Finding the Truth in the Topic | Mark Miller | 496

When you start a new thought leadership project, what's the first question you ask?  Do you look at who the project is for? What does it mean to your organization? What the ROI could be?    Today's guest asks the question, "What is universally true about this topic?" Our guest today is Mark Miller, Vice President of High Performance Leadership, Chick-fil-A Inc. and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author of The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do and his newest book Culture Rules: The Leader's Guide to Creating the Ultimate Competitive Advantage. Mark takes us back to his first book and how it was born out of necessity: Chick-fil-A wanted stronger leadership, and took it upon themselves to do the research to find out what that takes. During the process, Ken Blanchard realized the work being done not only articulated what great leaders do at Chick-fil-A, but more, it touched on the things that distinguished great leaders throughout history.  And thus, Mark created The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do. With every project, Mark starts with the seemingly simple question, "What is universally true about this topic?" The question acts as a guideline to create a point of view on emerging business issues, and builds a foundation that can serve their organization and the world at large because the viewpoint created reaches beyond any one industry and to the heart of topics like leadership and culture. Having authored and published books for twenty years, Mark has seen a lot of change. We discuss the strategies Mark is employing as an author, to keep landing on the Wall Street Journal Best Sellers list. We explore prelaunch campaigns, creating a personal army of enthusiastic ambassadors to share the news about your book, and more. Mark gives us the inside track of how he used incentives, gamification, and helping non-profits, to promote the book and find his audience.  Three Key Takeaways: ·         With most projects, try to start with "What is universally true about the topic?" ·         Everything rises and falls with leaders. If you can help them grow their capacity, impact, and influence, then everyone wins. ·         Multi-faceted book launch campaigns that recruit champions, incentivize their participation, and generate Amazon reviews are just a few ways to have a successful book.