Success Habits from a Personal Development Super Achiever Kyle Wilson

Welcome to True Grit and Grace, a podcast designed to empower you to claim your resilience and thrive through life's challenges. I am Amberly Lago, a mindset coach, fitness expert and bestselling author. Each week, I'll dive deep with the world's brightest thought leaders and elite performers to share tangible tools and practical advice to inspire you to keep your eyes on the prize and forge ahead. So get ready to conquer your fears, heal any trauma, lead with your heart, and elevate your life with grit and grace.

Hi, and welcome back to the True Grit and Grace Podcast. Today I have my good friend here with us, Kyle Wilson. Welcome to the show. I'm so happy to have you here. And I just want to do a quick introduction because you are truly legendary in the self-development industry. I mean, you have worked with the top names in the self-development industry, including your 18-year business partner, Jim Rohn. And you're the author of 52 Lessons I Learned from Jim Rohn and Other Great Legends. Y'all, Kyle has filled seminar rooms. He has helped hundreds of people become bestselling published authors. He now does masterminds. He's still getting books out there and getting them published, coaching. And he also has an incredible newsletter. I'm always blown away when I see so much information and value that you share in your newsletter. So thank you so much for being here, Kyle. Thank you.

Wow. Amberly, thank you so much. It's my honor.

Well, I just have to know, can you tell us a little bit about how you got started in the personal development industry and really worked with the top person in personal development? How did you start to meet with and start to work with Jim Rohn?

Yeah, it's a great question. I've had people say, wow, you must have been like the class president in high school to have worked with Jim Rohn and Brian Tracy and Les Brown and all these people. But, you know, I grew up in a small town. I never went to college. I actually got in a lot of trouble, drugs. And I'm understating that really. And at age 19, I had a significant emotional experience. I changed my life, started my first little business, which was a detail shop, you know, in a small town. I'm washing cars, cleaning them up. Eventually opened a service station. Again, not the typical route to be the founder of Jim Rohn International. But I was industrious. I was an entrepreneur. Within a couple of years, I had the top station in town, had 10 employees. We were open 24/7.

And how old were you? How old were you?

You know, that was, that was like 22 to 26.

Wow.

So you had an entrepreneurial mindset from the get-go, really?

I really did, although I did not have mentors or teachers. So it really was innate in me. And I did get this tap on the shoulder. It was the whisper and it was, hey, move to a bigger market, move to Dallas. And that was really foreign to me. I grew up in Vernon, Texas. I'd never— none of my family had left, but I got that whisper. I ended up selling my business, selling my house, moved to Dallas, had no plan. I don't recommend that, but I had no job lined up. know anything. And really was the, probably the best thing I had going was how naive I was. You know, I just did like you move into LA as you shared with me before. Right. So I moved to Dallas, just not knowing anything. And through a whole series of serendipitous events that I'll have to save for later, I ended up at a seminar and the guy putting on the seminar asked me if I was looking for an opportunity. I said, actually I am. He said, well, my sales reps, they make about 100 calls a day and they try and book themselves to speak at 2 companies a day. And we're talking like car dealerships, real estate offices, insurance companies. And some of those are pretty tough crowds, by the way, if you're coming in cold. Now, he did give me great— a great talk to go share.

Yeah.

But I have to tell you, Amberly, Making 100 calls a day, that was foreign to me, but I thought I could do it, even though they're cold calls and having to get over the fright. But the thought of speaking in front of a crowd terrified me because I had zero experience, you know, in high school, getting up to even speak was very challenging. So—

Well, they say it's the number one fear other than death itself is public speaking.

Yeah. And for me, it was. And I really was honoring this whisper. I felt like I was in a bubble. That's what I— that's the best way I know to say it is for whatever reason, I felt I was in such a place that I had to do this, even though it terrified me. It was just felt so— this is what I have to do. Well, I was one of the few people he took on that actually did everything he taught. And within a few months, I'm doing really well. Within a year, I'm his top guy in the whole country.

Wow.

And the only problem was I wasn't making hardly any money. The model was very broken, what he was doing. And I had this mantra. I mean, just all day long, you know, we talk about intentions and what you focus on. And I had this mantra, 2,000 people. Can I get 2,000 people in a room? How do I get 2,000 people in a room? And after a couple of months, I came up with a plan which, from a practical standpoint, made no sense because None of these things existed that I was going to go do. But I ended up quitting that job, moved to Atlanta, did my first event. I got 1,300 people and I had Brian Tracy and Og Mandino I hired to be part of that event. The next event I did in Chicago, I got 1,800 people and that was Og Mandino and Jim Rohn. Next event was Washington, D.C. I finally got my 2,100. That was Og and Jim. And then Sacramento, 2,600 people. And it was Brian Tracy and Jim Rohn. And life was good. I was making 6 figures. I was—

Hey, well, I want to ask you, how did you get them to sign up to go, hey, I want to— you're like, I'm going to do this seminar and I want the top, you know, speakers to come speak at the seminar. How did you even get them to say yes to that?

