Bill Blankschaen - Elevate Your Influence: The Art and Science of Storytelling

In 3, 2, 1.

Welcome back to Becoming Preferred, the podcast dedicated to helping you move from being an option to being the preferred choice in your industry.

If you're an entrepreneur, a leader, or a professional, you know the market is saturated.

The only thing that truly differentiates you isn't your product, it's your story.

How clearly you tell it determines your entire ceiling for growth.

That's why I'm thrilled to welcome a man who is a master architect behind some of the world's most influential narratives.

Our guest today is Bill Blankshin, the founder and chief story architect of Story Builders.

Bill is a New York Times best selling writer and his work impacts millions.

His client roster reads like a master class in influence.

We're talking John C. Maxwell, Kevin Harrington from Shark Tank, Michael Hyatt, Zig Ziglar's family, and countless corporate leaders and successful business coaches.

They all go to Bill to refine the single most valuable asset they have, their narrative.

Bill and his team craft books and learning experiences that turn ideas into greater impact, greater influence, and significantly greater income.

He's here today to discuss the roadmap laid out in his new book, you, Story A Proven Path to Maximize youe Impact, Influence and Income.

Join me now for my conversation with Bill Blankschen.

Well, hi, Bill.

Welcome to the program.

We're delighted to have you.

Glad to be here, Michael.

Looking forward to talking to you about story and all the power that comes with that.

I'm excited about that because at the end of the day, I think that's what it is.

I think the best product or service doesn't win the day.

I think it's the best story that wins and too often we lose sight of that.

So we're going to dive right into that and get into all those basic.

Because there's lots I need to learn on here and I know our listeners as well.

Hey, before we get there, our audience always likes to know, first of all, where you at?

Where's home right now?

And then how did Bill become Bill?

So you're back in high school.

I think you were living, you know, close to the Canadian border or the Great Lakes somewhere.

Exactly.

Let's start there and where you ended up and how you chose.

Well, if I'm starting back at high school, you know, when I was a teenager, I always loved stories.

I love telling stories.

I love reading stories.

I was the kid who like soaked up everything on the cereal box as I ate my breakfast every morning, spinning it around, reading it non stop.

And then I realized as I got older that I was the Kid that soaked up book.

You know, you and I were talking before the show about some book series that we love.

I mean, I can sit down and blow through a book in a matter of hours and it's done right.

And I always thought that was normal for everybody, but I didn't realize I was kind of tapping into a bit of my own superpowers when I was doing that.

And over the years, I ended up helping to start a private school up in Northeast Ohio on Lake Erie and led that for a dozen years.

But inside I always felt like there was this deeper calling around story for me of.

Because I always thought of myself as a writer, but I realized I wasn't writing.

And I thought of myself as a storyteller, but I wasn't really telling stories.

And so eventually there came a time where even though I was doing good work at the school and helping people, I felt like somebody else could do that.

Only I could fulfill that sense of calling within my own life.

So we stepped out away from the school, left that in other capable hands and stepped out in this direction to really become a storyteller, to become a writer.

And Michael, I gotta tell you, I never worked harder in my life at that time.

We had six kids at the time when we did that, that.

So it's not the path I recommend everyone take.

Let's just say I think I actually took that path.

We have seven.

Oh, okay.

There you go.

The same club?

Yeah.

Oh, absolutely.

Well, I mean, I dove into it.

I just became a student of the art and science of storytelling.

Just that was my full time job, talking to everybody in the publishing space and the book space and creating book proposals, shopping them to publishers, getting feedback, all that whole thing.

But as it wasn't easy, I remember a day, I was sitting out in the backyard one day, Ohio, spring weather, beautiful day, sun shining, birds chirping.

It's just, you know, me and my pen and my paper trying to write.

But on the inside I was just wrestling with the deepest fears of what if this doesn't work?

What if we end up sleeping under cardboard box under a freeway somewhere, all that stuff.

But I kept moving forward.

And actually the book I was working on that day ended up being picked up by a publisher.

And I wrote the book.

And I realized I'm actually really good at this.

And then other people began to ask me, hey, can you help me with my book?

Can you help create this book?

And began to help others and realized that this kind of team coalesced around this.

And out of that came Our company, Storybook Builders, where that's what we do.

We tell stories, we build stories that make the world a better place.

And so we've had the privilege of going on to help people like John Maxwell and Zig Ziglar and Michael Hyatt and Lewis Howes and all these others.

At the same time, hundreds of other people you haven't heard of yet who are building things and putting things together.

But here's my big takeaway that I learned from all that.

Quite frankly, Michael, it was your breakthrough begins when you start with your story.

