CONCEPT TO BEST SELLER
FROM CONCEPT TO BEST SELLER IN 63 DAYS
BY : STACEY COWPERTHWAITE
WWhen friend and partner of Tulip Media Group Heidi Huetner suggested at our May 13 , 2020 , quarterly strategy meeting that we write a book , we thought she was crazy . Not only would this have seemed far-fetched in a healthy economic climate , but we were in the middle of a pandemic !
Regardless , Andy was ready to take the idea and run with it . He nominated me and Erika to take the lead on the project . With some reluctance , we accepted . It was ingrained in our core values to embrace change , after all . Perhaps this would bring the chance to shed light on a new perspective .
In any case , writing a book would be an excellent opportunity to advance our roles and our careers . We were excited to be able to add “ published author ” to our resumes .
The topic we decided to write about was culture . Team culture is something that we ’ ve always valued at Tulip Media and that we work tirelessly to maintain day in and day out . Andy even went so far as to declare us experts in this area , which , looking back , I can see how right he was .
Erika and I have a lot of experience with figuring out what works and what doesn ’ t work when it comes to our organizational environment . We and our team are in a constant state of learning and growth , and this was a message we thought was important enough to share with the world . So we did .
The first step in bringing The Ultimate Culture : It ’ s About DNA , Not Resume to life was to draft a table of contents and outline . In our virtual office , this was a Google Doc that everyone was working on at the same time . We had everyone on our team throwing ideas out there for content and stories that they wanted to include in the book . The outline came together very quickly this way .
Even though Erika and I were to author the book , we did the outline as a team because it was an opportunity for everyone to contribute their favorite company stories and the aspects of our culture they thought were most important . During this process , we zeroed in on exactly what it was about our culture that was worth sharing , what it was that set us apart . We discovered very quickly that our values and experiences had a lot to offer up-and-coming business leaders , onboarding candidates , and potential Client-Partners . As the outline was completed , these were all set to be clearly related in the meat of the book .
From there , Erika and I went through the outline and decided who would work on which parts . There were some stories I could tell better , so I took responsibility for those parts . We knew Erika ’ s gift of gab would come in handy for talking about our recent experiences , so she took the bulk of those chapters . We moved back and forth between chapters and concepts until everything had been allocated . When we were finished , all of Erika ’ s parts were highlighted in pink and mine in blue .
ONE OF OUR SECRETS AT TULIP MEDIA IS OUR USE OF AUDIO RECORDINGS TO RELAY NOTES TO EACH OTHER . THIS QUICKLY BECAME THE SECRET INGREDIENT FOR THE ULTIMATE CULTURE TOO .
16 | TULIPMEDIAGROUP . COM