Well, I had a few that said no. Uh, my good friend Dennis Waitley, who I later became his agent, and he's like, the biggest regret, Kyle, is I didn't work with you earlier. And I'm like, well, Dennis, just so you know, you know, I did reach out before I reached out to Og to have you in Atlanta, and I didn't make my deposit on time. And the person that, you know, ran your company, you know, vetoed the thing. But it was, you know, it was a combination of having learned the seminar business and picking my spot in the right city and I was on trial. You know, it wasn't just automatic. You just have to get that first event. And I had success. And after that, it was pretty easy. But that all led to 1993. I had Jim Rohn and Brian Tracy come into Kansas City. And Jim told me, hey— and I would have dinner with Jim the night before all the events. So we'd become friends. And he said, listen, my partner and I have split up. You know, he His business is, you know, he owes me a lot of money, bottom line, and he can't pay it back and the model's broken. And so just pay me directly and I'll take it off his tab. And I said, well, if you're truly broken up, I'd love to make you an offer and we partner. And Amberly, it was a lot better idea, I think, in my mind than it was in Jim's. You know, he had already been through a couple of bad partnerships. So I said, listen, I'll make this kind of a no-brainer. It'll be my company. I'll pay for everything and I'll just pay you off the top like a speakers bureau. But I know I can double, triple your fee and how many times you're speaking. And also, you only have a couple of products. I'll start creating products. Well, again, he had been burned. And so we did a handshake. Let's give it a try. We did a handshake and I went on to that first year taken them from 20 speaking dates to 110. I more than doubled this fee and we, we were rocking. Then I started creating products and one became a viral marketing tool that I moved $6 million of. And that led to now I had a team of 20 people. Now I was paying for it. It was my company. And I'm like, wow, you know, Jim Rohn is like the gateway drug to personal development. People No one really knew him that well, even though Tony had worked for him. And but Jim wasn't a big name at the time compared to Tony Robbins or Zig Ziglar, Tom Hopkins. Those were the big guys at the time. Brian Tracy had become big. So once they discovered Jim, they fell in love with him. So then I started another company called Your Success Store, and I went to Brian Tracy and Les Brown and Mark Victor Hansen and Nido Qubeen at the time. And a few years later, people like Bob Burg and Dennis Waitley. And I started promoting them and booking them as a speakers bureau and selling their product. And, you know, within a couple of years, I had 100 different products I was marketing through Your Success Store. And, you know, we were, we were just doing amazing. And that all led to the internet in 1999. And I felt like I was the first guy that built a million-plus list in the personal development space. Eventually, I sold the companies in 2007 and retired. I don't recommend retirement for anyone, but I have walked that path. My kids were becoming teenagers, and the only guy I would have sold it to offered to buy it. I felt like he could take it to the next level. I was a bit tired, and, you know, little did I know Jim would pass away in 2009.

Wow.

And that's another story and conversation. But I retired. And then in 2014, I got the itch and came back. And I'm not trying to compete with my past, but I'm loving every step of the way of what I'm doing now. And so that's a little bit of background of how I—

You know, I tell you, my husband retired and he loves it. He loves it. And he retired right before our youngest daughter, you know, she just turned 13. And so he's kind of Mr. Mom now. Wow. You know, and he, he's loving it.

And I became a Mr. Mom as well.

I read that, and I read that on your website that you were Mr. Mom, and it made me think of my husband because that's, that's him right now.

I think my entrepreneurial wiring, it was good. It was, it was, it was needed. And that's allowed me— people say, Kyle, you're so, you're so busy. And I'm like, well, I was retired for 7 years, so it's okay. You know, I signed up for this. I, I love Yeah.

Well, I'm always amazed. You just sent me an email and it was like, here you go if you want this free book. And you got back to me right away and sent me a free book. And it's, I'm amazed when I, the reason I mentioned your newsletter in the intro is because I've never, when I first met you, so we first met on Clubhouse and we started messaging each other and you sent me an email and it wasn't just, hey, nice to meet you. It was like, here and here are all these gifts for you and all these different events I'm doing. I'm like, wow, this guy has a lot going on. And so that's what really caught my eye about all the different things you were doing. But some of the things that you talked about, really, I want to go back to just the part where, you know, a lot of times we feel like as entrepreneurs, or I did anyway, that you're alone or you got to figure it out and you have to do things alone. And it can feel very lonely sometimes in trying to figure out things. And I think something that you, the magic that you have in a lot that you do is you talk about community and collaboration. And even in a lot of the books that you do, it's a lot of collaboration. And I think that even bringing together, you know, these amazing, powerful speakers, and when you can combine audiences and bring people together, it just makes It builds everyone. And I'm just amazed how you put together these seminars. And you mentioned that so much of it was about location. Like you had to figure out the location. Because I have spoken at an event where, you know, hotels were less expensive, parking was less expensive. And that same event that was in, you know, Utah did an event downtown LA where the hotels are 5 times as much, the parking is—

Yeah.

10 times as much. And so it was really a lot harder to fill the rooms. And so I'm sure it was hard. Did you learn a lot through a lot of mistakes that you made along the way? Because I noticed you said you didn't really have a mentor, or did you have someone that you looked up to that said, hey, I want to do a seminar, teach me how to do it? Or were you just figuring it out from— Like trial and error.

