Shift your mindset from the idea of competition into collaboration. Brian K. Wright and Arlene talk about how to be collaborators in a professional way and create your authority. Since both are book writers, the conversation leads to how being a published author is indeed a very fulfilling achievement. But getting the job of growing your business done involves more than publishing. Getting the word out is key to getting your business message out to benefit your target audience. Your book only works if it reaches your potential clients. However, with the abundance of books today, Brain and Arlene talk about how to make your message stand-out. It’s key and requires writing the right book the right way. In addition, Brian also invites everyone to Authorpreneur Live 2.0, a virtual event that is specially tailored for all aspiring authors. He gives a rundown on the topics to be discussed by seasoned professionals and distinguished personalities in the field, including Arlene Gale. Tune in and learn how to get access to this free event.
“Play the game on a much, much bigger level. The world needs you and don’t you dare play small.” -Brian K. Wright
Highlights:
03:45 When Competition Turns Into Collaboration
08:05 Getting Referrals
10:05 Join the Amazing Virtual Event For Aspiring Authors For Free
18:35 Marketing Tips
19:33 The Right Way to Create Your Authority
24:30 Your Whys of Book Writing
27:13 The Publishing Talk
30:13 Don’t You Dare Play Small
Shift mindset from competition to collaboration. Brain talks about creating authority. @arlene_gale interviews @MrBriankwright host of FREE event AuthorpreneurLive2.0 for aspiring authors. Tune in Jan 29 #BookWritingBusiness… Click To Tweet
References:
Events
Authorpreneur Live 2.0
Books
The Miracle Morning Series by Hal Elrod
Taking Life Head On! (The Hal Elrod Story): How to Love The Life You Have While You Create The Life Of Your Dreams by Hal Elrod
Quotes:
01:03 “When you take the time to get to know somebody who appears to be in competition, you might realize they’re not really the competition. Maybe they have a piece of information that you don’t have and you can learn from each other.” -Brian K. Wright
19:33 “Creating authority has a lot to do with creating associations and creating networking opportunities with people.” -Brian K. Wright
21:38 “Creating authority is not only about being everywhere, it’s also being really good and having a high standard of excellence for yourself and for the people that you’re working with.” -Brian K. Wright
23:44 “As we go through our journey in life, the people who impact us are crossing our paths to impact the way we see things.” -Arlene Gale
24:33 “If someone has a very strong reason why, then the book will be easier to write and they will want to continue the process.” -Arlene Gale
24:50 “My sanity is worth more than whatever you plan to pay me.” -Brian K. Wright
27:25 “It’s not the publisher’s job to sell the book. It is yours.” -Brian K. Wright
28:20 “You are enough and you have a message, it is your job and your job only to figure out what that is. Have clarity of mission around who you are and what you’re doing. It will help so much.” -Brian K. Wright
29:54 “Think way bigger. If you’re not asking big enough, you’re not going to get big enough.” -Brian K. Wright
30:13 “Play the game on a much, much bigger level. The world needs you and don’t you dare play small.” -Brian K. Wright
Meet Brian:
Brian K. Wright is the host of Success Profiles Radio, which has been running for eight years and publisher of Success Profile Magazine, which has been out on market for two years. Over the last eight years, Brian has interviewed world-class achievers. But with the lessons, Brian has learned from these achievers and through his own experiences, he seeks to educate, motivate, and inspire others to become a great version of themselves. He is the author of four books, including Success Profiles: Conversations with High Achievers Volume 2, which is an Amazon #1 bestseller.
