Everyone Has a Story to Tell: Here’s Why You Should Share Yours – Michelle Prince

If you’re thinking about writing your own book, but are not sure if you have what it takes, let us stop you right there. Everyone has a unique story that’s worth sharing. To put it in our guest’s words, you have a story, and your story matters.

Michelle Prince is a best-selling author, motivational speaker, publishing expert, leadership coach, and the Founder of Performance Publishing Group. She’s helped thousands of soon-to-be authors become published authors through her consulting, courses, seminars, and publishing services. A fun fact about Michelle is that she started her career working for the late Zig Ziglar and is now a brand ambassador continuing his legacy. She has also published many successful books, including her best-selling Winning In Life Now that you’ll hear more about in this episode.

Michelle believes that we all have multiple books within us. It’s just a matter of finding the intersection between your passions and experiences and there you have it, that’s your book idea!

In this episode of the Think Business With Tyler podcast, we talk about the importance of stories and how they keep us connected, why everyone has a unique story worth telling and writing a book about, how to write a book for marketing purposes, and use it as a business card and why writing a book gives you authority and credibility.

If you want to hear more about the book-writing process, tune into the latest episode to find out more.

Guest-At-A-Glance

 

💡 Name: Michelle Prince

💡 What she does: Michelle is a best-selling author, sought-after motivational speaker, publishing expert, leadership coach, and the CEO of Performance Publishing Group.

💡 Noteworthy: She is a Ziglar Legacy Certified speaker/trainer, and is honored to be named the Ziglar Brand Ambassador, representing the values and legacy of the late Zig Ziglar.

💡 Key Quote: “If you have your central message and then you also have it in a book and then, of course, you’re doing keynotes on it or you’re consulting on it, it gives the perception of authority.”

💡 Where to find Michelle: LinkedIn

 

Key Insights

 

Stories are important because that’s how we connect with each other. If there’s anything that Michelle has learned from her long experience helping soon-to-be authors, it’s that stories are important. They make the world go round and help us stay connected. According to Michelle, the best way to share your story with the world is to write a book. “The good news is that you don’t have to be a great writer to be an author. You have to just have the story and the content and that’s what editors are for. […] And all of us have multiple books within us. But the core message, what is it you can help someone with personally, professionally, what are you passionate about? Where are your experiences and again, it’s that intersection of the two that makes for one of the best books to write.”

Everyone has a story – your story is a combination of your passions and experiences. Despite what you may think, everyone has a story to tell. As a matter of fact, everyone has multiple stories to tell which means there are endless opportunities for books. So how do you write a book then? It’s simple. Start by jotting down your passions and then your experiences. Find the intersection of the two and that’s your book right there. “The thing with experiences, we may not be passionate about it, meaning there’s a lot of things we experienced in life that we didn’t want to go through. But it’s a part of your story. So you got to put it on the list. But where the magic comes in is trying to find an intersection between the two, something that you have on the passion list and on the experience list, because then it’s a book that you want to write, you’re passionate about it and you have the credibility to back it up.”

Your book is your business card. Michelle believes that a book can be an effective business card. That being said, if you want to build your authority and develop a strong personal brand, writing a book is a great way to start. Michelle shares her thoughts on using a book as a marketing tool. “If you think of a book as a marketing tool, it has to be something that people will easily digest, meaning that they’re easily going to get the information, retain it and use it. […] It’s much much better to say something concisely and get to the point, then drag out a message just so you could have a 200-page book. It doesn’t make sense and the reader doesn’t want that. So give the reader what they want as concisely as you can.”

Writing your own book gives you authority and helps you build a strong personal brand.  To put it in Michelle’s words, you can’t spell authority without ‘author’. That’s even the title of one of her books and it perfectly sums up the power of authority that books hold. Leverage what you’re already sharing with your clients to create a business card for your brand – your book. “The benefit of the authority that comes by being an author has absolutely nothing to do with the size of the book. It is the fact that you published it. […] If I give away a free book in exchange for someone else’s business card, and the reason it works is one again, you are published regardless of the size, but two people will throw away a business card but they will not throw away a book.”

Top Quotes

“I started telling people about my book and that literally opened up an opportunity to opportunities to speak to coach eventually own a publishing company for helping other people to do the same. And so it’s been a snowball, but it’s it started with me just trying to share my own personal story. I wish I could say I had a grand business plan for where I am today, but I didn’t. So that’s why I love helping people with books as I know the power that comes by being an author.”

