without any guess-work or tantrums
(CAUTION: May cause a life-long bond!)
How a little parrot makes his dream come true (and asked me that I dare you to go and do it too)
RORO GOES AROUND THE WORLD looks like a fun and engaging book for kids. What sets this one apart from other children’s books?
What I call the Bond With My Child Method (BMC method), a way to connect with your little one in less than 90 seconds, is the most striking difference that a parent, relative, educator or a children’s coach will discover in the book.
While there are twelve “traditional” layers of entertainment and learning intertwined in the story of the little parrot Roro – including the actual captivating adventure, all base colors, the numbers from one to eleven, countries, a lot of healthy activities and so on – all spelled out in the text, the last “bonus” layer is this: the way the story is written, so a grown-up can model it in their way of talking with the child.
I created and used a process (BMC method), which is derived from the titans of modern-day direct sales and marketing, to ensure a “buy-in” attitude from Roro, modeled for the benefit of both the child and the grown-up. It’s so much easier to learn and dare to try new things if we have a role-model, don’t you think?
Expanding your child’s comfort zone can prove very beneficial for their development, especially if turned into the BMC method routine I am offering you do try.
I use it daily with my son Max and it has taken him, as well as our communication and relationship, to a much higher level over the past few months.
How long did it take you to write RORO GOES AROUND THE WORLD?
Four weeks to write the first draft.
Then we refined it a few times over three years, working on it and then leaving it “to age”.
The initial idea was to have each animal make their sound, as it is pronounced in their home country. For example, a dog would bark in Russia, saying “gav-gav”, where in Korea it would be more like “meong, meong”, and “bau, bau” in Italy. Then the story evolved way beyond that.
The book was also written all in rhyme at first. Then, with the introduction of the “Bond with my child method”, as well as the desire to have the work translated in the languages of the countries Roro visits, we opted to drop the rhyme for the benefit of practicality – so we could express the process and allow for a more exact translation, too.
Did anything stick out as particularly challenging when writing RORO GOES AROUND THE WORLD?
Probably what I found toughest was not the actual writing but having to drop the rhymes in the book, since I felt attached to them after working on it for so long. But looking back, I am happy we did it, because the value of the “Bond with my child” method outweighs the lost rhyme.
And who knows – maybe we can find an enthusiast who will combine passion and talent to turn this script into a poem so we can do a special edition!
What inspired you when writing RORO GOES AROUND THE WORLD?
The birth of my first son Max ignited the fire in me and the news about our second son Teddy gave me the fuel I needed to finish and deliver what I had started.
I also love the power a content-creator has and the potential to impact the lives of many by sharing my stories and practical experience. Imagine how something you create can improve the life of somebody else on the other end of the world or fifty years from now.
It is amazing, isn’t it?
Why did you decide to become a writer?
I have worked in the Sales and Marketing industries for the past seventeen years and I love this field. My longest “corporate” job was as a financial advisor at one of the top financial firms in the world.
I loved my job! I love working with people. Yet, I always had that void inside of me from not being able to scale – in all of my positions, I could only help one person at a time.
Then I became a property investor, but the way I was doing it wasn’t scalable either.
I could only be with one client; I could only work on one property at a time… Longing for scale is what lead me into this endeavor, I think.
How did you come up with the story and ideas in RORO GOES AROUND THE WORLD?
I wanted to be able to sell a lot of books, so that my stories can go viral and thus impact the greatest number of grown-ups and children.
So, my strategy was this:
1) Find a way for my readers to relate to the story – I chose a trip around the world so that the people in each country can feel included.
2) To select the countries, I made a list with two criteria:
a. Countries with the highest population, like China, India, etc...
b. Countries with the highest personal income (GDP per capita)
3) To deliver value, I pulled studies on child development and looked at what is important for a child to learn in their earlier years. This is how I came up with the colors, animals, vehicles, activities, environments, and so on.
4) I also found words that are important to include, like “Yes”, “No”, “Mommy”, “Daddy”…
5) We worked closely with the illustrator, Momchil Nikolov, to ensure we cover a variety of environments, different times of the day (morning, night, afternoon), etc.