When you get intentional about leaning into your story and living that out in an intentional way that's authentic to you.

That' where a lot of the power comes from to do what you've been specially gifted to do on this earth.

And so that was certainly true for me, and I've seen that true for so many others, whether entrepreneurs or thought leaders or people who are trying to build something, have a meaningful message that they want to share with the world.

That's where it begins, starting with your story.

So you mentioned that it's both art and science.

Unpack that little bit, because I agree with you.

I think it is the art part.

What does that look like?

And then about the science and why storytelling is so effective.

Can you address both of those issues?

Yeah, let me start with the last one first.

Why it's so effective.

I think we're wired into kind of our DNA of humanity to gravitate toward or be drawn towards stories, like, throughout our history.

I mean, most of our history comes from storytelling.

That way, you know, anything that took place.

And so that's really where it is.

We're kind of wired to lean into that.

And so when you think about the art and the science, what I mean by that, you know, if you think about the Walt Disney films, classics like Snow White or Pinocchio or more recent ones, even like Beauty and the Beast or Moana or Frozen or things like that.

Each one of those.

What Walt Disney did there was.

He understood there's both an art and a science.

And what he did was he found stories that were already proven to resonate with people and then modified them, adjusted them to feel fresh to people.

So it was this combination of familiar and fresh.

And that was where the art came in.

But the proven process was in the storytelling technique.

And so he took that proven process, adapted it a bit to make it his own, freshened it up for people.

Because what I have found is that people want to see that a story feels a sense of Familiarity with it, but also isn't just the same.

I call it the connection continuum.

That is just like this.

There's this scale that we look at.

If it's too fresh, it feels disconnected.

Like we can't even connect with that.

It's just so out there.

But if it's too familiar, it feels like duplication.

I've heard that story so many times that I'm not interested.

But somewhere in the middle, right?

A mix of both of those is where it comes together.

And so that's why I like to lean into what I created called the storytelling structure that just taps into these really deep currents and trends and storytelling techniques and just simplifies it in a way that we can all apply it and make a use of it.

Because I remember somebody gave me a book at one point, it was like a 250, 300 page book.

It was big, it was eight and a half by 11.

It was massive.

It was like, here's how to tell stories.

And I got to tell you, I'm a reader and I never read that book.

I started, I tried.

It's like, this is just way too complicated to put this together.

Why can't we just.

And over time, I kind of developed that, that simplified way of telling stories that anybody can tap into.

Well, it's interesting you say that when, you know, raising large families, like is, hey guys, go get your pajamas on.

Daddy's going to tell you a story.

They go do it.

Or if I walk into an office, guys, I got to tell you, this story happened today.

People stop, they want to listen to it.

Tune in.

Yeah, that up.

Right.

And with the story, what's interesting is if you look at a lot of TV shows, a lot of movies, there seems to be that same.

This hero's journey, a lot of them are just based on that journey.

Sure.

I think it looks like it appears to me through your process that really you've brought that hero's journey into your framework.

So that when I'm telling my story that we start with our problem that you've got all those characters.

Is that an accurate.

Yeah, I think anybody that is going to give a good rendition of how do you tell a good story, it's going to feel very familiar.

Right.

But you also have to have a fresh approach, which is literally what we just talked about.

Right.

So that's what I've really done, is tap into that.

And it's a five part structure that certainly includes the problem.

But here's at the heart of it, the heart of this structure is really about this.

It's about turning around the storytelling and realizing that your story, your message, whatever it is that you're sharing is about you, but it is not for you.

And so flipping that around and thinking, who is my audience?

What do they want?

What are the challenges that they're facing?

How do I connect with them?

And then I can share what I want to share.

Here's how this might help transform you.

Exactly, exactly.

And most people, you know, most leaders, like, say they walk in the office and say, I have a message to share.

I'm just going to blurt out my message and let it fall where it falls.

Right.

And so even in a book, I've seen that before, where people do the same thing, where they're trying to create a book, that this is what I want to say and I'm just going to dump it all out on paper without giving any thought to what's the reader's experience?

Where are they coming from?

What do they need?

Who am I talking to?

You know, I, I once worked with a US Congressperson who told me at the outset, I, I said, who's this book for?

And he said, oh, this book is for every American.

Every American needs to read this.

Well, that's a problem because, you know, especially if a congressman is telling you this is for everybody, most people are going to back slowly away.

Whatever they're saying, whatever they're saying, it's pretty much okay.

I, I, I'm sure it'll make a great fiction.

Whatever it, yeah, no, I get that would make sense.

