Selling From Your Comfort Zone | Stacey Hall | 504

And welcome, welcome, welcome. This is Peter Winick. I'm the founder and CEO at Thought Leadership Leverage, and you are joining us on the podcast today, which is Leveraging Thought Leadership. Today, my guest is Stacy Hall. She's the Go for Yes gal. She's got a new book out. I think it's number 6 or 7, Selling from Your Comfort Zone. She is a success strategist, a TEDx speaker, and a multi-time author. So, uh, Welcome aboard, Stacy. How are you?

Peter, I'm wonderful. It's great to be with you here today. Thank you.

So I want to go down a little bit of a different path to start, if we could. So this is— is the book number 6 or 7?

No, it's actually number 5 that I've written completely. I've contributed to many more than that, but this is my 5th book.

So 5 solos and— okay, got it. So give me a sense then of the difference between the first books you were involved in and your latest in terms of what it takes to get them out in the world, market them, what your goals are. Give me sort of like the book journey, if you will.

It's, it's funny that you would say that because my first book and this fifth book are for the same publisher for the same reason.

Okay.

What happened in between was the rest of the journey. And so I've come 360 degrees around. So my background, my training was always in marketing and sales. Yeah. And my first book, came out because I had a commitment to teach people that it wasn't necessary to do business like war. There was a very popular at the time, still well-known marketing strategy that was all based on warfare. And it upset me greatly because it was having people treat other people in ways that were inappropriate. I'll just say it just, just kept perpetrating the whole concept that you couldn't do business with friends.

And now the antithesis of win-win and the alpha male and the targeting and the, you know, kill your competitor, this sort of mentality.

It was all about, yes, business is war. Don't do business with friends. Be armed with a script. Don't take no for an answer.

Right.

Yeah, all the things that led to the definition of a salesperson of being pushy and spammy, which has continued to today. Studies still show when you think of a salesperson, what's the word that comes up? It's going to be pushy or spammy.

Sure.

So that's not the way I had ever done business. And I saw it happening and being taught more and more. And I said there, if we got back to using the Law of Attraction where we treat people the way we want to be treated and we're clear who people that we're meant to serve are, there's no reason to do war. And I presented that idea to a publisher. Well, I had an agent who presented that idea to a publisher, Barricade Publishers, which was brand new back then. This is like 23 years ago.

Right.

And loved the idea because it was based on synchronicity. So strategic synchronicity.

So even though— and we'll get back to this— you sort of started with BK, and now have come back to them, and there's been a lot of stuff in between, I would argue that as wonderful as BK is, they, just like every other publisher, have evolved, changed, et cetera, today as compared to what they were 23 years ago in lots of ways. Good, bad, and ugly, right? So what— how are you rating the change?

Oh, that's funny. Okay. Well, first off, I'm going to say there's been no ugly, not just because they're my publisher and I love them, but truly, They were—

ugly being the industry, not them. No, I'm just saying.

Yeah, well, what's amazing is they were a small boutique agency or publisher at the time, and I wasn't sure I wanted to go with them because, you know, I wanted the big guys, and they were— and the big guys were interested. And this— something just felt right about them. Their commitment to being a place to bring thought leadership Like, that's all that's in— they're interested in is a world that works for all. And people who write books that make it possible to have a world that works for all, they've just continued to expand and expand and expand. They were one of the first that got involved in multimedia, not just books. So yeah, they've continued to evolve and expand. Very— stayed very much in alignment with their purpose. Very much.

I guess let me try a little bit of a different way. What is it that you're doing today that's the same when you first published 23 years ago? And what are you doing totally different?

Okay, so that's— so the fifth book. So in between there were other types of books with other publishers. Coming back to BK, what I saw was the 20-year anniversary of my first book, which still sells very well. And presenting to them that concept of why don't we just update it for today? And they said, no, the world has changed. You can't just update it. What is exactly— they asked me exactly what you just asked me. What is new and different? What do we know today as a society in sales that we didn't know 20 years ago? And that's where I said, well, I think people are more open now to the concept of being in alignment with ourselves. I think Attraction, the law of attraction got bastardized. Excuse me. Nobody understands it anymore. But when we talk about alignment, when we talk about our core values, more and more people are saying, I'm holding on to those and I'm not letting go. And when you think about that, then why is everybody now saying you have to get out of your comfort zone? So the buzzword in society is to be successful. You have to get out of your comfort zone.

Got it.

How can you get out of your comfort zone if you're in alignment with your values? So what's happening is people are getting splintered. They do not know what direction to go into. And it's especially apparent in the sales industry. So I took that, that approach of let's stay in our comfort zone, let's expand it based upon our values, what we're good at doing, our talents and our skills. And then that's what Barrett Kohler wanted to explore is nobody's talking about that in business these days.

