226. Bill Blankschaen | A Story Worth Telling

Hello, Book Thinkers family, and welcome to our personal development podcast, Book Thinkers Life-Changing Books. During each episode, we interview one of the world's top authors, and as a listener, you can expect to discover new books, new mentors, and new resources that you can use to achieve more and live better.

In today's episode, we have the pleasure to interview Bill Blankshin, author of A Story Worth Telling: Your Field Guide to Living an Authentic Life. Bill is the founder of Storybuilders and New York Times bestselling writer. He has worked with legendary names like John C. Maxwell, Lewis Howes, Kevin Harrington, and many more to help turn their ideas into powerful books and learning experiences. Through Storybuilders, Bill and his team create compelling books that don't just sit on a shelf, They make an impact. In this episode, we'll dive deep into the power of storytelling and why books remain one of the most valuable assets for building influence, impact, and income. Bill shares insights into the biggest mistakes new authors make, how to craft a message that truly resonates, and why your personal story matters more than you think. We'll also explore the behind-the-scenes process of writing books for some of the biggest names in the business and personal development, plus actionable steps for anyone looking to start their own book writing journey. Whether you're an aspiring author, a business leader, or someone who simply wants to communicate their ideas more effectively, This conversation is packed with wisdom you won't want to miss. Now get ready to learn and enjoy this incredible conversation with Bill Blankshin.

Bill, welcome to the Book Thinkers Podcast. We are excited to talk to you and dive into the business of books and chat about Storybuilders. I'd love to start with young Bill enjoying reading the back of cereal boxes and plenty of books. What was one of the first books that you read that got you into the world of reading at such a young age?

Awesome. Well, Luke, first of all, thank you, uh, for having me on and Nick, you as well. But, uh, yeah, I mean, books have always been such a part of my life. I mean, I was, when I was a kid, do you ever remember those, see those little like illustrated classics books? They were like for, you know, younger children with little drawings in them and stuff. I mean, I would absorb those. I, if my friends had those on their shelf, I'd be like, yeah, I'm not playing video games or going outside. I'm just, I'm grabbing these books right now, flipping through them. It's almost, to me, it was almost like those cartoons that you flip really fast and they look like they're in motion.

Yeah.

It was that, like I just read it as quickly as I could. So I just, from a super early age, just sucked up books and cereal boxes, right? And any words that you put in front of me, I mean, I read the cereal box 12 times doing it in one bowl. But you know what it was, was I actually thought everybody could do that and everybody wanted to do that. And so why weren't more people doing that? And for years I thought, boy, the world's full of people that have a problem. They could be having all these books and they're not. What's wrong with these people? And I didn't realize it was part of my strengths, right? It was part of my— I just love words. I love storytelling. I love, I love all things pertaining to messaging and how do you say that? And so I didn't, I didn't realize it was part of what made me special, right? And it took a pretty long journey to really get clarity around that. But yeah, yeah, that's how it started from Lucky Charms to Cheerios to— that was my, my first reading material.

I love it. Yeah, I think that is, you know, you were very different because like you said, there's other guys doing video games and watching cartoons and that's what they cared about. Was there anything in your life that, that, I don't know, that was cultivated from your parents that pushed you into that world? Or was it just, you think it was just this natural inclination to do that?

That's a great question. I think it's a blend of both. I think all of our stories are blend of kind of our hardwiring and the things that take place that guide us, right? And then the choices that we make. So, you know, I had a teacher who was kind of a guide. He happened to be the pastor of my church also, but he really kind of mentored me in this. And so he would give me books to read and we'd talk about them. And he loved to write. And so he got me writing, you know, so he kind of took me under his wing and developed that. And I think definitely for sure that was a key. You know, we I was a weird teenager, right? So in addition to all the reading, I'd go over his house on a Friday night and we'd hang and we'd talk philosophy and ideas and all this stuff. My friends were like, what are you doing? I'm like, I love it. Let's, let's do this. But, you know, looking back now, it's paid off because, you know, I have a deep knowledge in so many different areas. As I'm putting together books, I can pull in from a lot of different places.