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Transcription:
Arlene Gale: Welcome everybody to Mindset Meets Mastery. I am so excited about today’s program because I’m interviewing a friend, Brian K. Wright, that I got to tell you, he is a ghostwriter but he’s so much more than that. And one of the reasons I wanted to have him on the program today is because on the surface, we really are competition and that sounds terrible, doesn’t it? Why have I become friends with the competition? Well, let me tell you why. Because first of all, I want to know what he knows. And when you take the time to get to know somebody who is the competition, guess what? You might realize they’re not really the competition. Maybe they have a piece of information that you don’t have, and you can learn from each other. Huh? What a concept. So now we crossed over the barrier from competition to collaboration. And I can tell you that on the surface, even though we both are book writing coaches, there’s so much more to both of us. There are things that Brian is doing that I’m just amazed by, and I want to grow up and do some of those things. And I don’t know if Brian could say the same thing about me, but we’ll ask him. So we’re going to talk today about competition versus collaboration. Because it’s so much more fun to collaborate with somebody.
“When you take the time to get to know somebody who appears to be in competition, you might realize they're not really the competition. Maybe they have a piece of information that you don't have and you can learn from each other.” -Brian K. Wright Click To TweetBrian and I often meet each other out about at different events, and it’s so much more fun to go up and shake his hand, or get a hug than it is to his and spit and scratch — at him. So there’s so many different levels to really want to be collaborators in a professional environment. So we’re going to talk a little bit about that today. And then we’re going to talk about creating authority, because Brian has done this in, what I think is a pretty amazing way, and part of the thing about Brian is when you meet him, he is such a nice guy. He’s so down to earth and so authentic. And I looked at the list of people that he’s interviewed, and I think, Ooh, wow, he’s a big deal. So let me tell you a little bit about Brian and then we’re going to get right to him.
Brian K. Wright is the host of Success Profiles Radio, and he’s been doing this for eight years. He is the publisher of Success Profiles Magazine, which he just had his second year anniversary for that. Over the last eight years, Brian has interviewed world-class achievers such as Darren Hardy, Jack Canfield, Loral Langmeier, Kevin Harrington, Sharon Lechter, Chris Powell, Dan Lok, and many, many more. Oh, yeah, yesterday, he interviewed this guy name Stedman Graham. Any of you guys heard of him? Wow, that’s impressive. But with the lessons Brian has learned from these achievers and through his own experiences, he seeks to educate, motivate, and inspire others to become a great version of themselves. He is the author of four books, including [inaudible] Success Profiles: Conversations With High Achievers, Amazon number one best seller. So without delaying any further, let me bring on and help me welcome Brian K. Wright.
Brian K. Wright: Hi, how are you, Arlene? It’s great to be here.
Arlene Gale: I am great. It’s great to have you here. Thank you. There’s so much we can talk about, because like I said, there’s so many things that you’re doing that I would love to grow up and learn to do, which makes me see you as a collaboration partner as opposed to competition. We’re book writers so we could be competition, but what do you think about collaboration versus competition?
Brian K. Wright: That is such a great question, and if you listen to some of the old school business experts and motivational gurus, they talk about beating your competition, and you have one step ahead or they’ll eat alive, I reject that. I mean, I really, I projectile vomit all over that because I think, really honestly, because I think specifically to book writing, if 80% of people want to write a book and research does bear that out, and only about 3% of people actually do, that means the pie is really big, and there’s room for all of us, and there are things that you do that I don’t know how to do, and there are things that I do that you just said you wish you knew how to do. So there’s room for us to work with each other. In fact, I’ll give you a perfect example of competitors who learned to collaborate. I had a couple of friends who were running a DISH Network Distributorship, and they were yellow page advertising. And with yellow page advertising, you have to buy a year because the book comes out once a year, and this was probably a decade ago, so this is before all of the online marketing became such a big deal. Well, about halfway through the year, and they’d been doing this for quite, longer than a year, but about halfway through their current advertising year, they want to stop, and they didn’t want to eat six more months of yellow page advertising, which was really expensive. And I said: “Are you friendly with anybody else in your space in town?” And they said: “Yeah.” I said: “Here’s what you do. Every time you get a new lead through that ad, you refer to them, they sell it, and they split the commission with you. You get to get paid on someone you never have to deal with, and they get paid on someone they never have to find themselves as a win all the way around.” And they said: “That’s brilliant. I love that.”