“Your story is ultimately just who you are. But I like to break it down simpler. It’s really a combination of your passions and your experiences. And it’s that collision of the two that creates your story and this has nothing to do with just a book. This is what is it you can bring to the world personally or professionally that can make a difference. Help someone teach someone. And so we’re doing it all day every day.”

“It was divine because I could not have planned it. But I do believe though in the power of our thoughts and you will always go in the direction of your thoughts even subconsciously.”

“I started a business because I was passionate and I didn’t focus on how to run a business. So after racking up a bunch of debt, I had to figure it out. And so that’s when I started hiring people and I started putting systems in place and looking at my P&Ls all the time and things that I just I didn’t get into, quote-unquote business to do but I had to have that wake-up call that if I wanted to have a business, there was no other way.”

“It’s the title of my last book, and it’s actually a play on words. It’s you can’t spell authority without author. So the whole point is by leveraging your story, leveraging what you’re already sharing with clients and prospects when you present it in such a way, it can be used as your business card to build your authority. So that’s kind of the essence of it.”

“It’s all within your head. It’s so that the first step is not a book yet, but it’s getting it out of your head onto paper. And I sometimes call it throwing up on paper because, or a brain dump, because it’s gobbledygook. It’s not a book yet, but you can easily move things around. I keep this I know you can see my office I have a big whiteboard or paper marker, and I do that and so every book I’ve written I’ve mapped every project that I work on, I do that. So that’s really the first step is clarity and then just get it out on paper because you can hire people to help you make it read well, but nobody knows your story.”

Links

LinkedIn

Personal Website

The Power of Authority: Free Copy

 

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Michelle Prince  00:00

I started a business because I was passionate, and I didn’t focus on how to run a business. So after racking up a bunch of debt, I had to figure it out. And so that’s when I started hiring people. And I started putting systems in place and looking at my p&l all the time, and you know, things that I just, I didn’t get into, quote unquote business to do. But I had to have that wake up call that if I wanted to have a business, there was no other way.

Announcer  00:28

Welcome to think business with Tyler sharing our methods and strategies for success. Join in on our conversations with business owners. As we highlight their triumphs and detail how they overcame the challenges they faced while continuing to grow and scale their business. It’s time to think life think success, and think business with your host, Tyler Martin.

Tyler Martin  00:50

Hey, everyone. Thanks so much for listening to another episode of The think business Tyler podcast show. Today’s guest is Michelle Prince. And Michelle is an author and the founder of performance Publishing Group. A fun fact about Michelle’s as she started her career working for the late Zig Ziglar. Now, if you don’t know who Zig Ziglar is, take a few moments and just google him figure out who he is. And listen to what he has to say he’s a lot of fun to listen to really great motivational speaker. Michelle believes that we all have multiple books within us. It’s just a matter of finding the intersection between your passions and your experiences. In this episode, we chat about the importance of stories and how they keep us connected. Why everyone has a unique story. We’re telling how to write a book for marketing purposes, and use it as a business card. And last but not least, why writing a book gives you authority and credibility. As someone who would like to write a book someday. It was fun to hear Michelle’s thoughts on this topic. I hope you enjoy the show. Let’s get going. Hey, Michelle, thanks so much for being on the sync business with Tyler podcast show. How are you doing today?

Michelle Prince  01:56

I’m doing great. Tyler. Thanks so much for having me.

Tyler Martin  01:59

Yeah. Well, thanks for being here. I’ve a lot of interesting questions. I can’t wait to learn more about you. My first question is, I’d love to just know what you’re doing now.

Michelle Prince  02:06

Well, I have a publishing company. So I help people to figure out what their story is, what’s the topic? How do you get it out of your head on the paper, and then we publish it for them. And I also do a lot of speaking and leadership training for companies.

Tyler Martin  02:20

I love that. So you’re speaking by heart when we talk about writing a book, that’s definitely one of my bucket list items. It’s, uh, it started out as 2021 vision. And then as you know, the pandemic threw me off this year. And now it’s 2022. So we’ll see. So I’m even more excited to talk about this. So first, I’d love to talk about your story. Like just why is having a story important? And then can you share your story how it intertwines with what we’re about to talk about?

