Soul Searching

Which book cover do you like?

My publisher sent me two cover concepts for the book today. My wife Anna and I like one. My father and sister-in-law like another one. Which one do you like?

(No ranked choice, please.)

Front Cover Concepts

#1

#2

Vote in the comments.

Back Cover Concept

The purpose of a back of a book is to establish the author’s authority and to give the reader a reason to read the book. Below is the current concept for the back cover.

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“Fortune’s Path delivered everything we asked for and more. Now our product team is stronger than ever.”

— Anthony Blanco, COO AND CO-Founder, XOi Technologies

Fortune’s Path combines principles of recovery and product management to guide you on a journey of professional and personal improvement. Packed with exercises and tools, Fortune’s Path gives you value right away that can last a lifetime. Transform your career and your life with the 12 Steps of Product Management™

“Soft skills are critical for product management. This is where the 12 Steps come in. It’s an investment in your product org that equips your people to build technology that solves business needs.”

— Chris Boyd, Vice President of Product, Built Technologies

“Fortune’s Path’s hard work was extremely valuable as we reset our strategy and go-to-market. We can’t wait to let loose the field reps with the insights they provided.”

— Jim Somers, Chief Marketing Officer, CipherHealth

“Tom is a fantastic teacher and practitioner of his craft.”

— Matt Walker, Product Manager, nContracts

About Tom Noser, Founder and President, Fortune’s Path

Tom is the President and Founder of Fortune’s Path, a multi-disciplinary consultancy in product, marketing, and sales. Tom helped grow one of healthcare’s first SaaS companies from 1 million users to over 4 million while quadrupling revenue and achieving a 10x improvement in the stock price. He founded Fortune’s Path to help SaaS companies grow rich by pursuing virtue. Tom lives in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife Anna and his seventeen-year-old pug Margaret.

What do you think?

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There’s still time to add a blurb to the book for anyone who wants to help establish my authority. I’ll be reaching out to folks individually, but feel free to volunteer in the comments.

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Why Are We Here? or Messaging 101

I had a great conversation with SaaS growth ninja Anne Chaconas yesterday when we recorded an episode for the Fortune’s Path Podcast. Anne said “You can redo features, and you can fix bugs, but you can’t redo your messaging.” Messaging is really hard when it’s real. Do the soul searching required. Find out why you do what you do and why what you do is valuable to your customers. For Fortune’s Path, we help SaaS organizations grow in spirit and in market.

Anne encourages us to be our authentic selves in business and to help other people be their anthemic selves. After all, if we want to grow into the biggest Total Addressable Market (TAM) possible, we need to address people who don’t look like us or talk like us. But speaking as a CEO with revenue responsibility, what if no one wants to buy your true, authentic self?

Joshua Oakes would say if no one wants to buy your authentic self, it’s because you’re authentically selfish. When you do your soul searching, think not about what you want, but about what you want to give to others; how can you be of service? Start with what your customers want, what they need, and then think about how you’re qualified to help them. When I taught 9th grade, none of my students ever got what I though they “should” get out of a lesson, but I still had one student say he hoped I’d teach his little brother and another one – Jason – say thank you 20 years later when we met at Office Town. (Jason is a mailman now.) I thought I was going to teach them how to understand a poem. They seemed grateful for something else.

The true value you provide is often not what you think. You have to ask to know.

Thanks again for being a reader.

All the best,

Tom

PS - And share this so we can get other votes!