Episode 62 : Calvin Wayman
Calvin Wayman has recently written the book Fish Out of Water where one of the central themes is the benefits of having mentors on your progression into the entrepreneurial world. I talk to him about these concepts and the interesting way he promoted the launch of his book.
When did you first appreciate the value of having mentors?
To begin with Calvin just started finding out about business from books such as Napolean Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, which can act as a proxy for a mentor. Very soon though he discovered Lewis Howe’s School of Greatness and the fact that it had an online community which was relatively inexpensive and then he moved on to having Nick Unsworth as a mentor.
What should people look for when they look for mentors?
Calvin says that due to the nature of the internet it is a lot easier to assess people. Find people in the area you want to learn about and read their blogs and listen to their podcasts to find the person who most resonates with you and then see if they have a program for you to be mentored by them.
Why are the people you surround with yourself important?
The great problem with being an entrepreneur or creator is that it can be extremely lonely, especially in the early stages. If you can start surrounding yourself with people who are also on the same journey as you and also people who have already done what you are attempting to do. Having someone ahead of you in the journey that you can turn to gives you hope and a belief that it can be done, as well as useful information on the journey.
You have recently written a book, how did your mentors help you with writing that?
Calvin was highly influenced by advice from Pat Flynn who had recently self-published his own book Will it Fly? and went to him at a conference and sat and asked for his advice for 40 minutes about self-publishing.
When people talk about Mastermind groups what are these?
A mastermind group is a collection of people with similar goals and dreams. In these groups you meet up and share ideas and best practises. These groups are useful as they give a way to connect and share experiences with people who are trying to do the same things you are trying to do, whether that be launching a business or writing a book.
With your book, I noticed you were giving away tickets to a raffle for people who ordered copies? How did you come up with this idea?
Calvin admits that it was almost by accident he came up with this idea, but that it worked really well. The day before he was due to launch his book, one of his friends mentioned a raffle on Facebook. This triggered an idea in his mind to give away raffle tickets for prizes for people who ordered his book from his website. He gave away an Apple Watch, an IPad Mini and a MacBook Pro. He gave away tickets to these prizes, on the caveat that it would only apply if he sold over 150 copies of the book. At the announcement of the book launch (on Facebook Live), he offered the viewers the chance to buy the books and get five times the number of raffle tickets. He also created various opportunities for people to get extra raffles tickets during the launch period. Calvin fulfilled the orders by ordering and dispatching directly from Createspace to the customers, paying for it out of the money he was paid for the books.
How do people find out about Calvin Wayman?
You can find him on his website, and he also writes for Entrepreneur magazine, Huffington Post and Social Media Examiner. Most of the topics he writes about are on Social Media, in terms of representing your brand.
If you liked this show you might also like Using Instagram to Market Books with Jenn Herman and Using Google for Business with Martin Shervington.