Michelle Prince  02:46

You bet. I mean, story’s important, because that’s how we connect with one another. I mean, truly, we do business with people we know like, and trust. And our stories help us to know like, and trust someone. My story actually started right out of college, I started working for Zig Ziglar. And it was a long, crazy story. I met him at 18, I made a plan to work for him someday. And it was about five years later that I ended up working for him in the corporate office and incredible experience. And I love my job. I love what we were doing. But I ended up quitting about three or four years into working there to pursue truthfully, more money. I went into software sales and spent the next 13 years and you know, climbing a corporate ladder, but found out pretty quickly my ladder was leaning up against the wrong wall. So one thing like you, Tyler, I always wanted to write a book. And so in 2009, I decided to do it not for any purpose other than just checking off a goal and then sharing my story with my kids who were in elementary at the time. And I did and I wrote the book, and Zig wrote the foreword, and I published it. And I think I told five people, but it was such a pivotal time because somebody had challenged me and said, you know, if you want to make a difference, you have to share your story, and encouraged me enough to be like, You know what, you’re right. I’m going to get it out there. And so I started telling people about my book. And that literally opened up an opportunity to opportunities to speak to coach eventually own a publishing company for helping other people to do the same. And so it’s been a snowball, but it’s, it started with me just trying to share my own personal story. And I mean, I wish I could say I had a grand business plan for where I am today, but I didn’t. So that’s why I love helping people with books as I know the power that comes by being an author,

Tyler Martin  04:31

right? Let me dig a little bit into that whole story thing. Like, why is that important? Like, why should I have a story like what is it to connect with my audience? Is it so what people know to expect from me in terms of what I’m going to say or just just help me and how do you even craft that?

Michelle Prince  04:47

Yeah, it’s a great question. You know, you’re telling your story all the time. And especially with your podcast, maybe even just the blurb about the kinds of things you’re talking about what you’re passionate about. Your story is ultimately just who you are, but I’d like to break it down simpler. It’s really a combination of your passions and your experiences. And it’s that that collision of the two that creates your story. And this has nothing to do with just a book. This is, you know, what is it you can bring to the world personally or professionally that can make a difference, help someone teach someone. And so we’re doing it all day, every day, we’re doing it over coffee with a friend, we’re doing it on a podcast or in a book. But it is there is something to it, the more we try to do, the more authentic we are with, Hey, this is me, I don’t have it all figured out. I feel like we resonate more with our audience when we’re just telling our, here’s who we are. And that’s really your story. And it’s no different than what you who you are when you’re with your closest friends. But we need to extend that in business as well.

Tyler Martin  05:49

Got it got us up. That’s where that authentic part plays in. Is this really who you are. I got it. I do want to drill down a little bit on the Zig Ziglar thing. So Zig Ziglar. One of my I guess I’d call virtual mentors, in my younger days, sadly, has passed on kind of falls into a Tony Robbins world, I would say, except for one of the pioneers of that whole world. What was it like to work with him? He’s such a cool dude. And or at least everywhere. I’ve seen him he seemed to be a cool dude. Is he that way in person to?

Michelle Prince  06:17

Oh my gosh, I always say he was actually better in person than he even was on a stage. Really? Wow. He’s truly I’ve never met a man with more integrity, more love for people. Everything he did had a purpose. And it was, you know, to lift people up and give people hope. And so to work for him was just not only an honor, but it was just so inspiring at such a young age. And I was only 22 When I started working for him. So it was such a big influence on me. But yeah, he was even better. I mean, just the kindest, sweetest he’d come around and talk to us in our cubicles. And, you know, I have so many great funny stories that he was, he was like a grandpa. I mean, it’s just amazing.

Tyler Martin  06:57

Yeah. Do you happen to have one of those off the top of your head? I’d love to hear one of the stories. I mean, he’s just such a cool guy. Do you have one that comes to mind? Yeah, actually.

Michelle Prince  07:05

So I’ve been married to my husband now for 24 years. But when I was working in Sigler, he and I were dating. And he always, you know, he really cared about everybody at the company. I remember one day he came into my cubicle and imagine this is Zig Ziglar. I mean, he’s bigger than life, right? And he’s walking around or to the sales team and just talking to everybody. And he comes in my cube. And he said, you know, with his draw, and he’s like, you know, Michelle’s that boy still treat me right? And I’m like, yes, yes, sir. Yes, he is. He’s all right. Well, the moment he doesn’t you let me know. And I was just always, that way, you know, and just one other thing. And I know, this wasn’t just with me, he did this. He made everyone feel this way. But he just made you feel like you were the most important person in the world to him at that moment. He just had this gift.

