Living Happier Through Life's Setbacks

Speaker 1 0:05

One of the things I try to do throughout the book is tell stories of people that have had major setbacks and what they learned from it . As you read the book , you'll learn about people that have had catastrophic injuries , major illnesses , dealt with , death , attempted suicide . I tell those stories and what people learn from them and my goal for your listeners and for the readers of the book is to make today that epiphany , that aha moment , that kick in the teeth , so you don't have to wait for that illness , diagnosis or injury to live a happier , more fulfilling life . To live a happier more fulfilling life .

Speaker 2 0:46

Hi friends , this is Read and Write with Natasha podcast . My name is Natasha Tynes and I'm an author and a journalist . In this channel I talk about the writing life , review books and interview authors . Hope you enjoy the journey . Hi everyone , and welcome to another episode of Read and Write with Natasha . I have with me today Scott White , who is the author of the Amazon number one best-selling book , the Life is Too Short Guy . So Scott is on a mission to make the world happier , one smile at a time . He is the chairman and the CEO of Invesc , which is a public real estate investment company that specializes in healthcare and senior living property investments . So , Scott , thank you for joining me today . So happy to have you here . It's my pleasure .

Speaker 2 1:53

Thank you for the invite , of course . So , scott , let's start with the pressing question . Are you ?

Speaker 1 2:00

happy . I am happy , I'm very happy , I'm grateful , I'm excited , I'm happy to be here , I'm happy to be telling this story , I'm happy to be sharing my story , my vision , my principles , my ideals and , as you said before , I'm on a mission to make the world happier , one smile at a time . So , yeah , I'm really happy .

Speaker 2 2:16

Well , that's good to know . Well , you're making my day already now . You see the smile . Yes , that's one win , All right . So from my understanding , it looks like you created a movement called the L-I-S-T-S-G . Is that what it is ? Let's see which is life is too short guys . What is this movement about and what is this book about ? So the floor is yours , Scott .

Speaker 1 2:43

So the book the Movement Litzig is about living a happier life . It's about empowering people to wake up every day and embrace the day . I look around and I see so much negativity . I look around and I see so much loneliness . I look around and I see so much depression . The statistics are just so troubling to me as I think about how people feel at work , how people feel in their social lives , and I decided it was time to do something about it .

Speaker 1 3:12

I decided it was time to share , as you asked before . I'm a super happy guy . I enjoy life . Look , everything is not perfect . It's not like everything in my life is perfect and I'm happy about everything . I have setbacks , I have days that are just challenging days , but I try to view the world as best I can through a lens of positivity .

Speaker 1 3:31

I look for the best in people and situations and as I set out to write this book last year , I wanted to share some of those principles and my goal , more than anything , was to make it very approachable , very practical . So I went out of my way and if you've read the book , and when readers read the book , they've said to me it's like this just makes sense . This isn't some esoteric academic theory based on years of data and study . No , this is day-to-day blocking and tackling . This is living every day as the best day ever .

Speaker 1 4:08

Sure , I back it up with some empirical evidence . Sure , I back it up with some data and some studies and refer to some of the academic literature . But it's not the kind of book that you'll read and you'll be like ah , you know , maybe this works for other people , doesn't work for me , literally as you read this , and , by the way , it may not work in its entirety for everyone . But there are principles that you can grab out of it and say , yeah , that's not that hard . I could smile more , I could perform random acts of kindness , I could go through the day and find the best in people . Let's give it a shot . And it's been a wild and fun journey for me .

Speaker 2 4:43

So what are the tactics that you mention in the book for anyone who's listening or watching ?

Speaker 1 4:49

So there are 10 principles that I define as Litzig Litzig , the life is too short guy . Litzig is the overarching principle to make every day the best day ever . And the 10 underlying principles are as follows the first one , the most important one , the broad one , that sort of , is the theme you pull through . Everything else is attitude is everything , the power of positivity . Attitude is everything , the power of positivity . And there I talk about how important your perspective is on living a happier life , how much you can control your attitude , which ties to the second principle , which is choose your attitude and own it . And I give the following sort of tool to people . It's such a basic tool and it's funny because I've been spending the last year touring the country and talking to different groups and when I say this , I could tell people look at me like

The Ten Principles of Happiness

Speaker 1 5:42

yeah , maybe . And then you'd be amazed , natasha , how many times I hear from people afterwards , which I love getting texts and emails afterwards .

