What If & Why Not?

Dear Readers,

When the idea for Savvy Auntie came to me in the summer of 2007, I gathered a number aunt friends of mine in my living room for cake to share the idea and get their feedback. I wasn't looking to hear whether or not it was a good idea (that much I believed and was committed to). I wanted to get different perspectives to help inspire my next steps in creating this brand.

Now, almost three years later, I'm still friendly with these women and they all one by one have told me they can't believe... "You actually did it! And look where you are now! I'm so happy for you!" Of course, that night, they weren't all that supportive. Some who had started businesses of their own were busy telling me what I hadn't done yet (the idea was days old). Others said that identifying as an aunt wasn't important to them (and hey you can't please everyone). But most drank their tea, ate a homemade cupcake, wished me luck and went home.

What if that was it? What if that night was a lovely night of women getting together to debate an idea and leave it at that?

What if I hadn't kept up the momentum but gotten lost in organizing more informal focus groups or gotten mired in a writing a 100 page business plan?

What if I got lazy? What if I decided the summer weather was much too nice to sit indoors and work on this business? What if I got scared about investing my life savings in this business?

What if I listened to 95% of the men I shared the idea with that early in the game who came back with ego-laden questions meant to stop me, not encourage or help me? (The women didn't do this by the way. The men were focused on the exit strategy. Exit strategy? I hadn't even started yet!)

What if I let the naysayers get to me?

What if I didn't actually do it?

What if?

Well I wouldn't be the woman I am today. I wouldn't be connecting with hundreds of thousands of women and connecting them with their inner-Savvy Auntie. And I wouldn't have met some of the most amazing people I have ever met in my life.

One of the amazing people I met during the course of this journey is Jen Groover. Jen is the creator of the Butler Bag and a branding and innovation expert. She recently published a book entitled: What if & Why Not?

Jen changes the lexicon in her book from "What if you fail?" to "What if I succeed." And "Why not do it when the time is right?" to "Why not do it now; there's no time like the present."

Jen says that with all the tough things it takes to get started on a business, it basically comes down to four vital assets:

Desire
Passion
A Great Idea
Absolute belief in yourself

She's built a number of successful business around this and I couldn't support her thinking more. Her book goes on to help you get over all your fears that make you hold off on your dream including: job security, money, knowledge, branding and marketing, sales, profits and of course, failure.

The other night I went to a party and one of the women who had been at my gathering that summer in my living room said to me: "I see all the amazing things you are doing! I can't believe all this came out of that simple idea you shared with us that summer night. What if you hadn't done it? Could you imagine?!"

What if indeed.

Over the last couple of years I have helped a few friends get their business ideas going. Each one unfortunately stopped. What if they had kept going? I am buying each one of them a copy of Jen's book.

You can buy Jen's book at Amazon.com. Get one for yourself and one for anyone who ever told you their big idea...

What if this is the book that helps you get your business off the ground?

What if...

XOXO,
Auntie Melanie

The Future of Publishing

Dear Readers,

As you may know, I have a book contract with HarperCollins experimental imprint, Harper Studio. I signed the deal over the Holiday season and began writing The Savvy Auntie Guide to Life soon after.

You may have heard the news today that the publisher of the imprint, Bob Miller, has left HarperCollins and Harper Studio. My book is still in contract and there is no doubt that it will be published as scheduled.

The news however gives me the opportunity to talk about Debbie Stier, SVP and Associate Publisher at Harper Studio. Debbie and I met on Twitter, having heard about each other from mutual social media industry friends. I think we bonded over the amazing kids from Tanzania on Twitter. Within days of our first tweet, I was having lunch in Debbie's midtown office and after about an hour, we decided on our book.

It's our book indeed. Debbie has been mentoring me, guiding me and inspiring me since the day we met. While I am relatively new to the publishing industry, I am confident that I have partnered with the best possible publisher for my brand and more importantly for my audience - you dear readers.

The publishing industry -- like many industries housed in spectacular buildings stacked next to each other row by row in New York City -- is very set in its ways. And like most industries, publishers have been challenged by fast moving digital media technologies. And many folks who were just about born into the publishing industry have to ramp up quickly to these new technologies and work with the significant changes they bring about. And for many, my guess is that those changes are hard. After all, after years of working in publishing, there are few major surprises. The new media age is changing the publishing industry forever. It's not just a surprise; for many its a shocking shift.

