When I took over the school yearbook, it was a perennial money-loser for our PTA. A stack of yearbooks would sit, sad and forlorn and unpurchased, at the end of the school year.
I ordered the same amount of yearbooks my predecessor had, but not only did we sell out, we had people clamoring for them even after the school year had ended. I wish I could tell you why.
I wish I could tell you about the clever sales strategy I had used, or the brilliant verbal tactics I employed -- but I can't. I don't know why I am successful at persuasive writing. All I know is, I put a couple of reminders in the newsletter that seemed to strike a chord with people, and they responded.
This isn't the first time something like that has happened to me. When I was fresh from college, working for a small independent public relations agency, the owner gave me an account to work on. It was a small, non-profit account with no budget, a winter lights festival in central Illinois.
I doubled the attendance to this event without the use of advertising, just story placements in the area media outlets. Included in these media outlets was a newspaper whose publisher was at odds with the festival's sponsor, but who changed his mind after talking to me and reading my press releases.
If I could point to some effort on my part, I would feel I was bragging here. But I honestly have no idea how or why the words I put together seem to work. In fact, my deliberate attempts at cleverness do not meet with the same level of success. Yet when I just honestly and plainly put two words together, they seem to inspire action.
I could make someone a lot of money some day.
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