where you have a higher chance of success."
Ouch.
(This is just one line extracted from a fairly long email. Jon gave me plenty of great advice, and has been very helpful to me over the years, as you'll see. I'm not complaining in any way, shape, or form. But sometimes, the truth hurts!)
Now, I could have sulked, or been angry, but what good would...