Tyler Martin  07:52

Yeah, what’s so cool when you, you don’t quite do a perfect Zig Ziglar. But it was close, Michelle, whenever I hear it, I actually just like to hear His voice, sometimes as a soothing, like, I don’t haven’t for a while, but for the longest time, especially in my earlier days of developing myself, I’d literally like listen to him going to bed like it was just like hearing his, you know, his affirmations and his positivity and all these different things. So I could only imagine like being in the same office with him. It has just been so cool that I mean, life changing,

Michelle Prince  08:23

life changing. And you know, I don’t know that I didn’t know the impact. Looking back, you know, many decades later, I can see the impact that it had. And one funny other story is my the only reason I ended up working for him is because my parents forced me to go to his seminar when I was 18. I just graduated from high school and they literally forced my brother and I to go to this thing. It was born to win. It was a three day event. I went kicking and screaming, but I loved it so much. That that’s when I said to him, like I’m going to work for you one day, you just wait. And and then it happened about five years after that. So but I didn’t really fully realize the impact until now looking back, and thank you, Mom and Dad.

Tyler Martin  09:06

Yeah, yeah. I mean, your parents sounded pretty progressive and pushing you in that direction. And then is there something to that the fact that you said, I’m going to work for you someday? And ultimately did it? Is that just more of an element of your personality? Or do you think people to some degree where we should be wired that way in terms of our vision, and what we intend to do?

Michelle Prince  09:27

I do because you know, when I left the seminar, I literally went straight to college that next week, and I spent four and a half years in college and I was a typical college girl and, you know, I kind of forgotten that and I graduated from college. My first job was selling copiers and truth be told, I totally forgot about working for him and I ended up cold calling accidentally quote unquote no coincidence, I don’t think but I ended up cold calling on his the office didn’t even know he was based in Dallas. And that’s when it was like instantly like, oh my gosh, that’s right. I’m supposed to work here.

Tyler Martin  10:01

Wow, what a cool story that

Michelle Prince  10:03

serendipitous. I mean, like, surely I know, it’s it was divine, because I could not have planned it. But I do believe, though, in the power of our thoughts, and you will always go in the direction of your thoughts, even subconsciously. So who knows what really went on there, but I ended up in the right place at the right time.

Tyler Martin  10:20

Yeah, that’s a great story. And I do think there is something there like when you you know, you just happen to cold call them, there’s just something like in part of that bigger picture where it all plays out, it’s meant to be if you will, karma, whatever you want to call it, I want to talk about now you have your own business, you’re helping people. When did you get that? Because this is always something really helpful for business owners, I think, just to have this conversation, what pushed you to say, Hey, I’m gonna start a business.

Michelle Prince  10:44

You know, all the years I was in sales, software sales, I remember saying, I will never own my own business. I don’t mean that pressure, right. But then after, so when I wrote a book in 2009, that I didn’t intend to do anything with. But when we launched it, I put it out there, I was still working my software job. I had no intention of anything else. And I just started to get phone calls for people asking me to coach them, or hey, will you come speak to my women’s group or, you know, and I was doing both those juggling full time job and all of that, but it hit me in about later, late 2009, early 2010, when I was out speaking, I’d get to questions all the time. One, people always want to know what it was like working with Zig, of course. Yeah. Because he’s just such a huge part of my story. I can’t tell my story without talking about him. But the other question was, well, how do you write a book, I want to write a book. And I literally just went through the process. So I’m telling people, like, look, this isn’t rocket science, if I can do this, you can do this. And that just kind of was very organically started. And before I knew it, I was doing seminars four times a year teaching people how to write publish, and market books. And, and now we have a publishing company that started in 2010. And so it was the catalyst, I guess, but it wasn’t like I sat down and thought, oh, I want to go into publishing. That never crossed my mind. But it is pretty awesome. Because I do believe your book is your business card. And if for those people who are wanting to build a bigger platform, it is one of the ways to do it. It’s not the only way, right, it is important. And it gets you on stages, if you want to speak and

Tyler Martin  12:16

yeah, opens a lot of doors before I go down that path, because I definitely have a lot of questions in that world. Let’s just talk about one other thing related to your business. I’d love to talk about what are some challenges that you’ve faced as you’ve been building your business, like, does anything stand out? I’d love to just kind of go into I think people can resonate with that. Oh, yeah,