Arlene Gale: Wow. That is kind of brilliant. So give me an example since we’re talking about collaboration from hanging out with me and learning a little bit about what I do, what is something, because again, on the surface, we’re both writing coaches, but what is it something that you’ve learned about me that I do, that you don’t do? Let’s just kind of flip that coin a little bit.
Brian K. Wright: I love the fact that you help people write their press releases, and you help people write their book proposals. My zone of genius in both of those areas is next to zero.
Arlene Gale: See, and that’s a perfect example. You’re doing great things with your radio program and your magazine, and those are the areas that I just, I never thought to go in, so yeah. Well, thank you for that.
Brian K. Wright: Welcome.
Arlene Gale: So anytime, I’m here for you. Part of the collaboration also, I guess I’m wondering, do you see that as much or more so now that there’s people see each other more as competition versus collaboration partners?
Brian K. Wright: I think with online, and this may just be a function of who’s in my feet, I see a lot of people who are in a certain niche, and I think there is room for collaboration. I think sometimes, just like with the two of us, there are some things that people specialize in and are better at than others, and I think that’s totally fine. For example, I have probably four people in my circle who are experts in how to get people on stages and get TEDx talks. And when I put together a panel for an event that you were part of what I did a little over a year ago, my battle is, which one do I pack? Because they’re all fantastic and fabulous, and so I just picked one, and I picked somebody else this time. And I’m good friends with all of them. I mean, closer to some than others, but I’m still pretty good friends with all of them. So I just want to find a way to work with all of them, because who knows? I might need one or all of them someday. I think it’s a really good idea to have more than one person in a certain niche in your back pocket, because if something goes bad, you don’t have to search around and ask somebody who you know, because you don’t know what someone else’s experience with a total stranger as been. But if I can say with confidence that I like, know, and trust more than one person in the same niche, I have somebody to go to without asking somebody else.
Arlene Gale: Absolutely. Well, and if we make referrals, if I make referrals for example to publishers, because I can publish a book but it’s not what I want to do, it’s not the thing that gets me out of bed in the morning going, woohoo, I’m going to work. But I can have three or four publishers that I’ve got connections with that I can give referrals to. Because sometimes it just comes down to personality, don’t you think?
Brian K. Wright: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I have sometimes made referral based on what I think might be a personality fit for a particular person. So yeah, absolutely.
Arlene Gale: Since you brought it up, and I’m excited about being on your next event, tell us a little bit about that. I know I’m jumping around a little bit, but I am excited about offering them your live, and I’d like for you to just tell us a little bit about what is it, and what made you start it, because this is your second one, right?
Brian K. Wright: Yes. This is the second one, Authorpreneur Live 2.0. And I had somebody on an interview asked me why is it 2.0? I said because [inaudible].
Arlene Gale: Okay.
Brian K. Wright: Pretty simple answer. But Authorpreneur Live is designed for people who want to write their books, market their books, leverage their books, and spin off their book into multiple streams of income for their business, and to build impact and possibilities for themselves and for others. And like you mentioned, I did this before, November, 2018, you were one of my panelists. I had Debbie Allen on, Michael Drew, I had Sharon Lechter, I had Eric Lofholm, I had a really great roster of people. Some of those people are returning, and I wanted to turn the roster over a little bit, because I’ve met new interesting people sense. And like I mentioned before, I want to involve people that I didn’t involve the first time with different areas of expertise. In fact, at least one of the panelists is a client of mine who I did his book with, so I want to reward that relationship too by propping him up, and giving him an opportunity to share his message with the world in a bigger way, he’s doing fantastic.
Arlene Gale: Awesome.
Brian K. Wright: Yeah, I can tell you, just give you a quick rundown of some of the topics that will be covered. The person who’s speaking, by the way, this is on January 29th and 30th. It’s a virtual events, you don’t have to fly anywhere, stay anywhere, disrupt your day, disrupt your week. You can just go to authorpreneurlive.com and register, it’s free. So the first presentation on the first day, January 29th, is about how you can create a coaching program where you can make 3,000 to $10,000 a month, based on expertise that you’ve already written about.
