Stop asking “What’s New?” and “What’s Next?”
Jordan Raynor sits down with Chandler Bolt, CEO of Self-Publishing School, to talk about why to avoid asking “What’s New?” and “What’s Next?” in your work, and the two brilliant questions to replace those with, the difference between lightbulb and whack-a-mole approaches to management, and why every professional should consider writing a book.
Links Mentioned:
[00:00:05] JR: Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Call to Mastery. I’m Jordan Raynor. This is a podcast for Christians who want to do their most exceptional work for the glory of God and the good of others. Each week, I host a conversation with a Christian follower who is pursuing world-class mastery of their vocation. We talk about their path to mastery, their daily habits, and how the Gospel of Jesus Christ influences their work.
Today's guest is my friend Chandler Bolt. He's the founder and CEO of the Self-Publishing School, which has been on the Inc magazine's list of the 5,000 fastest growing businesses for three years in a row. He's built this business from zero to 20 million in revenue in just five years, helped more than 6,000 people publish a book. In other words, Chandler knows what he's talking about, about entrepreneurship and about writing books and publishing.
Chandler and I recently sat down to talk about why it's critical to avoid asking, “What's new?” in my industry, in my field, et cetera, and “What's next?”. Instead replacing those questions with two brilliant questions that Chandler is always asking himself in his team. We talked about the difference between lightbulb and whack-a-mole approaches to management inspired by Howard Schultz, of Starbucks. And finally, we had a great discussion about why every professional should consider writing a book, even if you never publish another one. What it can do to you and your path to doing your most exceptional work. This is a terrific conversation, please enjoy it with my friend, Chandler Bolt.
[INTERVIEW]
[00:01:59] JR: Chandler Bolt, welcome,
[00:02:01] CB: Jordan. Great to be here. Thanks for having me.
[00:02:02] JR: So, we were having dinner together in Colorado, you were pummeling me with questions, and I kept desperately trying to turn the attention away from me by asking you questions. Now, I finally get my turn.
[00:02:16] CB: Hey, if you're asking questions and listening, you're learning.
[00:02:22] JR: That’s exactly right. So, let's do this. Let's start here, so our listeners can learn a little bit more about you. I feel like they need to know a little bit about Self-Publishing School. So real briefly, what is the business do?
[00:02:35] CB: Yeah, so Self-Publishing School, we're an online education company. We help people write and publish books that grow their impact, their income, and their business if they have one. So, I like to think of it, kind of like a business accelerator, but for books or maybe even a year of college, but it's better than a writing degree. It's helping people write quality books that help people that grow their impact. And then especially on the business side of things, if they have a business, write a book that gets more leads, sales, referrals, all that good stuff.
[00:03:03] JR: And it's a heck of a business, talk real quickly about the scale of where Self-Publishing School is at now, in terms of, I don't know, customer service, team size, however you measure that.
[00:03:12] CB: Yeah, so we've published about 6,000 books since we started in February of 2015. Published anywhere from one to three books a day. We've got about mid-30s, of like, 35 full time employees or so handful of contractors. We've been on the Inc 5,000 Fastest Growing Private Companies in the US last few years in a row, just got Forbes 30, under 30. So, it's been growing a lot and we've been publishing a lot of books, and we believe that books changed lives. And so, I love what we do. We love what we do. And so, that's kind of the focus, and I think that's a big part of why it's grown so quickly.
[00:03:44] JR: Yeah. There's a pretty dramatic catalyst for the founding of the business. Would you mind sharing that story with our listeners?
[00:03:54] CB: Yeah. So, I've written and published a couple books, one of which was with my brother. He plays in Grammy nominated rock and roll band called Need to Breathe. So, I've done these couple books that were doing pretty well. People asked, “How did you do this?” I dropped out of college about this time. I start this business, we help our first few people publish books. And then it was kind of this crazy experience where, I was on a rewards cruise for the company that I was working at the time, and they’d send their top performers to a cruise every year, and it was on that cruise and the very last day we climbed up to kind of like the highest part of the ship. It was kind of like this ceremonial, celebratory kind of yearly thing that we did each year just kind of feeling like, “Hey, we're on top of the world. Let's go to the top of the ship and like dream and talk about our visions and goals and that sort of thing.”
