Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Right.
It's Spencer.
We're laughing already.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: Of course. When do we not laugh?
[00:00:09] Speaker A: When do we not laugh? Exactly. Spencer and I know each other from boom, Chicago, which is an improv comedy shop in Amsterdam. And that's how we met. And we continue to do improv and laugh a lot.
[00:00:21] Speaker B: Exactly. The medicine life.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: Yes, exactly.
Hey, but today we're not talking. We're not talking about laughing. We're talking about serious matters. Yes. Death and mayhem and murder. No, we are talking about something not quite as fun as improv. Although you could say there is an element of improv in there. And we are talking about the one word book.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: Yes, we are.
[00:00:47] Speaker A: Spencer has finished his one word book. In fact, I think you even did it in 1 hour.
[00:00:52] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:00:53] Speaker A: Exactly.
Which I'm thrilled about. And if you don't know me, a super 22nd background on me. I spent nine years thinking, whining, moaning, dreaming about writing my first book. And I didn't do it for nine years. A lot of pain and suffering and then I finally, through the invitation of someone else. So like a third party saying, bradley, do this. And I finally wrote my first book. So that's a lot of the motivation for me. Oh, and by the way, then I've written 39 books total since then. Right? So it took that one to break the ice or to break through the dam and then it let the damn burst, so to speak. So that's sort of my goal in my world, is to help you break through with that first little tiny book so that you can get your, your real book done, which is exactly the case for Spencer. So Spencer, if you want to give us a quick rundown of what happened, what is your bigger goal? How did this book help you accomplish that? And so where, where are you?
[00:01:56] Speaker B: I'm at a crossroads. That's where I am. So I, so I've been in the public speaking presentation skills space for 15 years, and I am in the process of building a platform that helps lots of people be great speakers and presenters.
And I'm trying to figure out how do I best kind of make people aware that this platform exists? How do I get people excited about it? And as you know from our conversations, Bradley, what I suddenly realized is instead of talking about the thing itself, I almost need to take a step back. And I need people to be excited about the idea of falling in love with being a great speaker. Because as you know from somebody who also does this and from improv and all those things, is that you get a whole bunch of superpowers when you become a good speaker.
[00:02:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:53] Speaker B: But what I also know from working in this industry for 15 years is, like, that's a tough job to say to somebody, you know, that thing that you think is really scary and really tough. Well, I want you to think that it's one of the most exciting, amazing, life transformational things that you could possibly do. And for that, I need grit, because it's a marathon, not a sprint. And I think, like, this is why. When we spoke about your one word book idea, for me, it was like, this amazing connection of two different things that, okay, I want to write a book about falling in love with being a speaker and a presenter because of these superpowers that it gives you. And writing a book seemed really daunting, almost as daunting as trying to convince people to fall in love with presenters.
And the one word book for me was, like, this tiny win, this first step that I could do to not only have this word for me, which is Brit, as a reminder that, like, this is what I'm trying to do, I have to do it, and it's going to take some time, but that's okay. But I need grit to do it. So I was amazed that I could do it in an hour, a one word book. So, for me, it was, you know, when you suddenly see the front cover of it and you have your word and it feels like I achieved something. Like, it's this moment where it's almost like, not only did I achieve something, not only did I have a feeling of, like, okay, what's it like to actually have a book with your name on it, but it was also, like, it almost, like, gave birth to the idea of the bigger book. Like, it made that real as well. So I think, for me, it's like, it's such a beautiful thing that people can do is come spend a little bit of time with you and write a one word book that can give you that focus, that can give birth to other ideas. And just. It's. For me, I think, like, and we've spoken about this before, like, it's a tiny win. It's like, move one step forward up that ladder to where you need to get to. So, yeah, I think it was a great experience.
[00:05:14] Speaker A: Awesome. Wow. You used so many terms in there. I really love tiny win.
This one little thing, one step in the ladder. And so in case it wasn't clear, Spencer's word is grit. Right. And so you. Yes, it's a one word book. There are other elements which he also did all of them in 1 hour. And, of course, this is what this program is all about. It's because I know how to do all this stuff, and I put it together in this nice, pretty package that can help you. Here's everything you need to do step by step, because, yes, it's true. There's really only one word in one chapter, and that's the major content of the book, but just sort of a tiny bit of information about the rest of the book. There are other. There's twelve elements, actually, of this book, including, like, cover and title and subtitle, and then there's epigraph and dedication. The two most important elements are the preface, which is the present moment, sort of like a journal entry for today. Here's my present situation, or as we learned about in improv storytelling, this is the current. What did he call it? The current situation.