Speaker 1 5:49

Like you know , that wasn't that hard and it worked . Okay . So what's the principle ? Choose your attitude , known it and I say to people what do you remember , natasha , what your very first thought was when you opened your eyes ? This morning I want coffee All right , good , you fit right into what I'm going to call ready the blurry , the blurry glasses . You put on your blurry glasses this morning , and those blurry glasses were all right , it's Monday Um there you go , you got your blurry glasses on .

Speaker 1 6:17

It's Monday . Uh , I want some coffee Um time to get out of bed . I have some things in here . Okay , some people , unfortunately , and few people , I think , admit this , but it's reality . Some people put on what I call the muddy glasses . It's cold , it's dark and , by the way , I did get up at five this morning it was raining . I went out and ran in the rain and people are just like I don't feel like getting out of bed .

Speaker 1 6:40

Why not , proactively , when you wake up tomorrow morning , leave the blurry glasses down , leave the muddy glasses down and grab those crystal clear , bright glass and be like it's Monday morning . It's a great day today . I have the opportunity to go out and run . I woke up next to the person I love . I have an opportunity to be on a Tasha show and talk to our audience . I have the opportunity to catch up with a friend . I have a call after this with a friend I haven't talked to in a while . Boom , I am 10 seconds into the day and I've already proactively , deliberately laid out three or four or five or six or whatever things I'm happy about , I'm grateful for and I'm starting my day off right .

Speaker 1 7:15

Choose your attitude and own it . Look , it is possible that you wake up . You're all excited , everything is great . You look over your email and something negative is there . Right , you can't control everything , but why not give yourself a fighting chance to wake up and set the roadmap for the day ? Start here and have that opportunity to reach and have a wonderful day , instead of starting down here . It's Monday , I don't feel like getting up . Why do that ? Choose your attitude and own it .

Speaker 1 7:43

Third principle is little things make a big difference , and I love the little things make a big difference because it really shows you some very , very , very simple tools that are so obvious . It's almost like , really , when you try them , it's amazing . All right , what's the simplest one ? Smile , yeah , smile , right , take a minute . And when I say that , I love to say that , and then I watch as I talk to audiences and people are just slowly like , and then you feel better , right . So it's not just about smiling now as we're talking , but proactively go through the day .

Speaker 1 8:18

You wake up , you smile . You get out of bed you smile . You go to the bathroom you smile . You go down , you make breakfast you smile . You get in your car you smile . You get to the bathroom you smile . You go down , you make breakfast you smile . You get in your car you smile . You get to the office you smile . You hang up on a call that maybe didn't go as well as you wanted , you smile .

Speaker 1 8:31

And that incremental couple of smiles a day , look my mission make the world happier . One smile at a time . You smile . It creates brain chemicals that make you feel happier . It also has a ripple effect as you think about it . It trickles out to those around you , right when somebody walks by you , a stranger or even somebody you know , and they're smiling , don't you feel better ? So smile is little things make a big difference .

Speaker 1 8:53

Celebrate . Celebrate small wins . Celebrate big wins . Celebrate every day . We don't celebrate enough . You get halfway through your day , you get to the end of your day . Celebrate a successful sales call . Celebrate , uh , uh , something your kids have done . Celebrate something that your spouse is on . So just celebrate more often .

Speaker 1 9:12

How about random acts of kindness ? Here's another little things make a big difference . When was the last time you did something completely random for a stranger ? When was the last time you were the recipient of a random act of kindness ? Somebody buys you a cup of coffee , somebody holds a door open for you , whatever the case may be , doesn't it make you feel better ? Random acts of kindness Another little things make a big difference . Whistling , spend a little time , whistling , spend a little time just singing on your own . Again , I refer to in the book some empirical studies that demonstrate that singing and whistling make you happier . Find these . These are such little things . Smile , celebrate whistling , singing , random acts of kindness Little things make a big difference .

Speaker 1 9:58

So go out and embrace those little things . That's the third principle . The fourth principle is minutes matter . So minutes matter is the overarching theme of the book , is the intersection of happiness and urgency , and the

Little Things Make a Big Difference

Speaker 1 10:12

urgency meaning do it today , like , go out and embrace today and live a happier day today . As you're listening to this right now , smile . As you're listening to this , think about how am I using my minutes today ? Minutes matter and I don't pretend to give you a secret formula for using your minutes more efficiently , for using , you know , getting more out of your day . There are other experts on that and I sort of question some of those experts in terms of how you're going to get a better use of your minutes .