Yeah. So in the seminar space, yes, I went to work for that seminar promoter for a year and I did exactly what he taught. And he did have a broken model, but I learned the basics and I innovated. You know, Brian Tracy says, take what already works and then innovate 10%. And I innovated. I was really good at getting media. So I had all the media, all the business journals, all the radio. stations. I did trades, but also, you know, I had a team of people and we went in and went to that city. And I think a lot of the competition, and I won't name names, but they would go in and I'd say kind of pillage a village. You know, they would come in, they're hard selling, they're closing people, the event's over, they're gone. Mine was a little different. I think it was intuitive. But first of all, I was just taught You know, by my dad, be honest, bring value. And then Jim Rohn said, if you want to be successful, learn to bring value to the marketplace. So mine was a little bit different. I came in to bring massive value. My close was kind of a, hey, if you want to do it, I got a great offer. And if you don't, that's fine too. I hope I brought value today. And I really left it like that. So the managers would give me testimonials. They would give me referrals. And I really became great at leveraging referrals. I'd go into a new city and I'd have the top Mary Kay, the top New York Life, the top business journal in the country, their testimonials. And it was almost like just walking into a city. I just had to execute. But yeah, no, I definitely had a mentor, but then I innovated. And the other thing I'll say, Amberly, to that, whole question is, I always say, if you become great at one thing, it opens the door for everything else. So I think too many people are trying to do too many things versus becoming great at one thing. And once you're great at one thing, which I became great at filling rooms, that opened the door of credibility for me to become an agent for other speakers. It opened the door of credibility for me to Say, can I have exclusive opportunity on executive producing a product or publishing a book? Now, what did I know about publishing books? Nothing. What did I know about creating products? Nothing. What did I know about being an agent and negotiating contracts? Nothing. But I always say we learn by doing. We don't learn in a vacuum. That's one of the challenges I have with a lot of courses out there. If you're not actively trying to engage in whatever you're learning, you know, knowledge makes us feel good, but it's not that valuable if you're not actually putting it into action. So everything I would do, whether it's filling up rooms or becoming an agent or creating products, yes, I went and sought out the smartest people, the best people. I would pick their brain. I would want to bring value to them in some way, whether it's paying them or becoming valuable or doing something reciprocal. But I got to say, I learned just almost everything along the way, including building a team. You know, that's probably the hardest lesson I had to learn because I was a rainmaker, but I certainly wasn't a manager or a leader. So I had to learn that. But all of that I learned on the job and, you know, solving specific problems that were right in front of me. I had someone once say, Kyle, how did you build all this? You know, when I sold the company, I'm like, one year at a time. You know, you don't go build, you don't go build all that in one year. You build it one year at a time over 20 years. And it just accumulates. If you have, if you're principle-driven and you do things the right way, it's going to compound over time.

Okay. I love that. One year at a time. And sometimes I think it's just one day at a time. One day. But let's go back to leadership. What are some of the skills that you've learned in leading a team that are— you feel like are most important in being a great leader?

Well, let me just begin with, you know, where I was failing. I remember, uh, the guy that ran John Maxwell's company, Kevin Small. He was in town just for us to meet, and I was kind of complaining about my team and talking about all the issues, and he said, dude, That's your fault. You know, that's, that's your problem. You know, that means you're not doing things the right way. And that, that was confrontive. And John Maxwell himself had said, you know, your team doesn't want to hear about losing. Like, who wants to be part of a losing team?

Yeah.

And he said, you want to talk winning. And so I learned just to change what I focused on. I learned to be very intentional to say, hey, we're winning. Here's the cool things going on. Paul J. Meyer, who built a billion-dollar company, had 41 companies. I spent a couple of days with him in the '90s. And he said, listen, I inspect what I expect. Most people relegate. Some delegate, but you really should mentor. And so I started taking it serious. Instead of expecting people to do things, I started mentoring the right people over time, creating duplication. And ultimately, the biggest thing I did, and this was after a lot of pain, you know, pain forces us to, you know, find solutions. And we were making money, but I didn't feel like our culture was that good. And after a lot of pain and thought and prayer, candidly, I came up with a 3-point plan, and it was profit sharing, celebrations, and a 10-point review. And I started doing quarterly 10-point reviews that were very Authentic. You know, we really went there. And I was willing to share 20% of our profit based on these, based on these 10-point reviews, how that played out. And then—

So if people got like a 10-point review, they got all like, they were really doing great, they got 20%?

No, no, no. There's a 20% pool of the profit of the company I split among the team based on the reviews. Oh, okay.

See, I need to learn all this stuff because my team is growing and I need to learn all this. So I'm like, yeah.