Got it. But I guess, so what is it that you have to do as the author to help get that message out there? Because they provide the platform, they provide the infrastructure, they provide community, but it's not like, I, I'm just wanna make sure folks understand, it's not like all you have to do is write an amazing book and then rainbows and unicorns.

No, not at all. It's funny that you asked that because 2 weeks ago I was, um, just put on with the committee for for Bear Kohler, our annual book marketing workshop. 3 days explaining what an author has to do. So in answer to your question, I'm not doing anything different than I did 20 years ago. It was still on me to market the book. The beauty— so there's no ugly because the beauty is with social media now, with AI, with all the tools, all the bells and whistles an author has available to them, It's so much easier. I don't have to get my butt on a plane and go to book signings in every possible location. I don't have to spend thousands of dollars doing that and time away from my family like I did 20 years ago. Now I can connect with you, right, on podcasts. I can hold webinars. I can create courses. I can create little ebooks off of it. I can have my own podcast. I can do all these things that allow me to get my message out. And oh, by the way, I happen to have a book too, if you want more.

Got it. So let's split those things in two, right? So one of the great benefits of, of putting a book together, writing a book, is it forces you to get clear in terms of your thinking and how you articulate it. And you know, you play with your models, you play with your methods, and then it's like, mm, just right. You know, it's like a, a baker experimenting with recipes to get that pie just right. Now it's just great. It's in the book as good as could be, right? Then there are derivatives of the intellectual property of the thought leadership that live in the book that you can put out in the universe, A, for free as marketing, as just to share it with the universe to get impact, whatever. That's great. And then there are other derivatives of the same ideas, methodologies, and frameworks that you get paid for. So give me a sense of sort of where that split is. Sure.

Okay, well, first off, this is one of the things I taught at the workshop. When writing a book, we have to now think about the marketing potential for the book. Maybe that wasn't as important 20 years ago because you went to bookstores and you talked about the book. Now when we're putting a book together, we have to think about what organizations would want to get behind this book. Help me get the word out.

So it used to be, if I'm understanding you correctly, after the book's written, then we think about marketing. And you're saying during the process, you wanna be really clear about who am I writing this for, who can support me, et cetera, et cetera. And that might actually impact from an editorial perspective, the way you tell the stories, what you put in there, what you exclude from there, et cetera.

It absolutely is supposed to. Let's put it that way. Okay. And even before we get the idea to write a book, what have we been doing as you talk so clearly about. How are we getting the message out already before the book comes? Are we preparing an audience for the book to come into the marketplace?

Correct.

Because without that, good luck trying to get attention. And once the book is out, it's really too late. So when we have fans, then we already have people who are talking about the book coming. When we do a launch for the book, we have people who will attend and actually buy the book that day, which will take it to number 1 on Amazon. If we have an audience already that people are talking about, other people will start paying attention and putting as many people, as much acknowledgement into the book as possible. Because none of us, none of us ever write a book by ourselves. Really, the knowledge comes from many different places. The more people we can acknowledge, the better in the book as well.

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So pulling— so I'm just going to say, when I was writing Selling from Your Comfort Zone, yep, I would make a statement that I believed in, then I would Google to find if other people had had the same thoughts, meaning did they publish articles, did they write books on these? I would pull some of their information into my book, let them know that I was quoting them in my book.

Sure.

And asking if they wanted to be available for a webinar with me? Like, we could jointly host a webinar together, right? Or would they want to participate in my launch party and say a few words?

Stay there for a half a second, because I think that newer authors don't realize how welcoming sort of the thought leader and author community— they, they— I think, and this might— maybe this goes back to your war comment earlier, business is war. You know, I think a lot of people are on— think that, oh, they're my competitor. And it's like, actually, it's the opposite. If someone likes content around, you know, selling from your comfort zone or things tangentially related to that, they're gonna like yours as well. It's not a zero-sum game. And I think that's really, really important for people to understand. And more importantly, the other authors and thought leaders in the community will say, ah, come on, welcome aboard. What can I do to help you? Yeah.

So I got this card. Okay. Yes, it's me. Okay. I just got this card. It came from the author Larry Levine of Selling from Your Heart. Okay. Yeah. Why? Because he just had me to speak to his audience and then he sends me a thank you card for doing so. I like, are you kidding me? This is incredible. And of course I'm giving him a shout out right now because this is what I do. Plus I'm sharing the podcast that we did together. Yes, you're absolutely right. We need to be not expecting that we were the first and only person to have a similar thought. So I reached out to all these people and said, I'm putting you in the book. I also reached out to folks who had been following my messages and said, you've been following me. Have you been doing anything that I've offered as tips? Yes. Would you like to expand on that in an interview with me? And I'll put the interview in the book.