Speaker 1 10:42

What I say to people is be thoughtful , deliberate and proactive in how you use your minutes . You have a finite number of minutes in your life and realize whatever you're doing . And here's the image I give people . I say to people think about a barrel , just picture a barrel and that barrel could be any kind of barrel . For me it's a wine barrel . I picture a wine barrel , but you can picture whatever barrel you want . It's a wine barrel . I picture a wine barrel , but you can picture whatever barrel you want and in that barrel are little gold coins . That's how I envision it . So every time I do something , including talking to you right now , I reach into the barrel and I think about taking out some of those precious gold coins . And I chose gold coins because they're precious , they're important and I'm using them . I'm being thoughtful and deliberate in how I'm using them .

Speaker 1 11:22

Ie this conversation today no-transcript . I don't know what I got done Like I , just like I don't know what I did today . I don't know what I did this week . That's what you need to stop . You need to really think and be proactive and deliberate and make decisions about how you're using your minutes . Look , everyone will prioritize on their own what's important to them . So for me to say it's more important that you spend more time with your family instead of work ? It's more important for you to read a book instead of watch TV ? No , that's not up to me , that's up to each person . What I'm suggesting is be thoughtful , be deliberate , be proactive . Decide how you use your minutes . Don't let life go by without knowing where your minutes are going .

Speaker 1 12:35

So the fourth one is minutes matter . The fifth one we're halfway through the 10 principles is funny . Things are everywhere . Laugh at yourself , laugh at the , the world around you . Laugh every day . Laughing is such great medicine . Laughing connects people . Laughing lowers the armor we have around ourselves . Sometimes or we put up a wall that's impenetrable and we put on a certain act . Just laugh , have fun , find humor in things , and in the book I tell some stories about people that found humor in some very difficult and challenging situations . I talk about being at my father's funeral the final time I saw him and making jokes and laughing . I tell a story about someone who had a young daughter , a three-year-old daughter , that was diagnosed with cancer and she lived for five years and , one day after her diagnosis , was technically a survivor but unfortunately succumbed at eight years old . And he talked about how his family used humor to cope and to connect through that battle . So funny things are everywhere . That's five of the 10 principles .

Speaker 1 13:43

I'll pause there , natasha , and see if you have any questions before I go into the other five , if you even want me to . What about exercise ? So I don't make exercise a one of the principles , so to speak . I would call exercise . You know exercise fits into a few things . One minutes matter . You choose to exercise if you want to Look . I personally think exercise is important . I exercise a lot . A big part of who I am , what I'm about . I'm a marathon runner . I already ran 10 miles this morning , so I think exercise is- .

Speaker 1 14:11

This morning , oh wow , In the rain 10 miles , 5 am , and loved every minute of it . It's part of who I am and what I'm about , but I don't make that one of the core principles . What I would say is that that is you choose how to prioritize your precious minutes . You choose whether or not exercise is important to you . I think it's important , but everyone needs to make that choice on their own .

Speaker 2 14:32

Because , yeah , I mean , that was one of the questions that I asked , because many studies show that you know your level of if you don't exercise , you're most probably miserable . So you know , so you know . That's why I'm curious why you didn't include it .

Speaker 1 14:51

Look , there's no doubt that exercise is , I think , a big trigger of happiness , of fulfillment , of both mental and physical wellness . I didn't include it in part because I think I captured that as part of the essence of minutes matter and , as I said , I don't give people the you know , the specifics of how to use their time . I give them general principles . If you think about the five things we've talked about so far , attitude is everything , the power of positivity . Choose your attitude , known it . Little things make a big difference . Minutes matter and funny things are everywhere . They're principles . You choose how to apply them and which ones work for you . By the way , some people may say look , funny things are everywhere . I just I'm not that funny . I just that's just not my personality . Okay , fine , that's your choice . I can be funny . I think everybody laughs . It's a common human emotion . I think everyone can find funniness everywhere and I say that sort of in a tongue-in-cheek way . But look , as you read this , you think about the principles . Maybe not all 10 apply to you , and that's fine .