That's so amazing. This always a dream of yours to be an author and work in the world of storytelling, or did that just kind of come over time?

You know, I think a lot of times we don't know what our dreams could be. And so we have trouble envisioning what they could be, right? And so many times, maybe, maybe you grow up and your dad— my case, my dad was a machinist, right? My mom was a stay-at-home mom and did a lot of stuff. And so My dad worked at the same place for what, 35, 38 years, something like that, right? And so that's what you did. And that was the job I knew. So to think, oh, you could be a writer or an author, or in my case, you could be a collaborative author and develop books with and for other people and bring them to life. That wasn't on my radar. Like, I had no idea that was a thing, right? So that took a several-decade journey. I always thought I was a writer. I always thought of myself as a writer. Even in my life mission statement, it ended with these words. It ended with, to write, to live, to die, right? So that was like at the core of who I was. And yet I realized many years later, like, uh, I, I believe that, but I'm not writing. So what is that about, right? And so having to go back and decide a different direction in life.

Yeah, Bill, I'm loving this conversation. I mean, when I was growing up, I was a reader when I was really young, and then I took a long hiatus from reading books. I fulfilled the jock stereotype and the athlete through most of my high school and college experience. And it wasn't until a mentor of mine, a boss, when I was a college graduate, recommending a couple of books and some podcasts to me that I really decided to pick up reading again. And it was through the consistency that I developed passion for what these books can do.

Yeah.

And so how did you go from identifying as a writer who didn't write to actually picking up, you know, maybe the keyboard or the pen or pencil and start writing?

Yeah, it was not an easy journey, which is, I think, why most people don't do it right. We tend to think that, oh, follow your dreams. There should be some pixie dust and a magic wand and boom, you're there. The reality is it takes a lot of perseverance, a lot of hard work, a lot of dedication. But to me, when you're doing what you love to do, it's all— it's fun when you're going through it. It doesn't feel like hard work. You know, I have a friend of mine who says that there's no such thing as hard work, only work that's worth it, right? And so the question is, is the work worth it? And so my journey, I actually— I fell into what Steven Pressfield calls a shadow calling. There, it's close but not quite. And so I helped start a private school in Ohio and led that and developed curriculum and the English and history And all these things. So I was teaching other people to do what I wanted to do, but I wasn't doing it myself. I actually even started a fiction novel, got about 2/3 of the way through. It's still 2/3 of the way through, by the way, waiting for me to get back to it. And along that way though, came eventually to the point, led the school for 12 years, came eventually to the point where I had to decide, hey, if I'm going to write, I need to write because somebody else can run the school.

Yeah.

Better than I can. I need to let that go and pursue what only I can do. And so, that's what I ended up doing. I tried for a year to do both, get up at 5:00 a.m., write, write, go run a school, get back at night, try to do more. We had 6 kids too at the same time. So, all that is going on. I'm just like eventually realized this isn't working. I'm not giving 100% to anything. And so, stepped away from the school, stepped in the unknown, 6 kids, no income, one a year, Never worked harder in my life, diving in and learning and growing and writing. And that was what, 13 years ago, 14, something like that, and have never looked back since.

Oh, that's an amazing story. Uh, Steven Pressfield is the only, maybe one of the only 3-time guests on this podcast, and Luke and I are both really big fans of his work. He distinguishes the difference between an amateur and a professional in a lot of his work. And it sounds like, Bill, you just took the step from an amateur, which is Yeah, I'm doing this on the side and balancing multiple things to professional, which is full and total commitment. Do you have any advice for somebody in the audience that might be balancing multiple things, not fully committed to what they know their passion probably is, and any encouragement or advice on how to fully commit like you did yourself?

