Sell Yourself Without Selling Your Soul: A Woman's Guide to Promoting Herself, Her Business, Her Product, or Her Cause with Integrity and Spirit

by Susan Harrow

Book Overview

Whether you're a company employee looking to move up the corporate ladder or an entrepreneur wanting to position yourself as a hot property, Susan Harrow will show you how to master the art of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060958537
• ISBN13: 9780060958534
• Release Date: June 2003
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Expert advice... with heart.

What I love about this book is its warmth and authenticity. Susan is an incredibly talented marketing and publicity expert... but just as importantly, she genuinely cares about living life with integrity. It's that combination of skill and thoughtfulness that makes this book different than any other marketing how-to. As owner of a small, heartfelt business, this is the one book I turn to over and over again as my reference for publicity questions and inspiration. The pages of my own copy are dog-eared and marked with highlighter. If you believe in what you're doing and want to spread the word, you won't be disappointed in this book. I promise.

A Crowing Achievement among Public Relations Books

Most of us don't want to be packaged for sale like a used car. If you have ever had a public relations agent, you probably know that the activity can be both unpleasant and fraught with peril. If you haven't had a public relations agent, you are probably feeling daunted about what's involved in gaining publicity and what you will gain or lose from the experience. If your situation fits any of those three parameters, this book is for you. Susan Harrow does an exceptional job of combining 1) the basics of public relations 2) with detailed examples of how to do it while being yourself 3) as she also addresses common concerns. The book also has an extensive list of resources that is worth the price of the book. I was impressed by the book's special sensitivity to the issues of being a woman in the public relations arena. I thought that Ms. Harrow addressed those issues with sensitivity and wisdom, down to addressing Sharon Stone's famous movie scene of recrossing her legs. Although this book touts itself as a Woman's Guide in the subtitle, I thought the advice was helpful and pertinent to me as a man. The text is designed to be easy to follow, which I liked. The main text is listed in process order with clear numbers to direct your focus to each step. There are boxes with special reminders. You also have exercises you can use to apply the lessons from the text. You could work with this book for months, and gain new insights from Ms. Harrow each time you open it. To me, the most special part of the book came in the many examples of how others have created public relations materials that reflect them, rather than putting some "canned" face forward. There's a delicious, almost-outrageous quality to some of these examples that loosened me right up in thinking about public relations. This book has a permanent place in my working library. I strongly urge you to get your own copy and make this material your own.

Hands On Public Relations for Women and Even Men

Though Susan Harrow's primer, Sell Yourself Without Selling Your Soul: A Woman's Guide to Promoting Herself, Her Business, Her Product, or Her Cause with Integrity and Spirit, claims to be the first and only marketing and publicity book for women, however, beyond doubt, it could have easily been addressed to men.Although the book's subject matter is very extensive, Harrow has done an amazing job of providing her readers with varying perspectives.One finds everything from how to plan and put into operation an effective publicity campaign, how to build powerful press materials, preparing yourself verbally and psychologically for media attention, creating clear messages for print, radio, TV and the Internet, to a chapter on sustaining media interest and integrating publicity into your life.Relying on her own experiences and strategies of successful public relation specialists, the author emphasizes that honesty, business acumen, creativity and imagination the most essential components in your quest to reach the top.In addition, Harrow counsels that you must always strive to maintain you integrity, know your message, perseverance, practice presenting your points, and becoming the message you want to spread.The author is a very successful and respected media coach and marketing strategist who has been instrumental in helping her clients appear on such television shows as 60 Minutes, Oprah, CNN, CBS, Howard Stern, Good Morning America, Larry King Live.Consequently, several chapters of the book are devoted to teaching you how to be invited as a guest speaker on little known as well as well known shows, and once you are invited, how to prepare and conduct yourself.Numerous books have been written about the same subject matter, and the question arises can another book add anything significant?The answer is certainly in the affirmative, when you consider the author's hands on approach, and the avoidance of hyped up subjects as, "crushing the competition," "attack your workload," and similar expressions that are prevalent in books dealing with the same subject matter.Furthermore, Harrow's manages to navigate her way around the topics in a style that is devoid of unnecessary padding. The introductory paragraphs to each chapter prudently summarizes the major points to be explored. There is also a continuous block building of suggestions designed to encourage flexibility and creativity.Another interesting feature is the multitude of "hot tips" sprinkled throughout the book. These are the results of the author's many years of experience that she wishes to share with her readers. Harrow refers to them as bonuses and insider secrets that will help spark new ideas. The author also places warning signs throughout the book that alert the reader to dangers particular to women. Of particular interest is the book's list of resources of people, products, books, organizations, and newsletters contained in the final chapter entitled "Resources."Readers who wish to fur

