I’m planning to release the pre-screen edition at the end of May to select participants in a pilot program that I unveiled earlier this year. The date for the final release to the general public is to be determined.

If you think that this blog entry reads too much like a press release, I’m inclined to agree with you.

You can find Carolyn’s book on her web site, CarolynCrownDesigns.com.

Where did you get the idea to write a children’s book?
“When Patrick was only a month old, he was diagnosed with severe acid reflux. The poor little guy was basically uncomfortable all the time, cried every minute he wasn’t eating or sleeping, and had to remain as upright as possible at all times. We tried everything we could think of to soothe him, and reading seemed to work well because he could sit upright in our lap and be held and rocked. We read to him a lot during his first year. Even though Patrick was too young to understand what we were reading, we still wanted to read educational books to him. We often reminisced about what an important role those books had played in our lives. I thought one day about how great it would be to have a book where Patrick was the main character! His best friend, Royal the elephant, is based on a blue stuffed elephant I had as a child, and whose name actually was Royal—which also happens to be Patrick’s middle name. I wanted to create an educational book that encouraged interaction between parent and child and that other families could enjoy. My book is meant to be read together—the left hand page is written for the child, and the corresponding right hand page is written for the parent.”

What inspired you to go ahead with it?
“I just had to get it together and go for it. There was nothing stopping me except myself. What was the worst that could happen? No one would read my book? So what? I was writing it for my family more than I was for anyone else.”

How difficult was it, compared to what you expected?
“It was actually a lot harder than I thought it would be. In my naivete, I thought, ‘This is a children’s picture book. How hard can it be?’ I think I had grandiose expectations that I would be able to complete this project over a couple weekends. That did not turn into reality.”

How long did it take?
“Well, I’m not going to sugarcoat it. It took a long time. I have a full-time job, my own business (CarolynCrownDesigns.com), a home, a husband, and a one-year-old! I think it took about nine months from start to finish, including time to create the illustrations.”

What advice do you have for someone else doing a children’s book?
“I think the most important thing to remember is that you can do this! Writing a book is like anything else we do—it’s a process. Try to think of it that way. I went step by step. First was solidifying the idea for the book. Then securing someone to do the illustrations—fortunately, a very talented former colleague of mine, Mike Antonio (MikeAntonioGraphics.com) was willing to help me out. Then writing the text. Then doing the layout. Once that was done, I actually took a break for a while and came back to proof/edit with fresh eyes. And because I was writing this book for my son, I was always thinking about the smile he’d have on his face when he was able to read this book by himself.”

If you are an introverted entrepreneur, or if you know a good introverted entrepreneur who has a great story about how you’ve produced results in your business without doing icky sales stuff, I’d love to hear from you. I’m sure that my RSS readers would like to hear your story as well.

Some things to think about:

1. Have you gotten customers or clients who found your web site? How have you made this happen?

2. Have you been successful getting referral business? How could someone else do what you did?

3. Do you have any amusing stories about how NOT to sell?

I’d love to publish your stories on here. If you have a great story, please e-mail me.

There are several reasons why this is going to be a lot easier the second time around:

1. I partnered with several people to put this together, and we got the wrinkles smoothed out.

2. I documented how I ran the workshop with an instructor’s manual.

3. I got some great feedback from the participants about how to improve it.

4. Alice collected video testimonials, which we’ll be posting online in the very near future.

5. During the process of making call-outs for the first workshop, we found a number of people who were very interested in attending but couldn’t make the time and date work. In other words, we’re coming out of the gate with some hot leads pre-loaded.

6. Rose Wilson of Wilson Marketing helped me get my sales calls done. Look at the title of my web page. I’m not good at that sales stuff. I realized I needed to bite the bullet and hire somebody.

The main point here, though, is that it’s always easier the second time around. You don’t have to figure it all out the second time, and you don’t have to drum up interest from scratch the second time.

This is basically a shout-out to all startup entrepreneurs who aren’t making money yet. Less than 2 years ago, I was right where you are. It gets much better, and it happens very quickly. All you have to do is stick in the game and stay in action.

While a large chunk of the planet was wallowing in doom and gloom about the economy, some of us simply realized that the rules of the game were different than before. It’s a lean, mean economy now. Being mediocre is no longer sufficient to pay the bills. Being great is now a matter of survival. Going after your passion and your dream is no longer something you can afford to put off until “someday.” If you aren’t doing something because you absolutely love it, people won’t give you the time of day and you’ll go broke.

For me, it took most of 2009 to get that through my thick skull. But now, I’m fired up and ready to play. I’m now planning my books for the rest of the year. Let’s just say that they look a little different than they did when I wrote Pied Piper Entrepreneurship, but I’m basically on track with my original plan.

The next book, I think, will be about writing a team book. The clincher: is there any integrity in trying to write it by myself?

Details to come.

With an embarrassingly-slow typing speed of 25 words per minute, you’d think that it would take me an eternity to write a book. The fact: it took me a grand total of 55 hours to finish a 138-page book, and I didn’t even break a sweat. How I know this: I tracked my time throughout the project. I included all of the time that I spent brainstorming, outlining, writing, editing, and doing miscellaneous stuff. I used a simple Excel spreadsheet to do my time tracking.

Part of why this went so well: I scheduled 2 hour blocks of time to shut out the world. The cell phone got turned off, and I didn’t even let myself entertain the thought of checking e-mail, checking my Facebook page, or indulging in any other such mind-numbing time-wasters. If I even got up to take a bathroom break, I noted this in my spreadsheet.

The lesson I took away from this: we tend to egregiously overestimate the amount of time things take. Take that into account when deciding whether or not you have time for something.

If you’ve been attending business networking groups for awhile, you may have heard of a “one-on-one.” The basic idea is that you meet for coffee with another business owner for 30 to 60 minutes and get to know each other’s businesses a little better. This has value to an extent. You can build relationships this way if you meet with the right people. One obvious drawback: you can’t meet with everybody one-on-one.

The “think tank” is a middle-of-the-road option. The basic idea: get 3 to 7 people together for 2 to 3 hours and brainstorm about how to help each other more proactively. I’ve done this now a few times, and I’ve learned some things about how to do them effectively.

1. Pick the right people.

2. Make sure it’s the right combination of people. Pair up people who are most likely to be glad they met.

3. Send out one-line e-mails introducing the participants to each other beforehand.

4. Summarize your findings and send them out to everyone in an e-mail after the fact.

As I develop this model, I will be sharing what I learn. I’ve already found that it’s an easy way to get introverts talking and start stimulating team thinking.

I always remember my sales trainers and coaches telling me that the key to success is consistent action. Pick an action plan, and execute it consistently over time. So they said. These past few months, I’ve really begun to doubt the wisdom of this. I have noticed that it’s easy to get consistently crappy results, or a consistent lack of results whatsoever. But on the few occasions when I felt like I’d hit a homerun, it didn’t happen as a result of anything I’d done consistently.

I’ve decided to start acting like consistency doesn’t matter. Actually, come to think of it, I’ve always been acting that way. Granted, there are some things we can’t avoid doing consistently (breathing, etc.) But it’s the inconsistent spikes of unpredictable fun that make life juicy, as far as I’m concerned. Besides, with my self-diagnosed ADHD – look at that bird! – consistency is pretty boring.

I’ll be putting out my first newsletter issue soon. I may be publishing my newsletters at highly irregular intervals. We’ll see.