In this episode of The Last 10%, host Dallas Burnett interviews Tom Freiling, chairman and CEO of the Fryling Agency, a three-time founder and longtime publishing entrepreneur whose company published Burnett’s book Lift. Freiling shares how he launched his first company around 1999–2000 after spotting the opportunity in print-on-demand technology, then built and later sold it to a public company while staying on to run it. Drawing on decades of collaborating with high-profile clients (including NBA players, U.S. Senators, and Grammy-winning artists), he explains common storytelling mistakes in writing and communication. Freiling argues that books remain the strongest tool for credibility, influence, longevity, and legacy, and Burnett shares examples of his own book’s ripple effects. If you are looking for some great advice from a seasoned entrepreneur, you don't want to miss this episode!

For more information on Freiling Agency, click here.

I think that's the biggest challenge for anybody who

wants to be an entrepreneur today is, is keep up with the change.

Hey, everybody.

We're talking to Tom f Fryling today.

What an amazing guy.

He is the chairman and CEO of the F Fryling Agency.

He's a three time founder and a true pioneer who's on the forefront

of hybrid publishing for leaders.

He's got some incredible stories about scaling companies, selling companies,

building platforms, and helping top CEOs and entrepreneurs and influencers turn

their life's work into lasting influence.

He is a great friend of mine.

You don't want to miss this incredible conversation.

Welcome to the last 10%.

Your host, Dallas Burnett, dives into incredible conversations that

will inspire you to finish well.

And finish strong, strong.

Listen as guests share their journeys and valuable advice on living in the last 10%.

If you are a leader, a coach, a business owner, or someone looking to

level up, you are in the right place.

Remember, you can give 90% effort and make it a long way, but it's finding

out how to unlock the last 10%.

That makes all the difference in your life, your relationships, and your work.

Now here's Dallas.

Welcome,   📍 Welcome to the last 10%.

Your host, Dallas Burnett, dives into incredible conversations

that will inspire you to finish well and finish strong and strong.

Listen, as guests share their journeys in valuable advice on living in the last 10%.

If you are a leader, a coach.

A business owner or someone looking to level up, you are in the right place.

Remember, you can give 90% effort and make it a long way, but it's finding

out how to unlock the last 10%.

That makes all the difference in your life, your relationships, and your work.

Now here's Dallas.

Welcome, welcome, welcome.

I am Dallas Burnett, sitting in my 1905 Koch Brothers barber chair.

In Thrive Studios, but more importantly today, we have a great guest.

He's the co-founder of Better Culture.

He's a true champion of healthy, joyful workplace cultures, which, you know,

we all want that here at the last 10%.

And was it innovative?

20 tenets of culture program.

Brett's helping organizations empower employees and strengthen

teams and create workplaces that.

Feel your bucket.

So I know that you guys are excited about this incredible conversation.

Welcome to the show, Brett.welcome, welcome.

I am Dallas Burnett, sitting   📍 Welcome to the last 10%.

Your host, Dallas Burnett, dives into incredible conversations

that will inspire you to finish well and finish strong and strong.

Listen, as guests share their journeys in valuable advice on living in the last 10%.

If you are a leader, a coach.

A business owner or someone looking to level up, you are in the right place.

Remember, you can give 90% effort and make it a long way, but it's finding

out how to unlock the last 10%.

That makes all the difference in your life, your relationships, and your work.

Now here's Dallas.

Welcome, welcome, welcome.

I am Dallas Burnett, sitting in my 1905 Koch Brothers barber chair.

In Thrive Studios, but more importantly today, we have a great guest.

He's the co-founder of Better Culture.

He's a true champion of healthy, joyful workplace cultures, which, you know,

we all want that here at the last 10%.

And was it innovative?

20 tenets of culture program.

Brett's helping organizations empower employees and strengthen

teams and create workplaces that.

Feel your bucket.

So I know that you guys are excited about this incredible conversation.

Welcome to the show, Brett.in my 1905 Koch Brothers barber chair.

In Thrive Studios, but more importantly today, we have a great guest.

He is the chairman and CEO of the Fryling Agency.

He's a publishing powerhouse who's a Forbes Business Council member,

an executive on the executive board at Fast Company Advisory Council

for Harvard Business Review.

He's on John Maxwell's leadership.

Contributing writer for Entrepreneurial Magazine.

Goodness.

The list goes on.

He is been on Fox and C-N-N-B-C and cspan.