Arlene Gale: Wow.
Brian K. Wright: Pretty cool. The second speaker is going to talk about how to find your WHY when you’re writing your book. And he does a vision board program, and so he helps you to create goals and then visualize them so that you can achieve those goals. And there’s a whole psychology behind seeing images of your goal in front of you multiple times a day, and he’s gonna talk about all of that. My next speaker is going to talk about publishing. Michael Drew, he’s fantastic. He was on the first panel. He’s going to talk about how to become a New York Times bestseller. I had him talk about that a little bit last time, how to decide who you want to publish your book? And so he’s going to unravel a bunch of mysteries around publishing, and that’s going to be really fun. My next speaker is gonna talk about the art of storytelling, because as writers, we have to learn how to tell our story in a way that people want to keep paying attention to us. And interestingly enough, not a lot of us are really great at storytelling. We tell stories for the sake of telling stories, and then that’s all there is. Well, no, there has to be a point to your story. There’s to be a reason for it. You have to advance your idea forward through stories, not the other way around. So he’s going to talk about storytelling. The last speaker on the first day is going to talk about The Power of Joint Venture and Collaborations. For example, you and I meet people who want to write a full blown book, and then we’ve got people who don’t think they’re quite ready. Well, the next step just slightly underneath that is to invite them to do a collaborative book where they only have to do one chapter and they collaborate with 10, 12, 15, 20 other people, and the power of everybody promoting that book will help you leverage everyone’s audiences. So he’s going to talk about the power of doing a collaborative book project if you don’t feel quite ready to write one now. Yeah, it’ll be great.
On day two, I’m going to have someone who’s an expert on LinkedIn. So if you are on LinkedIn but haven’t used it to its fullest, and I’m one of those people, he’s going to teach us how to find people on LinkedIn to talk to, who resonate with us, how to find people with like interests? How to message someone in a way that’s not spammy? How to decide how often you messaged somebody? And the art of following up, the art of joining groups, the art of having a really great compelling LinkedIn profile. There’s something to all of this and just little hinges swing big doors.
Arlene Gale: Oh, yeah. Can I stop you there? Just one moment please. Because I gotta insert this, okay. I’m going to get on my soapbox, and one of my pet peeves about LinkedIn. Okay, people, and people who are listening here I think are smarter than the average bear, and you don’t do this, but in case somebody out there does do this, LinkedIn is a business platform. LinkedIn is not a dating platform. And if you propositioned me on LinkedIn, I am not in that kind of business, so stop that.
Brian K. Wright: No, not at all. I am fortunate, maybe or not fortunate. I have not been propositioned like that, I don’t know.
Arlene Gale: I can forward some to you if you’d like.
Brian K. Wright: Oh, you know what? I don’t want to hog all the fun.
Arlene Gale: Oh, my gosh.It’s amazing, when you pick up an iron at the store, and it says on the iron, ‘do not use this product while wearing your clothes.’ You think, why is that message on the box? It seems like common sense, right?
Brian K. Wright: Right.
Arlene Gale: Yeah. So, yeah, so it’s like this. I feel the same way when I have to give this little disclaimer about what LinkedIn, I shouldn’t have to say this, it says it’s a business platform, and I’m not in that kind of business. So stop sending me roses, workflow roses, virtual boxes of candy, or Hey, when would you like to hook up? Find a thing. No, stop it.