Michelle Prince  12:34

I’ve made more mistakes than I’m, then I want to admit, because when I started, I loved everything I was speaking on. And I was passionate about it. And it was about a year or two in, I looked up and I was I had so much debt. And I didn’t know how to run a business. I just knew how to inspire people. It never even occurred to me and I was kind of in the I’m embarrassed to say that I had my head in the sand, like I don’t want to look at p&l, you know, let’s just have fun. Let’s just go out and inspire people. And then I read the E Myth. And realize how everything I was doing was completely wrong. I started a business because I was passionate. And I didn’t focus on how to run a business. So after racking up a bunch of data, I had to figure it out. And so that’s when I started hiring people. And I started putting systems in place and looking at my p&l is all the time and you know, things that I just I didn’t get into, quote unquote business to do but I had to have that wake up call that if I wanted to have a business, there was no other way.

Tyler Martin  13:38

Wow. You know, I chuckled when you said you made a lot of mistakes. And I just have to clarify, I wasn’t chuckling at your mistakes. It was chuckling at so much connection, in terms of we all anybody that’s ran a business for the vast majority feel like they’ve made so many mistakes. And I feel like that’s such a part of the journey, right? Like, you know, sometimes you just stay stuck and that’s unfortunate but if you get past that stuckness if you will, that’s when the journey even gets more fun business gets fun again. And I love when you say E Myth because that’s another thing that really define my world like that started where what got me to here today that’s definitely another pioneer in this world of systemization delegating, doing it right, thinking bigger picture. So there’s just a lot of things that you said that are so gold, we’re gonna step back for a break just here for a short moment. When we come back, we’re going to talk about the power of authority. I’m really excited to talk about this. We’ll be right back Michelle.

Announcer  14:35

If you’re a business owner, feeling stuck in your business overwhelmed responsible for everything that happens and working long hours, Tyler helps his clients develop processes hire high performing team members and better understand their financial metrics and numbers to allow for a more predictable, less hands on business. To schedule a free no pressure consultation, head to think tyler.com and click the Meeting button. Tyler would love to see if he can help you work on your Business not in your business. schedule a consultation today at Think tyler.com Think life think success think business.

Tyler Martin  15:09

Okay, cool. Well, hey, welcome back, everybody. We’re going to dive back in, we were going to talk about the power of authority with Michelle. Hey, Michelle, what is the power of authority? And what does it mean as it relates to a business owner and entrepreneur? And having the power of authority?

Michelle Prince  15:24

Yeah, you bet. So it’s the title of my last book, and it’s actually a play on words, it’s you can’t spell authority without author. So the whole point is, by leveraging your story, leveraging what you’re already sharing with clients and prospects, when you you present it in such a way it can be used as your business card to build your authority. So that’s, that’s kind of the essence of it. It’s not just so about a book, but I do know, and maybe I’m biased, but I do believe, I think I am. I do believe though a book is one of the easiest ways to open up doors, such as consulting and speaking and, you know, it just brings this instant credibility that whether or not it’s deserved, I’m not saying it always is, but it is we value people, we value content, first of all, so if somebody has gone to the effort to publish a book, we instantly see them with more authority.

Tyler Martin  16:13

Sure. What do you feel about? I’m seeing this happening more in the last five years, when professionals want to leverage being an author as part of their credibility and their authority. It’s common now to have a two or three hour book that you can read in two or three hours, I think, might equate to 100 pages are so how do you feel about that world? Is that still a real book? You’ve given this on Amazon? Is that a good approach? Is that a bad approach? What’s your thoughts,

Michelle Prince  16:38

I actually do like a smaller book and because, again, if you think of a book as a marketing tool, it has to be something that people will easily digest, meaning that they’re easily going to get the information, retain it and use it. I personally long before I was even helping people with books, I was traveling all over. And if I could read a book, I live in Dallas. So to go to either coast is about three hours, if I could read an entire book on a flight, that was a win for me, because it was a thick, thick book. And I had to you know, it took me weeks to read, I just that wasn’t my I wanted to get what I wanted out of that book and move on. So personally, for me, most of my books are about 120 pages or less, you know, you can do a lot with that. And I always tell people, our authors, I tell them, Look, it’s much, much better to say something concisely and get to the point, then drag out a message just so you could have a 200 page book, it doesn’t make sense. And the reader doesn’t want that. So give the reader what they want, as concisely as you can.

