Just finished up day two (out of three) in Chicago’s “Mystery Street Recording Company”, recording the audiobook for The Transparency Sale. Seven hours of audio recorded so far, and one day to go.

For those who know me, I’ve been around the block as a rep, a 3x SVP of Sales / CRO, and I did a stint building a sales enablement organization from the ground up for ExactTarget…

…But nothing prepared me for the experiences and learnings of writing a book.

Aside from the torturous process that has been distribution, I look back at this experience so far as likely the biggest period of learning in my career. Every day is something new:

• Writing a proposal
• Selecting a publisher (versus self-publishing)
• Researching / Writing / Researching / Writing
• Selecting the cover design
• Having the editors tell you how much you suck
• The proofreaders dig in, finding (almost) every type-o (although I’ve found a couple during the audiobook recording process) 🙁
• Having cooler people than me endorse the book for the cover
• Recording the audiobook

I’ve found that this experience has taught me an incredible amount about sales, neuroscience, publishing, but most importantly, myself.

While many may think writing a book is about sharing your life’s lessons and how smart you are, for me, writing has been an intense learning process – combining so many new learnings with my previous experiences into an evolved selling philosophy.

And I was never that smart!

Don’t be discouraged by Amazon’s delivery estimate. They’re getting a load of physical books tomorrow (and the Kindle version is available now). Publisher tells me there have been a TON of pre-orders, which is so awesome. You’re going to love the way the book looks – it’s so unique. Hopefully you’ll love the content even more!

Almost there – and the audible version will be available soon, too, following one more day in the studio tomorrow, followed by editing.

Thank you for hanging in there with me.