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Hi Blog,
When I was growing up, I used to take my swimming lessons at The Eastgate Coliseum, in Mayfield Heights, Ohio.
Later they tore it down and now I believe the spot hosts a Target and a Starbucks.
But back in the day, it was a completely old school swimming complex.
When you walked in, you were immediately immersed in the fine, musky aroma of chlorine and mildew.
And the lessons were not for the faint of heart.
I don’t think they let parents into the inner room (the pool area).
Once you got inside, you were on your own.
And there was no questioning what you had to do in your lessons. Today’s whining social justice warriors wouldn’t make it through one lesson.
Without fail, we ended every lesson with a minimum of 20 minutes of treading water.
Though you knew it strengthened you as a swimmer, that 20 minutes was torture.
You are treading water one foot away from the edge, but you can’t touch it.
The struggle and exhaustion almost always started immediately.
But the worst part was…
IT WAS ABSOLUTELY BORING.
If you were running a race or something similar meant to strengthen you, it may be painful, but you can focus on the runner in front of you.
You can focus on strategy.
Treading water is different.
If you can get through one minute, the next minute is waiting for you.
And the next minute is more boring than the last minute.
By the time we stopped going to lessons (sometime in Junior High), treading water was a 45 minute ordeal.
I can see the reason for that. It made me a strong swimmer.
But when it comes to other things, treading water is not a great strategy.
Take your book and its long-term aspirations.
Most gurus and courses teach you to tread water with ads.
Ads are about convincing a cold audience to invest in you.
They do work, but slowly, and you only make a little headway toward building a relationship.
You make one sale for 99¢ or $2.99, and then you have to start all over and try to make the next cold sale.
The whole exercise is transactional in nature.
RUNNING ADS IS LIKE TREADING WATER, JUST TRYING TO SURVIVE FOR THE NEXT MINUTE.
When you focus instead on audience building, you are focusing on building relationships.
That is why building an email list and connecting with other influencers is so very important.
Influencers can send their audiences to you, and in doing so, they are implying an endorsement.
We call this endorsement a warm lead.
Warm leads are the fastest way to build audiences.
Building audiences is the best way to build the business around your book.
Then you can stop treading water with ads in the hope something will catch on.
Full disclosure. I am not against running ads for your book.
I am just against YOU running ads and thinking that is the thing that will move the needle.
For most authors, it will not.
Ads are transactional in nature.
To build an audience, you need to make your connections relational.
There are many ways to build warm audiences.
One of the best ways to do that is an interactive virtual summit.
If you are interested in hosting a summit (or even wondering why you should), check out my one-time pilot program here.
https://www.summitlab.io [https://raybrehm.krtra.com/c/XFC0stfDBpCp/DGoV]
_Leap. Love. Grow._
RAY BREHM
P.S. The pilot (though it includes coaching and other things the course will not have in the future) is 50% off what the course will cost later.
And it ain’t much.
In fact, one of my new _pilot summiteers_ emailed me to tell me _”This is a no-brainer.”_
https://www.summitlab.io [https://raybrehm.krtra.com/c/XFC0stfDBpCp/DGoV]
Ray Brehm 