Speaker 2 15:54

Okay , so you know , currently I mean for a while now as well we're seeing the effect of war and conflict . And you know , lately I've been talking to a lot of people who are feeling sad about the current affairs and they don't see any light at the end of the tunnel . And they don't see any light at the end of the tunnel and people are stressed and anxious and they look at social media feeds . What would you say to that ? How would your principles fit within

Minutes Matter: Using Time Deliberately

Speaker 2 16:32

the current , let's say , world situation we are in and the constant need for looking into social medias and images of war and destruction and death and all of that .

Speaker 1 17:32

Well , look , I think that these principles are more applicable today than they were yesterday and , unfortunately , they'll be more applicable tomorrow , right ? Because , look , the world is constantly dealing with issues . There have always been issues . You know I forget who I was talking to yesterday or the day before about . You know how much turmoil there is in the world right now and how much death , and you know they think it's the worst time it's ever been . And I looked at them and I'm like huh , world War II , world War I . I mean we can go on to .

Speaker 1 18:01

You know , I'm not going to go back through all the Civil War , the Revolutionary War , so on and so forth , but society has faced fighting and wars forever . Society has faced setbacks , illnesses , right , this wasn't our first pandemic . It's just the one that the first generation , that those that are alive now , have dealt with , because most of us weren't here in 1918 . This isn't the first time we're dealing with a lot of these setbacks .

Speaker 1 18:24

In fact , I would go so far as to say one of the things that I find somewhat disturbing is that we live at , I think , the greatest time in the evolution of human society in terms of the knowledge available in terms of the comforts available . Right , I mean air conditioning and heating and running water and electricity . You don't have to go back that long in the evolution of society . We didn't even have that , right I mean , people can't even imagine living a day without their iPhone . We didn't have that a decade ago . I think we live in the greatest time in the evolution of human society . As I think about the United States in particular , I personally think it's the greatest country in the world and one of the greatest countries in the world . Yet just over the last couple of years , the University of Chicago put out a public opinion study that said Americans are more unhappy than they've been in the last 50 years the last half century . That's mind blowing .

Speaker 2 19:14

Why ? Why is that why ?

Speaker 1 19:16

It's a great question . It's a great question . There's so many sort of look . It could be divisiveness , it could be social media , it could be the change in we want immediate gratification , so on and so forth . But that's why , when you pull back and you ask the question about the principles and how applicable they are and how we could use them , you could take these simple things and say , okay , fine , we're coming out of a pandemic and inflation and interest rates and war in a couple of spots in the global macro geopolitical situation Wow , that's a lot to handle . And then you could just smile because little things .

Speaker 1 19:54

Look , I'm not suggesting that smiling is going to take away the absolute terribleness of war that's going on in a couple of regions of the world . I'm not suggesting that smiling is going to make tough economic situations or illness go away , but it could make it better . Right , so we can't solve all the world's problems , but we can put on a lens through which we could view the world differently and realize , okay , fine , we're dealing with conflict in the Middle East . We're dealing with with conflict is between Russia and the Ukraine . We're dealing with . Gone through all the things we're dealing with . I got it . But I could also say I have the ability to own my own perspective and while I may be angry , I may be upset , I may be depressed , I may be nervous , I may be scared , whatever those emotions are , I also have the ability to go out every day and view whatever I'm doing right now . So , in this moment , I also have the ability to go out every day and view whatever I'm doing right now . So in this moment , I'm talking to you and while there's war going on and that's something we need to grapple with and understand I'd also say I have the ability .

Speaker 1 21:01

I , scott White the Life is Too Short guy to have a positive impact on people . I have the ability to make people think . I have the ability to make people smile . I have the ability to make people smile . I have the ability and I'm just going through the things that I could do . You could do this too , Natasha , and each of your listeners can proactively go out of their way to do things to live a happier life and , by the way , it matters . It really matters .

Speaker 1 21:23

So one of the questions people will often ask me , you know does it really matter ? Does it okay , you smile more , you put on a happy persona , whatever . Does it really matter ? Well , look , if you're faking it , it doesn't matter . But if you could bring yourself to a place where you find greater happiness and positivity ? Yes , it really matters , and some of the statistics that I share both in my speeches and in the book are amazingly compelling .

Speaker 1 21:50

Positive thinkers have a 77% lower risk of high blood pressure . 77% risk lower risk of high blood pressure . Positive thinkers live , on average , seven and a half years longer than negative thinkers . Think about that , right . Think about how much longer you could live just by your perspective . So , while we're worried about our cholesterol , our blood pressure , our body weight , our BMI , whatever it is we're worried about , smile more , approach the world with positivity . You'll live , on average , seven and a half years longer . There's a 50% lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease for positive thinkers . This also translates into amazing and compelling statistics in the workplace Engaged employees have 37% lower absenteeism rates .