So, just went up there and then just unexpectedly this sonar thing started to spin. I remember talking to someone to my right and then to my left, the sonar starts to spin. I looked to my left, and right as I look to my left, it spins around and it sweeps around and hits my friend Kendall and the chest, sweeps him over the railing and he falls two stories. Now, it's kind of one of those falls where you think, “Okay, he's going to fall and I looked down, and he will maybe have a broken arm or something, but he'll hop up and he'll be good to go.” And then I looked down, he wasn't moving.
It was about that time, my friend, Christian, he yelled out, he said, “Hey, somebody get some help.” We rushed down there, he still wasn't moving, they rushed the ship into port, they rushed him to the hospital, and he ended up passing away on the way to the hospital, at 20 years old. I mean, a week or so later, after the funeral, and I was talking to his dad, and he was asking, “What happened?” He was wanting to kind of understand what happened. And I told him what happened. And then he said, “Chandler, Kendall was my only son. He was the family name.” He said, “I'm old, I can't have more kids. The family name died with Kendall.” He said, “The only good that can come out of this, is if other people's lives are positively impacted by the fact that this happened.” That just just hit me in the chest, because kind of in that moment, I was just feeling really guilty. I was like, “Hey, it was my idea to go up there. If I would have had that idea, Kendall would still be alive.” All these things just kind of playing in my head, so just hearing him say that, the only good that can come out of this is if people's lives are positively impacted.
So, I kind of flashback to the night before he passed away, and he was telling me about his goals for the year, his goals for the next few years. I realized, Kendall’s never going to get to accomplish any of those goals, I'm living for two now. So, it was that, and then it was a few months later feeling or hearing that Kendall had attended one of my random webinars, and trainings on how to write and publish a book. He’d actually written most of the draft of a book. And so actually, one of my right-hand guys in Self-Publishing School now, and coworker at the time, him and a couple other friends helped publish Kendall''s book after he passed away. And so, that's a big part of his legacy.
So then, that for me, I said, “Hey, I'm focusing on a lot of things that don't matter right now, and there's only a few things that actually matter. My faith, my family, and the work that I'm doing with Self-Publishing School is like actually making a difference in is helping people.” That was the big turning point for me where I've got this bracelet that I wear, I've worn every single day since then, It says, on one side, it says, “Make him proud.” On the other side, “It says WWKD.” What Would Kendall Do. And it's kind of a daily reminder of that, and of why I'm doing this and that I'm living for two.
[00:07:53] JR: I was watching your TED Talk and what you share the story. And you articulated it a titch differently about kind of that post traumatic life evaluation. Like, look at my life, and basically, what mattered was like, my faith, and my family and publishing books. You said that, specifically, like not the obvious answer. So, other than Kendall’s experience, which obviously influences that, why books? Why are you so passionate about this medium?
[00:08:28] CB: Because they've changed my life. I mean, I talked about this in the beginning of my new book, it's literally the title of chapter one is called, Books Change Lives. But I believe that books change the lives of readers. Probably everyone listening has had their life changed by a book. I mean, at a minimum, the Bible. Bestselling book of all time. Books change lives of readers, but books also changed the lives of authors. We always say it's not about the book. It's about who you become in the process of writing and publishing that book. So, I believe that books change lives. There's a concept I talked about, you probably heard me talk about in the TEDx talk, too, is leveraged impact. So, the ability to do work once and create a book, and then that book goes on to impact thousands, tens of thousands, maybe even millions of people and longer after you're off this earth, it's still here making an impact.
[00:09:21] JR: Yeah, there's so much talk these days about passive income products. Invest in words, and then they sell forever. And today in our modern context, it's all sent around digital courses and whatever. Books have been passive income products for hundreds of years, right? It's the original passive income.
[00:09:39] CB: Mailbox money. Same in the record industry. But then also like, and you've probably seen this, Jordan, like, I call it book a $15 mentor, because when I dropped out of school, I said, “Alright, I'm dropping out, but I've got to operate like I'm still – I got to keep learning like I'm still in school, if I want to get where I want to go.” So, I went from someone who is a C level English student and a college dropout with ADHD, right? Hated writing, hated reading, to now books were the way that I learn because most of the smartest, most successful people on the planet have written a book. And if you pay 15 bucks and spend a few hours, you can learn all of the best things that they know. I mean, books changed my life in that way as a reader is like I started learning and just unlocking all these things.