Your company is called Story Builders, and your mission seems to center on really helping people live a story worth telling.

So for our business and professional entrepreneurial audience, how do you define a story worth telling in the context of a professional's brand and business strategy?

Yeah, we like to say that we tell stories that make the world a better place.

Yeah.

And so when you think about that, it really is about, you know, can to the weed.

We don't work with everybody.

We're looking to work with people who have some level of vision for how is what I'm doing helping other people that have that kind of service mindset or making that the world better as a result of it.

Because the big issue is alignment.

You want to work with people with whom you align, whether it's values and approach to the world and all those kind of things.

At the same time, you have to work with people because as I like to say, if you want to elevate, you have to collaborate.

So if you want to break through to the next level, you've got to work with people, you got to make sure those people are aligned with you.

Otherwise you're going to get frustrated, you're going to lose all sorts of resources and time and energy trying to make all that happen.

And you're ultimately going to end up with an inferior service or product, whatever that is, because those people are just not as passionate about it as you are.

So you got to make sure all those things align.

But when they do, then it really is about, you know, I think each of us has been given what I call a meaningful message.

Some of us, many meaningful messages that we can share with the world.

And when we do it well, we can maximize that impact, that we have, the influence we have, the income that we make as a result of it.

I think it really begins with, actually it sounds altruistic, but at the same time, I think it's necessary to fuel, to sustain the drive that we have as entrepreneurs in order to do something.

And that is, we're actually making a positive difference.

Well, and I think your talk about this is that the story isn't centered on you.

So you've clearly defined that you're facilitating it for that particular client.

It's got to be authentic, it's got to be clear, it's got to be compelling enough to build this high trust relationship.

Right.

Like I know as a speaker, you know, when I remember starting out, I, you never want to show the faults.

I, you know, I'm this great machine.

Here's all the wonderful.

And you've worked with some of the friends and speakers over the last 20, 30 years.

Right?

20 years for you, but 30 years for me.

And once I brought in authenticity, which is scary to be vulnerable, sure.

Scary to bring into it, but that's what they seem to gravit gravity to do.

And they can absolutely audience.

Whether we're reading it.

Yeah.

They're listening to it, whatever, you can just smell it.

And if it's not authentic, it shows up clear as a bell.

And a lot of people want to be, they see books and I know you help people write their books and it's like, sure, I'm the best thing since sliced bread, but when you, you get authors and you're working with them and you're helping develop their story, is that a threshold for them sometimes to get over, to be vulnerable, to be open, to share, Are they usually coming to the table going, I'm an open book, I'm willing to, no, I'll tell the good stuff.

Well, it really depends on the person.

I see both extremes.

Some people struggle to be vulnerable because they've built a perception of themselves and now they're hitting a ceiling.

I see even more people on the other side who are willing to be vulnerable, but they aren't really confident that it matters.

They aren't really confident that what they do have to say is that good, that will make a difference.

I call it the confidence trap.

And that is this tendency we have to deify others and diminish ourselves.

I see even more people that kind of second guessing.

Is this really valuable?

Is this really helpful?

I don't know.

I'm happy to share, but I don't know that it will make a difference.

But you're right, a lot of people do struggle to share the vulnerabilities because of both of those reasons because they think it won't have value.

And what I have found is that we tend to undervalue what we know well.

Right?

So it's my life, it's my happening.

Oh yeah, I made that mistake or I learned something from that, but hopefully I won't repeat that again.

Right?

But, but they fail to realize that that's an opportunity.

That failure, that lesson learned, those things learned from that experience.

You can help a lot of other people avoid making that same mistake.

And there are people who are willing and able to pay for you to do that if you can communicate that well.

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Science.

And now back to my conversation with Bill Blanchon in your book Your story advantage.

Can you break down the core thesis for the audience here?

What exactly is the story advantage?

Why is it the single most critical asset for an entrepreneur looking to maximize their impact, their influence, and their income?

How do they use it?

Yeah, I mean, the central idea of your story advantage is that each of us has the secret advantage within us, and it is our story.

And again, by story, I don't mean what's happened to you.

I mean the events of your life, certainly, but what you've learned from it, the lessons you've learned, the experience you've had, the credentials, the failures, this body of wisdom that has accumulated, or expertise that has accumulated.

And each of us has that.

And yet often we normalize it.

We don't have the confidence to act on it, and we fail to see the value of it.

But when we do, that's when that breakthrough begins.

That's when we really get to, you know, everything, kind of firing on all cylinders as we come into alignment with who we are and what the needs in the rest of the world are.

And so when we do that, from that, we then can build out what I call your story ecosystem.