Whoa, my gosh.

I didn't know.

you were this famous.

Tom.

Welcome to the show, Tom Fryling.

Thank you.

That makes me tired even listening to all.

You've been, you've been a man with many talents and you've been all.

over, so I gotta tell the listeners, so I, I know you, we've known each

other for several years now because.

This is even the bigger surprise.

This is the big reveal Tom and his filing agency are is the

company that published Lyft.

So my second book Lyft was published when we have collaborated and have worked

together, on different things ever since.

And so we've just kind of kept in contact over the years and

that was such a fun project.

So, man, welcome to the show, Tom.

Definitely.

In fact, I've got a copy of your book right here on my desk.

Oh.

It's dropping up my laptop right now.

I'm not gonna remove it because it'll, but

good.

throw Is that three, three years ago?

Maybe

Yeah.

Yeah.

Three years ago, something like that.

Yeah.

I think it took us a while, so we might've been working on it Four

years ago, but was that, I think it's been out few, two or three years.

so yeah.

That's a great project.

It was really fun to work with.

So let's, let's talk about this because tell us your story a little bit, because

you have, you've been a real entrepreneur.

and done some amazing things in an industry.

I love how your story has kind of gone because it's not like

you've just started one company.

You kind of operated in this space and leaned on some of your expertise

and navigated through multiple companies that you've started up.

Some you've sold actually multiple companies you've had exits on and sold.

And so just, just give everybody kinda your background and, and, kind of how

you got to doing what you're doing.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, you know, I've been publishing books for like 30 years, more than 30 years.

It's virtually all I have ever done is.

books.

not as an entrepreneur or on my own for that entire time.

Really for the first 10 years, I was not, I worked for other publishing

companies and then right around 1999, 2000, I launched out on my own.

I never liked much working for other people.

I was always kind of a. I had this wild, independent spirit about me.

So, um, I discovered, or I guess, didn't discover, but saw a new technology

that allowed books to be printed, in small quantities very quickly.

Print on demand technology.

I learned about this in 1999 and, left my job, left my full-time job,

launched into starting my own company.

that technology.

And that's what I have been doing ever since,

Wow.

in a variety of different ways.

with different companies that I was, uh, owner of a part of starting or founding.

And, it's been a journey, man.

It's been a real journey.

Yeah.

I, I, That's awesome.

That's really good.

what I'm very interested to kind of talk a little bit about is your

experiences as it relates to startup.

'cause one of the things that you do and, and we're both, I would

consider both of us entrepreneurs.

I also though I, I am.

I would consider you a very talented, there's entrepreneurs

at different stages, right?

It's not just, there's some that are really good at startups, some that are

good at scale, some that are good at whatever, but it's a turnaround, whatever.

But I see you as an entrepreneur that is.

Particularly, you just have a really uncanny ability to start things in markets

that just have this quick need and you can just, you come out the gate so fast.

And so tell us kind of how, how that has, I don't know, your experience

with startups 'cause you've started at least, I mean, I don't know,

like set multiple companies.

So is there, do you have a way or is it just kind of intuition?

How do you go through that?

That's a great, that's a great question.

I don't think I have a way, and at least I've not been

able to identify the way yet.

Methodology.

I think every entrepreneur is different in what they bring to the table.

You know, I've, I have been unable to really identify what makes a

good entrepreneur, even though I've been one for many years.

I've known a ton of them, and I've never been able to find a common, a commonality

or a common theme that, predicts what would make a good entrepreneur.

Man, they come from all walks of life.

They all have different approaches and such.

I think that I have a. I call it intuition, but I think I have a

good knack for looking around the next corner, I think I understand

what's coming around the next corner.

I don't, I'm not a good long-term planner at all.

I don't even do long-term planning anymore.

You quit years ago.

'cause it never, it never worked anyway.

It never happened the way I thought it was gonna happen,

Yeah.

gave it up.

So what I try to do is just peer around the next corner and understand

what's coming down the pike next, and then move toward that and leverage

that to the best of my ability.

And then look around the next corner, and then the next corner, and then the next

Hmm.

I would say that's my method now.

know how I do that, man, I don't know what the answer to that question is.

I don't, I have been in the same industry for a long time, so when you're

in the same industry for a long time, I think that's helpful because you

Yeah.

a lot of things that other people are just not gonna understand,

Right, right.

