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Bill Blankschaen: When Story Becomes an Advantage
25 Plays19 days ago
In this episode, Eric talks with Bill Blankschaen, founder of StoryBuilders and author of Your Story Advantage, about why so many capable people feel called to do more, yet never take responsibility for acting on it.
Bill shares his own transition from running a thriving private school to stepping into the uncertainty of writing, storytelling, and building a message-driven business. What looks like a career shift on the surface is really a deeper conversation about agency: why waiting for permission quietly drains momentum, and how clarity only emerges once people are willing to move.
At the center of the discussion is the idea that stories don’t begin with tactics, platforms, or tools. They begin with ownership. Bill explains why meaningful messages stall when people underestimate the value of their experience, overestimate the risk of being seen, or look for certainty before taking action.
The conversation also explores how storytelling actually works in practice. Not as clickbait or performance, but as a structured way to create attention, tension, credibility, and action without compromising integrity. Bill walks through the five core elements of effective storytelling, how intellectual property is developed responsibly, and why shortcuts like AI-generated content often weaken authority instead of building it.
They also dig into the difference between creativity and routine, where AI can help and where it cannot, and why originality, effort, and alignment still matter more than speed.
This is a grounded conversation for leaders, creators, and professionals who sense they’re capable of more, but feel stuck waiting for the “right moment” instead of choosing to move.
Topics Covered
- Why most people wait to be picked instead of taking responsibility
- The hidden cost of staying comfortable in “good enough” work
- How clarity only comes after action, not before
- The difference between telling a story and owning a message
- Why credibility is built through effort, not visibility
- A practical five-part framework for effective storytelling
- Where AI helps creative work and where it undermines it
- Why shortcuts often weaken authority instead of accelerating it
- Building a message ecosystem that lasts beyond a single book or launch
Episode Links
- StoryBuilders: https://mystorybuilders.com/
- StoryBuilders Method: https://mystorybuilders.com/story
For more episodes: https://unfoldingthought.com
Questions or guest ideas: eric@inboundandagile.com
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Transcript
Bill's Location and Climate Preference
00:00:02
Speaker
Bill, thank you for joining me. Where does today's recording find you? Eric, a delight to be with you you. know, technically it finds me in sunny Orlando and enjoying warm weather, although we're about to enter our winter week, as I call it here in Florida, where it's going to get cold for about a week and then it's going to get really warm again.
00:00:21
Speaker
So these are the kind of winters I love. And I love enjoying these now at at at this season of life. Anyways, didn't always have these kind of winters, but we've got them now. So ah that's where it finds me. Sunbathing in Orlando.
00:00:34
Speaker
Well, I hope that you feel as positively about the height of the summer as you do about the winter. And maybe you'll talk a little bit about enjoying these winters or changes in
Introduction to Bill's Book: 'Your Story Advantage'
00:00:48
Speaker
life. But having researched you a bit and having read your book, thank you for sharing that with me.
00:00:56
Speaker
Can you tell me a little bit about yourself, Bill?
Bill's Career Transition to Storytelling
00:00:59
Speaker
Yeah, I'd be happy to um Privileged to, actually. You know, the book, Your Story Advantage, really has flown out of my life.
00:01:10
Speaker
It really has. It's kind of a natural extension of that experience. You know, there was there was a time in my life when I was i was i had helped start and it was running ah a private school in Ohio. And I felt like I was doing good work.
00:01:22
Speaker
I was getting hugs from kindergartners every day and helping teenagers navigate life and kind of in the trenches with families on a daily basis. But I also felt like there was something deeper inside of me.
00:01:34
Speaker
that I wasn't deploying, I wasn't putting to use. And i call it ah a calling or this sense of, you know, I'd always thought of myself as a writer. I'd always thought thought of myself as a storyteller, but I wasn't writing and I wasn't telling stories really. i mean, I was helping teach a next generation to do that, but I wasn't doing it myself.
00:01:57
Speaker
And I knew I didn't want to reach a point where I felt just regret, look back on my life and and regret that I wish I had done something with that. I also knew that I was the only one that could do something with it. Nobody else had that calling on my calling. right Somebody else could run the school, but I had to take charge of and responsibility for my own calling. So um I did.
00:02:19
Speaker
and made the decision to step away from that school, transition from that into a bit of the unknown, ah with six kids, no income, and dove into it.
Founding of Storybuilders
00:02:30
Speaker
But, you know, Eric, i I never worked harder in my life that year. ah you know, studied everything related to publishing and storytelling and books and put book proposals together and shopped into publishers and just became a student of the art and science of storytelling.
00:02:47
Speaker
um But it wasn't easy at all. um You know, I remember one, we were in Northeast Ohio at the time. I remember sitting out in the backyard one spring day with a paper and a pen and kind of trying to develop a book idea, actually, um that I thought could could be of help to people.
00:03:02
Speaker
And on the outside, I felt like the sun's the wind is blowing, the birds are singing, it's a beautiful day, this is great to be out here. And on the inside, I felt like, what if this doesn't work?
00:03:14
Speaker
what What if we don't make it? What if we end up living in a cardboard box under a freeway somewhere, you know? But I kept going and developed that book, actually. um Got picked up by a publisher, and I learned, you know, I'm actually really good at this, creating compelling books. And other people began asking me for help with things. And one thing led to another before I knew it. Storybuilders, our company, came out of that, this desire to just do what I'm called to do and serve people.
00:03:43
Speaker
in this way and then you know since then we've been helping people from ah john maxwell was our very first story partner to lewis house the dean graziosi to all sorts of people in between and people you haven't heard of yet people who are developing their messages and getting their stories out to the world and And I think what what my my biggest takeaway from that whole experience was this, and I believe breakthrough begins when we start with our stories, when we have the courage to lean into our authentic story, our messages that we have burning within us to share with the world and our expertise.
The Power of Authentic Stories
00:04:19
Speaker
And so that's what i'm I'm really devoting my life to is helping people tap into those stories, bring them to life and share them with the world in a way that truly makes the world a better place.
00:04:30
Speaker
When you were at that time in life where, think, if I recall how you put it, it was something like, you know, you thought of yourself as a storyteller, but you weren't telling stories or you were telling stories to these kids maybe, but you weren't writing.
00:04:49
Speaker
Was this a long-term feeling? Did you come to some realization over, you know, it did did it it go from being vague to being really pronounced at some time?
Identity as a Storyteller and Career Alignment
00:05:02
Speaker
It did. I mean, I think for all of my life, I had thought of myself that way. Like, I i was the kid back in the day who would would read the cereal box five times as he was eating his breakfast or whatever. I would just suck up any words that I could find. i mean, I majored in English in history and history in my undergrad work, and it was what are the stories and how do we talk about them?
