I almost published THIS monstrosity | STFO 🐔

My book, Stand the F*ck Out, is launching this Wednesday (Nov. 20). And to kick off the most important launch of my career so far, I wanted to start with something fun and light-hearted.

This is what the book looks like. I think it stands the f*ck out:

But there were other cover concepts before this one that nearly made the cut... And I'm so f*cking glad they didn't. I think you'll understand why.

The first time we worked on the cover was when my first publishing company scammed me out of $36,000 (more on that later) and asked me to fill out a questionnaire to get a sense of what I wanted. From this info, they put together a mood board:

It's a whole different vibe than the final book cover, right? Back then, I was still aiming for pure hate/anger towards marketing bullsh*t and all that. But then, I learned that most of my coaching clients almost didn't reach out to me because they thought I'd be too harsh with them; That's the vibe I was giving. Now, I know you're probably thinking, "So what? You can't please everyone!" And you'd be right... Until you learn that my best clients *are* struggling with low confidence. They feel very overwhelmed by marketing bullsh*t. They feel like they're drowning in it. They do want to be challenged but not yelled at.

Anyway, continuing.

Their designer sent me six different concepts to give feedback on, including the following:

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I sent them a quick video with my feedback. If I remember correctly, the one with the giraffe captured my attention. I can't really tell you why, though. It just did.

From then, they refined the concept:

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I wasn't near what I imagined—it didn't look "crisp" enough—so I kept sending my feedback. So, we got a bit closer the next round:

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I managed to find a summary of what I told their designer after that:

As you can tell, the entire process felt quite labored. I didn't know exactly what I wanted. I felt I was missing an overarching... something. Obviously, hindsight is always 20/20, and today, I know it's because I didn't have a distinctive branding that matched my true goofy/sarcastic vibe.

But I kept on keeping on:

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And then, everything came to a halt.

In June 2023, the book company I was working for declared bankruptcy. Long story short: there was no money left, they fired most of the staff, and left hundreds of authors like me in the sh*t.

But it was for the better because I just decided to move on and recover my losses. I diversified my offering through coaching, consulting, and sponsorship, and it worked. I learned so much from that year... Including why the cover we had settled on before the bankruptcy didn't feel 100% right.

My people do want to be challenged but not yelled at. So, I shifted my overall vibe from pure hate/anger to more goofiness/sarcasm, and worked with a fantastic designer to rebrand the entire business.

When it was time to work on the book again with my friend Joe Pulizzi, it only took one email to get this result:

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I had all the right components: colors, Roger the Rooster, font, etc. It was really easy. I was so excited about the result that I shared the cover with everyone on my email list. Honestly, I didn't expect much feedback (it was July, and the broadcast was sent on a Friday).

And I thought the book cover SLAPPED, so I didn't think much would come of it.

But then...

Replies poured in. And the most surprising part? Almost all of them said the same thing:

There are times when I couldn't care less about feedback. There are times, however, when I take it very seriously, and this is one of them.

Mark Manson's cover was 100% an inspiration for my overall brand, but I didn't think it would be that obvious. I thought Roger The Rooster would give a totally different feel than Manson's book cover... I was wrong.

It also looked like Roger blended in with the orange background, which made it stand the f*ck out even less.

So, I knew I had to do something.

Luckily, I had another option up my sleeve without having to design a new cover from scratch or change the layout.

Okay, so there you have it. All the book cover iterations between Nov 2022 and July 2024. Tomorrow, I'll share exactly what you can expect from the book launch. I'm going to leave at that.

See you tomorrow.