And I talk about this in the book and lay it out, really try to make it super practical for people to actually engage it, put it to use, and apply it to begin with, getting clear on your meaningful message.

What is that?

Message maker.

I call it your brand story.

How do you put your brand story together, present yourself to the world?

Then how do you multiply that message through a book?

And so we have several chapters devoted to how do you actually create a book that follows proven storytelling techniques and that resonates with the audience.

And then finally, how do you monetize that message further with other things like courses and workshops and trainings and coaching programs and keynotes, all the many things you can do with it once you get clarity, then develop it out and then monetize it from there.

That's really how that proven plan takes place.

I mean, this is not rocket science, frankly.

It's following classic storytelling technique applied to our settings and being intentional about it.

Yeah, no great segue to my next question.

So many in our audience focus on concrete metrics like roi.

They're looking for that.

So how does something seemingly abstract like story directly translate into tangible business results like higher income, shorten sales cycle.

I know how I use it.

I want your perspective, and then I'll share with you how I've used it.

But you've already started to touch on it.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, well, a Number of different ways.

First of all, storytelling itself.

When you tell a story well, you are attracting the people that you want to work with.

Right.

So you are positioning yourself, first of all, as someone who is open to receiving those people that you want to work with.

First of all, I think a lot of times we underestimate how much friction is often in the way with other people that a story can tear down that friction, create trust, can build trust quickly.

And we all know that business follows that, it follows, relationship follows, trust follows that whole cycle.

And when we use the same stories and we're telling the story for our organization or our brand, all the time we're using the same story, we're escalating that trust, whether it's in person, social media, on the stage, whatever the case may be, when people are hearing the same story, hearing the same words, hearing that all the time, it reinforces to them who you are, what you do, how you go about it as unique.

And I think that's one of the keys.

It gives you a competitive advantage because no one else can have your story.

You know, in an age of AI and content, I mean, my latest reading, I found that the amount of information in the world is doubling every day now.

I mean, it's just mind boggling.

All the information is out there, but not your story.

Your story is the window through which people can see that and give it some framework.

They're looking for a story with which to understand things.

By giving them that story, you create that.

But another thought on return, on investment, I think story is one of those things that you often don't see.

It's not a transactional return.

Often it can result in transactions as we monetize it and so forth.

But even if you're an author, if you create a book, that book opens the door for all kinds of other things that do produce transactions.

Speaking from stages or coaching or all these other things that come with that, or developing a whole business around it as well.

Right.

So it's very much a door opener and an opportunity creator.

And as an authority, credential position, someone in that space.

Again, when it's done well, when it's not done well, it can have the opposite effect.

Yeah, I think I'll just anchor on that.

I started my speaking career and I'm not.

I don't view myself as a writer.

Writing is very challenging for me.

Meaning I just have lots of good ideas.

But my English teachers, when I send them copies of my book, which did really well commercially, sure rolled over, like literally rolled over.

Because they're like, what?

But it takes me two years to write a book.

Two years.

Yeah, yeah.

And.

But it really only takes 90 days to 120 days.

But it takes me two years because I'd rather poke pins in my eyes and pour salt in the holes than sit down and write.

Sure.

Now I've developed a habit after 20 years, but what it did is it opened up my speaking career.

I was able to double my fee.

And I've been working that when we were talking pre show.

I've turned that into literally millions of dollars over the last 20 years.

It's 20 years old and I probably made over millions off of that book.

Speaking fees, consulting contracts.

Because when I go up against another competitor, I deliver two books to him.

And if you show up and you have none, I win if everything is equal.

So you can do that and it becomes the.

It's kind of like all the peripheral is really the name of the game.

Because at the end of the day, it seems like the book is really about building trust.

It's a trust builder.

People say, okay, you're credible, it works.

So I can't say enough to it.

Do you accelerate that process?

So I told you it takes two years.

And now I have systems in place to speed that up a little bit.

But I have accountability.

So I have deadlines, I have things I have to do.

What do you find working with somebody?

Somebody comes to you and says, hey, I've got a book, I've got a story I want to tell from beginning to end.

What's a typical average process?

What holds it up, what accelerates it.

What connects absolutely well.

I mean, there's kind of three popular pathways when people work with us.

One, they come to us and they say, I've already written it, I've got it done.

It needs a good edit, it needs all that needs to be created, turned up and up and out into the world.

Right?

That's our story activation.

That's one thing.

But for people who haven't created it yet, we actually offer two.

One is story creation, and that is we work with someone and capture their words and we do the writing.

And I want to be clear, it isn't just we take transcripts and make them grammatically correct and print them on a page.