00:05:21
Speaker
But didn't really put it together. I hadn't really intentionally put that together. and And I even went into education, which was like, all right, that's closer to it. You know, I think over time I kept moving closer and closer and closer and finally reached that place of,
00:05:36
Speaker
of all right is this really what i'm passionate about doing or is it something i fell into and it was a good thing and i think that was actually the struggle i had was i was doing good work i was helping people i was doing good work but it wasn't quite aligned with what i felt inside like this writer storytelling it again i always thought of myself as this writer um and there was a time i spent probably a year and a half before i left the school a year and a half trying to do both You know, i'd get up super early in the morning, a bunch of writing, go run a school all day and athletics at night and all that. and I'd come home and try to do a little bit more at night and then fall into bed and wake up super early in the morning and do it again.
00:06:14
Speaker
And what I concluded was I'm really not ah serving either one of these efforts well by doing that. And so I had to conclude somebody else, as I said, could run the school. Only I could pursue my calling. So, you know, I had to let go of that to step into this.
Overcoming Fear in Storytelling
00:06:31
Speaker
but Was there a time where you had any fear or hesitancy to commit to this storytelling path? Only every day.
00:06:42
Speaker
right um Yeah, absolutely. i think and And what I realized, as I look back on it, I realized that most of the fears that I had were unfounded.
00:06:56
Speaker
The things that i might have, should have been afraid of were different things, but I didn't know enough to even be afraid of the things that that maybe were I should have been afraid of. But I also believe that we create these monsters, these barriers, if you will, in our own imaginations of worst case scenarios and things won't work out the way they should and so forth. Because we we like to stay comfortable with with what we know because we know that we when what we don't know, the unknown, that's scary.
00:07:24
Speaker
And I think a lot of people sit on their dreams. they so They don't take action on those things that could really fuel their passions because it's unknown and unknown is scary.
00:07:37
Speaker
But what I've learned is that by doing this is that when you step out, when you lean into your story and you're willing to take that first step, the first step, the second step, you begin to see things differently.
00:07:48
Speaker
you know when i When I was at the school thinking, all right, I've got to do this and this, I saw things one way, but when I stepped out and began to actually do things, and began to write books and began to work with people, my perception of what's possible changed.
00:08:01
Speaker
the The relationships changed, everything changed. And so when I look back on it now, I think I knew a sliver of what I know now and knowing what I know now, if I could go back, I'd do things differently. But if I did, would I know what I know now? Right. It's gotten this this cycle.
00:08:17
Speaker
So yes, every day the fears were there. um And I don't, I don't, maybe it's just me. I don't think the fears ever go away. i think we learn to push through in the face of those fears.
00:08:29
Speaker
I think that when you say things like, gosh, i I forget exactly how you phrased it, but you said something to the effect of when you start trying things, you start to see things in a different way. You start to see the world or your fears or whatever.
00:08:45
Speaker
ah think that it is pushing against sort of the cultural trend or a cultural moment to think that you can actually take a chance on yourself, that you can write that book, that you can start that business, that you can learn a new hobby because everything nowadays feels like such a big commitment.
The Role of Risk in History and Innovation
00:09:12
Speaker
And, you know, Bill, I don't know about you, but I think back to 100 years ago or 150 years ago, however far back you want to go. What did our ancestors have except to try something that hopefully other people would value?
00:09:30
Speaker
And if they didn't, there wasn't a lot of support system outside of whatever existed in your community. And, and so they had to be comfortable with some level of fear, or uncertainty, but also responsibility.
00:09:44
Speaker
And I feel like when you talk about in your book, people waiting to be picked, but also you talk about actually taking that chance. Had you failed in one respect or another, let's say massively failed, you would have learned something.
00:10:00
Speaker
And I'm guessing you would have been willing to try the next thing. I think what we miss is that 100, 150 years ago, you can go further back than that. as Like I said, I'm a student of history, is that um taking chances, taking risks has been the norm for humanity, right?
00:10:17
Speaker
And I think a lot of times, especially in the Western cultures or more developed nations, we've gotten so comfortable with, um, on the successes that others have had and the, the conveniences and so forth, that the, the, the history of humanity shows that the people who have the breakthroughs are the ones who are willing to take the risk and willing to take the chance and try something different and innovate and do, do these different things.
00:10:40
Speaker
Um, and so I, I think, I think a lot of that very well in the future this is a sidebar could come from non-western countries as they're looking to to break through in a lot of that those different ways but i do think we get comfortable i think we i think we think that life is supposed to be comfortable and that easy is normal but if you look at the history of humanity that hasn't been the case you know difficult is normal easy is rare and And, you know, to to choose to embrace things that feel outside our normal sphere.
Escaping the 'Normalcy Trap'
00:11:16
Speaker
um You know, one of the things that one of reasons I think people get comfortable, i talk about this in the book, I call it the normalcy trap, is people kind of fall into thinking that their story, and and by story, I mean not just what's happened to them, but their expertise, their knowledge, their their body of wisdom, if you will, that they've accumulated,
00:11:34
Speaker
is it isn't valuable they feel like that that that isn't valuable to others because it feels normal to them and they feel like it's a risk if i share that what if people reject it what if people laugh at me and what if people don't want me and and those kind of things and And I think you we have to be willing to push through that resistance because when we do on the other side of that, we begin to see eyes light up. We begin to see light bulbs come on. People say, oh, thank you. I needed that. I appreciate that. I didn't know that. Can you give me that wisdom? Now i now I've learned this.
00:12:04
Speaker
Every person has so much insight into some area, some of us, multiple areas that other people would gladly pay for to get that expertise.
00:12:15
Speaker
If we were intentional about developing it, whether it's it's our brand or side hustle or a business or organization or or even just wanting to increase your influence and impact in the world.
00:12:27
Speaker
um But so many people struggle with that confidence and feel like they just don't they just don't have anything worth sharing. And i think I think that's where the risk comes in. the risk is I think the risk is we might share something. We think we might share something. We might step out and realize that we're not enough in some way. I think that ultimately that's at the root of that. And I and i just want to encourage people. when My experience, when I see people time and again do this, they put their story in a book or they share a message. They do these things.
00:12:55
Speaker
they get so much affirmation of who they are. That's not why you do it, but you do it to help other people and serve them. But you get so much affirmation of who you are that that then moves you to be even more confident to step out and take more risks, share more ways to help more people when you see how that process works.