Love it. Right.

Okay. Now you said to me, now what am I doing to market that? It's inside the book. I'm taking all those quotes and they're part of my social media campaign.

Right. So now, like, right, you're going to give me a quote, or I'm— you're going to put a quote up there. I love that. So then what are the— what are the other ways you're monetizing? Because I mean, at the end of the day, it's very, very, very rare for an author to make money, net, net number of units sold, dollars per book, whatever. Under the business side of it, what are the business lines or the offerings or the solutions that are kind of being brought into the world as a result of the book?

Well, I'm getting exposure to, um, organizations that want to hire sales trainers and want a new concept, so I get paid that way. I also create my own webinars, my own mini courses, my own courses. I sell those based on the concept of selling from your comfort zone. I get involved in summits with other people, other thought leaders who are organizing them. I get to talk about it there. I get to sell things from that platform. A thought leader can go anywhere they want in the world these days. With anything they're saying. If we've got something to say, we can monetize it.

Well, and I think what's interesting, one of the things that's interesting about, about your work is obviously because when you're in the, you're in the sales and marketing space, people would say, well, of course for Stacy, this is natural. She's a sale, you know, she's a marketer and a great salesperson. But everything that you said, I would argue, would apply to someone writing a book on resilience, leadership, management, authenticity, work from And I think that's the problem is thought leaders that are in a non-sales space, 90-something percent of them say, oh, but I'm not a salesperson or a marketer. And it's like, okay, well then, you know, you— the word broken author doesn't need to be next to each other.

That's exactly, exactly. And these are my clients, actually. I— all of my clients who come to me for sales and marketing help, I speak to them about their thought leadership. It's like, yes, I know you're selling this, but the wisdom you have that you've gained from selling this can also be monetized. And let's start putting together first maybe an ebook, but then develop it into an actual book. And let's get you on podcasts and let's get you on summits. And oh, by the way, you'll still be selling this, but you're also selling this. And that's in this day and age, doesn't matter if you're the parent of a child on the spectrum and you've got tips for other parents of children on the spectrum, you're going to be able to sell that wisdom.

Well, I think that's really the piece where, in my opinion, my experience, the books that don't sell well, it's not because necessarily— now there are some exceptions to this— they're not good books. I mean, I've read so many books that are just amazing, brilliant books that very few people have heard of. It's largely because there isn't a high-quality sales and marketing strategy or execution of that strategy underneath it. Because, you know, just, hey, it's pub date, la la la, like, that's not going to do it today.

Not anymore. It hasn't for years, but especially not with social media, not when there's so much free. So the free has to come out first. Yes. And then the book comes, and the book has to be in numerous forms. That's the other thing that I wanted to say. When my book came out, if you had an ebook, it, it was considered trash, right?

Right.

20, 23 years later, self-published books of any size are better than just a blog, better than just a post. People— and now if it's on Kindle, that's really how people want to consume more often, is on— they want the ebook version, right?

I think there's a lot of reasons for that. Some is misperceptions, misconceptions around the publishing industry. Others where early on, 20-something years ago, a lot of self-publishing was a crappy product. It was just sloppy. It wasn't— today there's zero excuse for bad editorial, bad, poor quality, whatever. And if you can tell the difference between your quote, self-published book and a professionally self-published book, then you did something wrong.

Right? Exactly. Exactly. But I'm saying that's changed a lot. Now people prefer the ebook. Audible has also— now people want to consume in audio. That wasn't necessary. 23 years ago. In fact, that— I mean, there were audiobooks back then. There was an organization that's still around called Sounds True, and Joe Vitale was one of the first people who used to put his books in audio version.

An odd niche. Now you would never— you know, years ago it'd be paperback, you know, hardcover, and then the paperback. But now all sort of comes out at once, you know, that you've got your regular book, you've got your digital, you've got your audio. Because people have different preferences and, and it's silly to say, well, I'm only going to put it out in one format. It's like, whatever their preferences are, make it available, make it accessible. People are, you know, whether it's at the gym or taking walks or during commute, whatever their consumption preference, it's not just sitting there with a cup of tea reading a physical book in your hand. Those days are over. So this is awesome. And any, um, last tips to someone that is maybe, uh, a year behind where you are now, you know, they're still wrapping up the editorial process and haven't launched it yet.

Yes, I would say start pulling out tidbits from your book and put them on social media in whatever format you can, whoever your audience is. Start letting people know the book is coming, not by saying my book is coming, but by putting out bits of the content and saying more of this is coming.

Love it. Well, this has been great. I appreciate your time. Lots and lots of wisdom here, and best of luck with, with this book and everything else you're doing.

I appreciate that very, very much. Blessings to you.

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