Yeah.

so I think that gives me an advantage today, as long as

I stay in the publishing industry.

Now, I've veered outside of publishing more than once, and my success was varied.

I wasn't, you know, didn't find as much success outside of

publishing Then inside publishing.

What do you think of the biggest challenges right now?

If I'm an entrepreneur and I'm wanting to go out.

Let's say I'm where you were.

you're talking to the Tom right?

After that first 10 years you've worked for somebody

and you're about to say, Okay.

I'm gonna start this.

I'm jumping out on my own, going to do my own thing.

Maybe I've picked a specialty, an industry, an area of

expertise that I've developed.

I'm, launching.

What, advice would you give to somebody that's about to take that leap?

Well, things change are changing very quickly these days.

Things are changing faster than ever.

So I think that's the biggest challenge for anybody who wants

to be an entrepreneur today is, keep up with the change.

20 years ago, 25 years ago, and I launched out on my own, the change.

it was changed, but not nearly at the pace it is today.

So I think that's a challenge, to stay, to keep pace with the

change, and stay ahead of it.

and I, and to predict what's going to happen next, I think

is very challenging today,

more, than ever actually.

So I think that's the biggest change is, being able to predict

what's coming down the pike.

'cause as an entrepreneur you have to, to some degree.

yeah,

predict that there's also so much competition

today and whatever you do,

yeah.

of competition because it's not that hard to

go out on your own anymore,

right?

ago, it was a lot harder than it is today.

So how do you differentiate yourself from everybody else?

How do you move at the pace you need to move to stay ahead of everybody else?

Yeah.

A

S.

hundred percent I think.

I think it's like, it's the, this kind of a double-edged sword because on one

side this change, opens up opportunities that didn't exist 20 years ago.

Right?

We, you know, we're talking about AI and all these things that are, that

these are opportunities that we have in front of us that just didn't exist.

But on the flip side, it's knowing how.

There's gonna be winners and losers, right?

There's gonna be some people that pick that corner around the right corner.

It's a good, it's a good pick, and they win, and there's gonna be some losers.

So it's like a double-edged sword.

You've got multiple, paths of opportunity that you might have success, but

there could be some that, that could, you know, you go around and get

squashed, you know, from the corner.

So it's just, yeah, I think that's a good council for, for young,

entrepreneurs entering into the.

Fray of, of things.

I, I would love to hear too, 'cause this is, we talk a lot about coaching,

we talk a lot about leadership.

We talk a lot about personal development.

when you started your first company, when you came out the gate, you built that

team and ultimately several years later, sold that company to a public company.

And that's a, that's a huge accomplishment.

When you were first starting building that team, did you have

any kind of, Rhyme or reason?

Did you have any kinda strategy or like, feels like what kind of people that you

wanted to create and build that, that fresh first team with, or people you

were, who, who you wanted on the bus, who you knew you didn't want on the bus?

what types of people were, how did you build that team successfully?

I was fortunate then to have, I was able to hire a lot of

people I already knew, which was great.

Hmm.

So a lot of my first hires were people I had worked.

With, at a previous company.

so there was a lot of trust and familiarity already built in to that.

and I think that's the reason, part of the reason why I was able to build it

quickly is because we all knew each other.

We'd worked with each other before.

there wasn't a, like a huge, a giant learning curve in terms

of getting to know each other.

Okay.

that, that made a really big difference.

and at the time I didn't know that, to be honest with you.

I did not realize that until later when I worked on some other businesses where

I brought in people I didn't know.

realized it was a lot different.

that's a really good strategy.

I mean, I've never really thought about that, but if you, you know it, there's

just one less thing you have to figure out as an entrepreneur when you're going and

you're starting something new and there's just so many problems to solve, right?

You're setting up all the.

Systems and processes and getting everything going.

You're trying to find those customers and trying to get in front of

all these, all these problems.

But if you pick people in a team, if you can, and are fortunate enough, like

what you did to pick people that you already know, then it's kinda like,

well, that's one less problem that I have to solve because we already,

I know what their capabilities are.

I know what their skillset is.

I know, I know how we interact.

I know we get along.

That's just one less problem that you gotta solve when it's really critical

in the early stages of a, of a company.

So that's, that's really cool.

That's really cool.

So I would love to hear, You know, as you've gone through,

you've had this process, you've grown, the company, you exited.

What was the hardest thing for you?