The.
What does he call it in the stages of the story?
[00:06:26] Speaker B: Like the ordinary world.
[00:06:28] Speaker A: Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Ordinary. Exactly. Thank you. So ordinary. Oh, this is good. We can even bring in storytelling elements here. Ordinary world is what I'm calling the preface. That's the present moment. This is the way it is right now. Then there's your one word. What would that be in this case? Would that be the call to action? Maybe.
I don't know.
[00:06:50] Speaker B: Yeah, it is, in a way, because it's like, here's where I am right now, and here's where I want to be in the future, and that causes tension, and there's the call to action is like, yeah, go do this hard thing. That's scary. Like, it's almost like where our fight flight freeze thing comes in and goes, what? You must be insane. I'm not going to do that. It's never going to happen. Who am I to do this? And the imposter syndrome comes. Comes in, and there are many things that can stop you moving forward.
[00:07:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
So, to continue with my analogy here of the story and the story structure, so, what I think is the most important element of the one word book is the epilogue. And the epilogue is written from the future. So, a year into the future, and you write it in the past tense, and you write about your past year as if it already happened. So, back to storylines, this could be intel one day, and then this is the future, and then at the very end of the story structure is. And from that day on, every day since. So then what we're doing is we're creating your future today, but you're going to write about it. So that's the epilogue. And I explained all how to do this and stuff. But that's it in a nutshell are all of these elements with that one word. And if you don't know your word, I actually challenge anybody who says they don't know their word or don't think they know it. I believe you do know it. I just think you got to uncover it or like dig it out of the hole it's in or dust it off. We all have that word. And remember, this isn't your word for your entire life or anything. This is your word for the coming, whatever, six months or a year. And this is the word to help you to get some focus and clarity on what to do next. Like Spencer was saying, he's at a crossroads. I hope that grit, I mean, in fact, this would be great to have another call in six months and a year and to see how this has turned out. Your grit year, right?
[00:08:53] Speaker B: Yeah, definitely. I think, you know, for anybody watching this, like get in touch with Bradley because it's fun, it's quick, it gives you focus, it sneakily teaches you about writing a book. And before you know it, you have like this actual finished book. So, yeah, it's, it was, it was a really good, a good process to go through and it really energized me for what I'm now started, which is the, the bigger book.
[00:09:25] Speaker A: The bigger book. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Also in the, in the program I'm, I talk about, remember, I know everything about publishing and formatting and manuscripts and stuff. So we're going to get an ebook for sure. That's super easy. But there's also, it's like one more click and we can order a print book for you. And so for Spencer we can get a paperback, we can even get a hardcover. And I know how to do all this stuff. It doesn't have to cost a ton of money. You don't need to order 500 of them. Like the Spencer, we ordered one paperback and one hardcover. And all the stuff we're going to do, there are currently two options. There's like a do it yourself online where you can watch videos and I walk you through every single thing. What I think is super fun is the in person. So we're going to put a link down below depending on like when you watch this and see what's available in person and where in the world. And we have groups of people doing this together and we get it done in a single day. Remember, Spencer got it done in an hour. Right? So a single day. We should have loads of time. Right?
We should have time for tacos at lunch and a walk in the park. And we'll still have time to get it done. So, you know, it's possible because spencer just did it. And that's what I really want to hammer home here, is that spencer did it in an hour. We have an entire day, right? We've got like 6 hours. So I invite you to either come join the online program or the in person program if you're at least in a moment in the Netherlands. Although I want to make this, I want to bring this show on the road. So, hey, come invite me to your, to your country and, and let's, let's put together this awesome program and get it done in one day. Spencer, thank you so much. Any, any last words on how do you feel now that this is done and accomplished and how do you feel towards your next goal and your next step of what you're doing?
[00:11:13] Speaker B: Excited. Like I said before, I think it kind of gave me energy and excitement and belief that, yeah, I can do this. Like, you know, who knows where it will lead or what it will lead to, but I think it's that feeling of like, okay, I understand, you know, just doing this small project with you. I understand so much more about the book, what's possible, how I can put my thinking down, like, so it's. Yeah, excited is probably the word.
[00:11:44] Speaker A: Awesome. Cool. All right, Spencer, thank you so much for talking and sharing your success story here. And I look forward to seeing that paperback book in your hands.
[00:11:53] Speaker B: You're welcome. Thanks a lot. All right, cheers.
[00:11:56] Speaker A: Thanks. Cheers.