Speaker 1 22:37

I mean , just think about it . There's so many positive statistics associated with being more positive , with living a happier life . Who wouldn't want to do this , even even in the face of adversity , even in the face of some of the worst things going on ? And one of the things I try to do throughout the book is tell stories of people that have had major setbacks and what they learned from it . So as you read the book , you'll learn about people that have had catastrophic injuries , major illnesses dealt with , death , attempted suicide . I tell those stories and what people learn from them and my goal for your listeners and for the readers of the book is to make today that epiphany , that aha moment , that kick in the teeth , so you don't have to wait for that illness , diagnosis or injury to live a happier , more fulfilling life .

Speaker 2 23:30

So do you view yourself as a life coach ?

Speaker 1 23:33

Yes , so here's how I would answer . That is , I don't proactively go out and

Finding Humor in Difficult Situations

Speaker 1 23:37

coach people one-on-one , at least not yet . Maybe someday I will . I approach everything I do as making the world happier and making people around me happier , more positive , more motivated , more inspired . My hope is that some listener listening to this will embrace some of these principles go out and do something different .

Speaker 2 23:58

So do you ever talk about certain philosophies of living and happiness , like stoicism , or what's his name ? The guy who wrote the Man's Search for a Meaning , frankl ? Yes , yes .

Speaker 1 24:16

Yeah .

Speaker 2 24:16

Frankl , Viktor Frankl . So these philosophies , do you ever include them in your ? Yeah , you don't . Yeah , I don't .

Speaker 1 24:25

So I've read them and I'm happy to talk about all them , but what I deliberately wanted to do with this book was to make it a practical guide . In fact , at one point the original one of the titles I thought about is the positivity handbook , right ? So I don't want it to be a reflection of philosophy , where people read it and they're like , meh , maybe , maybe that works for him , maybe that works for her . I wanted this to be takeaway tools . I wanted to take people on an emotional journey of hearing other people's stories , what they learned and how they how each of the readers can apply these in their daily principles . So I'm more focused on a practical guide and I went out of my way to make sure that this was neither an academic book nor a specific business book . So many of the principles are applicable to business , they're applicable to teams , they're applicable to leadership , they're applicable to entrepreneurship and building companies , but it's not written as a business handbook .

Speaker 2 25:25

Okay . So one of the things that you mentioned , or you asked me like how did I wake up today ? So I usually do , when I wake up on Mondays , I'm very excited , why ? Why am I ? I haven't been like , you know , that's recent , but why am I always excited about Mondays ? I love Monday .

Speaker 2 25:41

You know how some people have , like , the Sunday blues where they dread the next day . I wake up excited . I have my daily planner , I look at what I'm doing , and the reason for that is because I run my own business . I do , I , you know I my my own boss . Um , every day I watch , you know , I assess my business . I want to do better .

Speaker 2 26:04

Um , I , I'm doing what I always wanted in life , which is read , write , get paid for my writing , run podcasts , talk about books . So this is , for me , is the dream , right , and it took , like it's after 20 years of paying my dues in the corporate world to reach this level of satisfaction . So I think one of the reasons is when people wake up and I didn't used to be this way , like I used to dread Monday , I didn't want to get out of bed Sunday , I used to get a massive kiss of the Sunday blues . So how , what would you say to people who are really struggling with finding happiness in the workplace ? And Mondays is just . You know they really don't want to embrace any of that on Monday morning . Own it .

Speaker 1 26:54

Own it , go out and own it and make that change . So the 10th principle , which we haven't gotten to yet , is live today , don't wait for tomorrow

Happiness During Global Conflicts

Speaker 1 27:00

. So you could think about what you want to do . You could say , someday , I want to all the things you talked about , own my own business , be my own boss , and maybe it's not even just business related . You know All the things you talked about own my own business , be my own boss , and maybe it's not even just business related . You know , someday I want to learn to play the guitar . Someday I want to learn to play golf . Someday I want to learn to speak another language . Well , you know what Someday's , today , right , and that's what I try to push people to think about is live today , don't wait for tomorrow .