Because we've got some business leaders that may be at the end of their

journey, and they're, they're looking to exit, whether they're, you know,

they've done a startup and they're looking to exit or they've worked in

a company their entire, entire career.

What advice would you give them as you went through that

exit process the first time?

what are some of the challenges that you experienced going through

that, and what advice would you give to, founders that are exiting

their first, their first business?

that's a good question.

I would say, first of all, and this isn't really a direct answer to your

question, but, I don't think it's wise when you're, when you own a business,

to think about the exit too much until you're getting close to wanting to exit.

So I think if you're always thinking about your exit strategy,

you're gonna run your business.

Differently and, than if you weren't.

And I don't think it's always wise to be thinking about your exit until you're

Okay.

that point.

Yeah.

and I hear this a lot in my early days, people didn't talk about their

exit strategy as much as they do today.

Today people are talking about their thinking about their exit strategy.

Even as they're founding their company, they're already

Oh,

and think about

a hundred percent.

That's a big topic in entrepreneurial circle.

I mean, like with Entrepreneur Magazine, as you know, I mean this is like,

you know, begin with the end in mind.

So you have to, you have to have everything developed about, you know,

where are you gonna be at in terms of your revenue, where are you gonna be at in

trying, what's your partnership look like?

What's your staff gonna look?

I do find that, like, I get what they're saying 'cause the idea

of this kind of planning and, and like, you know, that is important.

But on the flip side, how many businesses, I mean the number so

funny, it's like the, the number of businesses that never make it.

to the point where they actually would is so high.

Most,

So it's kind of like, it is kind of like, hey, you just,

need to worry about like zero to one.

Let's get to that and then, then we can talk about that later.

So yeah, I think that's interesting.

That's good.

you

That's good perspective.

you gotta run a good business.

that's the bottom line.

And if you run a good business.

That grows and is profitable, there will eventually be an exit strategy.

it will make itself known.

And I did not intend to sell the company that I started, my first company.

I didn't intend to sell it.

it really wasn't something I thought about until it became obvious to

me that somebody wanted to buy it.

And, it was a good company.

It was a strong company and I was ready to sell.

But it wasn't something I thought about, along, along the way.

You hadn't planned that from the beginning.

It wasn't like, I'm just doing this so that I can sell out to this.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's interesting.

So as you went through that process, do you have, when you look back and think

on that, what are some things that you were like, that went really well, or

some things that you were like, I would do that, would do that differently?

Or If I had it to go over, I would do something differently.

so in my case, when I sold the company, I continued to run the.

I continued to run it for the company that bought my company.

So that was a little different.

It's not always like that, you know, and that can be challenging in and of itself.

'cause that was my baby and then I sold it, and now somebody

else was in charge technically.

So that came with, all sorts of unique challenges.

And I, but I think every situation is different, as far as that goes.

Mm-hmm.

you know, in, in my case, it was all good.

the company that bought my company, they were great to work with, you

know, no complaints and such, but they had about 2000 employees.

So there were many layers of decision makers above me, and I was used to being

able to just make a decision, you know,

yeah.

make the decision.

So it was different.

And then there were a lot of other people involved in making decisions,

and so things moved a lot slower.

And I didn't, I wasn't accustomed to that, so that, that was hard, hard

for me to adjust to and get used to.

And I think that's the case for anybody who sells their company to a large

company and continues to work there.

A lot of things are gonna change.

And

Yeah.

have a boss that, you know, then I, when I sold

the company, I had a boss.

That's a

Mm. Yeah.

Right.

So it, in my case, I was really lucky.

it was a great experience and, uh, you know, no, I had no complaints,

but, but it was a completely different landscape after the transaction occurs.

Yeah, that's, I think that's a really good point.

And I think that most people, it's, it's almost like, when they say you,

you, you, you don't just marry your spouse, you marry their family too.

Right.

You know, so it's like you're not just selling the business.

You're, you're married in, especially if you're, if you're in

it, you're, it's not like you're just selling your business now.

Your business is a part of their business.

You get all of that business as well.

So if you decide to stay, I think that's really good advice that if you

decide to stay on, you've got to really.

You really wanna get to know the type of company, the size of the company,

how, how's this gonna work together?

I think there could be a lot of frustration.

like you kind of put it, if the complete dynamic change, you're used to

making quick decisions as the founder, let's go, let's get things done.

moves to large corporation, multilayer politics, the whole deal.

and, and you have to navigate that.