Brian K. Wright: Yeah. Learn how to use LinkedIn the right way and a professional way. The next speaker is going to talk about public relations and media, because once you have a book, you can have the greatest book in the world, but no one knows about it. What good is it to anybody, right? Your friends and family will buy it by default, but who else is going to know about it? So he’s going to talk about the idea of getting on TV, getting on the radio, and then I’m going to ask him if he doesn’t talk about this, how you use that media parents to promote your business without really feeling like you’re selling. Because the news outlet isn’t there to help you sell your book. They’re there because they want you to tell a compelling story, there’s an angle. I mean, it’s entertainment. I mean, it really is, and it’s informative. So you have to educate, inform, and inspire somebody about your topic. And Oh, by the way, if you want to learn more about it, I have a whole book about this, but he’ll teach us about how to use those media appearances to leverage our business. And then you will be the next speaker. And you’re gonna talk about publishing and you’re gonna talk about book proposals.
Arlene Gale: And press releases.
Brian K. Wright: Yeah, and I’m excited about your session. It’s going to be amazing. It’s going to be the 3:00 PM Eastern time slot on Thursday, January 30th. And again, that’s authorpreneurlive.com, please register if you haven’t already, you’ll get email reminders, there’ll be a Zoom you can join. There will be a chat function enables so that you can ask your questions in Zoom chat during the session. You were with me last time, the audience was so interactive, right?
Arlene Gale: They were. I was really impressed. They were, and they asked some great questions too, I’m very impressed. You put together a really great program, Brian.
Brian K. Wright: Well, thank you. I appreciate that. And then after that, I’ve got someone who’s going to talk about, why should I have a podcast, and how you can leverage that to build your business. And then the last session, myself and my business coach, my two business coaches, and we’re going to talk about creating authority in your niche. And that’s Authorpreneur Live. And here’s the cool thing, this time, there will be bonus sessions because instead of 12 sessions, this time I’m doing just 10. Because six sessions a day got to be for really long day, and I loved doing it, and I applaud everyone who stayed all the way through both days. But we’re going to do 10 sessions, and then there will be at least three bonus sessions, and you get access to that by investing in yourself, and getting the recordings for $47. Can we shake a stick at that, you can get the recordings. The replays will be available as a download for $47. Debbie Allen’s going to be one of my bonus speakers, and she’s going to talk about how she got her deal with entrepreneur press, and you helped her with her–
Arlene Gale: I know.
Brian K. Wright: And really, really amazing book, and she’s gonna talk about how to do a proper book launch, because a lot of people will release a book and go, here I am, crickets, crickets, crickets, and the power of having entrepreneur magazine behind her launch was HUGE and amazing. I’ve got another bonus session about how you can find leads to speak on stage, and another bonus session on how you can build a seven figure sales team without spending any money. So those sessions alone are totally worth it. So Authorpreneur Live, January 29th and 30th, at authorpreneurlive.com, register for free, it’ll be awesome.
Arlene Gale: That’s cool. Well, Brian, we’re going to take a quick break, but when we come back, I want to talk to you about creating a 40, and creating it in such a way that, I want to talk about market positioning and then pitches. What’s the difference between a good pitch and a bad pitch?
Brian K. Wright: Awesome.
Arlene Gale: Everybody stay here, we’ll be right back with Brian K. Wright in just a moment.
Welcome back everybody, this is Arlene, and my guest today is Brian K. Wright. And in this part of the program, I want to talk to Brian about creating a 40 in a context that might be a little different than what some people might think because if you remember his introduction, he’s doing some great interviews with some very powerful people. So what is it about, Brian, about your market positioning that brings these people to you, or allows you access to them?
Brian K. Wright: That is a really great question, and when I first started, I didn’t realize that it was going to become what it has become. I was just wanting to start a radio show, and interview people who I respected, wanting to learn more from. And I had a goal of maybe, eventually interviewing enough amazing people that I can compile some of those interviews into a book and I’ve done that several times now, but I didn’t get to talk to a lot of the big names at first. I was very fortunate that I already had a connection to Hal Elrod, who was my very first guest in January, 2012, he has since blown it way up. In fact, you may have heard of him if you’ve read The Miracle Morning or seen any of the books in his series where he talks about how to create a perfect morning routine that will empower you for your entire day. He hadn’t written that book yet when I had him on my show, he was promoting a different book called Taking Life Head On!, I think that’s what’s called. Going to events is a really great way to meet people who you can interview on your show. And creating authority I think has a lot to do with creating associations, and creating networking opportunities with people, and giving first. So many people go into a relationship wanting to take, in fact, I remember one of my mentors was on stage talking about how he gets people to join his mastermind. Just because you have thousands of dollars doesn’t mean he wants to work with you. You have to be a decent person too. I’m sure you feel that way, and I do definitely feel that way, but he talked about one particular application where the person answered the question, why do you want to be part of my mastermind? And this person said: “I want to use your connections.” And it was that languaging, it just felt icky. So he didn’t accept her.