[00:10:29] JR: People ask me all the time how I read so many books, and my answer is, it's multifaceted. But one of the primary reasons is like, I don't consume any other medium. I don't spend any time, zero time listening to podcasts. I spend zero time on social media. I spend zero time reading web articles, right? I just consume this one medium. The reason is, number one, I really view it as – really, is that true?
[00:10:59] CB: Yeah. I listen to one podcast, that's the only one. And that's only recently, but outside of that, I mean, it's literally just books.
[00:11:05] JR: This is so interesting. So, why is it for you? I have my reasons as to why I can find myself to one medium, and I actually, think it's like very strategic. Why for you?
[00:11:14] CB: It's just synthesized information. So, that for me is books are really, I mean, people have spent years synthesizing all of the best information that they know, into the tightest possible package. And so, then I find problems in my life or in my business. And then I find books that solve those problems and then I read those books. It's just like, the simplest, most streamlined way, for me at least.
[00:11:40] JR: I think that's exactly right. I talked a little bit about this, in my new book, Redeeming Your Time, books are a more filtered form of content than anything else on the market. What I mean by that is, first, in order for a book to come to market, an author has to decide they're going to spend 500 hours of their life writing, or whatever it is, that's how much time I spent writing a book. Then, if you're going to go the traditional publishing route, which I know you're not, and your clients aren't. But in my case, the author has to believe in it, and an agent has to believe it's important and relevant and quality enough to say, then a publishing team of let's call it 15 people have to agree to publish the book, and they put it through the freaking ringer. And then before I even buy the book, I probably have to hear about it from seven of my friends before I make that purchase, right?
Compare that to an Instagram post, or a podcast where there are no filters, very little filters. It's just filtering for accuracy, for quality, and I think for relevance, which I think is really beautiful. That's kind of why I could find myself to that medium. So, alright. Books change lives. I'm on board. I've always said this. Ask people about life changing moments, they're going to point to a person or a book, not a course, not this podcast, not a movie, but a book. Why do you think so many people want to write a book because this is like a fairly universal desire, I feel like?
[00:13:11] CB: Yeah, the New York Times says they have a study that 81% of people want to write a book. We know that less than 1% of people actually do it. I think there's a lot of reasons. I think a big one for people that come to work with us is like, “Hey, I want to help people.” I feel like I have learned these things the hard way and I want to package this up and help other people. So, I think there's that. I think for some people is the status of becoming an author. And the kind of the whole, the root word of authority is author and you can't spell the word authority without the word author.
[00:13:44] JR: I've never heard that. That's funny.
[00:13:46] CB: A lot of people, “Hey, I want to I want to become an authority on this topic. So, I'm going to write a book.” But I know for me, it was, I feel like I've learned some things that would help other people. So, what if I crystallize it in the form of a book?
[00:14:00] JR: I think there's something like deeply spiritual. I agree with everything you just said. But I also think there's like this deep spiritual dimension to this. We can't handle the idea that our work will not outlive us. It's like so deeply ingrained in our souls. I think some of this is pride, right? I think we got to be careful here. But Ecclesiastes 311 says that God has set eternity in our hearts. And I think that longing for eternity is not just eternal living, but for work that will outlive us and praise God. In Revelation 21. Isaiah 60 says that that longing is true. I just think that's part of this. Books are material, and we want something to physically outlive us. Do you think there's something to this at least for you?
[00:14:48] CB: Exactly. I mean, I remember the first time I got a copy of the book that I'd written. I mean, it was unbelievable. It was this feeling of, “oh, I created this”, and long after I'm off this earth, kind of like I said earlier, this is going to be here, it might be at a goodwill. But this is a physical thing that I created where I think sometimes especially in the online world, it feels like, “Will this thing be here?” Are they going to keep it or all that? Sure, maybe that will happen. But a physical book, I think it feels like this is a product that I created that will live beyond myself. And so, I certainly feel that and I certainly felt that the first time I got a copy of my first book. I mean, it's a magical moment.
[00:15:32] JR: It's one of my favorite things about the biblical narrative that this longing to do work that outlives us is true. The new heavens and the new earth contain culture. See Isaiah 60. See Revelation 21. I just think as a creator, that idea is incredibly appealing to me. Have you ever read Tolkien's short story Leaf by Niggle?
[00:15:57] CB: I haven't.
[00:15:59] JR: Oh, my gosh, do you know this story?
[00:16:01] CB: I don't. I don't know the story.
