Fish don't know they're in water. We've been like that, too.

Tried-and-trusted methods of communication no longer ring true in today's marketplace.

What's more (or less, as the case may be), the systems you relied upon are failing ... maybe.

If you want to not only survive but thrive in this century, you're going to need to reorient yourself to a new way of thinking.

Inside this book, you'll find three sections devoted to case studies, lessons learned, and stories of business growth, customer delight, and personal development.

In Part I - "Making Good Company" - you'll learn about strategy and about what matters and what doesn't to consumers today. You'll learn to critically and objectively analyze what you're trying to make happen, and what's in your way.

In Part II - "Keeping Good Company" - you'll learn some of the secrets that have helped my words win customers in seven countries. You'll see and - through a complementary private website - hear actual examples of copywriting and customer service success stories to help you win new customers and delight the ones you already have.

In Part III - "Being Good Company" - you'll learn some techniques for separating the truly important from the merely urgent. You'll take a look inside the Miles family - where Dee and I have learned to look at the world a little differently since our son was diagnosed with autism.

A book filled with heart, humor and historical success, Good Company will help you live, work and play a little better, a little truer, and a little stronger.

If you're looking for a quick fix, you're going to come away disappointed.

This book is the diet and exercise of marketing and communication and persuasion. If you're looking for a bag of magic beans, I wish you the best of luck. But don't worry - I'm sure some social media expert will be by in a few minutes.

About the Author: To quote David Freeman, Tim took everything that made him weird as a kid and got people to pay him money for it as an adult.

Part Dave Barry, part Dave Ramsey, part that Dave guy from the movie, umm, Dave, Tim Miles has used common sense, kindness and an unquenchable curiosity as tools to help a few hundred businesses - at least those willing to meet force with force and do the work - to be more successful more quickly. He runs an odd little communications company that helps owner-operated companies do more with less.

Tim started creating advertising campaigns in 1995. In the ten years that followed, he won more than 80 awards for his ideas and execution of those ideas. Then, on 11/20/05, he decided entering awards shows was kind of a silly way to measure success.

When their son was diagnosed with autism in November of 2005, Tim learned pretty much everything he thought he knew was wrong, and he's made it his mission since to teach people to look at the world a little differently and separate the merely urgent from the truly important.

Tim's paying clients help to subsidize his volunteer and fundraising efforts with more than a dozen small not-for-profit organizations. In the last five years, he's been fortunate to speak to more than 1000 not-for-profit organizations about how there's never been a better time to do what it is they do, but there's never been a more important time to be good at what it is they do.

Tim's consulted businesses in four countries and regularly speaks to companies, conferences and colleges about how to communicate more powerfully, how to escape the pit of mediocrity and how best to let the world see you as you really are ... not as you think you should be.