“Creating authority has a lot to do with creating associations and creating networking opportunities with people.” -Brian K. Wright Click To TweetArlene Gale: We had the same professional vocabulary to, icky is one of my professional words.
Brian K. Wright: Yeah, there you go. And sometimes gross and slimy.
Arlene Gale: Slimy, yeah.
Brian K. Wright: Yeah, slip in there. But yeah, the authority I think has to do with being everywhere at once. Because here’s the thing, I have a radio show, people may know about my show, but they don’t know I have a magazine. People may know of a magazine, but don’t know I’ve written books. People may have read my books, but don’t know that I help people put their books together. People may that, but they don’t know I have a show. It’s a one plus one plus one doesn’t equal four, equals five, or six, or seven, or eight because there’s the synergistic element to it. And here’s the cool thing, and you may have seen this in your own business, a small percentage of your clients are super fans, they will buy everything you do. Absolutely, they help keep the doors open, absolutely. I mean, for example, if Elton John’s your favorite artist, don’t you own just about every album that he’s done.
Arlene Gale: Yup.
Brian K. Wright: And you’ve seen maybe one or more of his shows, or if he’s going to be on late night TV, you stay up late and you watch him, or you recorded. But back in the day, you had to stay up, and I’m not a night owl, but I sacrificed. I sacrifice, like I have to watch this person on TV because they’re going to be talking about their new album, which is coming out in three weeks or whatever the case is. But super fan will buy everything. And you do that by being really good at what you do. So creating authority is not only about being everywhere, but it’s also being really good and having a high standard of excellence for yourself, and for the people that you’re working with, so yeah. And for me, when I started doing my show, I realized after a couple of years, I had so much content that I had not repurposed. I did the interview, and it’s out there in space for people to listen to anytime they want. But what about the people who heard my most recent show but haven’t gone back to the beginning to listen to all of them, because I’ve done over 350 hour long episodes now.
“Creating authority is not only about being everywhere, it's also being really good and having a high standard of excellence for yourself and for the people that you're working with.” -Brian K. Wright Click To TweetArlene Gale: Wow.
Brian K. Wright: They don’t have that kind of time to go back and listen to the entire catalog anymore, unless they really are super fan, which love you forever. So you make it easier for people to consume that content through magazine articles, through blog posts, through Facebook lives, through collaborative books that I mentioned where I compiled several of my interviews into a book, and it’s just a matter of where people find you first, and then you just link, and discuss, and bring up the fact that you do this, this, that, and the other thing as well, and let them find you. And if somebody has bought something or invested in you, let them know what else you do because you don’t know, in fact, when I listened to somebody’s audio, for example, I might listen to it again and be in a completely different space in my journey. And now this other thing that they said resonates with me, whereas it didn’t before. It’s like watching your favorite movie, and you’re seeing it for the 18th time, and you realize I didn’t notice that before.