So you gotta be ready for that.

So I think that's, I think that's really good.

Well, I wanna talk a little bit about, 'cause you've been writing,

I mean the, the list of people that you've collaborated with.

Is amazing.

I mean, you've worked with, I mean, what are the, some of the, you've

worked with celebrities, CEOs, you know, government officials,

Well, you know, sometimes I'm under an NDA

and can't disclose the who.

But I've worked with NNBA players, US Senators.

Grammy award winning artists, journalists.

I mean, you name it.

I've been doing this a long time.

I've worked with a wide variety of individuals, either as their writer,

their ghost writer, collaborator as their publisher, or in another way.

So that's a, that's one of the great things about being in publishing,

in publishing, is you get to meet a lot of amazing people along the way.

And I've been blessed in that way.

That's amazing.

I mean, I know your network is incredible because of that, and I know you can't

share some of the names of, of the folks, but I mean, I, I think that our listeners

will enjoy your perspective on this because one of the things that you are

a really an expert at is the idea of.

Telling your story because you've had the opportunity to work

with some incredible people.

What are, what are some insights, I say good insights, good and bad, that

you, you've experienced that as you've worked with these just amazing people.

What are some insights you would say, this is what, this is what people do.

really usually well, telling their story, and this is what people.

I kind of screw up on a lot of times that, Jones, do you have any

insights for our listeners on that?

I do.

I think that, oftentimes authors when they start a project, either, whether

they're, whether or not they're writing it themselves or they're working with

another writer, a ghost writer or whatnot, they, tend to want to overshare.

they want to say a lot.

They wanna share.

Their whole story, and usually it's too much of their story.

I did some research on this the other day.

On any given day, you speak and you hear, you listen to between 40 and 60,000 words.

Okay?

That's where on any given day today, tomorrow, that's how

many words you're gonna say.

And here, okay.

That is a length of a, of an average book.

So

That's amazing.

could

That's amazing.

book about one single day of your life.

And I believe any other, maybe not every day, some days are more exciting than

others or in other ways, more pivotal.

But I know I could write a single book about one day of my life.

You could probably do the same.

So when you sit down to write a book about your whole life

or maybe decades of your life.

the one, the big thing you gotta do is you gotta figure

out what not to put in the book.

'cause 99, 9% of what you've experienced there will not be space for, in your book.

Your book would

Wow.

10,000 pages if you told the whole story.

So that's really that when it comes down to it, like that's the rub is

like you gotta decide what you're gonna tell and what you're not gonna tell.

And usually authors won't tell too much of their story.

Even the most fascinating of us.

At some point, your story gets a little boring when you start to tell everybody

what, you know, what grandma fed you for breakfast when you were six years old.

Right?

Stuff that think is interesting.

Right.

reader does not think is interesting.

it's like somebody wanting to show you their vacation, their home, you

know, uh, vacation movie or something.

yeah.

You think it's really interesting, but you don't.

So it's the same with books.

and it's a process of figuring out what to tell and what not to tell.

And and also you don't want to just tell the story.

maybe if you're super famous, if you're Matthew McConaughey.

Yeah, we wanna know as much about him as we can, right?

Because he is super famous guy and his book sold extremely well.

People wanna know about him, but most of us are not at that level.

So you wanna tell the stuff that's the most interesting, the most

compelling, and, not share to the point where the reader's just

shaking his head and he doesn't care.

I think that's so important.

And I think for when I think about our personal, whether we're, we're writing

a book, and I think that's definitely my, in my experience, it's definitely,

and even last time in our collaboration, I remember you telling me it's like,

we're not short for material here, man.

we, you know, you've sent me a lot of material and it's like, yeah, I just

wanted to make sure you have it all.

But then.

When we went back through it and just refined and refined it, the really,

the work was in, was what, what to take away and, and really what to keep.

It wasn't, it wasn't, do we have enough and what are we saying?

It's like literally like, what are we cutting out?

'cause it was just so much.

And so I think as a leader though, when I'm thinking about leading an

organization, when I'm thinking about leading a team, I think it's so important.

Like when you said that we're hearing almost a book.

Every day.

This is the words that we're, they're speaking or being spoken to us.

I think there's such an easy We can get fooled into thinking that people care more

about what we think than, than we, we, you know, that we think, they think care.

They care more than we, than they actually do.

So, like, they don't, they don't care essentially.

