The 20-something’s Real World Survival Guide
Would-be author Nicholas Aretakis is a successful businessman who achieved great success during the high tech Internet boom and amassed great experience working with and leading employees. Through it all, he developed a passion for helping young people make their way from college to the real world. He came to HEASLEY&PARTNERS with an idea, a lot of notes and the determination to author a book. He needed book development.
The Problem
It became clear that although Mr. Aretakis had a wealth of valuable knowledge and experience to share, he lacked a few important ingredients: First, he did not have a valid platform from which to author a book for young people. He was not a degreed counselor, he was not a human resources director, he was not a PhD psychologist or sociologist. He was simply a successful entrepreneur who wanted to help young people and didn’t understand the meaning of the word “can’t.” The second thing he lacked was credibility with his audience and with the media, both of which would eventually be driving book sales and readership. Why should a young person listen to Mr. Aretakis, a 40-something with no college-age children? Why should they buy his book? Was the information he gleaned from years of working in Silicon Valley valid enough to be extrapolated to the broader group? These questions had to be addressed before we could begin conceptualizing and writing his book.
The Solution
HEASLEY&PARTNERS recommended that Mr. Aretakis commission a national study of college students and recent college graduates to determine what their needs were when making the leap from college to the real world. We set out to determine their biggest motivations in finding a career, their biggest fears when leaving the security of the college campus, and their biggest needs from a practical sense.
Over the course of approximately four months, we recruited students through university job boards to participate in our study and began our research. We chose a broad sampling of private and public universities from all over the country and asked some close-ended questions to gain quantitative data and evaluate trends. But we also asked many open ended questions through live on-site interviews which we videotaped. We used this method because we were looking at points of pain, points of frustration and points of elation that we could use to connect heart-to-heart with the readers.
Obviously, we learned a great deal from this study. Enough to write an award-winning, best-selling book called No More Ramen: The Twenty-something’s Real World Survival Guide (www.nomoreramenonline.com). The book was one of just six by a new author which gained national distribution by PMA, the number one distributor for independent publishers. PMA made their decision based on our research plan and resulting book outline. PMA featured the book in that season’s trade catalog with a full-page promotion and No More Ramen was carried in bookstores nationwide. It was a 2007 Benjamin Franklin Award finalist and went into a second printing within six months of release.
Delivered
- The No More Ramen brand and book development
- Award-winning, best-selling book
- Branded web site
- Business cards and business system
- Electronic press kit
- PR Plan including satellite radio tour
- Social media plan and implementation