Arlene Gale: Absolutely. An example that comes to mind for me is I’m kind of an animation Disney, kind of geek. So some of my favorite movies, Jungle Book is one of my favorite movies. I love the music, I think about it, and I used to watch it, and then all of a sudden I had children sitting down and watching it with them. Dumbo is another one, and watching it with them, now as a parent, and having to fast forward through the scene where Mowgli gets dragged off by the monkeys, or Dumbo’s mother get picked on by the humans, and having to fast forward that because my children were scared. I’d never seen it that way before, and it just gave me a whole new perspective. So as we go through our journey. in life, the people that impact us, or come and cross our paths impact the way we see things. I think, yeah, that’s great wisdom there. Unplanned wisdom, so thank you for that. I think that it is important to find somebody who resonates with you, and who teaches you. Then continue to connect with them, and continued to go back and see what little nugget can you pick up this time. So I have a question for you, let’s say if we’re going to have to pick out the answer, if we’re going to agree or not, I don’t know if we’ve ever talked about this or not. So you ready?
“As we go through our journey in life, the people who impact us are crossing our paths to impact the way we see things.” -Arlene Gale Click To TweetBrian K. Wright: Yep.
Arlene Gale: What do you say to people who say, I want to write a book because I want to sell a lot of them and make a lot of money?
Brian K. Wright: First of all, I will ask them why they want to write their books? Because if someone has a very strong reason why, then the book will be easier to write, and they will want to continue the process. If you’re not properly motivated and do a lot of work with you, because I’m not your dentist, I am not going to pull your teeth and dry you through this, even if you’re paying me. I mean, my sanity is worth more than whatever you plan to pay me. To the objection or to the idea of I want to make a lot of money. I’ll say, you know what? That’s a really great idea. How big of a platform do you have? How many people follow you? How many followers you have? How many people follow you in LinkedIn? How big is your network? And I’ll pepper them with those kinds of questions and get them to see, maybe I don’t have millions of people in my network. Now what? And I’ll say: “You know, it’s okay that you don’t, but here’s the reality. There are a lot of different ways that you can make money on your book without selling your book. If you sell a lot of copies of your book, that’s awesome. But the reality is, if that is the only thing you’re counting on, you might be sorely disappointed. Unless you’re incredibly famous, or sat in a house for summer and won $1 million, you want to tell people how you did this.” You know, athletes, and politicians, and entertainers usually have a big enough platform where they can just say, Hey, I’ve got a book. And they’ll have millions of people pre-order immediately, whether it’s a book, album, or whatever. Most of us don’t have that platform. So think about what else you can do. Do you coach? Can you host Mastermind Retreats based on your — expertise? Can you speak on stage? Can you write, blog posts about your book? Can you do Facebook lives about content in your book? You can do all of those things, the word out, and that will help and encourage people to tell their friends. So if you’ve got people in your network who are going to promote with you, I don’t like to say to you, but with you, they’ll help too. But I would encourage you to strongly think about making money on your book, not just by selling your book, because you want to be able to stream this out in multiple ways. That’s your best chance of making a lot of money.
“If someone has a very strong reason why, then the book will be easier to write and they will want to continue the process.” -Arlene Gale Click To Tweet “My sanity is worth more than whatever you plan to pay me.” -Brian K. Wright Click To TweetArlene Gale: Okay, well, the good news or the bad news, I’m not sure which, I guess the audience is not going to get to listen to this, duke it out, because I agree with you saying that’s something else we have in common and that’s part of the, I think goes back to the beginning where we’re talking about collaboration. When you’re looking for people who appear to be competition, creating a collaborative environment means that you’re also looking for people who do business the same way you do and having similar philosophies. They just do things differently within similar spaces. So I absolutely agree, and it’s kind of frustrating when I get people who come to me and they’ve written one, or two, or three, or four books, and didn’t make them any money. So that makes me very sad.
Brian K. Wright: And speaking to the idea about having a big platform, if someone asks me, how do I get a publishing deal? I will tell them that one of the things they will absolutely look at and ask you about is, where’s your ability to promote the book? Because it’s not the publisher’s job to sell the book, it is yours, my dear friends.
“It's not the publisher’s job to sell the book. It is yours.” -Brian K. Wright Click To TweetArlene Gale: Oh, yeah. And that’s a whole different myth. That’s a whole different program we’re going to have to get together to talk about.
Brian K. Wright: Right.