I had 3 $15 an hour people that made 6 figures a year for multiple years based on our profit sharing. And the other thing— and so profit sharing was very much about individual value to the company. Celebrations were equal. So like we had monthly celebrations, we might go to a, you know, a basketball or baseball game and rent the suite. But our Super Bowl celebration, and these, these were big audacious goals, we hit them 3 times where we would go skiing in Beaver Creek, bring everyone's family, get, you know, the MTV house. on the mountain. We went to Destin, Florida twice, bringing the whole team and getting the mansions. And those were cool because from the number one person all the way down to the newest shipping person part-time, everyone celebrated. It was equal. But the profit sharing, the high— I'll just say this, the highest criteria, everything was not equal. You know, being on time, attitude, everything wasn't weighed equally. The thing that was weighed with the most weight is responsible, taking responsibility and ownership off my shoulders. It's like being a mom, right? If you're going to get a baby, let's say you're going to go out of the country for a week with your husband. You're not going to hire the neighborhood teenager that you don't know. You're going to hire— you're going to get your sister or brother or someone that you trust with your life. And that's what I paid the highest weight on profit sharing is who can I trust? Who, if our websites go down and customers are calling on a Saturday at 9 o'clock, that will own it? Who can I be gone for a week and they're going to own it like I would own it? That was by far the biggest criteria. So I put a focus Last thing I'll say on leadership is I put a focus on building 3 leaders. So we had a team of 20, but my whole focus became, how do I build 3 leaders and what would that look like? And that's, you know, it's like raising kids. You know, it takes that type of intention to really understand your people and understand how everyone's motivated differently and what works. And it makes you a better person too, right? Because Instead of me barking orders, I'm having to listen, which was a skill I wasn't great at actually.

Well, I think that trust is such a big— I think without the trust, you mentioned trust, and that's something I think is the most important in, you know, when you're working with a team is being able to trust and know that your team has your back.

Yes.

And, you know, that's a little scary when, you know, I And building a team. And, you know, it's, uh, I've had people in the past that have worked with me, and I'm like, oh well, I found out the hard way that they don't have my back. They, they're not— I don't know where they went. They disappeared. So trust is that— it's very important. I think that, um, so I'm glad you mentioned that. And wow, what an incredible thing you've done to just be able to fill one room with 2,000 people. But this is something you did over and over. And I think that it does, once you— it's like when I did my first book signing and it was really hard to, you know, I had a publicist that helped me, a PR company that helped me land that one store. And I had a friend of mine saying, you'll never get in that Calabasas Barnes Noble. You know, I couldn't even get in there. No one except for a celebrity gets in that bookstore. And I was like, Ooh, I'm motivated to get into that store now. And I not only got in, I sold out 3 times. I sold out in the very— and when I walked in, the store owner goes, well, good luck. And it was very kind of like, good luck. And I was like, oh gosh. And I was like, oh, I hope somebody shows up to this book signing. And to my surprise, we sold out in the first 11 minutes there.

Wow.

Whoa. And the bookstore bought books from us. They don't usually buy books from the author.

Right.

But because there was a line of people, we went back, my husband went back to the house twice to get boxes of books. And so once I could prove to other stores anywhere I went around the country, I could call the local bookstore and say, hey, here's, you know, you can contact this store or here then is the information. We sold out at all the previous bookstores. Could I come in to do a book signing at your store. And so I just planned ahead. And so for someone who wants to write a book and get a book signing, just make sure you sell out at that first store. Just make it a big bang there. And speaking of books, you still, you're doing so many books. And I see all these books. If you're listening to the podcast, if you check it out on YouTube, you can see all the books that you have published and about resilience and perseverance and so much about self-development. And so I have so many people that reach out to me and they want to write a book. In fact, I think it's like 80% of people that want to write a book. But there's something crazy, like 1% of people who actually do. But I have a lot of people that come to me and they're like, I want to write this book. And you really truly amaze me with all the books that you've published. What would you say to someone, first of all, who wants to write a book, how to get started with that?

Yeah. So my first question is, and so there's 2 things, right? There's writing your own book or there's being part of a collaboration book, which is where I focus because writing your own book is a big commitment. And—

It is.