00:13:14
Speaker
You mentioned some bigger names in, you know, people that you've worked with. And you also said, you know, people that I've never heard of. Sure. Curious. Do you see that there is something that distinguishes those that decide to take the chance on telling their own story? Or I'm guessing a lot of these people, you know, they're entrepreneurs in of one stripe or another. Do you see that they're more comfortable with failure or rejection or is there something that's different about people who take this chance i would sum it up as they're more comfortable being themselves
00:13:53
Speaker
And with that then comes, yes, more confidence, more acceptable to failure because they know that failure doesn't define them.
Embracing Authenticity
00:14:00
Speaker
yeah these are These are some of the common themes I hear as I work with people all over the place is um they're more comfortable. They know who they are and and they're leaning into their story. right They're living their story. They're owning their own story.
00:14:14
Speaker
And they're not trying to be someone else. Great great example of this, I think, is Lewis Howes. i mean, Lewis, um i don't know if you know his story, but, you know, Lewis was one, his dream was to be a professional football player.
00:14:25
Speaker
And so he was pursuing that. and he was playing football and he was in some of the pro leagues and and working his way up, trying to position himself. And then he was injured and it was career ending injury. And so he found himself laying on his sister's couch for months at a time wondering, what do I do now? I don't know who I am anymore. If I don't have football, that that was my life.
00:14:44
Speaker
but But out of that, as he kept moving forward, and that's the key. The key I find is so many people as they keep moving forward in the face of adversity and they learn more about themselves.
00:14:55
Speaker
And as they learn about themselves, they they they hone in more and more and and and focus more and more on who they are, what makes them different from other people. ah you know I can say this for myself.
00:15:08
Speaker
A big light bulb came on for me back in the day. This was back in the day. I i read ah Marcus Buckingham's um Strength Finder back in the day and and took his Strength Finder assessment.
00:15:19
Speaker
And one of the strength themes that had identified for me was something called input. At the time, I had no idea what input meant, but as I realized what it was, I realized that was that kid reading cereal boxes back in the day. That was me just sucking up input. I realized I could read and absorb. I know you're an avid reader also. I could absorb vast amounts of information very quickly and hold it suspended in mental midair and then make connections and do things with it. that And I just assumed everybody could do that if they wanted Yeah.
00:15:51
Speaker
And what I realized is, oh, no, actually, that's one of the things that makes me special. um Same thing with Lewis. You know, he realized what he really loved to do and was good at was asking questions. And he was inquisitive and curious and he loved finding out new things. And so he started asking questions. And that led to starting the School of Greatness podcast show.
00:16:08
Speaker
And then over the years, I mean, how many, 1800 episodes, something like that. he's got so many episodes now with so many people. He's become so good at asking those questions. that in order to bring instruction and inspiration, wisdom to other people, right? But it began with that. So I think it begins with becoming a student of yourself, figuring out who you are, and then acting that out. And as you do, learn more, adjust, learn, adjust, learn, adjust as you move forward.
00:16:35
Speaker
Do you have have a general recommendation for how someone might go about deciding that they can tell their story and how to put that story together?
Advice for Aspiring Storytellers
00:16:46
Speaker
Well, first thing I would say is read my book, which is why I wrote it precisely for that purpose. ah Your story advantage in chapter one, I talk about the need to identify your meaningful message.
00:17:00
Speaker
That is that message that you want to bring the world that you want to share with the world, the kind of at the center of your story. And once you go through that, we have a number of tools in the book to help people ah to do that and and beyond.
00:17:13
Speaker
Once you do that, then that will really help you kind of think, how do I build out my, what I call your story ecosystem? Because it really is a living organism we're talking about. It's a dynamic thing. It's not a do it once and you're done.
00:17:26
Speaker
It's a, and the ecosystem is built around, first of all, your brand story. I call that your message maker. That is, what what is that message that you are passionate about, that the world needs, that there's a market to to fill?
00:17:39
Speaker
And then beyond that, then your message multiplier. How can I turn that into a book, a body of work that stands on its own, that can go places that I can't go and touch people in that way?
00:17:52
Speaker
And then beyond that, how do I monetize it? How do I build out that message and in a whole lot of ways from digital courses, workshops, trainings? There's just no end to the ways we can monetize that these days.
00:18:03
Speaker
All of it, though, it comes down to you got to get clear on that initial step first. And there's all kinds of questions we can go through to help people figure that out. But it begins with that meaningful message.
00:18:14
Speaker
Figure out what it is that you really love to do that you're actually good at and that the world needs. When you put those three things together, you really start ah putting that, you start getting clarity, I think, about where you can go with it and what's possible for you.
00:18:30
Speaker
How did you arrive at your storytelling structure?
Five-Part Storytelling Structure
00:18:34
Speaker
First of all, becoming a student of the science and art of storytelling. I mean, just just studying. I mean, know again, I was the nerdy kid who, as a teenager, I would ride down to the library and sit in the corner and read Shakespeare on a Saturday for crying out loud. I mean, that that'll tell you, i should have known I had this input issue but back then. yeah.
00:18:54
Speaker
Um, but then also just diving in and and, and, and working with not only classic works, but actually building these things like getting our hands dirty with words and putting them together and, you know, writing New York times bestsellers and all this, all that kind of stuff.
00:19:09
Speaker
really began to flow and some of it came naturally for me. So the storytelling structure is a combination of not only thousands of years of storytelling ah expertise that humanity has passed down amongst ourselves, but also actually getting my hands dirty around, let's put this together. And we put this together and then seeing, oh, this went really well, even not just for me, but for this other person, what really made that tick? Why did it work? And from that, and then I was able to break it down into a five-part process.
00:19:38
Speaker
that any great message is going to have these elements. Because, you know, I tell you, i i had somebody give me a book at one point. It was probably 250, 300 pages. It was massive. It was thick. It was big. It was all about, here's how you tell a great story.
00:19:52
Speaker
And I thought, that feels really complicated to me. ah And so I wanted to something, hey, I want something really simple that a leader can grab. Hey, I got a message. i want to get out to the world to my team. i can use it.
00:20:05
Speaker
Or i want to build a business. I can use it. I want to write a book. I can use it. And and and in something simple and sticky that can be used as guidelines, not as a ah definitive, you have to do everything exactly this way. But this is the way people are expecting to hear from you.
00:20:22
Speaker
And so if we ignore what they're expecting, we kind of set ourselves up for failure. It sure sounds to me like you're not setting your approach in opposition to something like the hero's journey or, you know, any of these frameworks in, you know, advertising or sales, you might have AIDA, awareness, interest, desire, action, you know, things like that. What's in it for me? Any number of other things. It sounds to me like you're not setting your approach in opposition to that, but
00:20:56
Speaker
I'm guessing that you you must have some, in some areas, a distillation of those different approaches.