I am confident that Debbie Stier is - if not the most - certainly one of the most capable of not only coping with the shifts in strategy, but actually being on the front lines of what those new strategies should be. I have no doubt that today it takes someone with a true entrepreneurial heart to take full advantage of new digital landscape - and Debbie is that person.

Debbie is present and presents at digital and social media events and conferences all over the country. She's highly active in social media. She consumes new technology like most New Yorkers drink coffee. She's inspired by movers and shakers. She's motivated by motivated people. She's actually passionate about the changes in the industry. Harper Studio may stay the same. It may ride the new waves as they come about. It will always be modernizing, taking risks and being what it was designed to be: an experiment in new publishing.

No one is sure what the future holds for Harper Studio right now. But I have no doubt that Debbie is the future of publishing.

Dear readers, our book is in the best hands in publishing. But who else would I dare share you with?

XOXO,
Auntie Melanie

The Savvy Auntie Book Deal!

Dear Readers,

I am so incredibly excited and proud that I have been offered a book deal with none other than HarperCollins' new and innovative imprint: Harper Studio! Harper Studio is not even two years old and is already publishing books by Best Selling Author, Gary Vaynerchuk, Emeril Lagasse, LeAnn Rimes, Isabella Rosselinni, Amanda Hesser, Goldie Hawn and umm me. ME!

It was always a dream of mine that SavvyAuntie.com would some day become a book - the ultimate source for cool aunts, great aunts, godmothers and all women who love kids. And now, thanks to Harper Studio, it's coming true! What an honor!

The book, entitled: The Savvy Auntie Guide to Life, is expected to be published in a while...and in the meantime, there's lots to do! First, I am assembling top Savvy Experts in fields from childrens' pop culture to throwing the most fabulous baby showers, from indulging nieces and nephews, to helping them cope with their own issues. The guide will be thick with important information, and chock-full of fun stuff too. It can be read cover-to-cover, or used a reference guide at any time. It's a book a soon-to-be aunt will buy for herself, siblings and close friends will give a soon-to-be book aunt this gift as a fabulous way of announcing she's going to be a Savvy Auntie! It's a way for aunts to welcome friends into the Savvy Auntie club! Or for moms who are aunts too and need a new perspective on the children in their lives! And of course, long time aunts and godmothers will all find great tips in this guide as their nieces and nephews get older. Plus, it's the perfect goodie bag gift for expecting moms to give her baby shower guests as a thank you!

Of course, I'll be sharing my journey on writing this book with you all here, just like I did when developing SavvyAuntie.com.

Special thanks to Debbie Stier, SVP, Associate Publisher, for finding me, and Bob Miller, President and Publisher, Harper Studio, for somehow agreeing with Debbie that they should work with me on The Savvy Auntie Guide to Life!

And most of all, thanks to you, Dear Reader, for sticking with me through this 'auntrepreneurial' journey of mine.

Of ours.

Thank you!

XOXO,
Auntie Melanie

Harold, Clifford and Me

Dear Readers,

First, let me apologize for being somewhat remiss and not tending to this blog more often. Savvy Auntie, now close to 15 months old, is growing by leaps and bounds and it's all I can do to keep up with it all. Which is a wonderful problem to have. I wish it upon all the entrepreneurs (and auntrepreneurs!) reading this.

When I was in first grade (or grade one as we called it in Montreal, where I was born), my favorite time of year was when we got to order our Scholastic books. The teacher (Mrs. Hirschorn of dear memory) would hand out a catalog list of recommended books by the school-friendly publisher, and I would take it home to negotiate my picks with my mother (of dear memory).

No matter what our budget, there was always money for books. I still feel that way.

I remember two of my favorites fondly: Harold and the Purple Crayon and Clifford The Big Red Dog. I remember the day the new books arrived in Mrs. Hirschorn's classroom just a few weeks after my order was placed. Oh I'm sure there were other titles on my list, but Harold and Clifford were my best pals as their soft, shiny covers glistened impatiently against the classroom florescent lights above waiting to go home with me.

Scholastic reminds me of reading as a child. In fact, I sincerely believe Scholastic helped me fall in love with books.