They don't care.

as much about what we are saying as we do, and they don't think

we're near as interesting as we do.

Right.

so just, so I think that it's almost like what, when we're sharing, I think that's,

again, even more important to leaders.

To really dial in those critical things like your mission,

your vision, your values.

Because if I'm gonna speak, it would be more valuable on

the daily, if I'm saying less.

But what I'm saying is consistent because they're hearing 40,000 words

a day or speaking 40,000 words a day.

It's, it is cons.

It's just this stream of consciousness and they're having to pick out the most

important elements out of that day.

So as a leader, if I'm guiding someone, if I'm coaching someone.

It would be better if I took the most valuable elements into what the, just

absolutely the fundamental, so if I'm, if I'm the CEO of a company, I'm

going to be sharing the most important aspects of our mission, vision,

values, and how whatever it is I'm talking about relates to those things.

Consistently every day, I'm gonna beat that drum every day because I've

gotta cut through those 40,000 words.

If I'm coaching someone, then I don't, I don't want to, I don't wanna get

into all the peripheral stuff yet.

It's easy.

We can talk about, you know, the life, the family, the kids, the

work, the, all these other things.

But what is that one thing?

We don't need to miss that.

We're gonna come back to it.

I'm gonna constantly be bringing that person back to this one thing.

What are we gonna commit to over the next 30 days?

What are we gonna commit to over the next 30 days?

How you doing on your 30 day commitment?

How you doing your threat?

So I'm just constantly bringing it back.

So I think what you're saying is not just important for books.

I think it's, totally applicable across all, all leadership in,

in organizations and in teams.

So, I think that's really important, really important.

there, there's some, there are some business books, for

example, or business authors who never, ever share anything about themselves

or their own story in their book, and they're hugely popular books.

Um, I mean, off the top of my head, I'm a Malcolm Gladwell fan.

I love his books.

Yeah.

I don't, to be honest with you, I don't really,

I don't know if he ever shares anything about himself in his books.

Right.

he's talking about other people, not about himself.

So that's a path you can take, either, whether you're writing a book or in any

other way, sharing what you have learned.

Is to not talk about yourself.

And I think sometimes there's value in doing that.

on the other hand, there are some authors who share a ton about

themselves, and it's also valuable because they've learned a lot.

So I think you have to decide, probably on the front end of it,

at least if you're writing a book, which direction you're gonna take.

Is this gonna be mostly about me and my stories and experiences,

or is it gonna be, is not, is it gonna be not that at all.

I think the number one question.

the question that would help, that helps the most when you're writing

your story as you're writing it, is to constantly ask yourself, who cares?

Who cares?

Who cares?

That's great.

Who cares?

Yeah.

really good.

to admit at the very, at the very beginning of the process to

admit yourself that nobody does care.

They truly don't care.

So once you admit that to yourself and to the reader, your book's

gonna be a lot better when you

Mm mm

the same when you're communicating with your team, right?

Yeah.

you're gonna have a staff meeting, you wouldn't think

to spend most of your staff meeting communicating about your day.

Right.

And

Yeah.

been in meetings like that where leaders did do that,

Oh.

I'm sure you have to.

Oh, recently actually.

Yeah.

Yeah, a hundred percent man was at a summit, a leadership summit, and

the speaker stands up and just goes off about just random stuff, and I'm

sitting there like scratching my head.

I was like, oh my God.

Nobody cares.

Nobody cares.

You

Yeah.

about what people care about, whether you're

writing or doing anything else.

and the best books, the best authors, that's what they do.

they write about what people care about.

I think that's a great point, and that's

tapping into that market.

So you're thinking about your book, like, you know, as we get into this,

'cause I, I wanna talk about books.

'cause obviously this is your, this is a field that you're.

Very much a huge expert in, have massive amount of experience

and, and credibility in it.

when we think about that, I, I do think that so many people that decide, I think

I, I think I'm wanna write a book and you might be an, an owner of a business.

You might be a manager, a leader, a coach.

You might be a consultant, it doesn't matter.

There's a lot of people out there that want to, to.

Write books for different reasons, but if you're thinking about.

writing a book, I think that who, I think that's a huge question.

Who cares?

Because ultimately it, it's doing two things.

Number one is forcing you to, to determine.

Who actually really cares, like this content has got to serve someone.

You know, it's gotta serve someone.

So is it helping people understand something?

Is it educational resource?

Is it helping people inspire?

