Hi Everyone,
JBE Headquarters has seen a flurry of activity these last two weeks, thanks to all of you! Some highlights: delivering an eventful (to say the least)
speech at TEDxCMU in front of 500+ people (my largest in-person audience - a
life checklist item complete!), a feature story in
US News & World Report and
Forbes.com, a 3:20 a.m. radio appearance on
DaybreakUSA Radio, and watching as the
Amazon rank (scroll down below the endorsements) peaked at #11 in Career Guides and #35 in Personal Growth during launch week.
Thank you all SO much for your help -- I absolutely could not have climbed those Amazon charts without your emails to friends and family, tweets, blog posts, Facebook updates and reviews! The Internet is probably completely sick of me by now! But hey -- that's what a big launch requires, and you all helped make it happen with flying colors. It will be interesting now to see how the book lives on beyond the launch. I've been watching the numbers drop every day (despite still doing lots of legwork and outreach), but I'm not discouraged -- I'm in this for the long haul, baby! As an aside, I think The Today Show lost my phone number but I'm sure they'll find it any day now ;-)
I can't believe that when I started this newsletter, my book was a half-baked draft. Now that it's on the shelves and in your hands, I will be expanding the scope of this newsletter to include more general life, business, blog and book updates. If there is any content that would be particularly helpful for you, please let me know!
Big huge hugs,
Jenny
P.S. My number of
Amazon Reviews has stalled at 49 for the last few days (still an incredibly high number)...anyone who hasn't written one yet: want to contribute so we pass an even 50? Still half short of 100, but that's why I recommend setting big audacious goals -- so that if you fall short the results are still amazing!
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PERSONAL UPDATES
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- Jenny Blake Enterprises: Business Masterminding -- now that the initial launch craziness has subsided, I plan on taking a much more proactive look at my business. I'm going to hire someone to re-design my website, start building out the many product ideas I have (all the way from free Q&A calls to online coaching programs to intensive coaching packages). I read Michael Port's Booked Solid on the way to Pittsburgh and came home with over 20 handwritten pages of notes from the exercises in his book. I'm nervous and slightly terrified at the idea of trying to actually monetize all the work I'm doing, but that's how I know it's exactly the right next challenge for me.
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Upcoming Book Tour Stops - East Coast here I come! I am going to be subletting a place in NYC with my friend Julie from April 20-May 13, then heading to Portland, Maine (to see Elisa - woohoo!) and departing from Boston on May 19. Once I get back, I head straight to Las Vegas (I know - I'm addicted) for Bloggers in Sin City. After that it's right up to Seattle for an event at University Bookstore, then down to Portland, Oregon for Chris Guillebeau's World Domination Summit. Whew! Are you tired yet? I am! I'm really looking forward to my time on the East Coast -- trying to keep my schedule as open as possible so I can focus on RELAXING, having fun, and proactively building my business (not just reacting to requests).
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AUTHOR CENTRAL - BEHIND THE SCENES
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This is the inside scoop, so it's only fitting that I lift the curtain and show you exactly what I can see in my "Author Central" dashboard on Amazon. They don't give much and the data isn't perfect (doesn't show pre-orders or all bookstores), but it's better than nothing!
Click on each of the links below to view snapshots of the graphs that I see in my account (as of April 7):
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Blog Posts
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AROUND THE WEB - BOOK HIGHLIGHTS
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Below are some snippets of fun interviews and blog posts -- read more on the Around the Web page:
National Media & Newspapers:
- US News & World Report - Treat Your Career Like a Smart Phone
U.S. News talked with Blake about challenges new graduates face, searching for the elusive work-life balance, and why it makes sense to think of your career like a smartphone rather than a ladder.
- US News & World Report - And on the Side, I'm an Entrepreneur
Jenny Blake, a 27-year-old who lives in the San Francisco Bay area, calls her unorthodox income stream her "side hustle." By day, she's a career development coach at Google. On evenings and weekends, she works to promote her blog and new book, Life After College: The Complete Guide to Getting What You Want. Although she enjoys both jobs, she admits it's not easy to juggle them both. "[Having a side hustle] is not for the faint at heart," she says. "It's a lot of work and it does take sacrifice."
- Forbes.com - Book Review - Life After College by Jenny Blake
Unlike many other development and coaching books for young professionals, Life After College does not get preachy nor is it written like a lecture from that one college professor who talked FOREVER in a Ben Stein-monotone. Instead it is filled with worksheets and life coaching prompts intended to make the experience interactive and productive for readers. If you are able to walk away without yours hands covered in ink and highlighter, then you should go back and re-read the book because you missed the point!
- SF Bay Guardian
>>LISTEN UP SLACKERS: SF's own Jenny Blake, a Career Development Program Manager at Google - something like an internal cheerleader and guidance counselor for the Google masses - launches her book today, Life After College: The Complete Guide to Getting What You Want. Check out her blog to glower at the hundreds of pics in which Blake looks consistently clean and well-fed (something many of us post-collegiate-types still strive for), or simply check out her
promo video - it's filmed in front of the Bay Bridge, and there are some nice birds in the background.
Video/Audio Interviews:
Written Interviews:
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QUOTES
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"Trials, temptations, disappointments -- all these are helps instead of hindrances, if one uses them rightly. They not only test the fibre of a character, but strengthen it. Every conquered temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before."--James Buckham"You can succeed if nobody else believes it, but you will never succeed if you don't believe in yourself."--William J. H. Boetcke"Difficult things take a long time, impossible things a little longer."--André A. Jackson
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STANDING LINKS
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I've tagged many more articles and resources in Delicious:
Questions for me about the book project (or anything else)? Ask away on Formspring! (Allows others to benefit from your question too)
Feel free to forward this email to friends. View past issues of this newsletter at:
Requests for specific content in future emails? Reply and let me know.
I think that's it for now! Best of luck with all of your projects and creative pursuits until we talk again :)
Jenny
Book: http://LACBook.com
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