And that's why I am so very proud and honored that Scholastic has chosen to become a sponsor of SavvyAuntie.com. The people at Scholastic love the idea of helping Savvy Aunties learn about some of the newest titles hitting the shelves this season. The first book is Clifford The Champion which will launch in ads on SavvyAuntie.com and in sponsored Twitter conversation beginning tomorrow, as well as other platforms. As usual, I will disclose any tweets, Facebook mentions, etc, as sponsored. I fully support the FTC Guidelines on disclosing paid sponsorships.

Do you have a favorite Scholastic book from childhood? Or one that you've share with a niece or nephew? I'd love to hear about it.

Thanks again to you, dear Readers, for sticking with me as this business grows. And grows... and grows... Yep. I feel like my old pal Harold.

XOXO,
Auntie Melanie

PS - Visit SavvyAuntie.com/Gifts for hundreds of gift ideas, both classic and new, for your nieces and nephews of all ages.

I'm in Love. It's Not What You Think.

Dear Readers,

I love marketing books. Love. Like the feeling you get on a date when a very attractive person sits across from you, smiles back at you, and says with his eyes: "It's ok, I like you too." It's the kind of love that makes your heart pitter-patter and your brain dance the happy dance. Yup. I love marketing books. And for this love, there is no cure.

I love marketing books because they not only teach me, they embrace me. They enable me to live the best possible business life I can live. When I apply the thought-leadership in the books I study, I become more successful. I read them as a non-profit marketer (thank you Philip Kotler!), as an internet marketer, as a beauty executive, and now as an Auntrepreneur. I owe so much of my success to the men and women who have shared their knowledge with me through their books.

Still, I don't fall in love easily. Not every so-called "marketing book" is going to win my heart. But the courtship is fun. When I browse the new business books section at my local Barnes and Noble, my heart races for the opportunity of a new discovery. I want to find a new lover - one I want to take to bed with me and read by the soft light of my night table lamp. I want to find a book that impresses me with its intelligence, one that promises a better business life, one that I truly believe will love me back by making me giggle, inviting me to the next chapter and yes, making me feel that the world is full of opportunity.

And so I go to my bookstore....walk through the cool entrance way.... up the escalator....to the right... in nervous anticipation of what's to come. I gaze optimistically at the shelves - first at the front-facing newbies that BN, my matchmaker, has imagined I might like the most. Then, I lovingly touch the spines of the other books on the shelf... some old loves, some I have flirted with but never committed to.... and some begging for my attention. I enjoy the feeling of my hands on the cool glossy hardcover books with stunning typography etched out on the spine: "The New Rules of Marketing and PR," "Word of Mouth Marketing," and my latest love, "Groundswell."

I never fall out of love either. Classics live on, even as times change. Yesterday, a Twitter friend asked for guidance on some marketing books he could read to help him with a business idea. I Twittered back a listing of Al Ries classics. How can you call yourself a marketer and never have read one of Al Ries' books? Read them all! And then read these by Seth Godin. And then, if you want to be a true revolutionary marketer, meet my friend Guy Kawasaki.

My love affair with marketing books is a little one sided, after all. These guys talk talk talk and I listen listen listen. Sure, now that some of these books have blogs connected with them, I can comment here and there. But really, this has been a one-sided romance.

Until now. You see, I am now "social media friends" (or friends 2.0) with many of these authors. David Meerman Scott, whose "New Rules of Marketing and PR" I actually read twice, is someone I Follow on Twitter. Andy Sernovitz, whose "Word of Mouth Marketing" book is tabbed and bookmarked all over, is someone I Follow on Twitter. I Follow Seth Godin too, of course. And the Groundswell co-authors - Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff -and I have had some back and forth on Twitter following my sincere praise of their first book together (read: I hope there are more to come). But my strongest relationship is with Guy Kawasaki. All of these authors are major successes. And Guy.... Guy is a guru. And he connects with me! I am his reader. I have turned the pages of his books, read his blogs, followed his career, and he talks to me!

Recently, Guy Kawasaki launched a website called Alltop.com where he centralizes what he believes to be the best blogs on the Web, and categorizes them so that people searching for topics of interest can discover the perfect blog for them. I am proud - and deeply honored - that Guy has added my blog to Alltop.com in the "startups" section.

By featuring my blog and my startup on Alltop.com, Guy Kawasaki, in his own way, sits across from me, smiles at me, and says with his eyes: "It's ok. I like you too."

Now you know why I swoon.

XOXO,
Auntie Melanie