Yeah, well, my advice is don't do what I did, which is suddenly step out into the unknown without a clear plan or support in place. It's the right thing to do. I'm just going to do it. And I didn't fully anticipate. I had a vision of I could kind of do it halfway and split it and so forth. But what I learned, here's what I learned. I learned doing something halfway seldom gets the results you need to get. And so at some point, there will come a point where you have to take that step of faith and step out into the unknown and take the risk and, and not look back. Like, you got to go all out into it, which is what I did. And so, so I think be intentional about it. Think through where you want to go. Get clarity on it. Don't Don't just step out into a vague notion of, well, I want to do— let's just say I want to make movies, so I'm going to leave my job and head to L.A. and I'll just, you know, do your research, do your homework on all that. Try to do it as a side hustle, you know, develop that, put that together so you can easily transition. But at some point you have to go all in. You got to say, this is who I am. Jeff Goins actually gave me a good piece of advice back in that day on this one. He, he was talking about When do you know that you're a writer? And he concluded that when you say you're a writer, when you claim that identity of this is who I am. And so I did that early on. And in my email signature, I still have that first thing as writer, no matter what else, that's who I am. And so, yeah, I think the best advice I would give is get clarity as you can and then be willing to step out. And then finally, Remember that life is short. And so many people just keep pushing it down the road until they run out of time to do something about it. And my thought is, as long as you're breathing, you've got time to do something about it.

Now, I'm curious about what were the conversations that you were having with your wife and maybe your family? I'm not sure how old your kids were at the time. But like, hey, I'm gonna leave all this behind, and we're gonna have no income for a year. Like, what was, what was going through Your head, what was going through your wife's head? I would be curious to know that.

Yeah. I don't know that my wife ever felt comfortable telling me what was fully going through her head, but she was super supportive and believed in me and believed in what we were doing. Uh, and the kids, they were old enough that we, we brought them into the conversation. We said, hey, this is what we're doing. Here's why. Because I wanted them to see it and learn from it and realize they could do the same thing. and grow with the same thing. So, we've always been very intentional about that. We talk about our second home as being Walt Disney World, and we were really intentional about that with our kids. We took them there. My youngest son, by the time he turns 18 shortly, will probably have spent, no kidding, a year of his life on property at Walt Disney World. So, he is super imaginative, super creative, all that stuff. So, we were really creative about that, but we included the kids in that conversation. And as I said, it was a walk of faith. So, you know, we prayed together, we talked together, we made decisions together, guided them through it. We let them know when, hey, you know, we might not have enough for the mortgage this month. You know, we're not sure how things are going to work out. And we've always just been very honest with them. And I think it's really paid off because we've seen in them the ability to step up and do things and be willing to take risks and surround themselves with community and faith and be able to do that in a powerful way.

Yeah, I think that is so important. I have 3 kids of my own and another one on the way. So it's really encouraging seeing someone like you chase your dreams. And I forget who said it, Nick, we may have heard this on a podcast together, one of our episodes. But someone said that the worst thing a parent can do isn't neglecting the child or beating the child, but it's like the unlived life of the parent is worse for them. And that has just always like sat with me.

Yeah.

And I'm like, okay, I have to be willing to chase my dreams and go after the things I wanna go after. So it's really cool when I see people like you who did that thing and then have your kids that are kind of following in your footsteps.

Yeah. But you know, I was just talking to my 19-year-old son last night and he said, Dad, I remember clearly sometime— this was many years ago. He's like, we were getting some Minecraft mods back in the day when it took forever to get mods. And I was trying to help him figure it out. It took hours to figure this out, but we figured it out. And he said, he said, I remember what you told me. Cause I, cause he said, he said, well, I'd like to have those, but I get, I don't need those. I'll just, I'll just Do these. And I told him, never settle, right? Never settle for less than what you want to go after. Go after that. And he's— and he played it back to me verbatim. He's like, that stuck with me. I've seen it play out so many times. So I was like, I was just trying to help him do some mods. But, you know, conveying that, right? Kids watch how you live your life. They look to see, are you— are you living out what you're saying? What does that look like? And that little stuff like that, you know, Luke, to your— Your point, I mean, that's going to be huge for your kids if you can live that out and model it for them.

