Case Study: Pamela Slim
Book | Escape From Cubicle Nation
Tribe | EscapeFromCubicleNation.com
After an extensive career in the corporate and consulting world, Pam Slim was done with the culture, the travel and the lack of control over her career. And, as her family grew, she wanted to be able to build a virtual business that would give her more control and the ability to be present with them.
So, she studied to become a Martha Beck coach, then launched a blog that shared her thoughts on the intersection between family, lifestyle and the quest to move from corporate life to self employment. After building a thriving blog and “remote” coaching practice, entirely from that blog, Pam landed a deal to write Escape From Cubicle Nation, the book in 2008.
She poured herself into the process of writing, but realized, too, that her blog tribe could be tapped not only as a powerful tool to help promote the book, but a trusted resource to help actually write it. So, she recruited a “mini-tribe” within the bigger tribe to be her book confidants, resources, brainstormers and accountability partners. Pure genius.
By the time the book was released in Spring 2009, this sub-tribe then made the transition from private support crew to public evangelists and, along with her bigger blog tribe and relationships, helped spread the word both on and offline and fueled robust sales for months.
Pam also coordinated her online tribe marketing with a hybrid live book tour that blended workshops with a variety of partners, many of whom and their own digital tribes, tweetups that were announced and promoted on twitter and local social media and mainstream media outreach.