Buddy Teaster Gains New Partners For His Non-Profit By Giving Them His Book

“In 2017, Soles for Souls was coming out of a pretty rough financial period and we had to watch every dollar and we made a really important decision. We thought to tell our story, we needed more time. More than email, more than a social media post would allow, so we explored this idea of a book. We have so many people who we work with. We work with individuals, corporations and entrepreneurs and partners on the ground all over the world. We wanted to tell this complex story in a way that allows people to really understand what we’re trying to do. I knew Adam through the Young Presidents Organization so when I reached out to him. He invited me down for an Authority Marketing Blueprint Day to see if it would be a good mutual fit. We came out of that day and one of my colleagues who I was working with at the time said, ‘This is the right thing to do.’

From that first meeting until the time the book came out in May of 2018, was a phenomenal personal experience, getting to work with our writer. The chance to craft and write that story for our audience was one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. It’s paid huge dividends for Soles for Souls over the last two years. We have used it to explain what we do. We’ve used it as a way to gain credibility. We’ve used it as a way to introduce ourselves to new potential partners. In fact, recently, a big, multi-national company that we were working with in Asia, really couldn’t find the key to unlock the door. I gave the CEO a copy of my book, he read the book, came back after the weekend and said, ‘We’re going to do this.’ In ways that have gone far beyond our expectations. The process and having the physical book in our hands that we can give to people has changed the way that we tell our story and how people see us.

Another benefit that has been really fun to do is share Advantage with other people. Our current board chairman, a good friend, and his wife were thinking of writing a book. As they were starting the process, I said, ‘Hey, I know one thing about this business and I’m happy to introduce you to Advantage.’ After looking at lots of different options, they are now also writing a book. That means a lot to me. I stake my reputation in recommending something I respect. They did their homework and also wound up with Advantage. It makes me feel good that I’m able to pass that experience on to somebody else. It was a lot of money. It was a lot of time. It has paid off far beyond that. The ROI is really easy for us to identify. It’s something that we value far beyond what shows up on an income statement. We would recommend it to anybody. I look forward to doing it again with them. We have more stories to tell and I want to thank Adam and the entire Advantage team for giving people like me a platform so that we can extend the work that we do and help more people around the world get out of poverty for the long term.”