Bestselling author Lewis Howes was once a professional football player, until a broken wrist ended his career early. But since then, Howes has launched a multi-million-dollar business and hosts a leadership and personal development podcast called The School of Greatness. Last month, Rodale Books published his book by the same name, and this week the publisher is holding the Unleash Your Greatness Summit to promote the book’s core ideas.
Howes’ book offers tips and resources for overcoming adversity and reaching one’s potential, and he highlights eight specific principles, from creating a vision to being of service to others, that have helped him in his life. From Nov. 16 to 23, Rodale will host a free online summit inspired by the book, featuring videos and other content from 28 authors and speakers discussing how they found success. Aside from Howes, speakers include life coach Gabrielle Bernstein and Adam Braun, founder of non-profit organization Pencils of Promise, among others.
“The primary goal of doing something like this is to give readers a way to further engage with this great content, to make the content from the book come alive,” says Mary Ann Naples, senior v-p and publisher, Rodale Books. “Lewis is a major podcaster, and his whole method is interviewing people who have achieved greatness in various areas. So we thought that had such incredible application to what a summit could be, especially bringing it to life with video.”
Naples adds that the summit serves as a “massive showcase” for The School of Greatness and Rodale’s other authors, and acts as a “sustain campaign” for them. “Sometimes after these big launch campaigns, you get fall-off,” says Naples. “This was an additional way for us to keep the themes of this book in the public conversation.”
Readers can sign up at the summit’s website, and will then receive an email each day of the event with a link giving them access to that day’s free video. They also have the option of buying a package — from $47 to $97 — that will give them lifetime access to a variety of bonus content, from audio discussions to slideshow presentations and interview transcripts.
According to Naples, the Unleash Your Greatness Summit is just the first of a number of upcoming online events Rodale will be holding. In March, they will do another online summit called the Rodale Wellness Mind & Body Master Class.
“We produce life-changing content, and we know that we have an opportunity to serve readers with an even deeper engagement with that content,” says Naples. “We want to be able to help and support people as much as possible, and we want to serve our authors and our book campaigns.”