Is it helping people, you know, solve a problem they haven't been able to solve?

Like what?

What is it?

What's the reason for its being and that who cares is great.

And then on the flip side, it's that humility side.

The other side of that coin, like it's the humility decides like,

you know what, nobody really cares about this as much as I do.

Like I actually care about this, but my level of care is like a 10 and everybody

else is gonna be at like a two or a three.

And so having that, it just.

It just helps you with perspective.

So I think one is from a marketing perspective,

approaching it like a business.

And the other side is really from a humility perspective, saying, look,

you know, a lot of what I'm putting in this, it might be as much or more

for me, or what parts are more for me than it's for somebody else Who cares?

Who cares?

And so I think that's really good advice.

I I, I would love for you to talk a little bit about, 'cause I think

some of our listeners might be interested in, in, publishing and the

different ways that people, you know.

There's a million different re reasons that people publish books, but, from

your perspective, you know, for business leaders, for entrepreneurs, for managers

and coaches, consultants, these are people that listen to the last 10%, chew this up.

Why would, why would they want to?

Why is it, why is it a good idea in 20, you know, 26 to

decide, Hey, you know what?

I think I got something to say.

I'm gonna write a book.

Why is that a good idea?

a book has always been and will always be, in my

opinion, the best way to, to expand your influence, establish

your authority, your credibility.

There is no better way.

I sometimes people will say, well, Tom, there's a lot of

books being published these days.

It seems like everybody's publishing a book.

It's actually not true.

It's less, less than 1% of us will ever write and publish a book.

I did not know that.

Really?

1%. Oh my gosh, less than 1%.

there's a lot of other things you can do.

You can host podcasts, you can write blogs.

There's a lot of ton of stuff, and that's all helpful.

But none of it has the authority that, that a book has.

And I believe it, none of it has the longevity that a book has either.

I mean, a book is eternal.

I was a, I was in a bookstore this weekend and there it was like a antique

shop, rare bookshop, and there's books in there from a hundred years ago.

150 years ago, and I marveled at that and it's like the, these were, these are

permanent and the people who wrote these books still alive in those books, right?

In

that's amazing.

people that are alive.

and this is a fact, when you go back through history, the only

rea reason we remember anybody.

history is because they either wrote a book or a book was written about them.

That's true.

books written about, Moses, we would not know who Moses was or is.

That's right.

Yeah.

because.

A book was written about him.

Yeah,

I mean, at really at this level.

Even a, Matthew, mark, Luke, and John, right?

yeah, yeah, yeah,

had written those books, we would not know who Jesus was.

No

that's that's true.

the book.

It was only the book.

so I'm biased 'cause I'm a book publisher, but I

Yeah.

it is the only way that, that you're gonna cement your legacy

and we all put authors on a pedestal.

Yeah.

And so it, when you write and publish your book, you

are, then you're on a pedestal

Yeah.

be respected for that.

I believe more than anything else you can do.

It is so funny that you say that because my first book,

which I probably did a worst job, bless my editors, bless my editor on that.

So Maria, if you're listening, I'm so sorry.

But, the first book, whenever you look back on books, you're just like, Ooh.

But I had put, I did the exact mistake you said, put too much in and bless her heart.

She helped me, you know.

Cut out a lot of what didn't need to be there, which I, at the beginning

was like, oh no, this is good.

And then at the end I'm like, why did I even put what I put in there?

That's still too much.

So, but anyway, that, that book move, which is actually right behind me on

the shelf right there, when I, after it came out, it got handed to somebody.

It was a friend of a friend that passed it over and ultimately, like 30 days after it

came out, somebody at the Pentagon got it.

Don't ask me how that happened, but that happened.

This was my crazy book story.

And they called me and I literally got a call on my cell phone.

It's like, you know, Pentagon, I can't remember what the number was.

Like I said something like the Pentagon or US Agency or whatever.

I was like, what the heck?

So I answered the phone, I'm like, hello?

They're like, well, this is so and so at the Pentagon.

I'm like, nah, really?

Like what?

What is this a scam?

You?

You're about to sell me some, You know, real estate or something, and

in, you know, out in Utah or Arizona, no, this is really the Pentagon.

We want you to come up and talk on your book.

I was like, well, what?

So anyway, to your point, that book lasts.

When I went up there and, and, and did a workshop on the book, they,

they said, do you have a copy?

And I was like, yeah.