Yeah. People in the space that you're in, you know, I think of my friend Darren Hardy, you know, he said, here's the guy that writes content, delivers content, it's his whole life. And the commitment he made on The Compound Effect, you know, we talked about it. So I'm not a fan of throw stuff up on the wall, like the people say, write a book in a weekend. I'm not a fan of that because my number one— I'm a principle-based marketer. My number one principle is create great stuff. So if you're going to write a book, if you really want it to be something that compounds, I want things that if you put it out, it'll compound like that quote book that moved 6 million. It had to be great. It had to nail it. So if someone's wanting to write their own book, first of all, why? It's not build it and they'll come because they won't. A book today is really a marketing tool. It's a business card. It's a credibility builder. It's a way to leverage a book to get on podcasts, to get speaking engagements. is a business card to give to prospects. And that type of strategic thought is the main reason someone should write a book, unless it's a memoir, unless it's to really help a specific niche of people. But then you have to really become great at marketing. So they need to begin with the question, why do they want to do it? What's the purpose? And then from that standpoint, you know, be a student of other books. What do they like? about other books that they have read. But, you know, the pieces beyond writing a book are who's going to publish it, who's going to edit it, how are you going to market it, are you going to hit number 1? And that really is why I started doing the collaboration books, because for about a fifth of the money, you know, people could get all the same benefits of hitting number 1, being with celebrity authorities. You know, I've had every big name There is in the books with my authors. And now they can say 20 years from now, it's in a book with Darren Hardy and Brian Tracy and Les Brown or Phil Collen of Def Leppard. And then we also teach them how to market it. They become number one bestselling authors. We have a phenomenal coach, a phenomenal editor. So for all those reasons, that's why someone might experiment with the collaboration book. So half the people you know, in the book go on to write their own book, but now they have a clue. Now they know how much work it's going to be. You write a chapter and you get a clue, okay? Especially if the expectation is the chapter has to be good. So for us, we have to have great, great chapters. The stories have to be good. So we put people through it on, you know, just writing that one chapter is a 6-month process of all kinds of— First, second, third drafts, that type of thing. Well, once they've said, okay, I get it, and now they've watched the Amazon number one bestseller launch, and we're very transparent about that, you know, how do you go do that? If they're up for it, that half will go do it, and it'll take most people about 2 years if they're really, really serious and committed and focused and they want a great book. And they're going to spend some money, like I said, editors, unless they're married to an editor. But they've kind of learned the marketing side. And then the other half say, you know, I don't need to do that. I got the itch scratched. I got a lot of the benefit done. They kind of got over the fantasy of writing their own book. And maybe it's not forever, but for now, they don't need to accomplish that because now they're— they've got a book that they got to decide. You know, when you have a book, it's like a coming out party. So here you wrote your book.

It's like birthing a child.

It is. And here's the coming out party part of it. is you now go out to the world. You did that Barnes Noble in Calabasas, but that's stepping out of your comfort zone. You're saying, I have a book that's worthy of other people reading, and that's intimidating. That's a personal development exercise for people. And so once they're in a book, like even in our collaboration books, if they don't go promote that, if they don't own that, if they're not proud of that, if they're not willing to tell their story and go send it out to get on podcasts, They don't need to go write their own book, you know. And so it's that stepping stone of challenging someone beyond the fantasy of, are you really going to own the process of telling your story, doing it right, then going and marketing it? Because if no one reads it, you've not done yourself justice. And then you got to put yourself out there. Having said that, I have watched people launch some massive programs Courses, speaking engagements, events, all because they were willing to tell their story here. They owned it. People responded with such positivity that they're like, you know, they got addicted to it. I have a doctor, orthopedic surgeon who just recently retired, but he's for the Olympic team. But he's a real estate guy. He's raised $400 million in real estate. He's the guy.

Wow.

And he's been in a few of my books. And finally, he wrote his own book. And he was like, I don't know, I don't want to have a job of being on podcasts. But he loved the response so much of the people that read the book that he retired. Now he's doing full-time masterminds and coaching because he loves it. Like, he's independently wealthy. He doesn't need the money.

Mm-hmm.

But he loved that. And that's part of that coming out party. Getting the feedback, just like you with the podcast. It's the feedback from the listeners that keep you saying, I'll keep doing this, right? You know, it's that interaction.

It is. In fact, I just did a post on that because I just found out that the podcast hit number 1 in the 1%, top 1% globally.

Wow.

And I was like, oh my goodness. And I wrote a post saying that what has kept me going is the feedback.

Yeah.

But you said something really important that my publisher actually told me when I was publishing my book. They said, we don't market this for you. If you want to get your book out there, then you have to do the marketing. And I think a lot of times people think, oh, I'm going to get a book deal. I'm going to get a lot of money upfront. And then they're going to market me. And then I'm going to be asked to be on stages. And I even had somebody when I first published my book said something about, well, it must be easy. And I'm like, no, it's not easy. I'm glad I make it look easy, but it wasn't. I didn't know how to market and I had to figure it out. But you said something really important. You have to be willing. And I was willing. And I want— I looked at what other people did who had already paved the way to success. So I looked at what Brené Brown was doing. And I remember, you know, one day my husband came in my little office and I had all my books stacked on the floor and I was leaning down trying to get a picture. And he's like, what are you doing? I said, oh, well, I need to get a post out. My book hits bookshelves tomorrow. And this is what Brené Brown did for her book when her book published. And so I'm just going to take a picture of my books and say I'm headed to New York. And he said, don't you think Brené Brown is going to like be upset that you're kind of copying how she's launching her book? And I said, honey, Brené Brown is never going to notice somebody like me. But Kyle, I have to say, the first day my book published on Amazon, I was the number one bestseller. And I was right in between on, there was self-esteem, self-love, and I can't even remember off the top of my head something else. But I was right next to Brené Brown and Dr. Wayne Dyer. And I was like, my book is right next to Brené Brown. So I was just so happy. But people think that maybe you get paid a lot of money to do a book. And They don't realize that it actually costs money depending on what kind of publishing you're going to do and to get a good editor and to hire someone for PR and all those things. And so by collaborating, which is what you offer, you're giving them a taste. And I, I feel like you're giving people, like you're holding their hand through the process.