Not for women only

This is an extraordinarily detailed book written in an incisive and engaging style that will serve not only as a "how to" and an inspirational, but as a work of reference as well. Take it on the plane, underline it. Read it for pleasure. Get it out at night and study.Susan Harrow knows the PR business backwards and forwards, and reading this book can help you to know it too. She knows the pitfalls to media success, and she knows scores of secrets to success. Let me just say that if you are about to embark (or have been embarking) on a public career of any kind, you will find this book invaluable. I haven't used the word "invaluable" in over five hundred reviews. It applies here, believe me. This is why HarperCollins published this book (they undoubtedly had dozens of similar manuscripts that they could have published), and this is why HarperCollins and Susan Harrow are working hard to promote this work. It's the best of its kind that I have seen. I only wish I had this book when I was one and twenty or even one and forty. And now that I am more like one and ... there's still a chance I might put this to good use!Harrow uses anecdotes and remembrances from her own experience to get across her points. One that I especially liked comes under her heading, "Trust in your own authority" on page 176. She recalls being in that infamous psychology experiment in which you are to give an electrical shock to someone in another room for some error. The point was to see if you, sadistic innocent that you are, would actually do it! Harrow reports that she opted out rather than administer the shock. I believe her because it is obvious that she thinks for herself and doesn't blindly follow authority.As in books for learning something from the ground up (a computer language for example) Harrow uses many sidebars with distinctive icons. She has Warnings! and Invitations (the latter in a script font), HOT TIPS! in a military stencil font, and a rather daring pursed lips icon for "Harrow's Kiss of Approval." Curiously, this icon which might seem too familiar actually works well. Very creative.Here are some items to give you a feel for the book:Harrow is not content with presenting celebrity secrets of publicity (in Chapter 15). She follows that up with Chapter 16: "...Publicity Secrets of Spiritual Masters." An old friend of mine who sold things for a living once told me that the secret to selling success is to realize that you are selling love. That's what people really want: love. And he meant it sincerely. Harrow makes a similar point when she advises: "See the face of God in everyone." Goose bumps will appear on your own skin if you can do that, AND people will flock to you. Harrow calls this way of looking at people as "choosing to see their true nature." (p. 175)She warns of the "three times you should refuse to be on Oprah or any other talk show." (p. 223) I'll give you number three: "They want you to air your dirty laundry." (It ha

Go Ahead, Be Fabulous, And let them all know!

"Day by day, step by step, getting it together," the song says. And that's just what Susan Harrow offers us in Sell Yourself Without Selling your Soul. Susan believes that by deciding what you want, clarifying what you have and plotting out the distance between those two points, you can make your dreams come true. "Sell Yourself" teaches you how to make the media sit and take notice -- and to keep noticing. It offers you ways to stay firmly centered in your integrity and passion. This book is about realistic, practical and doable steps for promoting yourself into your future. And it's fun and funny. It helps you be serious about what you want and encourages you to enjoy the journey. I'm glad it comes in hardback form, because it's a book I'm going to read and follow over and over again. Afterall, I deserve to achieve my dreams. And so do you. Buy the book and dream big!