We always seek to elevate the message.

Again, it's brand defining storytelling.

So when we work with somebody, they come in with something good, they leave with something incredibly great.

That's our aim every single time.

And capturing their voice in that process too.

It's what we do so well.

It's what we do with the.

With, you know, Lewis Howes and Dean Grazioski and all these others.

But story coaching is another very popular one where somebody like, maybe like you says, hey, I actually want to do the writing.

Maybe I enjoy it, maybe I don't, but I want to do it.

But I need help figuring out the foundation and the blueprint and then the accountability that goes with that and keep me on track and then the editing and then all the other stuff that goes with it.

All of those are good options, and all of them are just as good options, really.

It really does depend on the person.

So we don't try to diagnose anybody before we actually talk to them and figure out what is it you actually need.

Let's look at your writing.

Let's evaluate the situation, not try to put you in a box.

The story creation service typically 9 to 10 months, so figure takes about that much to bring a baby into the world.

We can bring a book into the.

World in that time.

Yeah.

The other ones are shorter.

It doesn't take that long to do some of these other ones.

But.

And somewhat.

Some of it kind of depends on the author.

Someone says, hey, I need to take a year to work on this.

That's my schedule.

We'll work with them on that schedule because we believe every story matters and every story is different and unique.

And so we have a system, we have a process, and yet we're also flexible for what actually works for people.

Yeah, no, it's good.

And I think that's why you work with some of the titans of the business, like John Maxwell, Kevin Harrington, Shark Tank, one of the original Sharks, you've got a bunch of them.

For business owners who feel like they don't have a big story like some of those authors do, what is the first practical exercise or question that they should ask themselves to begin uncovering their unique story advantage?

So if they get the book and probably question number one in your framework.

Sure.

What should they be asking themselves?

Yeah, I think first of all, you have to realize all those big names at one point didn't have a great story to tell.

Right.

At one point, nobody knew their story.

At one point, no one had any idea.

I think of Lewis Howes, for example, Great example of a guy who.

He wanted to be a pro football player.

That was his dream.

And then he injured his arm, and so he was out.

He didn't know what to do.

You know, months on his sister's couch trying to figure that out.

At that point, if you just said, wow, Lewis must have an amazing story.

Well, not yet, right?

He had to go through that process to figure out that story, figure out his strengths and put that in motion.

So I think remember that everybody, wherever you are right now, whatever your story is, your story isn't over yet.

And in some cases it may just beginning to elevate.

But to answer your question, the very first question I ask any of these people that we work with when it comes to creating a book, I call it the Story Focus Question.

I just asked one of our new story partners this the other day, and again, it was so helpful.

And that is this picture.

If someone's reading your book, the book is done, it's in their hands, they're reading it, they read the whole thing, cover to cover, front to back.

They finish it, they close it, they put it down and immediately forget 99% of everything they just read.

Common problem.

Very, very likely that's quite possibly going to happen.

What is the one thing that you would say, man, if you forget everything else, please, please, please don't forget this.

And I have found when you ask yourself that question, often authors we work with, an answer immediately comes to mind.

Oh, this is the thing.

If you forget everything, if I leave this earth tomorrow and you don't remember anything about it, but one thing, this is the one thing I really want you to get.

That one thing becomes the seed of the book, of the message, the core message of the book, the meaningful message behind it.

And then everything else gets built around that to support that one thing.

And that's, I think, what makes books sticky.

You just mentioned earlier.

And a story partner we work with helped create his book Life of youf Dreams with my friend Mark Pentecost was maybe on a recent episode with you.

And that's a great example.

Like we went through that whole process to figure out what is that core message.

And it came down to that idea of dreams, that everyone has a dream.

And if you follow your dreams, you can have the life of your dreams by using this process to get it.

For him, it was very tangible.

A former high school math teacher, and he went from there to a billion dollar company, got cancer, got cancer, treating.

Cancer for eight years, the whole bet, all of it.

He's just making such an impact, incredible story.

And, and it really came down to, though, figuring out what's the one thing I want people to realizes.

They can follow their dreams, they can pursue their dreams, they can bring them to life, and I want to show them how.

So once you get clear on that core message that really clarifies a lot of the direction going forward.

Yeah, the details.

It's like when we watch movies, my wife and I, so we went and saw this movie song Sung Blue.

It's a story of Neil Diamond.

It's a tribute band, and it's based on a true story.

And it follows the thought.

You can follow it along.

There's a couple of twists along the way.

And you kind of know what's going to happen.

Happen.

You kind of unveil and you want to see it.

It's the details that we want to see.

Once we even understand the theme.