Yeah. To go a little bit deeper on what Luke highlighted, it may have been an Ed Mylett podcast or speech that we were watching where he said that behaviors are caught, not taught.

Sure.

And that there is this epidemic of parents living under their potential. And Luke shared he has 3 kids with a 4th on the way. I have my first on the way right now. Which is why we really love this subject. Yeah. Thank you so much. Yeah. And I think living up to our full potential is a big aspect of that. Um, I want to make sure we give plenty of space to talk about Storybuilders and the services that you offer for our audience. So kind of close the gap a little bit. You take this year off, you start writing, you, you fulfill this professional writer. You say, I am a writer. You take on the identity. How the heck do you go from that step 13 years ago to what you have today?

A lot of little steps in between, uh, is what it comes down to, right? Uh, and, and, and again, a lot of work. Um, it really began to— I actually wrote a book myself. Uh, it was a faith-based book really inspired by the journey I was making. Uh, and a publisher picked it up and, and, and published that book. And in the course of writing that book, I realized, you know, not only do I enjoy it, I'm really good at it. And so I began to connect with other people who said, oh, I want to write a book. Can you help me? Can you help me? You know, so began to have this momentum producing book after book. Uh, You know, people ask me all the time, how many books have you written? And I have totally lost count. I intend to go back and look many times, and I'm like, I don't even remember. I'd have to dig through archives to figure it out. But I've been involved, either written or edited and developed so many different books since then. But it all started with that, with that one book. And in fact, it started a little before that when I was still running the school. I connected with a guy whose book I had used in the classroom for many years by the name of Hugh Hewitt. He's a radio radio program host, and he's done presidential debate moderation and things like that. And I connected with him and said, hey, I've done this thing using your book, and I think I could add value to your book if I put what I did along with it. And I don't want a dime for it. I just want to do it because I think it's going to help people. And he said, let's do it. Connect me with his publisher. You know, I worked evenings and weekends to put it together for months, got it out there into the world. And again, didn't ask for a dime. Just, I love doing it and really found joy in what I was doing. And through that though, got to know publishers, got to know other people. And I look now and I think so many different connections, even the connection that Nick and Luke, you and I made, came as a result. I can trace it right back to that project and the relationships that came from that. So being willing to serve, being willing to give, being willing to, hey, I want to use my gifts in that way to help people. I think is a huge first step. So from that, just systematically doing that, beginning to build a team around that, beginning to build knowledge, expertise, having success after success and failures, right? And really getting focused on who we are, what we do, and getting clarity on that, I think has really helped propel us forward.

Now, can you give us a little insight into what exactly Storybuilders does and like how you help and all that stuff?

Sure. Happy to. Yeah. At the heart of it, we're storytellers, right? What I've learned about myself, that's who I am. That's how I'm wired. I love to tell stories and bring them to life. So, we're storytellers and I like to say we tell stories that make the world a better place. And that's where our heart is. And so, we create compelling books, all things books-related, and engaging learning experiences, digital courses, trainings, workshops. For instance, we do all the stuff for John Maxwell and Maxwell Leadership, all their trainings and workshops, Kevin Harrington, Shark Tank, Lewis Howes, all these folks. Anything in that space, that's what we do, right? So, if it's, hey, how do I get clear on my message? How do I develop a book? Either you want to write it yourself, you want help writing it, you want to self-publish, you want a hybrid press, you want traditional, whatever that looks like, we can help guide people through all of that so that they can have a book. And, all of those things, books, learning experiences, all of it comes down to what is your story? What is your unique message? How do we help you extract that message, add value to it, and elevate your message to the world. So, that's really who we are and what we do.

