How Steve's Training Helped Land Us $20M of Publicity for Free
by Rocky Detwiler
I am excited to share my Quantum Leap Story, but it’s more of a Quantum “launch” rather than a “leap.”
For years I have said, “How do you put a value on a life changed?”
I feel the same way about the exponential growth and life changes Quantum Leap has brought me.
My sales revenue has increased by 500% and new opportunities are presenting themselves every day.
Less measurable but more important are the positive changes to my mindset, increased knowledge, skillsets, focus, and confidence.
There is no number that can represent these lasting changes!
A friend recommended Quantum Leap to me a couple months before my book was to be published. What we achieved because of the program in a little over a year is absolutely amazing.
We have seen extraordinary success in all areas of our lives and it’s because of the skills, instruction, and coaching we’ve received and applied from the Quantum Leap program.
Learning to effectively leverage publicity
Our primary reason for joining Quantum Leap was to learn how to market our book, because we had no idea where to begin.
We were also interested in launching me as a speaker and coach. I had been speaking off and on for a few years but had never been paid to speak.
We have a business with an online life/leadership program that we were marketing using word of mouth and our limited connections, because we had no marketing budget to speak of.
A small group of individuals had progressed through our program by the time we signed up for Quantum Leap. We hoped the Quantum Leap training could help us launch our business as well.
The first lessons I learned in Quantum Leap were how to leverage publicity, and the concept that becoming famous presents you as an expert in your field.
I had experienced a small amount of media coverage for my physical transformation and personal story. Even though my story had caught some local attention before Quantum Leap, I was unable to capitalize on that media coverage because I didn’t have products or services to offer and didn’t know how to leverage my story properly.
My friends call me the “Real Life Rocky” because a few short years ago, I was overweight, alone, and camping in a tree. Today I am ripped, madly in love, and living in a beautiful home.
I used the positive power of words and a five-step process to reclaim my life after becoming a victim and losing millions in an Arizona Ponzi scheme. My journey from tree house to triumph changed the direction of my life and led me to write my book, The Samson Effect.
I took Steve Harrison’s advice on the Quantum Leap training calls to heart and applied it by approaching a local blogger who interviews individuals with unique stories. When his article was posted online, I shared it and pitched my story to our local NBC affiliate, which is also the largest TV station in our state. They loved the pitch idea and aired a story about the work we were doing with teens.
I also sent the article along with a pitch to the largest print newspaper in our state, The Idaho Statesman. They liked my pitch and interviewed me for a story, notifying me my story would be printed in a Saturday edition. Assuming I would be lost somewhere on the inside of the paper but happy just to be receiving free press, I went to the local store Saturday morning to find the newspaper.
I couldn’t have been more surprised to find a huge picture of me on the front cover! I was wearing flame workout pants, my own custom-printed inspirational shirt (another product I offer for sale), doing a seated row at my local gym with the funkiest facial expression ever. The headline read, “Power of Positivity Prompts a Rebirth.”
Asking companies "How can I help?" lands paid speaking gigs
Feeling confident in pitching the media, I picked up another priceless skill from Steve Harrison’s training calls. I learned the art of using “How can I help you?” to pitch companies for paid speaking engagements.
My wife Cheryl and I met with a local company seeking a keynote speaker for their annual convention. After several meetings, they not only asked me to be their paid keynote speaker but also asked us both to lead multiple breakout sessions.
Additionally, we provided apparel for the event with their logos and core values prominently printed on the best-looking co-branded shirts and scrubs the company had ever purchased.
At the conclusion of the amazing event, we received our first payment for a speaking engagement—$3,000!
About ten minutes later, I received an email from an assistant at ESPN. They saw my article on the front cover of The Idaho Statesman and wanted to interview me the next day.
The advice from Quantum Leap coaches helped me nail my interview with Zubin Mehenti on SportsCenter. Their guidance helped me to use this interview opportunity to promote my recently released book.
Implementing the advice of Quantum Leap coaches helped make our book launch a huge success. Over a hundred people attended our launch event and we sold 200 books the first day.
Another Quantum Leap coach, Martha, helped us choose the best categories on Amazon and other outlets to offer our books for sale online.
Steve's National Publicity Summit was a turning point for our business
When we attended our first Quantum Leap event in Philadelphia, Steve Harrison challenged me to “own my expert status.” That was a huge turning point for me.
It was actually difficult to call myself an expert at first. I left the event full of confidence and with a complete mindset shift. I even boldly approached strangers in the airport on the way home, selling a few books and making future business contacts.
My wife and I also attended the National Publicity Summit.
We arrived with our speaker and media one-sheets coach Tamra helped us put together, and were ready to pitch the major media outlets because the coaches helped us practice our pitches and gave advice along the way. I even took advantage of the style advice and dressed the part when we talked to the various media personnel.
This event was a major turning point for us regarding our company and our future.
We were fortunate to spend time with one of the producers for The View. The producer told my wife and me we should work together as a team and present ourselves that way. She also gave us a new idea we’d never thought of before. She told us we should work with couples and do “Couple Makeovers.” We immediately loved her ideas and began presenting ourselves as a couple from that point on.
The National Publicity Summit yielded many national radio interviews, podcast interviews, prominent blogger posts, and articles printed in national publications. The book sales continued to grow with the extensive media coverage.
The rest of the year brought more opportunities to work with large organizations that paid me for speaking and coaching. This exposure brought additional book sales and sales of our newly released Gratitude Journal.
It was quite exciting to see what we could do with the application of the Quantum Leap coaching and programs.
When my wife and I marketed and completed our first local workshop, it was a huge success. We give Quantum Leap all the credit for the idea, expertise, and confidence to make the event a memorable one.
In six months, I landed more speaking engagements than in my entire speaking career combined, and I received payment for every one of them!
My speaking led to multiple contracts with companies and schools to use my online life/leadership program along with coaching for anywhere from three to six months. These contracts ranged from $4,000 to $40,000 and that’s not counting my speaking fees, book sales, and more.
I give all the credit for this outstanding success to the coaching I received from Quantum Leap coaches and with Steve Harrison on his “Moving Forward” calls.
Coverage led to game-changing national TV exposure
I could stop here and this would be an awesome Quantum Leap story, but hold on because it gets even better!
We received a phone call from a production company in Los Angeles. They’d seen some media coverage on our company and me, and were inviting my wife and I to interview for a reality investor TV show to be aired on AWE.
We proceeded through the paperwork and Skype interviews with confidence, applying all that we had learned from Quantum Leap. We were excited to hear they had chosen us and we flew to West Texas a few days later.
We filmed for a week in Alpine and Midland, Texas. Our training and coaching from Quantum Leap on how to position ourselves as experts, in addition to how to maximize our media coverage, was priceless as we filmed this hour-long national TV show.
We were shown as experts coaching, me mentoring, and providing conflict management. I was highlighted as a professional speaker and author as I read a portion from my book on national TV (with the book cover and title in full view)!
The entire show focused on our online life/leadership program and the work we do with a individuals, companies, and schools. We were also able to showcase our custom-printed inspirational apparel as we progressed through five different shots for the show.
This amazing opportunity to share our company, expertise, and products for 46 minutes of airtime would have cost us almost $20,000,000!
Thank you Quantum Leap for your coaching, programs, and training calls. You have given us a plethora of ideas, encouragement, and guidance to move in the direction of our gifts, talents, and owning our expert status.
You have positively changed our lives!
This post is adapted from an essay Rocky wrote as his entry in our "How I Made My Quantum Leap" contest, in which Quantum Leap members wrote about the difference the program made for them and their careers.