If it's a romantic comedy, if it's a mystery, if it's John Wick, we, you know, we know how it ends.

Right.

So it's those details, those in between.

Is that the same in the book?

Once you've got your framework of that main store, that core message, like, hey, dare to dream, live your dream, and now here's the nuances of it and things to understand.

Is that how that unfolds?

Yeah, for the most part.

We have six bookstarter questions that I give in the book that I think are really helpful for people.

But then you can use the storytel structure, that five part structure.

We use that to actually build out the book.

So you take that big message of the book and then you break that down into the main message of each chapter.

And then you use the structure to even figure out, how am I going to lay out the chapter, how am I going to lay out the book, how is that going to work?

And then even down componentizing it even more in each subcomponent, I can use that storytelling structure and apply it and build that out.

Right.

But I think it's important to remember that again, it's art and science.

So even the storytelling structure, the guidelines that I give, that's the science part.

But there's always the art part.

Right.

And when you have the science part, you know, that's solid, that actually frees you to be creative, to do something a little different.

Again, fresh but familiar.

Right.

Finding that right mix.

And I think authors often err on the side of, I want to do something totally new and totally fresh and out of the box, or I'm just gonna follow the formula that I was given to do.

Right.

And the answer to that is both.

You need some proven process in there, and that frees you to become creative and imaginative and how you're presenting it and do things a little differently, deviate too much on either side of that is when readers will tend to get off the bus and go elsewhere.

Well, what's nice is you've got this nice framework in your book, but then people are doing it themselves.

But sometimes having that guide, just like in a regular story, the real hero is the guide, and that's our job.

Or make the client the hero or the reader the hero of the story.

What's the single most common storytelling mistake that you see otherwise really brilliant professionals and authors make?

And what's the quick fix to remedy it?

Well, I really think it is.

This is coming from many years of people coming to us with, hey, my manuscript's in trouble, my book's in trouble.

Can you help?

Can you help me?

And I've seen it my own life too.

And that is, I'll go back to what I said before.

If you want to elevate, you have to collaborate.

And so many people think, or if I'm going to do a book, I have to do it on my own.

I have to, it has to be me.

I have to push through it, I have to make it happen.

And they don't realize that a lot of the books that are out there in the world were not written by the author, meaning the author wasn't the one putting the words together and wrestling with this particular phrase and all that, it's ideas.

But then they said, I want to collaborate with people who really excel at putting those ideas together and will wrestle with those words and who know those words, right?

So it's their ideas, it's their voice, it's all that kind of stuff.

But they've realized my time is not best invested in that.

So John Maxwell has been very public about that.

He does his book writing with Charlie Wetzel and has for 30 plus years now.

But John realized his first book, which I read it, wasn't that good.

And John admitted it wasn't that good.

And so he thought, I need to find somebody who can actually take my ideas and make them better.

And he's worked with Charlie over the years to do that.

And then we've come alongside and we created all the content for his company, all his leadership materials, content, all that kind of stuff.

But he understood the value of, hey, I can only take this so far.

My strengths lie in the thought arena, in organizing that.

And so I think that common mistake is people thinking, I can do this on my own or I need to do this on my own and just not realizing that there are other, other options.

I hear people disparage that sometimes.

If you don't do it on your own.

It's not really authentic, it's not really real.

Yeah.

And I can't think of any other area of life where that logic applies.

Like we all understand.

I can't even change the windshield on my car alone.

I've got to get somebody who knows what they're doing.

Movies.

Movies.

We've got collaboration, music.

Do you.

You know, I was talking to a singer last night.

We have some friends and she's a professional singer.

And so I said, do you see the words?

She writes songs, dude.

I say, do you see the music or do you see the words?

Words.

And first, like Elton John, I think he does the music.

Someone else who does the words.

So it's collaboration and yet we know it's a song by Elton John.

And I asked her, in her case, she says, I see the words.

So she gets the words and then she has to have someone put music to the words.

So what you say makes sense.

It's that clever.

It's building that team.

Yeah.

And a lot of times we think we can do it ourselves or tell.

Yeah, I agree with you.

I think it takes a team.

And you've got copywriters.

Yeah.

To produce the book.

You've got all this, you've got your line editing, you've got your copy editing, you got your layout and design, you've got got covered is all of that has to be synergistically aligned.

Yeah.

And that's something you do with your clients as well.

You'll take them, right?

Absolutely.

Process, hold their hand, help them make the right decisions.

Yeah, we help them figure out the best path for them.

Whether it's our own hybrid publishing process, whether it's finding a traditional publisher for some that's a fit, for others it's not really professional self publishing.