Yeah, absolutely. Again, I started doing the collaborations to serve my inner circle members who are just some of the best entrepreneurs. And they were— some had written a book and they're trying to get it published. And I would say self-publish. And I want to do this little thing about publishing. So I've been in this business 30 years. I've published Jim Rohn books, Dennis Waitley, Chris Widener, Tons of books, and I've done deals with Simon Schuster. I've done deals with Random House. I teach people, I tell people, self-publish. It's really very easy because today— and I'm generalizing, okay, and this is just my opinion— but bookstores are out of business, right? They're, they're not around. Publishers are definitely out of business. So most publishers are glorified printers I have worked with big publishers where you're going through a new editor every month. I mean, it's just most publishers, if you're not a celebrity, if you're not a big sports person, if you're not a New York Times bestselling author 3 times over, they can't sell your books. And so the whole model has been broken for a long time. On the other side, Amazon's a 600-pound gorilla. Amazon is totally guerrilla marketing. So you don't need a publisher. And a lot of done-for-you publishers, they say, hey, you can self-publish, and they want to charge you a lot of money. They try and make the simple stuff sound complicated. I already said everything I've really ever done, I learned by doing. People don't have to spend a penny to self-publish. You know, less than $100, they can self-publish. It's not complicated like they make it sound.

Oh, they make it sound so And that's the part I dislike.

That's— I always say I'm the anti-marketer. Like, that's why I started doing the collaborations, honestly, to serve my inner circle members and to check all these different boxes. But I tell anyone that's going to publish, if you're not a celebrity, if you're not a repeat New York Times bestselling author, self-publish. And yes, you'll have to figure out some of the marketing.

Yeah.

And having Amazon pay you directly versus it go through a publisher, it's just crazy. But a lot of people are intimidated.

I mean, I'm getting all fired up because I went through, I went through the publishing experience with a hybrid publisher and it was a big mistake. That's why there's a new edition to my book and people go, why do you have a new book? Is it the same book? Did you write a new book?

Oh yeah.

So a month before my TED Talk, I had to get my— Let's say, talk to me about that because I, I really help people.

But you've already, you've already—

I went through the whole experience. I had to hire a literary lawyer and get my rights back. And then I self-published and it was like, that was it. It took me a month to self-publish.

No, honestly, I complained for 3 years, told people self-publish, but I wasn't willing to do anything about it. And they're like, will you work with me in public? I'm like, no, no, I don't do that anymore. And then when I finally did the collaboration, it was the book Passionistas. I didn't make a penny on it. It was a labor of love to serve Erica, who was in our inner circle, and these millennial and Gen X women. And I taught them how to market. We hit number 1. We had celebrity authorities. And it was, it was such a good experience. I thought, okay, I will do this one book at a time. And it was almost exclusive, my inner circle members that did it. I've had one guy now be in 8 books, 8 of the 9. He's a high-end coach, coaches Procter Gamble and Johnson Johnson. So it's one of those things where I really built it around how they could truly benefit. And, you know, it's not something I don't do done-for-you type services. I That's not what I want to do. But I found something that worked for me and worked for them. But if they want, if they're determined to do their own book, I always say make sure and self-publish. It's not complicated. You'll have to do some things. But the control you'll lose by having a publisher, I know too many horror stories.

Oh, yeah.

Save your money because you're going to have— again, I'm generalizing, so I don't want to step on anyone's toes. I don't want to step on anyone's toes that's doing a good job, but you'll have people editing and writing that aren't going to serve you as well as if— it's a business that a lot of people are selling the dream. And that's— I take a little bit of exception sometimes to how they're saying everyone should have a book. I don't think everyone should have a book. I think when you're ready, if you have the right story at the right time and you're willing to make the commitment, And you get the pros and the cons. There's a lot of people I talk out of doing a book, you know, if they're not willing to do it right. You know, don't go write one in a weekend. That's not gonna check any of the marketing boxes I teach as far as principle-based marketing. You want stuff that'll really be great, that you can be proud of, that's going to compound over time.

Yeah, agreed. And now I know there's so many people sitting here listening going, He keeps talking about his inner circle. How, what is his inner circle and how can I be in it?

You know, the story is I sold my companies, retired for 7 years. I'm going to name drop. I was on a ski trip with Darren Hardy and John Assaraf. We were at John's place in Telluride and a guy named Stephen Cox who owns Get Lessons. He's done over, I think, half a billion dollars. And Eric Berman, who runs Brian Tracy's company. I've known Eric since 2004, Darren since 1993, Assaraf since '97. And I was the lone guy. There were 5 of us. I was the only one that wasn't part of their San Diego little mastermind that they had. And, you know, even though I had so much history with each one of them, all they did, it just seemed like this clique of all this mastermind stuff.

It is a clique. I swear, if you can get into somebody's mastermind, then you're in the clique.

And so finally I said, guys, and I was still retired at the time. And I said, guys, I feel like I'm in the desert. I'm here in Dallas and I'm retired. And they said, dude, go back and start your own in Dallas. So I came back, I put some thought into it and why I started one, Amberly, and nothing changed. I did it for me. So I invited Ron White, the 2-time US Memory Champion, who I was Ron's agent. He's one of my best friends.