00:21:07
Speaker
And then in other areas, you must find that, you know, you really prefer to lean on one approach or another, depending maybe on the specifics of someone's story or their personality.
00:21:19
Speaker
First of all, good storytelling is good storytelling. um You know, we talked about words that are popular today, the hero's journey or this approach or that approach. They all, if they're good, they're all going to incorporate the same elements.
00:21:32
Speaker
Right. And so very quickly at a high level, the the five elements of the story structure process were first is attention, which is how do you get someone's attention? If you don't have their attention, doesn't matter what story you're telling. They don't care that you're that you're telling it.
00:21:47
Speaker
um And that really comes down to what is it that that person wants? Not the message you want to share, the story. you what do What do they want? let's Let's start by flipping that around. Secondly is tension.
00:21:59
Speaker
And, you know, any good story has to have tension or it's not even a story. You know, it's it's it's, I don't know, what ah a Wikipedia post. It's not a story. It's just sharing information. So there has to be some tension. And so when you think about the message you're sharing with your audience, you've got to put yourself in their shoes and figure out what is the tension? What are the problems? What are the challenges they have?
00:22:18
Speaker
that are keeping them from getting what they want. You know, is that, is that there's this dragon to slay if we use the hero's journey language kind of thing. um But then once you get clear on that, then it's about, all right, now we can think about your story, your message and how that connects with the audience. And only then can you really share that ah because they want to know then, all right, yeah, I got that problem. I got these issues, but why should I listen to you about it? What, what, where's your authority coming from here?
00:22:44
Speaker
And so you can share that. Then you finally get to step four, which is solution. And the mistake a lot of people make is they jump right to step four and they think, this is the message I want to share. i know who needs it. I'd have got to, boom, here world, here's my message.
00:22:58
Speaker
Without walking through that process of realizing that your story is about you, but your story isn't for you. And so you have to tell it in a way that actually sets up your audience to receive it, to apply it, to put it to use.
00:23:12
Speaker
The solution portion, by the way, is where we develop our intellectual property, where we figure out what are those ideas that are unique to us, how I approach them, how i share them, how I put them into words, how I use them in a keynote speech or in my book or my trainings or my coaching program or whatever the case would be.
00:23:28
Speaker
And then finally, action. what i want people to actually do with this? what What action do I want to take as a result of this? And so really distilled it down into those five steps. We actually have a seven step when we do a brand story process that goes a little bit deeper on some things. But for the most part, it's a core five.
00:23:46
Speaker
that really simplified it. Could we expand it into 15 or 20 or 25? Sure. But again, that wouldn't be helpful for most people to use. And that was our aim is how can I make something that's actually sticky, actually helpful, actually good to guide people,
00:24:02
Speaker
to channel into their own ideas and share those with the world. When you have potential clients come to you, is there a, it it seems to me like there would be a a pretty narrow or strong choke point at the very beginning.
Client Alignment and Success Measures
00:24:17
Speaker
You know, are they already clear?
00:24:19
Speaker
on the sort of problem and solution or what's unique about their story and do they know how to connect it to an audience or whatever else. Some of those early decisions and if I'm right about this or even if I'm not What does an early engagement look like or how do you decide even who's right to work with?
00:24:40
Speaker
Sure. Well, that's a great question because I'm a big fan of of alignment. And frankly, it's not just working with us. When you're working with anybody, you need to make sure that you're in alignment with them. Are your are your values on the same page? Is your message on the same page?
00:24:55
Speaker
You know, because you want people who are passionate about what it is that you're trying to share. You don't want people who are just ah hired hands, just doing a job and something like that. You want that passion.
00:25:06
Speaker
So when we go through that, ah we if we if we if we talk to someone, first of all, that's how it begins. It begins with conversation, getting to know people, getting know their heart, getting know their message. If we find that they really have a lot of clarity on where they want to go, we can help them sharpen it and so forth.
00:25:21
Speaker
Then we might work with them on a book or a digital course or something like that. And we'll help them fine tune that in that process and then build that into an incredibly robust book structure that's a winning for them. If they don't have that, sometimes we need to begin with a brand story. Like, let's get clear on your message. Let's start there. And so often that can begin as a place where you're just working with an incredible lady in the dental space, actually, ah where we helped her get clear on her brand direction initially. And now we're diving in to help her then get clear on a book and a digital course as she's working ah to help a lot of consulting or lot dentists who are trying to
00:26:01
Speaker
get out of the, the grind of just being in the business instead of working on the business and so forth. Um, you know, so it, it, it can be, it can begin with that brand story. can, and then move into other things if you don't have clarity on that. But often people we work with, they've been thinking about this a while. They've been pondering it. They've got a lot of ideas around it.
00:26:20
Speaker
Maybe they come to us at 70%, something like that. And we can help them elevate that to that 30% because elevate is really what you're after. You know, if if any of us could do all this on our own, we wouldn't even be having a conversation.
00:26:36
Speaker
But I believe strongly if you want to elevate, you must collaborate. You've got to find other people to work with who can, that 70 to 30%, that's often the most difficult. The first 70% is easy compared to the second 30.
00:26:48
Speaker
And so getting people who can accelerate you through that process to take you to the next level, that becomes key when you're in alignment, when able to work together in that way. How much do you get involved in not just telling the story as in like, we're going to help you write that book or develop the videos that tell the story, or I don't know what other media we might discuss, versus or perhaps in addition to that, going into things like
00:27:21
Speaker
developing social media for your clients or email newsletters or something else? Do you get involved in any of that? What I'm going to put in the marketing camp, if I can separate it from, you know, storytelling?
AI and Brand Storytelling
00:27:35
Speaker
Yeah, we do a little bit of that. Our focus is brand defining storytelling. And so usually that's in the case of let's, let's figure out what your message is. Let's figure out how to turn that into a book. Let's figure out how to monetize that into a course or a program or intellectual property oriented.
00:27:50
Speaker
Um, we, when it comes to a book launching and so forth or promotional things, that's where we get involved in some of these other places. We're not in the business of running someone's social media for them over the longterm or something like that, or managing their email marketing. We can speak into it. We're knowledgeable about all of it, but that's just, again, it's leaning into your own strengths, knowing what, hey, this is what we do really well. And so we're going to focus our attention here, ah not so much spread ourselves thin so we can do other things.