I love that. Nick, I'm sorry, I see that you want to go, but one follow-up question to that is, should anybody write a book? Should anybody try to tell their story, do you think? Where do you stand on that?

Well, first of all, I think every story matters. That's at the heart of what we do too, is that we believe every story matters. That's why we do that. Whether it's the best fit for a book or not is going to depend, right? So if someone says, I just want to write a book for my grandchildren or something like that, or I just have something I want to do it for enjoyment, go for it. We're actually working with a gentleman now who wants to do that. That's his main focus. And if other people can be helped by it, and they will be, he wants to do that. For other people though, it's really part of their business model and what they're building as a— maybe they're a business consultant or coach or they're an entrepreneur or they're building a personal brand, an influencer, an athlete, health coach, whatever the case may be, all sorts of people like that. It's a critical tool as a credential, as a door opener, as all those things. It opens the path to more money, influence, and impact in that process, right? So, It kind of depends on what their goal is. And that's where we come alongside, just coach them through and recognizing we're not a fit for everybody, right? Some people want to go a path that's just not a fit for where we're going. But for the most part, we can help guide people and shepherd them even to figure out what is my best path to bring this to life, best writing path. Do I— am I writing it or is a team writing it? Am I working with Bill personally to write it? What does that look like? What's the best publishing path? We can help navigate all those choices, which is why we call— we don't use the word customers or clients. We call them story partners because that's who they are. They're partners, and that's how we view them.

Hello, Book Thinkers family. We are on a mission to change people's lives for the better, and we believe that the right book at the right time can change your life. And the only way we can impact more lives is with your help. If a book has changed your life for the better, I wanted to ask you a quick favor. Could you please take a few seconds and leave a review of our show? Because if you're like us, you want to change not only your life but others' lives as well. And by you leaving a review of our show, it spreads the word about all of these life-changing books and does just that. We greatly appreciate your help. By reaching more people, you help us change more lives. Thank you so much for your time. And now back to the show.

Yeah, and I love how you said your mission is to tell stories that make a positive impact on the world. And, you know, over time, as Book Thinkers is growing in different directions, I'm realizing that our mission is to promote stories that have a positive impact on the world. Yeah. Kind of two sides to the same coin.

Absolutely. Yeah.

Why? Why?

That's what I— and that's frankly, Nick, I mean, that's what I love about what you guys do. I mean, you know, so many people we work with, I was just thinking of this book right here. This is one that we have publishing Referrals Done Right, Scott Grates, is going to be coming out this fall. People like this who are building a brand, building a business and so forth, they need people like you and book thinkers to say, all right, how can I get the word out about this? How can I create this into video, podcast? How can I, how can I do that in some really strategic ways? The people who know that area deeply, right? Which is why, which is where you come in. So super appreciative of what you guys do too.

Yeah, thank you so much. And I'm excited to see what we build together over time and how we can complement and support each other. Why books though? I mean, I understand you had a passion for books when you were younger, but I get this question all the time in some way, shape, or form. It's 2024. There are so many other ways to teach and consolidate the information, and you do support courses and other things, but why books? Why are books at the core of this thing?

Sure. Sure. Yeah, I think a couple of reasons. One, books have stood the test of time. You got to go back thousands and thousands of years, you're going to find books. You know, they're not going anywhere, especially, especially we're even seeing this trend now where people are getting almost in some ways drained with the digital experience. They want the tactile experience. They want to hold a book in their hands, right? They want to write in the margins. All that. Yeah. So, so that is becoming more popular. Obviously, it isn't just the physical book, right? Audiobooks are exploding as people are listening to books. It's the same thing. It's really about taking ideas and putting them into a comprehensive— I like to talk about IP, your intellectual property, right? Putting it into an IP ecosystem that people can then access, right? Because so much of today, it isn't so much the original thinking, although that's important. It's about how are you packaging your thoughts in a way that other people can derive value from them. And that's where a book is really helpful. It forces an author to package it well. And when they do that, it extends into keynotes, it extends into courses, it extends into so many other different ways. But it really begins with a book. And books aren't going anywhere, even with the younger generation. Like I said, we're seeing that swing go back the other way. where it's becoming even more popular. But yeah, I'm not concerned at all about that. Even with AI, right? AI is introducing some new things that can be of value in creating ideas and formulating, but it has its own problems, its own struggles that have to be navigated as well.