Arlene Gale: Okay. So before we wrap things up, I want to put you on the hot seat for a few questions. You ready?
Brian K. Wright: Sure.
Arlene Gale: So what is the biggest mindset either in your personal or professional life that has hindered you from being successful in any specific goal?
Brian K. Wright: I think for the longest time, I was tempted to give into the idea that I’m not quite enough, and that maybe people don’t want to listen to me. It’s like, there’s so many other people doing what I do, why would they want to listen to me? Well, you have to find your uniqueness, and you have to find your unique selling point. And I believe that with the different things that I do, and with the people that I’ve gotten the opportunity to connect with, I think I have a little bit of that gravitas going for me. So you are enough, you have a message, it is your job, and your job only to figure out what that is. And if someone loves you and cares about you enough to help you draw that out like I’ve had in my life, then God bless you. That’s a bonus. But have clarity of mission around who you are and what you’re doing, it’ll help so much.
“You are enough and you have a message, it is your job and your job only to figure out what that is. Have clarity of mission around who you are and what you're doing. It will help so much.” -Brian K. Wright Click To TweetArlene Gale: Okay. Well, that may have answered, my second question was, when you felt down and were feeling like you weren’t enough, and it may have gotten you to the point where you just wanted to beat your head against the wall, what was one of the mindsets that helped you to move past that?
Brian K. Wright: Yeah, I think something that one of my guests said a long time ago on my show still resonates with me today, and I asked him, for final thoughts, we were at the end of the show and he said: “Have a conversation everyday with someone who inspires you.” I thought, wow, how simple and yet profound. That can be on the phone, it can be on Facebook chat, it can be an email, but talk to somebody everyday who inspires you and just do it. Listen to audio, read books that motivate and inspire you, read autobiographies of people who have gone through the muck and have made it, and you’ll quickly begin to see that, well, maybe my problems not so bad.
Arlene Gale: Yes, absolutely. So the final question is, what one nugget comes to top of mind that you can leave us with a piece of wisdom that a listener can implement right now that you’ve learned on your success journey, now eight years Success Profiles Radio.
Brian K. Wright: Think way bigger, way bigger. Because if you ask the universe for something, there’s a good chance you’re going to get it if you act on it. If you’re not asking big enough, you’re not going to get big enough. Be thankful for what you already have so that bigger blessings can come your way. But I would venture to say, just play the game on a much, much bigger level. The world needs you, and don’t you dare play small.
“Think way bigger. If you're not asking big enough, you're not going to get big enough.” -Brian K. Wright Click To Tweet “Play the game on a much, much bigger level. The world needs you and don't you dare play small.” -Brian K. Wright Click To TweetArlene Gale: Ooh, that is so good. Brian, that’s great wisdom, and thank you so much for your time being here today. Before we leave, would you repeat, maybe your Facebook and your website so people can connect with you and listen to Authorpreneur Live.
Brian K. Wright: Yeah, yeah. Authorpreneur Live, authorpreneurlive.com, register for the event. It’s on January 29th and 30th, it’s free, it’s two days. You can invest in the recordings for $47 if you want to have those recordings going forward, or if you don’t think you’ll be able to make all the sessions, my website is Brian K. Wright, briankwright.com, you can learn all about me there. I’m on Facebook, I’m on Twitter, I’m on LinkedIn, and the email is brian@briankwright, if you want to reach out to me and talk to me. And if you want to set up a call with me to discuss anything that we’ve talked about today, call with brian.com and pick a time.
Arlene Gale: Cool. Well, thank you again for your time, and being here, and being my collaborative friend. I appreciate that so much.
Brian K. Wright: Oh, so do I. Thank you so much for who you are in the world, Arlene. I look forward to having you on Authorpreneur Live.
Arlene Gale: I’m looking forward to it too. So thank you listeners for being with us today. Before we go, I want to leave you with this thought. ‘Do not let the world dictate your story. Be mindful of the stories that you tell yourself about what IS or IS NOT possible for you as you choose to write your story everyday.’