00:28:19
Speaker
um one of the One of the beauties about the things you just said is that this is a place, I think, where AI is actually proven to be a helpful tool in many ways. And I see AI as a tool that can help eliminate or minimize the routine.
00:28:33
Speaker
and free us up to be creative. That's really where I think the biggest thing. And and we use AI behind the scenes in what we do as well, ah not as a, just write the book, let AI write the book for you at all.
00:28:45
Speaker
ah We use it again as a, how do we use that to eliminate routines, cut the time that we need to get things done, shorten that curve so we can use our creative time to really put our best into a work and actually elevate it to the next level.
00:28:58
Speaker
and And I think that's where, that's where we're going to see the greatest gains from that, by the way, in so many areas of life is, is, is eliminating mental, the routine of mental tasks, especially for us in in the story business is leveraging some of those things. Yeah.
00:29:14
Speaker
I agree with you 100% on what I'm hearing about AI. And i going to come back to that because I am really curious about your feelings about the use of generative AI broadly, but also how you're using it.
00:29:33
Speaker
my motivation for asking about those things that I put in the quote unquote marketing camp, you know, when I'm drawing these, these distinctions that don't necessarily need to be there between marketing and storytelling or whatever else.
00:29:47
Speaker
My motivation was that, you know, it in 24 hour news cycle, there are things like, you know, if it bleeds, it leads and everything is breaking news now. And so if If I read The Economist, for example, more than likely I have a subscription and they don't need to hook me with a really sensational cover.
00:30:16
Speaker
I've already made the commitment and I'm going to keep reading as long as they you know keep delivering. Now that might change over a one-year period or a five-year period.
00:30:28
Speaker
but it's not going to change issue to issue. But in your Instagram, you know, feed or even in the email inbox to some extent, though, you know, there are sliding scales here. Sure.
00:30:44
Speaker
The, you have to kind of, There has to be a teaser. And, you know, even on on book covers, and i I, you know, I just, i'm I'm thinking of your book, you don't have something that's really sensational on the cover. But thankfully, with a book, you don't have to do that nearly as much as you have to do with social media.
00:31:04
Speaker
When you, when somebody desires to tell their story and you get involved with them and forgive me, I i forget the exact way that you put it, but you know, you you said something to the effect of you want to tell stories that are really true to the brand.
00:31:23
Speaker
And yeah how do you balance reaching as many of the right people as possible, which might take some stretching of a message or somebody's personality or the story being sensational, perhaps. I'm lacking for other words. How do you balance getting that broader reach against What might be something that that holds more integrity or is more true who that person is?
00:31:52
Speaker
There's a felt tension there that we've we live in a clickbait culture where we feel like, all right, if I don't do something crazy or zany to get people's attention, or you know then they're not going to listen to me.
00:32:05
Speaker
You know, I remember um some years back, somebody was telling me, hey, you got to go on Facebook. You got to do live events. And you got to like the first few seconds, you got to like jump around, wave your hands, some crazy stuff like that. So get people's attention and draw them in, you know. and And I said, I thought about that for a second. I'm like, do you know me?
00:32:25
Speaker
ah Like, do I seem like a person who, when you meet them, I'm jumping around waving my hands. I'm like, let's say I do that and I draw someone in and they listen to me and then they realize, wow, he's not at all a guy who jumps around and waves his hands. That's weird.
00:32:40
Speaker
Right? So immediately what I've done is I've created a disconnect. Sure, you're in my world, but I've created this your relational disconnect that, you know, it's almost a ah sense of distrust at the at the very beginning of the relationship.
00:32:54
Speaker
I came in thinking one thing and now I'm thinking another. I don't understand. So I believe it's very important to always be authentic. um And I think a lot of people actually get into trouble trying to be someone else or conform to what they think someone else is expecting them to be instead of leaning more fully into who they are. Right. and You can now certainly you can tap into marketing expertise and messaging and all that kind of stuff.
00:33:23
Speaker
But I think there has to be continuity because otherwise you're attracting the wrong people. And I don't mean there's something wrong with them. I mean, they're not people that you're trying to connect with and that will naturally connect with you.
00:33:34
Speaker
um and And I think that's an important thing to realize. You know, I shared this with students way back in the day when I was running a school. I said, you got to remember, even the president of the United States, as well known as that person is, i mean,
00:33:47
Speaker
almost at least half the country didn't vote for him, right? Probably more than half the country didn't vote because some people didn't vote at all, right? So only a minority of people said, hey, I'm with you, right? um And so realizing that your message isn't going to resonate with everybody and that's okay. And so for people, I think it's more important for people to know that, hey, when I get an email from you, Eric, it's it's going to be authentic. It's going to be who you are. it's going to add value. It's going to do those things.
00:34:16
Speaker
um And the people who are like, well, that wasn't really crazy enough or zany enough for me. I need to get another other crazy zany fix somewhere else. They're probably not the people you're looking for. On the other hand, there are people who are like, hey, yeah that's me. I'm crazy. I'm zany.
00:34:31
Speaker
I'm thinking of people right now who somebody whose brand is like, man, I'm on the go. I'm energetic. and That's who they are. That's not ah it' not a fake ah version of them. That's really who they are. That there are people who are like, yeah, that's what I want. So I need, know, so I think being authentic to who you are, always acting in integrity.
00:34:51
Speaker
and and not buying into the lie that you have to compromise that in order to be a success. I think i think that is that's a big lie that we we tend to believe and and fall into. So I don't think you have to choose. I think it's a both and.
00:35:06
Speaker
i think you can be yourself and ah i'll now always be open for learning. Always be open for, hey, I could improve this subject line in this way, or I can talk to this expert and get a better idea of this chapter or this book or this course or how my...
00:35:19
Speaker
presenting this in a way i do that myself i tap into other people who have expertise in different areas but you know i would say never into the place of whatever they say then we'll just do it no it has to be run through the filter of our values filter of does that align with who i really am does it feel authentic to me if that makes sense Oh, it definitely does. Do you have a general measure of success for your clients or does success depend upon some situational or contextual things?
00:35:52
Speaker
Yeah, it's totally totally situational. ah We have some people who are building their business and it's all about, hey, i want my book, for example, to be a bestseller. I've got to be on the bestseller list because I've got a strategy behind that to do this.
00:36:04
Speaker
Others are, we have another gentleman, we've worked with him. We're working on a third book now. We've done multiple workshops, trainings, programs. I tell a story in the in the book, actually. um We've worked with him with all kinds of things. His goal has never been to make a bestseller list. his been His goal has been to build a B2B business.