6) There are sample questions for the grown-up in every chapter, too. Our main principle in unveiling the Bond With My Child Method and making sure it works for you is the two-way communication. So, we walk our talk, and provide questions to ask the child and practice. You practice asking, being genuinely interested, and listening.
7) In 2018, I had left my corporate job some months before, and I was going through a tough spot in my life – maybe the hardest time I’ve had.
I was building a home for my family, while launching a business, helping raise our children, and managing some investment properties we had picked up with my best friend in Boston over the course of nine years.
Nothing was going well. I’d never been so down in my life – I was losing money left and right, and everything I started seemed to become over-complicated and problematic. The construction business did not feel the way I had imagined it, nor was it making the income I projected…
To top it off, my son Max started ignoring me and did not really want to spend time with me. I thought it was understandable, because I was getting up at 5:00 AM and getting home at 6:00 PM to just take a shower and go to work on our own house. I was dirty and tired all the time. And it dawned on me – no surprise Max wouldn’t want to have anything to do with me – he didn’t know me and I didn’t know him any more…
To make a long story short, that is when I started looking into the marketing of “Roro goes…” and came across Russell Brunson and his books “Dotcom Secrets” and “Expert Secrets”.
Let me open a one-minute parenthesis here:
In a nutshell, Russell’s company, ClickFunnels, takes any business and turns their product or service into an Offer, delivered to the end-customer through a tool, which they call a Sales Funnel. Here is the essence of what you need to know, so it can work for you, too:
Focus on one thing to solve your client’s (in our case child’s) most urgent problem (need/desire) – that’s the funnel in a nutshell.
Repeat and remember: HOOK – STORY – OFFER.
These are the three “building stone” components you need, so you can develop a productive tool:
· The Hook, where you earn your customer’s attention (in my case my child – and I will tell you what I mean);
· The Story, where you build the trust to lay the foundation of a possible “journey” together; and
· The (irresistible) Offer is the win-win solution you present to make it a deal and go on to create lifetime memories together, instead of wild-guess selling…
Anyway, let’s close the parenthesis and go back to Max and I for a last thought.
In desperation, I started experimenting with Max and I in our short moments together, using the custom model I created.
I’d grab his attention, find out what he really wanted to do next and offer it to him, sprinkling in my own desires to make it a win-win for both of us and…
It was a miracle! You wouldn’t believe the quality of our conversations and activities after that simple tweak in my way of speaking with him.
This is when I decided to convert the format of the Roro storyline, so it matches and mimics the Hook-Story-Offer pattern, adding a few clarifications to adjust it to the situation.
It has been life-changing for us – and I recommend it wholeheartedly.
How did you do those lively illustrations?
That was a blessing in and of itself. Momchil Nikolov (www.MomchilNikolov.com), the illustrator of Roro goes…, is my friend from before – he is an artist, who does both paintings and sculpture, but he’d never done children’s books before… But he listened to my vision and really liked it – so we worked together very patiently for years now to bring this art-work to the world.
Momchil and his business partner also organize activities, that promote and bring art to our daily life, so I was very lucky, of sorts.
One of the events they created, which captured my attention many years ago, freely translated would be named “The great painting of the little artists” or something to that effect – I call it “Paint a Dream”.
Children of all ages line up along a 500-600 ft canvas (around 200 meters) and each gets a piece of the canvas to express their dream on. The events are usually conducted at a city square.
At the end of the day, you have, say, a hundred works of art on one really long canvas. You then cut up the individual paintings and they either go back with the child or get donated to a local hospital, school or other appropriate organization. It’s fascinating, isn’t it?
What do you like to do when not writing?
I love playing with Max, cuddling Teddy, and being spoiled by my wife, Mira.
I did my undergraduate degree in Finance, and my graduate school in Construction Management, so I am a real estate enthusiast of sorts. A house always seems to find its place on my desk or in my life – for better or worse.
I also love writing my ideas on paper and reading practical business and personal development books.
Special moments and holidays with friends are probably what I miss the most from my previous life – back when I lived in Bulgaria and Germany, it felt like I had a somewhat richer social life. I am not complaining, it is all by choice, but I’d love to find that proverbial balance between production and consumption, business and leisure.
Where can readers find out more about your work?
“Roro goes around…” will be available,
starting December 10th, 2019, at:
· As well as other retailers globally