[00:16:02] JR: All right. I got to give the synopsis of this. I can't remember if I shared on the podcast but I’m confident it will service the listener well. So, World War Two hits Great Britain where he lives and he becomes despondent. He becomes convinced that even though he's too old to be drafted in a service that he's going to die, and that his life's work, the Lord of the Rings is going to be cut short along with him. So, he's hanging out with C.S. Lewis in the Inklings at the Eagle and Child pub in Oxford one day, and we don't know exactly what was said in the meeting. But we know that they helped renew Tolkien's mind with the truth of Scripture that the things created with excellence and love and in line with God's character and commands have the potential to physically last into eternity.
So, Tolkien's sat down and he wrote this short little parable, is an autobiographical parable called Leaf by Niggle. And Niggle is this painter, who has this massive vision for a huge painting of a tree, and beyond the tree, a countryside mounds, whatever, it's the Lord of the Rings. Niggle works tirelessly, day in, day out, and at the end of his life, all he has completed is a single leaf. It's a really depressing story, right?
So, they take the leaf, and they frame it in museum, but the museum burns down, and everybody forgets about Niggle and his work. But then Niggle hops on this train, to the heavenly afterlife. Something catches his eye, gets off the train, he runs out into this field, and there in the middle of the field is his tree, but it's finished, and it's perfect. And it's even better than he had envisioned during his time on earth. And he sits there and he looks at and says, “This is a gift.” The point of the story, is, hey, working in line with the commands of the Father means that our work has the potential to physically last forever. That God would take the work that we have started here in this life, and work it into his masterpiece, the new heavens and the new earth. It's really a beautiful story. Go read the story. It's the most beautiful picture I've ever seen.
[00:18:19] CB: That's amazing. What a great story. That's awesome.
[00:18:22] JR: Hey, I'm curious, we didn't talk about this when we had dinner. What's your faith story? Did you grow up in the church?
[00:18:27] CB: Yeah, I grew up in the church. My dad was the – he was like one of the deacons at the church, and he actually ran the church's finances and that sort of thing. So, I grew up in the church. And then, my brother plays in Need to Breathe and so they were the church band, and like, all that stuff. And so, then also have kind of seen the behind the scenes of like, the Christian music world. And then kind of like changed churches in high school, I found – it was really cool experience. And then kind of I think, post college, transitioning from, “Okay, I'm a Christian, because I grew up in the church”, to “I'm a Christian, because I'm finding a personal relationship with God.”
[00:19:06] JR: Yeah. What does that personal relationship with God mean for your work? How do you see the work that you're doing through Self-Publishing School, connecting to the work that God is doing in this world?
[00:19:18] CB: Yeah. It's been an exploration and a journey. Because I think probably one of the most difficult things for me, as a Christian and as a Christian in the workplace is never wanting people to feel like that you're projecting your beliefs on them. Or that you, gosh, it's so tough, or never feeling like I am judging someone for the way that they believe. I think I've almost always erred on the side of just not sharing, which I think is not the way to go.
[00:19:53] JR: But I think is the most common path. I can hear listeners nodding their heads with you right now.
[00:19:58] CB: Yeah. When it’s especially tough, I'm sure you've experienced this, as a leader. So, as a leader of, I'd say, a predominantly Christian organization, probably 60%, 70% of my staff is Christian. So, it's figuring out, and I think this is the part that being an expert is – I mean, there's a lot of principles that I teach and a lot of principles that I instill in my staff that are oddly silly, lean biblical, and that I've learned from my parents, and from all those things. We are blessed to be a blessing. We're going to bloom where we're planted. Like, all these kinds of like fundamental things of our ethos as a company. But then it's, how do you do that in a way where you're nudging people in that direction, but it's also not exclusionary of people who don't believe that. And so, I think, as a leader, it’s probably one of the toughest things to navigate, is how do I integrate my faith into this business that I run, while also not creating outcasts of anyone in the company who doesn't believe that? So, it’s been a journey.
[00:21:02] JR: Yeah. I think the Lord is honored in your wrestling with these questions. I think he's honored as all of us wrestle with these questions. But I just remind you, and all of our listeners, of course, the Lord is honored as we're trying to think about men. How do I point my team and my coworkers to Christ? We also have to remember that our work matters beyond saving souls, right? That's not the only thing that God has called redeeming. Oh, by the way, when Jesus said, “Love your neighbors as yourself”, that was a complete sentence. That is good. Loving your customers, as yourself to the Self-Publishing School or listener, loving your employer as yourself as you serve them with excellence is good in and of itself. He didn't say, love your neighbor as yourself so that you can tell them about me. Loving our neighbors is good. And of course, we pray for opportunities to tell them about Jesus.