Speaker 1 27:23

And I take people on a journey of . You know , imagine today could be your last day , and are you doing what you love ? Will you feel fulfilled ? You know , as you ? You know , one of the exercises that I have people do in the book and I love to do when I speak to audiences , is is I have them close their eyes and I walk them on this journey of of where we're walking through a field . Right , we're walking through this beautiful field and it's it's a lovely spring day , maybe late May , and you could hear the birds chirping and you could smell the fresh cut grass and you could actually feel the grass rubbing up against your ankles as you're walking . And in the distance you see some little thing popping out of the ground and you walk up , real close to it and you look down and there's a piece of granite there on the ground and your name is on it . Your name is on the top line and you're now looking at your tombstone .

Speaker 1 28:10

I say to people think about what the three or four words to encapsulate your life would be on the next row . Think about what that row would say and I go through this exercise and let people think about it for a little bit , and anyone listening to this now I'd encourage you to think about what are those three or four words on your tombstone . When you're done with that , I want you to take a step back and think about your eulogy , if there were . So now , these are the people that know you love . You want to come out and pay tribute to you at your funeral . What are the three or four themes that you want to be remembered for in life , and then I tell people right , I already thought about it , that's great , but a lot of people haven't .

Speaker 1 28:54

And then I tell people think about your obituary . These are people that have never met you . What are the three or four sentences ? Because an obituary is usually a few sentences that encapsulate your life . So three or four words on your tombstone , three or four themes in your eulogy , three or four sentences in your obituary . Write that all down and then self-reflect , read it out loud , look in the mirror and say is that the life I'm living today ? And if not , live today , don't wait for tomorrow . It's a 10th and final principle of the book . And live today , don't wait for tomorrow . It's a 10th and final principle of the book and it drives home exactly what you just asked .

Speaker 1 29:25

Natasha , if I'm waking up Monday morning and I'm dreading going to work or I'm dreading maybe it's not even work People associate work as getting in the car and going to the office I'm dreading whatever it is that I'm doing that day , whether it's some volunteer thing , whether it's dealing with my family , whether it's dealing with whatever volunteer thing , whether it's dealing with my family , whether it's dealing with whatever . Find ways to fix it . Now look , everything isn't fixable right away and there are steps to take . But don't just go through the motions every day and hope the world around you will change . You need to own it . You need to make the decision to proactively live today . Don't wait for tomorrow yeah .

Speaker 2 30:08

So okay , I want to ask . Now I'm gonna like switch gears and ask about your publishing journey . So your book , how was it published ? Was it self-published , did you have an agent ? Do you have a publisher ? And you know what's next for ? So let's talk a bit about your publishing journey .

Speaker 1 30:25

So it's published by New Degree Press . So I started about , I guess almost two years ago with New Degree Press in terms of , initially , I was working with some of their editors crafting the idea , writing the book itself . That was the first half of 2022 . In July , they reviewed the manuscript and agreed to publish it . It's a hybrid publishing model where they didn't buy the rights to the manuscript I still own all the rights to it and I purchased certain services from them , so it wasn't self-published . In terms of me finding everything , they provided the full range of resources and did an amazing job . I was very pleased with New Degree Press . So that's been the publishing journey . It came out in late December , early January . It's been a fun , wild , exciting ride . As you mentioned , we did make it to be an Amazon number one bestseller and last week we won our fifth literary award . So we've been acknowledged five times with different literary awards . I'm very proud of that as a third-party verification , I guess , of the quality of what's in the book .

Speaker 1 31:33

In terms of what's next , I definitely want to write another book . I've been playing around with a couple of concepts more along the lines of what I've been writing about Life is too short . Live in the moment positivity , gratefulness , happiness , thinking about doing something a little bit more business oriented . I do run a public company and spend a lot of time thinking about culture and developing people and developing teams , so I may take some of these principles and apply them directly to the business world . That's one of the concepts I'm thinking about .

Speaker 1 32:02

I've been doing a lot of speaking and I'd like to continue to speak . It's really important to me to spread this message . I love doing what we're doing right . The last half hour we've spent together of encouraging people to smile , to embrace life , to go out and live their best life . It has so much value to me as a person in terms of what I'm trying to accomplish and my ability to transform other people's lives , and the feedback that I've gotten the random emails , the random texts , the random connections on LinkedIn about you

Live Today, Don't Wait for Tomorrow

Speaker 1 32:31

know .

