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A tech founder had a world-changing message. He just needed people to hear it.

Spreading the Word About Selflessness

In the web's early days, IBM salesman Mark S. Lewis founded an Internet services company. After a lucrative exit, he used his tech skills to help the FBI fight corruption in his beloved New Orleans. Two decades into a third successful career (this time in consulting), Mark realized his life and philosophy would make a good book. 

The first edition, however, struggled to articulate his message--that selflessness is an essential ingredient for success. Mark's book, titled Give a Damn!, outlined a vision for customer-centered businesses, as well as child-centered homes and schools. But this vision lay buried under disorganized copy and grammatical errors. Model Content would turn this passable tome into a page-turner.

With the help of Molly Kramer and her team at Model Content, this edition sharpened the focus on Give a Damn principles, with clear justification of why selflessness is so important in business and life. That focus greatly enhances reader engagement."

Mark S. Lewis

​So how'd we do it?

Read on ;)

A Research-Based Identity

Part moral philosophy, part business advice, Give a Damn! The Ticket to Cultural Change didn't fit neatly into a genre. Model Content started by applying traditional market research to Mark's publishing ecosystem. 

Research was a critical first step in re-organizing the narrative, as well as planning promotional activities. Mark now understood what audience to aim for, and Model Content knew what gaps to fill--including a gap perfectly shaped to fit a celebrity foreword.

Another major gap was in evidence-based business content. After market research identified corporate leaders as a target, we conducted a literature review and did interviews with thought leaders in industries as diverse as airlines, economic development agencies, and law firms. This research allowed us to expand existing chapters with compelling data, anecdotes, and quotes—as well as write new chapters on management and customer service.
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Engaging Narrative Structure

Next, we organized the content around a compelling central story. And boy did we have one! Ahead of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's conviction on 20 counts of bribery and other corruption charges, Mark had provided the FBI with data deleted from city servers. And he suffered the consequences of this moral stand.

The original edition of Give a Damn! opened with multiple pages of exposition. And didn't include the anti-corruption story at all. Through interviews, Model Content identified this story as a central organizing moment in Mark's career.

In the new edition, this story provides a through line, serving as a jumping-off point for key concepts, such as technology's role in society.
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Clean Copy & Confidence

Together, Mark and Model Content went through 12 drafts of the new edition. These included drafts specifically devoted to fact checking and copy editing. We reached out to everyone mentioned in the book with an opportunity to review and provide feedback. We combed through court records, industry reports, and other files to confirm factual statements.

It was an exhaustive process. But the due diligence resulted in confidence for the author and the editing team alike.

And since, by this time, Mark had secured a new foreword by New Orleans football hero and ALS patient advocate Steve Gleason, we felt that much more inspired to root out any potential errors, no  matter how small.

Results

Mark went to publication with a revised edition that clearly articulated the Give a Damn movement's central tenets: Serving others is inherently beneficial, collective action is the secret to real power and success, and groups can develop a self-sustaining dynamic of positive change. We're proud of the content, but we're even prouder of what Mark's done with it.

Amazon BestSeller

Reaching #1 in Family Health...

Two Times Over!

and #5 in Business Ethics

Growth in Every KPI

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