Whatever.

Again, we don't diagnose that until we can actually speak to someone and figure out what their goals are and what fits best for them.

But yeah, that's really what it comes down to is every story is unique, every story is different.

Different.

And so whenever you encounter someone who says, oh, I know the solution for you, I haven't even talked to you yet, don't even know what's going on.

But I.

Here's the box you fit in.

I would back away slowly from that conversation.

Well, you want your point?

You want to diagnose the situation before you prescribe a remedy.

Otherwise it's malpractice, right?

Sure.

Exactly.

Exactly.

When you're working with these world class thought leaders, what's the key difference between a good idea and an idea that's ready to be scaled into a New York Times best selling book or maybe a massive learning experience.

Experience.

Yeah.

I think the thing to look for is has it been fully baked, if you will.

Have we really thought through the implications of it?

Have we thought through how it's going to be lived out and applied?

Have we thought through even the tools and the frameworks that will help people do that, help people visualize it, help them bring it to life, help make it sticky in their lives to be able to apply that.

You know, John Maxwell has been so good at that, at creating things that are sticky that people can take and run with with.

Lewis Howes is another great example.

Thinking of his last book, we did Make Money Easy.

Tremendous book by the way, if you haven't read it, on healing our relationship with money and then getting practical on that.

And as we went through that like we created an assessment, first of all, a money style assessment that he used.

He actually still uses it as a lead generator and maximized to bring people into that book funnel process.

But then also developing out at each step of the way, whatever that message is, Lewis comes to the table with ideas and then we take those and elevate them in massive ways so that things that he hadn't even envisioned, but when we collaborate on that, suddenly something really incredible comes out of that that's even far better.

So, you know, developing the frameworks, the tools, all that, giving it a depth, giving a content depth for that intellectual property that can really have legs, that can then be transferred into other venues.

When you have that depth, I think of one of John Maxwell's early books I think was developing the people around you.

And I think it was that one in which somewhere in there he dropped something called the five levels of leadership.

Just like a little thing that he put in there.

Well, that got sticky, right?

And he realized, all right, that's something, I got to build that out, the five levels of leadership.

And that's really been at the heart of so much of his content for many years.

But it's because he built that out in the first place that he realized, oh, there's a lot of depth there and people are gravitating that, let's build more depth around that.

And we've worked with this company, developed multiple workshops off of that, that inspired it and now we've done other things with that.

So I think that's one of the keys.

Is it just an idea?

Is it the beginning of an idea or has it actually been fully developed?

Or is it half baked?

Or is it fully baked?

I think that's distinguishing.

Kind of like sequel Part two, you know, it's.

Where can we go with that?

Where are the new characters?

How does that work?

Boy, time goes fast.

And you're sharing some great insights with this.

If you could give every listener 1 specific 5 minute action item that they could execute today to begin leveraging their story advantage, what would it be?

I've just given people one thing to do.

I would say spend some time focusing on that question that I gave you earlier to help figure out that story focused question.

What's your meaningful message?

Like, what's really at the heart?

What do you want to stick?

And this isn't just for the book.

Think about this applies to life.

What's the one thing you want people to be thinking about you once your time on earth is done?

But in whatever your setting is, everything from a conversation to a lifetime, what's that one thing?

What's the one takeaway that I want to, you know, before you go into a conversation or you record a podcast episode, you know what, what's the one thing that I want people to remember from this?

And for me, often that one thing is, is every story matters.

I believe that strongly.

And so when I approach that, I'm interacting with somebody who has a story and that story matters.

And how can I help make that story better?

How can I help that story even have more meaning, more impact in the world?

And whether it's through a book or just a conversation, whatever that is, or connection, who knows what it is?

But how can I help make the world a better place through this interaction?

Because I do believe every story matters.

And when we take that approach, we can then live that story that becomes much more worth telling.

Yeah, that makes sense.

And it's really, you know, get that phrase down, get that sound bite, that here's what it's about, that pitch, if you will.

Sure.

And what is the, the advantage?

And then how do we leave that with them?

And authentically, what's the transformation?

But even that, yeah, even that, you're doing those people a service by making it sticky, by making it sound bite, you know, available, by making it memorable.

It's not that people don't want to remember you or your business or your brand.

It's just you haven't made it easy for them to do that.

So like when we talk about that, we like saying we tell stories that make the world a better place, you know, and so when People think of, oh, that's a good story.

Oh, they should connect with story builders because they help people tell stories, make the world a better place.

Well, speaking of connecting story builders.

No, you're exactly right.

Who's the ideal wheelhouse?

So out of the listeners that are out there, who is.

