The Relentless Messenger
When my dad was stuck in a refugee camp trying to figure out a way out, he leaned into what he was great at. Connecting with others.
He walked up to countless Saudi soldiers and made sure they knew him by name, and he knew them by name. He forged connections. And believe it or not, those very connections helped us get out of that hell hole of a desert camp. I wrote all about this in my book. This has lived in me most of my life and I love sharing it with others.
I share that because it's such a reminder that even in moments of despair, you can put on a smile and figure out a way to connect with others.
He had his art. I have mine. And you have your work and your message.
So let's talk about what to do with it.
Your book is sitting on an Amazon page doing nothing.
Your keynote is buried in a Google Doc.
Your assets are rotting in a Dropbox folder.
None of it matters until you put it in front of a human being who has a reason to care.
That's the entire game. And it's harder than it sounds, because it requires the one thing most authors and experts won't do consistently: outreach.
When things slow down, sharpen the tools.
Most of what you've heard about promoting a book, you already know. Run ads. Do a podcast tour. Build your list. Post more on LinkedIn. Get reviews. Cool. Heard it. Tried it. Moved on.
So I'm not going to give you another version of that.
Get clear about your message. Tighten your offer. Clean up your assets.
Then start an outreach campaign. Not once. Not twice. Weekly. Something you put into motion and don't stop.
Are you sending your book out to people who matter?
Are you emailing people and building real connections?
Are you commenting, thoughtfully, not "Great post!", on LinkedIn posts from the people you actually want in your orbit?
Are you going to someone's website, finding their contact form, and sending them something genuinely useful with no ask attached?
Because if you're not, you're just hoping. And hope isn't a strategy.
Posting isn't connecting.
Let's be honest. You post something, you get a handful of likes and a few comments, and it feels like progress. It isn't. Not anymore.
The algorithm is noisier, the feed is louder, and attention is cheaper than it's ever been.
The one thing I think will stay valuable for a long, long time is human connection. But real human connection requires three things most people skip:
Genuine interest in the other person
Trust built over time
Something of value offered before anything is asked for
That's it. That's the whole formula. And it doesn't scale, which is exactly why it works.
Be the starter.
Here's something you can do right now that costs nothing and takes 15 minutes.
Go back to your previous LinkedIn posts. Look at who commented. Look at who liked your work. Now go check them out. Visit their profile. Read what they're about. Then message them. Thank them for engaging. Ask them a question about their work. Start a conversation.
That's it. Be the one who starts the spark.
So many of you need to do this on a regular basis. Not once when you feel inspired. Regularly. Make it a habit. Make connecting with people a habit.
Some of the best connections I've forged, the ones that turned into real relationships, real collaborations, real business, started with nothing more than me starting a conversation. No pitch. No agenda. Just genuine interest.
In a world where AI slop is literally everywhere, a real person reaching out genuinely without a specific agenda is rare. Be that person.
Build your audience one person at a time. Remove the words "scale fast" from your vocabulary. Build a reason people want to share your work, talk about you, champion your message, and recommend your book.
No matter what your work is about, leadership, health, business, faith, whatever it is, it's for people, isn't it?
Then it's your job to search for them. Connect with them. And give them a reason to want to align with you.
Here's why promoting a book is actually so hard.
It requires you.
A lot of uncomfortable email sending. A lot of asks. A lot of reaching out that goes completely unanswered. It's hard. And you can't give in.
An outreach campaign for a week or two is not enough. You need a system. Something you do daily, even just 15 to 20 minutes, even if it's only one person you genuinely want to send your book to, connect with, or simply ask a question.
But Hussein, how do I do that without sounding like a… whatever?
Ask. Just ask.
I know it's hard. Most of us have never been trained to do it. To simply ask to connect, to ask for a virtual coffee, to ask if they're in town and want to grab one in person, to ask to be mentored, to ask what's worked for them. To be genuinely interested in another human being.
Better yet:
"Hey, I have two books on your subject I think you'd love. Can I mail them to you?"
"I saw this article and it reminded me so much of your work, I had to send it your way."
"I've been following what you're building and I'd love to ask you one question if you have five minutes."
One of the most underestimated things in the world is this: we expect from others instead of being interested in others.
Flip that, and everything changes.
Trust me, I'm not great at this either. It's uncomfortable. But what do you actually have to lose? Pride? Ego?
Sometimes your message requires the most important part of you. You need to become the relentless messenger.
I've helped many people build great brand work, beautiful websites, smart campaigns. Some of them keep going. They do the hard work. They put themselves out there. And nothing gets easier, you just rise to the new level of trying.
Others let it sit. The brand gets built and then it collects dust, because the outreach part is too emotional, too sacrificial, too "I already tried that and it didn't work."
If I've learned one thing in life: if you say it works, or you say it doesn't work, your words and your actions determine the distance.
And that's coming from a refugee who got to get out and live.
Getting used to rejection is part of the game.
Most people stop reaching out because they got ignored a few times and made it mean something about themselves. Don't do that. Rejection isn't a verdict. It's just part of the volume.
You send 100 emails. 80 ignore you. 15 say no. 5 say yes. Two of those become real relationships. One of them changes your business.
That's the math. That's always been the math. Most people quit at email 12.
The one thing that changed everything for me: accountability.
I used to be quietly ashamed of needing it. I thought needing someone else to help me stay on track meant I wasn't disciplined enough, wasn't serious enough, wasn't enough.
That was ego. And it cost me time.
Once I dropped it, I hired a creative coach. Then a business coach. Now I have a mentor and a small circle of peers who push me, hold me accountable, and show up for their own work in a way that makes me show up for mine.
That's been the unlock. Not a course. Not a tool. Not a tactic.
Someone outside of me, asking for the deliverable.
Someone who expects me to do what I said I'd do. Someone I can't BS my way around.
If you don't have that in your business right now, that's the gap. Not your funnel. Not your copy. Not your launch plan. The gap is that nobody is holding you to the work.
So here's the actionable version.
This week, pick three things:
Sharpen one tool. Your bio, your one-pager, your offer, your email signature. One thing. Make it sharper.
Start one outreach motion. 15 to 20 minutes a day. One real message to one real human. Every day. No exceptions.
Get one accountability anchor. A coach, a peer, a mastermind, a friend who will text you on Friday and ask what you shipped. One person. That's all it takes to start.
Do that for 90 days and your business will look different. Not because you found a hack. Because you stopped hoping and started moving.
Practice patience and gratitude.
Hussein
P.S. This is exactly why I built Author X Brand Camp the way I did. Three days in Tucson. Ten people in a room. We sharpen the tools, build the outreach motion, and you walk out with a small circle of people who are going to hold you to the work long after the camp ends. June 26-28. A few seats left. → rising-authors.com/authorx