Tyler Martin  17:36

Yeah, I agree. Like I read a lot of my books off of Kindle nowadays, you know, I look in that corner, it tells you how long it’s going to take you to read it. And I do feel when it’s like these marathon type books, a lot of times it feels really regurgitated if feels like you’re talking about the same thing over and over. And I really do love when to your point, if you can do it in one sitting or one weekend, or one flight or whatever, it just feels so good to have someone share their 30 years, 20 years, 10 years of experience in that very short amount of time.

Michelle Prince  18:07

And you know, the the benefit, the authority that comes by being an author has absolutely nothing to do with the size of the book, it is the fact that your published it doesn’t even actually have anything to do with the content. Although it does need to be good content. We do a lot of what we call business card books, little mini books. In fact, I’ll show you mine, this is my business card. Truly, it’s called your book as your business card. But it’s just a little book. And it just has some great information to get someone started on how to write a book. But I use it as my business card. So that means if I give away a free book in exchange for someone else’s business card, and the reason it works is one again, you are published regardless of the size, but two people will throw away a business card that they will not throw away about.

Tyler Martin  18:51

It’s true. That’s why I went to kindle frankly, because I was filling a whole wall of books and I was driving my wife wild have just books everywhere. And so our negotiation was and I’m this is kind of a joke. We didn’t actually negotiate. But basically I went to Kindles because now I can have my 1000 books. And it’s not getting in the way so and I will not remove them like I just the ones I have that are old. I just can’t let go of them.

Michelle Prince  19:14

No, I know. You’ve never read on it’s still there’s some

Tyler Martin  19:18

something to it. Yeah. So that’s cool. So take us through guy like me, dreaming about being an author someday. Not necessarily a great writer, not a bad one worries about writing 100 pages, like getting that out of my head is a nightmare. How do you do that? Do you do that in small bites you do that with a coach? What are the steps in your mind? For someone like me there to imagine there’s a lot out there just like that. Yeah. What are your thoughts? Well, the

Michelle Prince  19:45

good news is that you don’t have to be a great writer to be an author. You have to just have the the story and the content and that’s what editors are for is to make everything great. Well so your best friend, isn’t it? But no okay, I’ll be happy to the first step is figuring Now, what exactly is the topic? Because Tyler even just a little bit I know about you, you could you could write a book on so many different things. And all of us have multiple books within us. But the core message, you know, what is it you can help someone with personally, professionally? You know, what are you passionate about? Where are your experiences, and again, it’s that intersection of the two that makes for one of the best books to write, we usually do this exercise where we have a make a T chart, and on the left hand side, they write all their passions. And this has nothing to do with the book yet. But it’s, you know, do you love to travel? Do you love leadership? Do you love kids? You know, are you passionate about personal development like I am, and you make that long, long list of all your passions, and then you switch gears and think about, okay, what are all my experiences you’ve may have experienced with business, you may have experienced as a parent, maybe traveling, maybe cookie, you know, all of those experiences we go through in life. But the thing was experiences, we may not be passionate about it, meaning there’s a lot of things we experienced in life that we didn’t want to go through. But it’s a part of your story. So you got to put it on the list. But where the magic comes in is trying to find an intersection between the two, something that you have on the passion list, and on the experience list, because then it’s a book that you want to write, you’re passionate about it, and you have the credibility to back it up. There’s plenty of people that start a book. And usually it’s because it’s something they know they’ve experienced, maybe they read a sales book, because they’re on sales, but they’re not passionate about it. So those books tend to never get finished. And then the opposite is true. If you just write about something where you’re passionate, but you have no experience, there’s no credibility. So it’s that intersection. But then it’s really just me, I do this all the time, where we all meet with someone for a couple of hours. And by the end, we have their entire book mapped out on a board chapters, sub chapters and all that, because everything you would put into a book is in your head. And once you know that clarity of what the core messages, then you know, I love using mind mapping for outlining books, because it’s just, you know, kind of putting the core message of let’s just say it’s, um, you know, leadership development, and then asking yourself, okay, what are some of the big things that I know about leadership development that I would want to share with a colleague or somebody that I could help, and you start kind of at the high level, and then you just keep coming down and down. And I know I’m over simplifying this, but it’s all within your head. So that first step is not a book yet, but it’s getting it out of your head onto paper. And I sometimes call it like throwing up on paper because, or a brain dump, you know, because it’s, it’s gobbledygook. It’s not a book yet. But you can easily move things around, I keep this I know, you can see my office, I have a big white board or paper, marker. And I do that. And so every book I’ve written, I’ve my map, every project that I work on, I do that. So that’s really the first step is clarity, and then just get it out on paper, because you can hire people to help you make it read well, but nobody knows your story the way.