Speaker 1 32:31

What you said resonated with me and I've since gone out and purchased an airline ticket to go visit my mom , who I hadn't seen in two years . Or I decided to start writing a screenplay because I thought about that my whole life and you encouraged me to do so . Or , you know , I was standing in line thinking about how you open your book . The first couple of sentences and the first couple of chapters or the first couple of paragraphs in the book talk about when I was 10 years old and my father had a heart attack and this person reached out to me and said I was standing in line and I just started crying because I have a 10-year-old son and I can't imagine what that would be like and you know , these are such empowering and amazing types of things that I get as feedback and those are all real examples , by the way , of the impact that I hopefully am having now and continue to have on the world around me .

Speaker 2 33:17

So how did you get all that success ? I mean , I know the message is very good , but in addition to that , how did you market your message ? What worked for you best in terms of marketing ? Was it social media ? Was it word of mouth ? And the reason I'm asking this is because there are many authors who listen to the podcast , or aspiring authors , and I want them just to get you know learn some of your secrets , I guess .

Speaker 1 33:46

So I'd say I started with my network . I worked my network very hard so before the book was even released I sold almost a thousand copies within my network . You know pre sales .

Speaker 2 33:57

How like email ? Like what kind of tools did you use Hand-to-hand ?

Speaker 1 34:01

combat . One-on-one calls emails , linkedin messages , facebook messages , one-on-one . One-on-one is really important . You know the social media posts .

Speaker 1 34:16

I've done a lot of that . But the hey , natasha , how are you ? We haven't spoken in a little while , but I'm working on this project I'm really excited about . It's about embracing the world and making it happier . I'd love for you to support me . Take a look at the website . That makes a big difference . The one-on-one , hand-to-hand combat makes a big difference in the pre-sale I'd say post-sale .

Speaker 1 34:35

I've been doing a lot of social media marketing . I post probably once or twice a week on LinkedIn , facebook , twitter , slash X , instagram . For me , in terms of my audience and where I have the biggest following , linkedin has been most successful . I try to post either something about the book , or I post an article that I've seen , or I post what else do I post ? Those are probably the main ones .

Speaker 1 35:03

I have a newsletter that anyone could subscribe to . So I sent a newsletter about , say , once every other week , once every third week , with a short article that I've written with some of the principles , and then you know a little bit after that about how to buy a book or how to engage me as a speaker . You know a big part of what I'm trying to do now is try to build a speaking business around the book and that's been wildly successful , something I'm very excited and proud of . What else I think that's it . And then doing these podcast appearances , I think really helps you really get to a broader audience . Your audience today Maybe people that have never heard of me or ever seen me , or may have never found me , and through that some people will reach out and connect on LinkedIn or otherwise , or will go to my website and sign up for the newsletter and then all of a sudden that becomes part of my broader network and marketing .

Speaker 2 35:50

Yeah , yeah .

Publishing Journey and Marketing Success

Speaker 2 35:52

So you would say , in terms of sales for the book , where did it come from ? In addition to the one-to-one , probably the one-to-one and then probably speaking engagements .

Speaker 1 36:05

I'd say you know a lot of the speaking engagements I do , either the hiring whomever's hiring me to speak will buy books for everyone there or after I speak I'll notice an uptick in book purchases . People hear me speak and then want to buy the book . So I think that's where a lot of the sales come from . It's more a slow trickle on social media . You know a couple a day here and there whenever I post , but nothing significant .

Speaker 2 36:34

Yeah , like I noticed that people would say social media , social media , but social media is really one small avenue of a bigger avenues you can pursue , and I feel many authors put all their efforts in social media and forget about the other stuff . But yeah , scott , this has been fascinating . Do you have any final thoughts ? Comments before we conclude .

Speaker 1 36:59

Well , just say , if people want more information about the book or about me speaking , or want to sign up for the newsletter , you can go to the website lifeistoshortguycom . It's that simple , lifeistoshortguycom . And there you can learn more about the book , you can learn more about my speaking engagements or sign up for the newsletter .

Speaker 2 37:16

Thank you very much . You know this has been inspiring and for anyone who's listening or watching . Thank you for joining us for another episode of Read and Write with Natasha and , until we meet again , thank you for tuning in to Read and Write with Natasha . I'm your host , natasha Tynes . If today's episode inspired you in any way , please take the time to review the podcast . Remember to subscribe and share this podcast with fellow book lovers . Until next time , happy reading , happy writing , happy riding .