00:36:21
Speaker
And he's been very successful at doing that. He's moved a ton of books as part of that process. ah Plenty of books to have made the bestseller list, but that wasn't a strategy. He wasn't trying to do that. That wasn't what it was for. So his level of success is different.
00:36:33
Speaker
We work with plenty of other people who, um you know, we're creating books or resources that they're just starting out. They're trying to build their business. They're putting the pieces together. They're becoming a keynote speaker.
00:36:45
Speaker
All those metrics are are going to end those definitions of success will be different for each person, which is why we don't we don't try to put people in boxes. You know, we're not trying. We don't frame ourselves as we're the bestseller book people or something like that.
00:36:59
Speaker
um it it It depends on what you need. and and And candidly, Eric, there are plenty of people in the world. They don't need to write a book. And you know I'm not one of those people who would say, oh everybody has to write a book. everybody They could, they all have stories, they all have wisdom, they all have expertise, but our callings are different. So example, we work with a ah nonprofit ah called MedSend, Rick Allen is the head of that. word now we're just his The second book is coming out on just a few days, actually from our recording time here in 2026. And their books are all about telling the stories ah of missionaries
00:37:36
Speaker
who have who have really devoted their lives to medical missionaries, devoted their lives, embedded themselves in these different cultures. And the second book really understand goes into the nuances of relationships in those endeavors. Like what happens to relationships and families and couples when they're embedded in those cultures, when they're engaging in those things? What does that what does that really look like help people bring that to life?
00:38:00
Speaker
And so for them, success is awareness of the mission work that they're doing and the the the the things they're doing there, which then can hopefully promote donations, which can promote other people being involved and so forth. So their definition of success, again, is very different than other people. So I'd say there is no there is no one pathway to success on that kind of definition.
00:38:24
Speaker
The answer is it really depends because every story is different. Do you have a general feeling about the idea that someone can write a book and then it gives them credibility with clients or it gives them some credibility as a speaker?
00:38:44
Speaker
Um, I, you know, my, my feelings on it, I think are irrelevant because I think it's a pretty demonstrable fact at this point that, that, that is the reality, right? I mean, even the word author is the root word of authority, right? If someone has authority in an industry or an area, it, it, it, they, people think of them as the author in that space or the author of content. So it absolutely establishes credibility. I mean, people think if you wrote the book on something, I mean, you must know a lot about it. i used to joke, um you know, the same thing as, you if someone says, oh, I graduated from Harvard, I must know what I'm doing.
00:39:23
Speaker
um Unfortunately, there are a lot of politicians today who graduated from Harvard who clearly don't know what they're doing. So... you know But it's that idea that people think, well, you went to that school or you have that credential, you must know a lot about whatever.
00:39:38
Speaker
ah But that isn't necessarily true. With a book, it is. Because if you actually did the work of putting a book together and you've thought through a topic deeply and you understand it, you're actually an expert on it. Now, I'm not talking about people who say, I'll give you ah a book. We use AI or whatever, and we'll turn it out 30 days. You'll have words on a page that you can technically call a book.
00:39:58
Speaker
I'm talking about brand defining storytelling, right? Really putting a message out there that that is unique to you, that matters, that's powerful, Once you do that, you are the expert, you know, and you mentioned, for instance, you mentioned your story advantage on the book cover that that a strategic choice we made was to put, you know, the word story prominently just as it appears in our logo and all that stuff like this is all about story because we want people when they think about us, they wanted to think story.
00:40:25
Speaker
right So if you if you're thinking story, we want to be your next thought. right So it's that idea of how can we how can we position ourselves in a powerful way that is authentic to us, that that resonates with us, that that people see it, they get it, and they can make that connection.
00:40:44
Speaker
You know, it was interesting that you mentioned AI because that part of where I was going with that question is, or or leading to, is how you then differentiate
Maintaining Authenticity Amid AI
00:40:57
Speaker
yourself. If I'm the storyteller, if I'm the author, you know, how do I...
00:41:03
Speaker
ensure that people are going to get a high quality story or a high quality product? And how can I give them confidence that they're going to get that when they decide to purchase my book?
00:41:17
Speaker
Because the next book on the shelf or in the Amazon listing or whatever might be something written by AI. And I'm not saying that everything written by AI is terrible, but I think it's sort of implied by how you talked about AI, that it's not right for everything, at least not right now.
00:41:36
Speaker
And so where I was going was, how do I ensure that I am that author that is authoritative, that the book, that the story that I tell demonstrates that I am really the authority versus just writing a book sort of in name only?
00:41:52
Speaker
You have to first of all realize the book is part of a bigger ecosystem. And so very few people purchase a book based on they're casually browsing in a bookstore and they're looking at this book or that book or that. It happens sometimes.
00:42:06
Speaker
But most books today are sold online, right? They're not even sold in bookstores anymore. so you know, people are making those decisions based on other things. And so you're you're often communicating things outside of the book in the first place. People, their first touch with you is hearing you on a podcast or seeing a social media post or hearing you speak or something like that.
00:42:25
Speaker
um And then the book follows up after that. the the The promise of the book, and and you know even if you you grab a book, you flip through the table of contents, people look at the the front, they look at the back, they look at the inside flap, they go to the table of contents, they start scrolling through. The promise of the book, I think people need to see that, oh, this has weight.
00:42:44
Speaker
And it's accessible. there's There's both depth of content and i can process this. I can make some sense of it. And I think I can get some value from this. that the The challenge with AI is that AI is not inventive. It's not an idea generator. It borrows from other people.
00:43:03
Speaker
And produces something that is by design is supposed to be the average, the consensus of what's out there. And so by design, you're you're literally lowering the standards if you're dependent on AI to create your content.
00:43:16
Speaker
um So that's one problem. The other problem is that you eliminate the idea of intellectual property. Because if you're using ai I think you have to be very careful when you use AI in writing that you don't, ah to use some some Ghostbusters language, that you don't cross the streams. It's something we talk about internally, like that you're not using an open system that's pulling in some of Eric's work over here and some of Bob's work and Joan's work. I'm pulling all this together because then you are in the Wild West when it comes to copyright law and so forth. I mean, you you can't you can't protect it. You can't build something around it. If you do, you're building it on on shifting sand. Right. That won't stand up over time. So you have to have original thought, original ideas that other people haven't thought of yet and framed in some powerful ways that that can be uniquely yours.
00:44:02
Speaker
That that becomes the key. And that's again, AI is not designed to do that. It's designed to copy, imitate, piece things together in that way. Not that again, not that it doesn't have some value in a place as a tool, but if you're trying to build something that really you can build around your story ecosystem, um AI is not the way to go to build the core of that.