Tyler Martin  23:02

Yep, yep, that makes sense. So when you call it a business card, two questions here, one, in your vision is really anybody if you’re a termite, you know, you go out and kill termites and 10 houses or you’re a pest control, or you’re a painter, is anybody in your world, in your mind? Someone that should be writing a book and its authority? Is a certain professions that it’s aligned better with? Is it? What are your thoughts on that?

Michelle Prince  23:27

You know, it’s, you would think it would just be certain professions, but actually, the ones that certain industries, because they don’t do this type of thing, they end up getting more benefit. I’ll give you an example. Probably about eight, nine years ago, we did a book project for a group of carpet cleaners, believe it or not, and the book itself was just, it was kind of like everything you need to know before hiring a carpet cleaner. So it’s kind of generic content. And but then, you know, the introduction was all about their story, why they do what they do, why they got into business. And you know, the end was maybe some coupons and things. But basically, it was intended to be for their referral partners, right, and giving it to the real estate agents and putting it in the bags of the welcome committee. But because how many carpet cleaners write books, it instantly became one of those things where somebody said, Oh, well, I could work with these guys. And this guy wrote a book on it, or I could work with these guys, and I don’t know who they are. And by the way, the book is telling me to avoid people like that. So the answer is it can apply to any business. The key is figuring out what do you want it to do? So a business card book is a little I view it differently, because it has a it has an intention, meaning, like for mine, my if somebody were to read this, it would, my hope would be that the natural conclusion afterwards is that they should attend my book writing event because I talked about that. So a business card book has an intention of Do you want them to call you do you want them to schedule an appointment? Do you want them to you know, download a free something, but any industry I mean, we’ve done this in all industries they You can think of and it works.

Tyler Martin  25:01

So and I think I’m also hearing you correctly, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. We’re not expecting this book, we’ll put it on Amazon, we’re not expecting it to be a best seller with a million sales tomorrow, it’s more about the authority that it creates you as, as an author, one and then two, to be able to connect with your ideal audience that may not be a large audience, or it may not be a book devouring type of audience. Is that correct? In my thought process? Yeah,

Michelle Prince  25:28

it depends. Everyone has a different goal for why they do a book, if it’s currently for marketing, like, for example, some people will write a book just to leave a legacy so as to sell 10 copies to their kids, grandkids, this makes them happy. Others who like for example, you know, we work with CEOs that really either want to leverage it to grow the business, or maybe they want to start going into consulting or something, they’re using it for a purpose. But it has great content. And they’re not necessarily wanting, they don’t care about necessarily selling a lot of books, but maybe using it as a tool for prospecting or a tool for opening up opportunities. You know, most first time authors don’t sell a lot of books unless you’re doing a huge marketing effort. So if your only goal is to sell books, and it’s a pretty big uphill battle, you will sell books, but you have to do the math. I mean, it’s how many books do you need to sell in a year in order to make the income you want to make in a year? Probably a lot. But if you look at the book, whether it’s little book, full book, all of that as the door opener, the thing that’s going to bring you more revenue, more opportunities to do business, more opportunities to speak or to coach or you know, all of those things, then the amount you bring back is so much more than you would ever make just selling books.

Tyler Martin  26:41

Okay, that makes sense. And how does it intertwined getting a little bit of a wave from books, but I imagine to some degree this overlaps. So in terms of branding, and like monetizing your message, what are your thoughts around like, just our own branding, and then being able to monetize our message, have some thoughts as it relates to that?

Michelle Prince  26:59

Yeah, branding is, you know, consistency, more than anything, I mean, what you put out there, people will believe truly, somebody with a great marketing budget could have a brand new business and come across as so, you know, much more have more authority than somebody who had been in business for 10 years only because of their outward appearance and branding and consistency. So that’s kind of where the book also comes in. And podcasting, I love podcasting, and I love you know, courses and things like that. But what if you have your central message, and then you also have it in a book, and then of course, and you’re doing you know, keynotes on it, or you’re consulting on it, it gives the perception of authority. And, you know, we all want to work with the best, right? And, and that’s really, it’s kind of sad in a way that the the books that end up on New York Times bestseller or get the most traction aren’t necessarily because of the content of the book. It’s many times the the marketing that they did, right? Oh, yeah, it has the best book in the world and the biggest heart in the world to help people. But if you don’t focus on building your brand, and your platform and kind of being all places, you know, you may not be able to help the folks you really are wanting to help.