But just doing the work, and doing it well with excellence and love is good, too. I wanted to ask you about something. I saw you post about this, maybe it was in your book, I can't remember. But you have had the opportunity to be a “lifestyle entrepreneur”. Kicking back with your feet in the sand, whatever. But I've heard you say you can't do that. I'm curious if you think your faith informs your resistance to this idea, just this desire to be useful to the world?
[00:22:33] CB: That's really interesting. I've never really thought about that. Because I think for me, the term lifestyle entrepreneur is okay, I would say yes, because I feel like God gave me talents in the area of business. That is the way that he wants me to make a difference and kind of a similar – it’s a one to many way. And so, how can I build up leaders? And how can I create leverage? How can I create impact and systems, process, team, all that and develop leaders that develop other leaders and help create books, which will then impact thousands or millions of people?
So, I feel like those are the unique skills that God gave me and said, “Hey, this is how I want you to impact the world.” So, that's where I'm investing. My thing is always I don't want to be on my deathbed, or Heaven's gates and look back and say, “Ah, I thought I phoned it in. I didn't leave it all out on the field.” And so that's big for me.
[00:23:32] JR: It's the equivalent of bearing the talents, right? God's given you these talents to steward and to create more talents, to create a return on that. This four-hour workweek lifestyle, as much as I love that book, a lot of great things in that book, this idea, the image of it’s all so that we can sleep on a hammock on the beach and not do anything. It's totally antithetical to the gospel. Completely contrary to God's word. Ephesians 2:10, we have been saved, not by works, but we have been saved, created in Christ Jesus, for good works, which the Father prepared in advance for us. The very purpose of our salvation. We’re not saved to just sit here and consume for eternity. We're saved to create, do things that serve other people well.
So, speaking of serving other people well, we've been talking about how our work matters for eternity. I'm always interested in how do people respond to that reality. If we believe our work matters to God, how do we respond? And one of those responses obviously, is just getting really, really good at what we do. You're crazy good at what you do. You and I had a very long conversation in Colorado. I'm convinced you're an exceptional founder. So, I'm curious, like, what do you think the delta between good and great is as an entrepreneur?
[00:24:56] CB: I mean, it's simply, I think the delta is thinking that you're great.
[00:25:04] JR: That’s the best answer I've ever heard to that question.
[00:25:08] CB: I think it's the continuous pursuit of excellence. And this is like a very cheesy, boilerplate answer. But I'm a firm believer that, and this is something I have to remind myself of, is that life and business are not about the destination or about the mountaintop experience. It's about the journey. So, do you love the journey? If you don’t love and enjoy the journey, first off, why are you doing it?
[00:25:32] JR: Yeah, good question.
[00:25:34] CB: And that's a very, may be positive reflection, and go do something else if you don't truly love it. But if you truly love the journey, that is what it takes to grow. It's like, I've got to wake up excited about this, and it's not always going to be easy. It's in fact, it's been very difficult. There's been a lot of highs and lows. A mentor of mine, he called it a – part of it, he called it the 25% suck factor. He said, “Chandler, in any job or business you have, there's going to be a 25% suck factor and that's just 25% of what you do, you're not going to enjoy doing it. And it's going to be kind of like the crappy part of your job or your business.” But his theory, which I think is really interesting, is that in pursuing never having that, we actually grow weary and like it just doesn't exist.
So, we think like, “Oh, if I just get that promotion, or if I just changed businesses, or if I just change this”, that magically, that's going to go away, but it's not. Or if it does, I haven't found it yet. I think there's so many things that it takes to be great, and it's loving the journey, it's the pursuit of excellence. It's not thinking that you're great, because if you think you're great, and if you think you've made it, well then, if you're not growing, you're dying/. And then there's so many other just principles along the journey –
[00:26:56] JR: No, but I think that's the core one. Somebody asked me the other day, what's the hardest part of producing the Call to Mastery podcast? I didn't even have to think about the answer. The guests I want don't view themselves as masters. Even though they could they objectively are. We're talking like United States senators, we're talking about CEOs of Fortune 100 companies. They don't believe them. They refuse to accept that label, and that's the hallmark of a true master, ironically, is somebody who believes that better is always possible.