Yeah, I love everything that you just mentioned, and I agree, and I'm feeling it in my generation specifically. It's like we, we're burnt out, we're consuming too much information. And a book is a great way to monotask, which is to focus at— focus on one thing at the expense of everything else and put away the phone and focus on a great story. And I had a mentor tell me recently, Billy said, I would rather read a book written by Tony Robbins than spend a full day with him. And I said, why? And he said, because the book is the best version of the information he's going to teach me. But that in-person coaching session will be sporadic and a little chaotic, and it won't be the simplified, you know, best-positioned version of what that person has to share.

Yeah, no, I think that's a great, great thing. As you know, I work with Lewis Howes in writing his books, and his books are the culmination of a ton of meetings that we've had and ideas that we've talked through in depth that you could— you'd never get those in a day, right? So, Now, if you read his book and then talked to him at an event or something, you could extract the most value from that interaction or an interview or whatever. But yeah, it's basically a book is, first of all, it's a portable way, by the way. It's a portable way you can take with you, digital detox-free, right? All that. And it allows this almost like this direct download from one person to another in a really cool medium.

Yeah.

So true. And just echoing what you said, I love the physical copy of books to be able to write in the margins. And it is a sort of, it becomes almost a meditative practice for me now because you, you're just on phones all the time. I'm not a big fan of Kindle. I mean, there's, there's great arguments for Kindle, but I'm just like, yeah, I'd rather, I'd rather have the physical copy. Now, somebody listening that has, maybe they're like, they kind of feel like they have a story, but they don't know what to do with it. They don't know where to go. What, is your recommendation for first steps on that?

Yeah. Well, first steps is to talk to somebody who knows their way around the industry and that you can trust. And that's where we pride ourselves on being a high-trust source. So, if somebody comes to us, our first inclination is not, let me sell you on our services. Our first inclination is, how can we serve you? How can we serve you as a person? And sometimes that's us and sometimes it isn't. And we always say, If we can help somebody, great. If not, we want to get out of the way and let them live and tell their story in the way that works best for them. So, you know, we offer an easy way. Someone can just go to mystorybuilders.com/story and just book a free book idea session with one of our senior strategists, story strategists, and find out, right? Find out, hey, do I have something here? Do I not? And we'll tell you, you know, if we're like, yeah, I think you should wait on this or develop it more fully or think about these 3 things. That happens often. We give people some free tools and say, use this, get some clarity, come back. Other times it is a great fit and we do find a path, or other times we were able to point them in that direction. But to us, if we're going to have an impact on the world, we're going to tell stories that make the world a better place, that begins with connecting with those people. So that's mystorybuilders.com/story and just book a free call and find out.

I love that. Thank you. Yeah, we'll link that stuff in the show notes. And listeners, like anybody listening to this, there's no excuse now. A lot of our audience like reaches out to us and they, we have a lot of people that are aspiring writers and they always have all the excuses. So now you don't have an excuse. You just reach out to Bill and his team and they'll get you, they'll get you set up. I love that.

So— We've already, we've already taken the journey for you so we can show you how to take the shortcut and get to some decision points pretty quickly.

I love that. Now, with that said, what are some mistakes that new authors tend to make? Maybe like the top 1 to 3 mistakes that people usually make that they could avoid?