Tyler Martin  28:09

Yeah, I get that. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So hey, I want to segue I got a couple of fun questions. Before we wrap up. Do you have a book that stands out for you that you really like or even maybe one that you’re reading now?

Michelle Prince  28:19

Well, my all time favorite book. And you know, this would probably make sense because of my background is a but see you at the top is still one of my all time favorite books. And I can read that 100 times and still get another nugget out of it. Tom, his son has written a great book called choose to win that I really love and it’s similar. So anything around those kinds of messages, personal development, I’m I’m all in and I have a whole bookcase full of them. I do love leadership. And you know, I have another passion of organizational behavior. So personality assessments, I’m you know, disk certified. So I tend to gravitate towards leadership books, and things like that. My most recent book that I bought that, I’ll tell you, and I’ve just started it, but it looks pretty good is Jordan Rayners redeeming your time. Okay, and so I’m just diving into it, but I they’re always nonfiction books that I read. I don’t really read any fiction, but that’s usually personal or professional development.

Tyler Martin  29:11

Yeah, I didn’t know Tom Ziegler wrote a book. You know, I always shudder a little bit when I asked this question, because I feel like as soon as we’re done, I’m gonna have to go buy three books or whatever, every time and it adds more books that hopefully someday I get to

Michelle Prince  29:25

Yeah.

Tyler Martin  29:28

Last question I’d love to share if you could share with us in the audience is, do you have like a business or a life tip that we can apply? And can just help us be a little bit better starting today?

Michelle Prince  29:39

Yeah, so I do love productivity and all that I am a big believer of time blocking and boundaries. And I had to learn this the hard way to in the beginning of my business. I said yes to pretty much everything just to kind of get the business going. And then realizing a couple years and then actually I need to say no and block my time and prioritize. So what am I biggest pieces of advice is figuring out, when are you the most creative? What are your golden hours, you know, and then protect those hours, like crazy. So for example, if your most creative first thing in the morning, do not schedule conference calls, or do not schedule meetings, blocking it out, and I didn’t create time blocking, but I love it, and I use it, but the discipline of that, and also setting boundaries with your clients, making sure people know what’s important to you, and when you’re available, and you’ll attract the kind of people that will work within. You know, for example, when I was starting my coaching business, I said yes, all the time, found myself self coaching seven, eight o’clock at night when I little kids at home, and then realize that no, this doesn’t work for my lifestyle. So my boundary is no, no work at night and on weekends, while my kids were young at home. So, you know, there’s a

Tyler Martin  30:50

lot there. There’s, they’re saying, No, I’m with you all the way setting boundaries. I love the knowing when you’re your best. I know for me, like for example, like I’m a morning person. So you put me in game time from seven to 10. And I’m a sharpest attack. I’m not one of those people that can work till you know, three o’clock in the morning, midnight, I really envy the ones that can. So mad, so much good stuff there. So what I’ll do is I’ll send I’ll put these in the show notes. Of course, your link is the power of authority.com/free book, and they can get a free book there. If they want to visit you. I’ll put it in the show notes. Is there anywhere else that you’d like the folks to go in the audience to reach out or contact you in any way?

Michelle Prince  31:30

Yeah, you bet. I mean, my main websites, Michelle prince.com. But if there’s anyone thinking of maybe exploring the idea of telling their story or writing a book, we do free strategy sessions and those are at performance Publishing. group.com.

Tyler Martin  31:45

Okay, I’ll add that to the note too, as well as your personal website. Okay. Well, hey, Michelle, it was awesome to have you You’re obviously a wealth of knowledge. And you shared a appreciate your transparency about everything. When you get your next book coming down the line or your next big event. I’d love to have you back and have another conversation.

Michelle Prince  32:02

I would love that Tyler, thank you so much. Okay, have a good one. Thank you.

Announcer  32:07

That’s all for this episode of Think business with Tyler. We have plenty more resources to help you in your pursuit of business excellence on our website at think tyler.com If you’d like to be featured in a future episode of the show, feel free to reach out to us on social media at think underscore Tyler, we look forward to helping you think life think success and think business