I brought several copies, said, well, could we have one?

We're gonna put it in the, the library here at the Pentagon.

And I was like,

Wow.

man.

I will do that.

Here's a copy.

I'll even sign it and you can put it in the library at the Pentagon.

So I've got a copy of my book in the library that now I have no

idea and will have no way of ever knowing if anybody in the Pentagon

ever checks that out moving forward.

But that book is in the library.

At the Pentagon.

And so the other day, yeah, the other day, when I was, when I was, I was out, I was

working a table at this, other conference.

I was helping a friend out.

They wanted me to, help a, you know, had some speakers coming in.

I was standing outside this table for them and they came out and I

guy, I haven't seen, I haven't seen this guy in probably at least 10

years, you know, at least 10 years.

Hadn't seen him.

Great guy, great business mentor of mine.

Maybe we'll have him on the show, but he comes up to me, Dallas, man.

Good to see you.

Hey man.

I just recommended your book this past week to a guy I mentor.

I'm like, what?

I haven't even talked to you in 10 years.

He's like, yeah, I heard a podcast that you had on.

And then I, I realized I'm working with this guy on delegation, so I told him you

needed to check out your delegation book.

And I recommended him.

I bought it and gave it to him.

I'm like, well, man, I was like.

Did you read it?

He's like, no, I hadn't even read it.

Like I just heard your shot and I've remembered you and I, but

there would've been no way of communicating and contacting there.

There's no, he's not reaching out to me to get this guy and train him on

delegation, but because there's a book there and because It's available and

he heard a podcast that's, oh Yeah.

Dallas.

Oh Yeah.

he's got a book on delegation.

I'm working with this guy and now he's got something.

So I, that's two examples that if there was no book there.

There's no, there's no ripple, you know, but forevermore, there's

a, there's a little, even if it's a small one, it's just one book.

It's not a big sale.

I'm not making money off that, but it's like just one ripple.

So I, I agree with you on that.

Yeah.

And you can't really think about a book always in terms of the

numbers of copies that are sold.

You

Mm-hmm.

it in terms of the influence

Mm-hmm.

your, book might.

Sell one copy, right?

but maybe it has incredible influence on that one person who bought

it and read it, and that ripple effect might change the world.

You don't know, right?

Or you could sell a thousand copies and it might have less influence than the ones.

So I really encourage authors not to think about it in terms of

how many copies of my book sold.

Think about it in terms of the influence that, that it made, and heck, that might

be 10 years from now, 20 years from now.

Your book might be in a rare book shop a hundred years from now.

could be

it up.

It might make a difference in their life after you're long gone.

after you're long gone.

only do that.

You can only do that with a book.

Oh man, this is good.

Dude.

We could talk forever about this.

I'm, I'm all about it and, I will tell the listeners, Tom

and I are now collaborating.

On a super secret project right now.

And it is, it's actually, it's not what you think, so it's not another book.

Although I'm, I'm actually thinking about, starting another book.

It's not another book.

but we're gonna be announcing it very soon, but we're

collaborating on a super secret.

Project that will be launching later this year, hopefully in the next 45 days.

So, very excited about that.

and Tom, we always ask our guests, and this is a, this is a hard, this sometimes

hard, but it doesn't have to be hard, but we always ask the guests on the

last 10%, and thank you for sharing your wisdom and everything with our listeners.

'cause I know they, they had this so much good stuff, that we covered today.

We always ask them, who is someone that they would like to hear?

As a guest on the last 10%.

Some people will say, you know, people they know.

Some people say people they have no idea about.

Some people said their daughter, it doesn't really matter.

But do you have anybody in your mind that you said, man, if I could hear that

person on the last 10%, that'd be awesome.

I mean, El Elon Musk would

Oh, oh, you're not making it easy on me.

I dunno.

I mean, there's, there's some people that you can't, I can't figure out what

is it that made them so super successful

Yeah.

Yeah.

that's, it's a mystery to me.

So he's one of them.

He is one of 'em.

He's definitely a phenomenal, I mean, he's, he's one of a kind.

There's, I don't know.

it's another planet.

So, well listen, Tom, I so appreciate you and thank you for,

being on the last 10% talking.

We had a great discussion today.

I just, I know our listeners enjoyed it and, look forward to

making some announcements very soon about our super secret project.

So man, thank you for being on the show again.

You Dallas.

Good to talk to you.

Thanks for having me on the show.