That's a great, great question. I think the first one is to think that your book is for everybody. And the reality— and I just talked to a former US congressman, we're working on a project, and his first conversation to me was, hey, this book is for every American. Everybody's going to want to read this. And I'm like, well, a book that is for everybody is a book for nobody. No one will look at that and say, I'm that person that that book is for, or I have that need. And so, the reality is you do have to focus and niche down. So, a lot of what we do working with authors early on in what we call a story strategy process is cutting, editing. All right, that's a great idea, but let's set it aside. Let's set that aside. Let's work through those ideas and figure out the one. What's the story focus? What is that really going to look like? What's the book about? Then we go into who is it for? We have a whole storytelling structure process we go through. So I think that's the first one is, you know, don't believe the lie that your book is for everybody. It won't hit, won't resonate with anybody. The other one I would say is, this is going to sound crass, but it's true, is you get what you pay for. My experience, we have people come to us all the time who said, hey, I work with some people because they were cheap. And, you know, now I know they were cheap for a reason. Can you help me fix this? I like to say we're not the cheapest, we're just the best. And that's where we focus. We want to be excellent at what we do in those high-trust relationships. So, I think respect your story, I think, is the takeaway of that. Don't devalue your story. And then, the third part is the extension of that part that I just said of actually learn to appreciate the value of your story, your unique experiences, what you bring to the table, your insights, what's happened to you, your failures, your successes. Because no one else has those unique ideas. Someone else may have had your ideas in different format, but nobody has had them shaped by your story. And so often we just, we undervalue that. We just don't appreciate it. And so I would, I would encourage someone to reflect on their own story because there are many people out there that would resonate with that, that would resonate with how do you, how do you tell that story in a powerful way? How do you make it sticky? That's something we really love doing, creating frameworks and so forth, IP content. that people can use to really make their books sticky to go with them. So I think those are probably 3 of the biggest, biggest areas that I've seen people stumble in putting a book together.

Bill, there's been so much value communicated already today. And I want to make sure that we send you the right people. So can you just give a high, high-level kind of, I don't know, low-end, high-end for your services, just so that we're sending you the right people who have a budget ready to go?

Sure. Well, I think, you know, the easy ones is somebody who's in business, right? They're a business consultant, coach, teacher, you know, something like that, that those are easy fits for us because that's what we do. We help them do that or in the corporate space. Maybe they're not a business consultant, but they're a corporate— finishing up a book right now for the head of— I'm going to get her title wrong. She's the head of innovation and development at FedEx, for example. Right. And so we're the people who are have had a lot of success in the corporate space and, and looking even with and beyond the corporate space of what, how they can contribute. Influencers, speakers, keynote speakers, we work with a lot of them to develop resources around that. Athletes, nonprofit leaders, mission-driven leaders, work with, work with many of them also. And in terms of budget, it, it really does depend what, what they're bringing to the table, you know, and they range anywhere from our story activation service, which could be, you know, $10,000, $20,000, something in that range, all the way up to the high end And, we have bigger packages over $100,000 that include all of everything and different elements on it. So, it really is about— what I would encourage people is when they come to us, come with an open heart and hand and let's just see. We're not going to try to steer them in a direction that isn't best for them. We want to find out what's best for you, how can we serve you, let's bring it to life. My experience, we're all—

Yeah.

Again, we're not trying to be the cheapest, just the best. But my experience, we're actually often cheaper than their other options, and we're better. And so to me, that's like win-win. Let's do this.

It does sound like a win-win to me.

Yeah.

All right. Final question for me, or from me. For somebody in the audience that's not ready to write a book, but they are ready to read one, you've been involved in countless. Could you just throw out one or two of the books that you've written or been involved in that you think might be a good fit for an early stage entrepreneur or somebody that's motivated to improve their life?

Such a dangerous question because I know I'm going to leave out a lot of good books when I say that. Um, you know, one of them, one I would go to, uh, in the business realm, if somebody has a business or runs a team, if they have anything that has a culture, the book I would point to is The Four Dimensions of Culture with Greg Kegel. Go on Amazon, grab it. Phenomenal book, easy read, but powerful dynamic. Really good book. The Greatness Mindset with Lewis Howes is really a definitive book around mindset and what do you do with that and how do you process that. Yeah, man, there's so many. It's a tough one. Yeah. Even as I think about it, I think, oh no.

