It’s not unusual for me to finish reading a book I adored and think, “Oh, I’d love to sit down with the author at Starbucks.” What is unusual is to have that thought about an author I’ve never read, but the more I learn about Vicki Pettersson, the more fascinated I become.

She’s the author of the Urban Fantasy series called Signs of the Zodiac. That’s not a genre I’d normally pay much attention to, but after hearing two interviews with her on Nevada public radio, reading another interview with her in Las Vegas Weekly, and visiting her Website, I’m smitten.

Pettersson first caught my attention on public radio with her thoughts about the writing life and what it takes to succeed. A disciplined artist, she began writing in her teens. Along the way to publication, there were some detours.

Pettersson, who was 5’ 10” by the time she was 12, worked as a showgirl while launching her writing career. As she told interviewer Josh Bell, if she had grown up somewhere other than Las Vegas, she might have been encouraged to play basketball or volleyball. In Vegas, she was encouraged to be a showgirl. That is how she put herself through college and that’s how she supported herself until her writing sold. “It paid for school. And it was part-time work for full-time pay…Then I got a real job and realized that it paid part-time money for full-time work. And that was just unacceptable.”

Besides the fact that she obviously has the heart of a Joyfully Jobless person, what has me thinking about Vicki Pettersson today is that she’s showing us one of the essential concepts of successful marketing. Although I’ve only encountered her from afar, I like Vicki Pettersson a lot and I suspect I’ll be exploring the pages of her first Zodiac novel sometime soon. This would not have happened if she hadn’t shared her personal story and ideas in highly visible ways.

We all know that we like to do business with people we know and like. If we don’t know you, we can’t like you. It’s as simple as that. If you’re ready to collect fans and friends for your business, take a look at Making Your Business Visible. It’s full of tips for getting started.