Sunday Tips: Reflecting on What I Learned from Rick Frishman and Author 101 University


**Updated 8/14/2016. This blog has been edited since its original entry to add: I have just recently submitted my request to be a guest speaker at Author 101 University in LA October 2016. I am awaiting feedback and hoping I am granted the opportunity I feel great about it and would love to be there to speak to the upcoming aspiring authors. I now see Kevin Harrington has been added as a guest speaker. He is one of the original Sharks and a great businessman to watch and learn from. It would be great to meet him as well along with all the other great people. Check out my blog on Kevin here

**original article**
It's Sunday, and I've had a great church service with my wife at Chosen Generation. Now I am back to work as usual in my home office.

I was writing over the weekend as I am preparing to release my new title, A Winning Perspective. I reflected on a time in my career and added this story in the book about when I got my first start in the book publishing industry at, Author 101 University, in Washington DC 2006. It was hosted at the time by Rick Frishman and Mark Victor Hansen. This is the premier event for marketing and publishing success.



Rick spoke on something that stuck with me. He spoke on the fact that you can have success as a published author by doing it yourself. I did not understand this at the time as I was brand new to the game, but I get it now. I never doubted what Rick said, I was overwhelmed with information from all the authors and speakers there.

He talked about how to get press, radio and tons of publicity without hiring a PR firm or a marketing team.



I was afraid and could not imagine myself doing it all by myself because I had no clue of how the game goes, and I thought, "How am I going to do this? No one knows who I am!" I thought I needed the major publishing houses behind me. I thought the press was going to run to me and want to interview me and the TV shows would call me for interviews.

Now after some years in playing the fields, learning from my mistakes and experiences, I am more confident than ever as a self published author. I started my first book, "From Him to Us: Volume 1" with a print on demand company, iUniverse. I published my first book with iUniverse after hearing their presentation by their CEO, Susan Driscoll, at the Author 101 University event. Now I am ready to self publish working directly with print companies.

I continued to learn from Rick and signing up for his Sunday Tips and newsletters, and following Mark Victor Hansen at his MEGA Book Marketing events in the years after. It was at Mark's events where I got introduced to motivational speaking as a business. I have been speaking since 2002 locally at churches in Chicago, but my first paid professional speaking engagement came in 2008 at Chicago Public Schools. I continued to learn from there and hone my craft, and have been able to speak at major sponsored events including Propops, a non profit organization founded by NBA Dad, Dwayne Wade Sr. You can read my blog on speaking at Propops in Miami 2012 here.

One tip that I have for authors and dreamers is:

Learn from your mistakes and keep pushing. A part of that process is analyzing your mistakes and finding opportunities, ways to learn and expand to make your vision realistic. Make notes of how you can improve and what you can do better.

This is from the second chapter in my new book where I speak about cultivating your vision.

It has been an interesting journey as a published author and motivational speaker. I would love the opportunity to join the speakers on the panel and share my story and tips with up and coming authors in Rick Frishman's upcoming Author 101 University in LAX Hyatt October 2016.

I will shoot an email to Rick and see what he says.

Nate Gray
Speaker/Author of From Him to Us: Volume 1 (available on amazon) and A Winning Perspective (coming soon, read a free chapter here).
@HaveAWP
www.haveawp.com
Nate Gray Zone

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