00:44:23
Speaker
Does that make sense? I think it does. And I might be wrong here, but I'm guessing you would tell me that if I want a chance to write a second book or tell another story or have that audience for longer, probably have to have a story that's true or has some weight to it rather than what I might produce in, you know, ah either just using AI or writing a book that is not very well put put together.
00:44:55
Speaker
Well, I think you can actually damage your brand by writing a book that is not very well put together. ah i i I usually don't keep them on my shelves, but as so many times that people have given me books and I can tell they're really proud of the book. They're often self-published. They're often things that they put together. And, you know, a glance, we've all probably had this, a glance at the book tells me it's self-published.
00:45:19
Speaker
It tells me they probably did it on their own. um And I, i always i struggle there because I want to be nice and acknowledge the work that they did. i'm not you know At the same time, thumbed through it and I'm like, umm I'm probably not going to invest in any time reading this um for a number of reasons. But ah it it it can actually do the opposite of what they intend if you don't do it well. Right. And so to do something like that, well, to have it represent you well, anything like that, if it doesn't represent you well, whether it's a book or a keynote or whatever it is that you're doing or this podcast, right, Eric, i mean, you show up every time for this.
Collaboration in Storytelling
00:45:56
Speaker
i mean, if you're like, well, Hey, hi folks today, I'm in my car in a parking lot somewhere. And, you know, and next week I'm somewhere else. And, know,
00:46:05
Speaker
The sound quality is horrible, but least I have a podcast, right? It's the same thing. If someone says, well, at least I have a book. Yeah, but if the book or whatever it is doesn't reflect well on you, it's actually hurting you more than harming you, more than helping you.
00:46:18
Speaker
I agree with you 100%. And, you know i I'm guessing you would would have something similar that there are plenty of people, whether they are friends of mine, former colleagues, you know, people just out in the wild who write a book and, you know, it might not be for me or it might, I might think that it's not done very well, but I can tell hopefully that they really tried.
00:46:49
Speaker
They really did their best given whatever investment they could or were willing to make. And hopefully they get what they need out of that to feel good and or to keep going, you know, to do that second book or to have a podcast or whatever it is.
00:47:06
Speaker
And then there are others that You might look at the book and I'm being somewhat vague here so that I don't call out any books, obviously. But there was a book that I looked at recently and it referenced ChatGPT on the cover and as if it was some authority on this particular data that they were talking about.
00:47:30
Speaker
and but you know bill this probably says a lot more about me than it does about the book but hopefully you know you'll give me some grace here i just felt like when i saw that it's like oh this is going to be terrible if they're if they're really referencing chat gpt having um as some authority on the thing that they were talking about i doubt that they put in any effort and i really struggled to get through don't know 30 or 40 pages of this book and then i I gave up.
00:48:00
Speaker
Now, maybe I'm not in the audience, but the the thing that I want to call out here is feeling like the effort that should have been put into it just wasn't there, you know?
00:48:11
Speaker
And if Bill, if you're the the kid that goes out and and plays, you know, peewee football or is just learning chess or whatever it is, and you're terrible,
00:48:23
Speaker
But it's expected that you're going to be terrible the first time around. i'm going to I'm going to accept that much better than if you know you're you're not even putting the effort in. Yeah, well, and especially since it's so easy to actually collaborate with people who can help make it great.
00:48:40
Speaker
you know And again, did different people have different budget constraints and investment constraints and the constraints of life and all that. And frankly, at Storybillers, we have a number of different options for people, whether they be digital support options or coming alongside and laying the blueprint and then turning people loose to go do it on their own or coaching them through the whole thing or writing it for them. That's just the whole spectrum.
00:49:01
Speaker
And we love hearing everybody's story to see how best we can help them. But i think I think what you're talking about is ah one of the dangers, I think, is people think, people tend to think, well, I used ai and therefore it must be pretty good.
00:49:16
Speaker
Like it it sounded good. It it came out good And then we often get manuscripts that people come to us and give them. We look at them. We're like, it needs a good deal of work. And you can tell you used AI. here you know um and And again, getting back to that, ah to be authentic, right? To actually have, what is your meaningful message? I go back to where our conversation started. What is your meaningful message? did Do you actually care about that message? you trying to get out to the world or are you just trying to find something that you can push the easy button that you can make money or you can do this? or You can just take some kind of shortcut to somewhere um that in a know once you get there, how meaningful will it be knowing that I didn't really have anything worth saying to get here, but yeah,
00:50:01
Speaker
at least other people think I do. i mean, is that really what we want? Is that how we want to define success as I'm successful at something I really don't know anything about or care anything about? I'm talking um i've talked about you're living actual fulfilling life and doing things that really energize you and that make the world a better place. To do that, think you've got to engage it. You've got to do the work ah to have something of value.
00:50:27
Speaker
hundred percent. And i think that at least for me, you spoke to that when you used the word, I think it was alignment earlier. To me, that's evocative of an understanding of who I am, who the audience is or does this, is the story accomplishing what I desire it to accomplish? We can find alignment in a lot of, or define it in a lot of different ways.
00:50:53
Speaker
areas but i think that that was part of what you suggested for me when you were talking about that earlier i agree well said how are you all using ai bill well i think one of the things we're doing is we're really exploring ways to again eliminate the routine is what it comes down to and so You know what we've realized is that so many creative on our team, we call them story artisans or they're writers, they're editors, they're people who are crafting the words.
00:51:28
Speaker
And so much of our time goes into things that we found we're doing the same thing over and over. There's repetition involved in that. Whether it's, um hey, we're trying to get this to fit this framework. And so to do that, we need to move this here and this here and this here. Okay. you know Mentally, we can almost not check out, but we can tone it down and because it just it's moving words and stuff like that.
00:51:49
Speaker
So we're looking for ways that, um hey, this doesn't require as much creative thinking to do this. Is there a way that we can get AI, teach AI to do that for us in that way?
00:52:00
Speaker
Um, the other way that we're trying to experiment with is figuring out ways to, um, for, for people we work with who have already a body of work, but maybe they've got a podcast. Uh, maybe they've got a bunch of keynotes that they've given over the years, or they've got, um, content that exists in a lot of different forms. We're working with someone in the real estate space right now, who's a really well-known space, uh, on YouTube and so forth. And so they've got a lot of content that they've built over the years.
00:52:26
Speaker
is is how do we thus use ai to to kind of mine that to to pull that content out and then to again to present us with it as all right now that we see what we see let's get creative on it let's get let's think outside the box let's make some connections that we haven't made before let's do some things to package it in a powerful way ah to do that. So really as, as a, as a powerful routine saver, as ah as a time saver, as a legitimate shortcut of instead of it taking us three or four days to do this, it it takes you know three or four minutes, right? We can condense that down to do it faster.