Really, you're supposed to say Rise of the Reader by Nick Hutchison. No, no, no. Yeah.

I mean, I'm thinking through— well, here, maybe I'll look at my bookshelf, then I'll see more of them.

There we go.

It's such a wide range. We've worked with people, a financial expert on developing a book called Truly Rich is a great one. Another CEO coach, a book called Zero to Seven Figures about taking a small business and taking it big, Anthony Flynn. And that one's a powerful one. Heartbeat Leadership is another one with Don Kirk, former Coca-Cola exec. There's just so many, but those are some of the ones I would look to immediately. As soon as we end this conversation, they're all going to flood back to me. But yeah, there's just a lot of different options for that. Yeah.

Often how it goes. All great recommendations. I'm going to check a few of them out too, the ones I haven't heard of, which is impressive because I mean, I'm in this world and I'm always seeing recommended books, so thank you for sharing. All right, I have 2 more questions. The first one is, I know we've kind of alluded to it already, but where can— just saying it one more time— where can people go to find out a little bit more about you and what you do?

Absolutely. So the website's mystorybuilders.com. mystorybuilders.com. You can schedule time for us, mystorybuilders.com/story, with that book idea session. Reach out on LinkedIn, Instagram, whatever, you know, ping us there, connect with us on whatever your social media platform is. Happy to do that. But yeah, mystorybuilders.com is a great first stop.

Perfect.

Thank you so much. All right. This is my last and final question that I like to ask all of our guests. And it's this: you pass away and everything that you've put out, all the books, courses, all your work disappears, but you can leave the world with a single piece of advice. What would it be?

Believe.

Yeah, I think, I think that would be at the heart of it, is so much of this life is a walk of faith. And I don't mean necessarily from a religious standpoint. Somebody doesn't have to share the details of my faith to enjoy the benefits of my beliefs, is how I like to say it. But Certainly for me, it's faith in God, and that's at the heart of that because I think that's going to affect, you know, everything that comes next. But, you know, whatever it is, there's just wherever you are in your life, it's, it's, there's a, there's a, it's tough to believe, right? It's tough to believe that I can take that next step, that I can dare to dream, that I can have that mindset, that I can become more than I am today. And so I think it begins with the ability to believe that something else is possible. Because if you don't believe it's possible, why on earth would you ever try to pursue something else, right? So even with the book, right, if you think, I can never be a writer, I can never do a book, well, you're probably never going to do a book. It's probably not going to happen because you're telling yourself that story. So I think belief drives so much of our stories and how successful they're going to be. And I, you know, I for one want to live my life in a way that that story will resonate for generations.

So true. And I think self-doubt kills more dreams than probably anything else. So believe. Yes. Thank you so much, Bill. This has been an awesome conversation. It was a blast getting to know you and a little bit about your business and what you do.

Well, likewise. Good talking to you guys, Nick and Luke. And again, love what you guys do too. So I'm just going to put a plug for you guys. If you have written a book and you need help getting it out there, talk to these guys Because they can help with so many of those video elements, podcasting, social media, all of it.

Yes, sir. Thank you so much.

You bet.

That is a wrap. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of Book Thinkers Life-Changing Books. It would mean the world to us if you could write a review and share this episode with a few of your friends. I mean, these books truly have the power to change people's lives, and by reviewing or sharing our podcast, you're helping us make an impact. If you have any recommendations for future guests or any constructive feedback for us on how we can improve our show, please feel free to submit a form on our website, www.bookthinkers.com, or send us a direct message on Instagram @bookthinkers. With that, I am signing off, and I hope you have a wonderful day. Don't forget, Go read something.