They're listening, they're thinking about this.

They're driving in their cars and they're going, you know, maybe I should do this.

Who's absolutely ideal and when should they be reaching out to you?

Sure.

The absolute ideal person is probably somebody who's had some success already with a message.

They put a message out there.

They're a speaker, they're an entrepreneur, they're a coach, consultant, whatever the case may be.

They the a thought leader.

Yeah, they've got something out there.

They've had that.

But they feel like they could be more, maybe even should be more impact, influence.

But they're already spread thin.

And so thinking about how can I leverage my story to multiply my impact and so forth, that's probably the primary person.

But also people who are like, hey, I'm trying to build toward that point and put that together.

We work with people like that all the time also in both of those situations.

And if they're like, hey, I don't know if I'm a right fit or not, I would say just reach out to us mystorybuilders.com story and just schedule a call with us.

And we.

There's no pressure, obligation.

We just love hearing stories and chatting in that direction.

And if we can help, great.

If not, we'll get out of the way and let you keep living your story.

I highly encourage it.

Bill, this has just been great.

The book is called your story Advantage, available on your website or where they find their favorite books, wherever.

Wherever good books are sold.

And YourStoryAdvantage.com has a bunch of bonuses, too.

I was actually noticing that there's like about $1,300 of additional bonuses and things that you provide for them.

What's in some of the bonuses?

Let's sweat their appetite.

Yeah, there's a bestseller bonus.

We kind of pull back the curtain.

If you want a book that becomes a best seller.

Here's the strategy behind all that.

If you're thinking, hey, I think I might want to collaborate with somebody to make this happen.

We give the whole blueprint of how do you do that?

How's the process you go through?

And this is a whole bunch of other stuff in there.

But yeah, your storyadvantage.com, you can just see all of it.

We're trying to make it a no brainer for people to move the story forward.

It's a no brainer.

I'm going, why would I want to do you know you offered to send me a copy of the book?

Yeah, yeah.

We've already read the pre.

Excerpts and things.

All, you know, what I've seen online.

Yeah, it's not.

No, I'm taking advantage of the offer, if you don't mind.

Too many good things in here.

Bill, this was absolutely a treat.

I'd like to ask this of our guests sometimes.

Superpower.

So you got a superpower.

You can brag here.

This is something.

And he kind of touched on it already.

But if you were going to describe your superpower.

I'm really good at this.

And here's.

What would you tell us?

Yeah, I think it would be, you know, Marcus Buckingham calls it input.

And as a strength theme, and certainly mine is I'm able to absorb vast amounts of information quickly and assess them and connect them and reconnect them.

I like to say I'm strategically at my best when I'm creatively questioning connecting and then communicating in the context of my beliefs.

That's really my total sweet spot.

But that question, connect and communicate.

When I'm able to do that, I'm actually very good at it.

Well, you're.

You're very clear about it.

So I got to ask the follow up to that.

When you're kryptonite, the thing that.

Well, I'm never going to be good at this.

For me, it's detail.

I have people to help me with the detail and organization because I'm just never going to be an expert on that, nor I will ever write a book on that.

But I have systems in place because of it.

What's your kryptonite?

Yeah, I don't know that mine's detail as much.

Certainly not my favorite, but it's not my least favorite.

I think some of it is actually like physical, mechanical things.

My family knows if there's a car to be fixed or something like that, I am not the one to do it.

You want somebody else, somebody else to change the oil on that or whatever.

If I do it, I will find a way to do it wrong without even having to try.

Awesome.

Bill, this has been a real treat.

Thanks so much for sharing your insights, your wisdom.

Lots of value bombs in there and we'll have everything in the show notes so people can get hold of you.

Thanks for being here.

Awesome.

Thank you Michael.

Appreciate it as you are listening to this episode.

What is one idea that you've heard that has caught your attention and why does it matter so much to you?

You and who is one person who you can share that with, either sharing this episode or just sharing that insight that occurred to you while you were listening?

Perhaps it is understanding that your breakthrough begins the moment you intentionally embrace and share your authentic story, unlocking the unique power and trust that sets you apart.

Or by making your customer the hero of your narrative and position yourself as their trusted guide, transforming your story into a catalyst for lasting influence and preferred status.

Thank you for listening, for learning, and for investing in yourself so that you can become the best version of you.

If you found value in this episode, please write a review on Apple Podcasts.

If you haven't subscribed yet, please do so so that you can get a new episode and start your week off right every Monday.

Until next time.

This podcast is created and associated with Summit Media.

My Executive producer is Beth Smith and Director of Research Tori Smith.

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Goodbye.