00:53:03
Speaker
Because when it comes at the end of the day, people who work with us, they're not saying, man, I really want to work with you because you do such a great job of that routine stuff that you're working on. You know you go to McDonald's, or well, maybe McDonald's isn't a great example because I never go there.
00:53:19
Speaker
ah You go to a restaurant, you're not like, hey, ah you know can you tell me about the procedures you use when the chef is preparing this particular sauce and putting it do you put it in this bowl or that? None of us really care about that. All we care about is, hey, when it comes out, is it great?
00:53:33
Speaker
is it is it Does it taste good? Does it have all the things we want? So that's what we're focused on is how how can we use that in some powerful ways? And and we're seeing some some neat stuff going on. um but But I also think the thing we're not seeing and we're not expecting to see is AI ever take the place of human creativity, human originality.
00:53:58
Speaker
And that that's the key. I think there are people who are in that space who who have told me, oh we think it'll get there eventually. um I just don't think that's possible. I don't think that that we're ever going to get to that place, that human creativity will be replaced by that. And if it does happen, i think it'll be a super sad day for humanity.
00:54:19
Speaker
I would like to think that As technology chips away at things that are uniquely human or that humans can uniquely do, i would like to continue to think that there is something that's unique about us that is not just, you know, our our shape or whatever else. And yes, i while while I personally will explicitly accept or I will state that
00:54:52
Speaker
It's an unforeseeable future. You know, maybe it's five years, maybe it's 500 years, maybe it's never that machines will be conscious or be able to think analogically or whatever else.
00:55:06
Speaker
I just, I am not educated enough or informed enough, I guess, to feel like I could really predict that that will happen. But what I think I can do is say, it sure doesn't seem like it's going to be in the next 18 months. And I don't even feel like it's going to be in the next five or 10 years.
00:55:25
Speaker
So I would like to make the best possible use of one, my uniqueness as a human, but also as Eric And two, I want to live the best possible, most fulfilling life.
Valuing and Sharing Your Story
00:55:38
Speaker
And if I'm just constantly fearing something, or if I'm thinking, oh, it'll be here and I'm waiting, then maybe and had not intended this bill, but maybe it comes back around to, if I'm just constantly waiting, maybe I won't be that person that picks myself as in your Seth Godin story. Yeah, yeah. that's ah That's a great point. That's a great point. I love that. And and I think it's important that we do pick ourselves.
00:56:04
Speaker
that we do think I have something valuable to contribute and that my story matters. um And I think it begins with that. Once we believe that, if we truly believe it, then we start acting like we believe it.
00:56:17
Speaker
And then everything changes. There is so much that I would love to expand upon in that because of just, for example, think a lot of people feel like they don't matter.
00:56:28
Speaker
you know, but that may be a topic for a future podcast. And i I bet that given all the exploration you've done of other people's stories, you probably have a lot of interesting things to say, but I try to respect your time because you've given me a lot of it here, Bill.
00:56:48
Speaker
I'll round this out and I'll give you two questions. So If I want to connect with you, follow you, learn more about you or your business, first question, is there somewhere that I should go or things that I should look
Connecting with Storybuilders
00:57:01
Speaker
up? And second question, whether we touched on it or not, do you have any words of wisdom or things that you recommend that I be thinking about here in the near future?
00:57:13
Speaker
Yeah, well, first of all, to get in touch with us, mean, you can go to mystorybuilders.com. mystorybuilders.com is our main website and and check us out there. You can find links to Facebook, Insta, LinkedIn, whatever ah medium works for you to connect with us and follow us in that way.
00:57:29
Speaker
And some great resources there as well. ah Your Story Advantage. ah The book, I think, is a great place to start. We created it to be a great place to start. We've got a bunch of bonuses we prepared with this. So, you know, if you want to get the book, go to yourstoryadvantage.com and you can get a whole bunch of free resources to go with the book to just equip you for this journey. So that's that's a great step number two. Then the third way to get a hold of us, if you're thinking, hey, you know what? um I think I do have a story and I've had some success or I haven't or whatever the case may be.
00:58:01
Speaker
And you're like, I'd like to have a conversation about that. The easiest way to do that is go to mystorybuilders.com forward slash story and just schedule time to talk. I mean, there's no pressure or obligation. We just have conversations about your story. And if we if we can be of help, great.
00:58:15
Speaker
If we can't, we want to get out of your way so you can keep doing what you're doing. But we want to add value to that story. So mystorybuilders.com forward slash story and just schedule some time to connect with us.
00:58:29
Speaker
And I think, you know, regarding your last question, if there's one thing that, you know, if if someone who's thinking, hmm, I don't know, should I do something? Should I not do something?
00:58:39
Speaker
um If you feel like, you know, you you you could be doing more, you should be doing more, that you feel like, you know, I've got this expertise, I've got this expertise I haven't really tapped into, or I've got this, this body of wisdom that people have told me, man, you have so much value that you're contributing, or you should write a book, or, you know, you, you, you have a track record of helping people in some powerful ways.
00:59:05
Speaker
And you want to multiply that, right? You want to maximize that level of impact, that level of influence or, and that level of income and make more money doing it. Um, I would just encourage you don't, don't fall for the confidence trap.
00:59:21
Speaker
The confidence trap is we we tend to deify others and diminish ourselves. And it's so easy to think, oh, that works for them. That person can do it. But as for me, I don't really have anything du of great value.
00:59:36
Speaker
And it's simply not true. It's just a lie that we embrace. And every one of us has something of value to contribute and do it in that way. So I would encourage you to have the courage to say, you know what, i i I need to steward my story well. I want to look back at the end of my life and know that, man, I left it all out there.
00:59:55
Speaker
I gave all I could. I went did had all the impact that I could. And not looking back and saying, oh, if only I hadn't been so afraid or if only I had more confidence, if only, if only, whatever. um You know, have the courage to to live your story, to to tell your story, and frankly, to live a story that's worth telling.
01:00:16
Speaker
I think that's a great place to leave it, even though, as you can probably tell, Bill, I always have a thousand more things to add, but I think that you put it very well. So i will say thank you for being here.
01:00:30
Speaker
Thank you for your book. And I do mean it. I really enjoyed it. So I hope that anyone that listens to this will take the time to check it out. Well, appreciate it Eric. I've enjoyed our conversation too. Thanks for your time.
01:00:43
Speaker
Thank you.