Wow.

Robert Helms, who's got the biggest real estate investor podcast on the planet, you know, who was a friend since '95. And it was kind of this group of 12. And then the next thing you know, Seth Mosley, 3-time Grammy winner from Nashville, joined, you know, and he's got 30 number 1 songs and he's a millennial. He was 27 at the time. And Erica, who I mentioned in LA, and Lisa Haisha, Her husband's the creator of The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men. They would host them at their house. It kind of just very— I can't take credit for any of that. It was like God's celestial favor. You find your people.

Yeah, I think you find your people.

And so it was— it wasn't something I was— it's never been a business model. If it was, I would have been doing them all over the country and charging 5 times more than I charge. I don't even charge very much. I did it For me, it's not anyone can sign up. It's an application. I have to do a call with them. And, you know, we do— originally we were doing Dallas, LA, and Philly, and then COVID happened. So I went virtual and I have had just all my amazing, you know, longtime relationships like Les Brown and Brian and Mark Victor Hansen, Dennis Waitley, people like that pop on. And I still do it for me though. I, you know, We have accountants and attorneys and, you know, just the smartest people. You think I'd have a lot of speakers and authors, but it's really entrepreneurs. And it's— my group's not about me. It's about everyone in the group. So it's more the promoter Kyle than the marketer Kyle. So the promoter Kyle shining the light on everyone else. And I feel like we were learning from everyone else. And it's a great community. And I'm proud of the culture in it. And every year I take a look at it with fresh eyes and say, do I want to do this? What's, you know, something changed? And, but I've resisted it. I've resisted it being a business model, you know, and that's the business model of masterminds is huge right now, but that's not why I started this and it's not why I do it. So it's just, you know, we try and find people that are the right fit. It's not transactional. It's not one of those types of groups. It's not a networking group. It's more of a community.

And I think community is powerful when we can come together and we, especially with like-minded people, and you have your chance to sit in an opportunity chair and state who you are and be vulnerable enough to, you know, share what your biggest challenge is. But then you get to learn from other people. I've spoken at a lot of masterminds and I've been a part of masterminds. And it's really the thing I think that has moved the needle on my business the most is being a part of a mastermind when you can collaborate with people. Because, you know, it's when you can make introductions to other people in the mastermind and it's just an amazing experience. So I definitely want to check out your mastermind sometime. It sounds amazing.

We'd love to have you. Yeah.

And I, I want people to know, because I'm really excited and honored to do a collaboration with you in one of your books, but I know there are people listening that might be going, I want to do that too.

How?

And I know it's, you know, something that you do one book at a time, and it's a process.

Right.

Is there a way that other people could reach out to you to be a part of a collaboration? Or what's the best way that people could start to, you know, find you and be in your inner circle, get to know you a little bit more? Because I know for me, like, is there— I had— I never imagined I would have as many people that reach out to be on the podcast that, that do. And so I'm sure that there are hundreds of people that are like, Kyle, I want to be in one of your books. So I just wondered, is there like a process that you go through? Or do you have a huge waiting list? for people to do that with you?

Yeah. So what I do— thank you so much, Amberly. What I do is on my website, I have both the Inner Circle and book, number one bestseller book links, and they could click it and there's details. And there's on each one, there's an application. Someone can't sign up, they'd have to fill out the application. And, you know, for both, I do jump on a call with someone. I want to make sure it's the right fit for them and the right fit for me. And it's like a book. We're going to be in this together. It's like you said, launching a, you know, having a baby, and 10 years later, we're all going to be in it. So for our books, I'm here to serve my co-authors and make sure everyone's a good fit. And so there's, like I said, there's an application, there's details, but there's an application. Then we would set up a call. Inner Circle is the same way. And The other thing though, you're 100% right. I do reply to every one of my emails and I do the same thing on social. And is that scalable? People just have to decide. Everything I do, I try and do organic. I try and not— I only do a handful of things with intention. I do the books, I do my inner circle, I do a little bit of one-on-one coaching, very little. And I keep it that simple. And I just have a ton of free resources, like you said, I give all these resources so that way if someone says, Kyle, can I pick your brain? Can you jump on a call? I'm like, well, here's all these podcasts, here's all these resources. And then I have other ways you can be part of what I'm doing, but they're more high-end. And that's just my business model of how I filter. But I said all that to say—

That's super smart, by the way. That saves so much time. I think systems help you run your business effectively. But having something that you can offer somebody also does because you'll tend to get the same. If like me, I get the same, a lot of the same questions over and over. And just like today, I was able to say, here's this one interview about this topic that you just asked about. And it helps a lot to be able to do that.

So, so having said that, they can go to the website, but they can also shoot me an email. And I'm going to give away a free book today as well. If, uh, if you want me to say that now.

I would, I would love to, to, for you to share the book. I enjoyed when you sent me a book. It's like you get this gift and it's exciting. So yes, could you please let them know? I mean, that's so generous of you to give away a book. So thank you for that. How do they get that?

Yeah, thank you. Uh, it's a book I'm really proud of. It's called Success Habits of Superachievers. But this was a book I put intention into for a long time, and I wanted to invite people I'd worked with for a long time. So Darren Hardy, Brian Tracy, Les Brown, Mark Victor Hansen, Lisa Haasch, John Assaraf, Phil Collen of Def Leppard, a whole host of people. It's 80 different iconic entrepreneurs and speakers and authors and professionals, musicians, people in the entertainment world. And it's, you know, about 2 to 3 pages per person on some of their best— it's their life, their lessons. I got an email from someone yesterday saying they quit drinking after hearing Phil Collen of Def Leppard talk about being sober for 33 years and how he saves 2 hours every day. And he was on my podcast, and that's where I pulled his story from. But if they want that book for free, and I also throw in a bunch of other books, if you notice, and I've thrown a bunch of interviews with some Amazing people. Just send an email to info@kylewilson.com. Info— or they can send it to kyle@kylewilson.com and just put Success Habits book. And I love it when people tell me more about themselves. So, hey, I heard it on Amberly's podcast. If you're a Jim Rohn fan, I want to hear about that. If they are interested in the things we talked about earlier, mention that. And then I'll just respond back. You know, it might be a few days, but I'll definitely get back to them. And I'll send them the book.

And yes, you do, Kyle. I mean, y'all, I'm telling you, I sent him an email. I got an email saying, if you're interested in this book, I'll send you this book. I sent, I literally sent you an email and you sent me, I was like, is that really him? Oh my gosh. Because you're so giving and you're so generous and I'm always blown away. And I know That, you know, you guys, he recently, so, I mean, so generously, you came and you spoke and added so much value at my mastermind. And Kyle, so many people reached out to me and they're like, oh, I already emailed Kyle and he's awesome and I loved him. And because you are, you have such a big heart and you really do have, you can tell you really want to see people succeed. And share share the lessons that you've learned through this long, you know, you've had a long journey and such a lot of experience with so much that you've done. And I honestly feel like I could talk to you all day just because I had questions written down that we didn't even get to. So we might have to do a part 2 to the podcast with Kyle Wilson. But again, will you please share again where people can find you on social media in case they want to check out some of the things you post? And Y'all check them out on Clubhouse too. If you're on Clubhouse, that's where we met. So check them out on Clubhouse and tell everybody where you hang out the most on social media.

You know, Amberly, we should do a Clubhouse because I haven't been on in 2 months.

I haven't, I haven't either. I, you know, I'm hearing more and more people that kind of, once the world started to open up a little bit, that haven't been on Clubhouse as much. I was like Gung-ho the first— when it first came out, I was on it every day.

I've had Don Hobbs message me one morning, so I jumped on. I had Glenn Morshower message Rock Thomas, but me proactively going on, it's been 2 months. But yeah, follow me on Clubhouse and me and Amberly will jump on here soon and do one.

That'd be great.

Website's kylewilson.com. My favorite social media platform, but I'm pretty new at it, so I'm working on the followers, but it's Instagram. And I'm Kyle Wilson Jim Rohn. So I love Instagram. Here's why I love Instagram. And this is why I encourage people to get on Instagram is it tells your whole story. You know, Facebook, you can do a post that disappears, but Instagram, someone can click a profile, go right down the profile and say, okay, I have an understanding of who you are, what you're about. And so I tell entrepreneurs, I tell speakers, Instagram's a great platform to be able to share a message and share a story.

Yeah. And now it's declared itself as a video platform. So I'm like, okay, I got to bust out more videos.

Well, you've already done some TikToks. You know, TikTok is one I'm not going to be doing anytime soon, if at all. Probably not.

I think you should.

I keep being told that. It's just I'm definitely a less is more person because I'm actually a more is more person. So I have to take a hard stand that less is more because I can kind of try and do too much.

I'm right there with you.

I get it. For me, it all begins and ends with Instagram and then I'll repurpose on Facebook and maybe LinkedIn. And the one I'm ambitious to get better on is YouTube. And so That's where I probably have way, way too much great content that hasn't gone on YouTube that I need to start putting some effort into.

Okay. Well, we'll be looking for that. We're holding you to it. Well, thank you so much for being on. And I will definitely let y'all know when our book is coming out. I'm so honored to get to collaborate with you and get to be in one of your books. And I'm just so grateful for the wisdom that you share. And y'all reach out to him. You can do either at Kyle, at kylewilson.com or info@kylewilson.com and get your free book. And let him know that you heard it here, right here on the True Grit and Grace podcast. And I will maybe be moving to Dallas soon. Who knows? Maybe we'll be neighbors.

That'd be great.

But thank you.

Thank you Amberly, thank you so much. You've been so generous. Uh, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. It's been such an honor to get to know you the past few months, and I know it's just the beginning of some great things ahead.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks so much for joining us this week on True Grit and Grace Podcast. If you like it, please rate it or share it with your friends. That would help too. If you're not yet on the newsletter list, come over to AmberlyLago.com and jump on it. While you're there, you can grab a free downloadable gratitude journal, and you might just want to check out my book or even check out my monthly motivational membership. Thanks again for tuning in, and we'll see you next week.