So, dude, you're not just an entrepreneur, you're also a writer we’re you talked about this. I loved your book published, I thought it was terrific, helping people publish their own books. I’m curious though, if you’ve found that writing books has helped you grow more masterful at your core craft of entrepreneurship? Because these are somewhat different disciplines, I'm curious if writing has made you better as an entrepreneur?
[00:28:03] CB: No doubt, no doubt. I mean, writing a book, it forces you to crystallize what you believe, and crystallize what you know. So, it's synthesis of thought. On both sides, just like we said, “Hey, it's the most compact use of information as readers.” That's why we only read books, and it's kind of like a sole medium. It's also on the flip side, it forces you as the author to synthesize your thought.
I think secondly, it's one of the best things I've ever done to grow my business. I mean, the first version of published has generated millions of dollars in revenue for Self-Publishing School. I mean, I believe that as an entrepreneur, a book is the best thing that you can do to grow your business. It'll help you bring in more leads, it'll help you bring in more referrals, and it'll help you bringing more sales for your business. So, that has been the jumping off point. And that's why I prioritized so heavily, I said, “Hey, I'm going to write the second edition of Published and just released that in December is because I knew that, hey, if I do this, right, this can generate tens of millions of dollars in revenue for Self-Publishing School over the next few years.”
So, I think there's those two pieces, and then there's maybe one that's only applicable to me, unless, for other people, but maybe so, it forces you to get back into the trenches and do the work. So, for me, it was, I am going back to the student experience, and seeing, “Oh, how can we make things better?” So, I had so many product ideas, so many innovations and tools and things like that. It helps you get back in the trenches, and then I was able to crystallize my focus and say, “Hey, what are the one or two things that we really need to be equipping our customers with at the starting point of their journey to help them make more progress? And to help them kind of connect the dots between finding us and doing business with us and becoming a customer and all that stuff?” So, in a lot of ways, yes.
[00:29:53] JR: Yeah. I get asked all the time from people like, “Hey, I got this book concept that I’m thinking about writing. But I don't like really want to be like a full-time author, like should I do it? I just have this like marketing job, or I'm a CEO of this company. And I almost always say, “Yes, 100% do it.” Because I think it helps you pursue mastery of your core craft, whatever that craft is, in a couple of ways. First, it just makes you a better writer, which is a skill that's valuable for pretty much any career on the planet. If you send emails, being a better writer, can help you there. But also, if you're writing a book about what you do, as you said, it helps you strengthen your thinking on this topic in a way that other mediums can't, right? A blog post, you can edit it after you publish it. A book, you can't and so the pressure is so much greater, to really make sure you've got your thinking down before you turn in that manuscript. It’s a very different experience.
[00:30:55] CB: As you're creating frameworks, which if we're talking about mastery, if we're talking about leverage, if we're talking about all those things, like frameworks, and systems and process are what helps bring leverage in what you do on the daily, right? One of the best ways to do that is through a book, so now you're getting more effective at explaining what you do clearly, and explaining core concepts. But then you're also creating frameworks that you can roll into your business or your job, or whatever it is, that consumes most of your time, which just helps that be more effective, and it's just kind of a virtuous cycle.
[00:31:32] JR: You mentioned focusing your team, as you were going through this experience, we really need to focus on these one or two features. I just believe as an entrepreneur, as a leader, frankly, anyone working, I think focus is the silver bullet. I'm curious what you do, practically, day in, day out, week in, week out, quarter over quarter, to keep to number one, identify what's most essential for the business? And number two, keep yourself and your team focused on those few essential things.
[00:32:09] CB: Yeah, there are one or two thoughts I have here. I mean, focus stands for “follow one course until successful.” I think the two most dangerous questions as an entrepreneur are what's new and what's next, right? So, many times when we come to conferences, or whatever people say, “Hey, what's new? What's next?” For me, the answer is often been boring, is what's new, not a whole lot. What's next, a lot more of what we were already doing, but better. That's not the sexy answer to come in and say.
I think my two favorite questions are how can I make this simple? And how can I do more of what's working? So, I ask my team that all the time. How can we make this simple? How can we do more of much what's working? And so, I just keep coming back to that. I have this analogy, I caught the light bulb versus the whack a mole. So, so many times in business, we play a game, whack a mole. Problem pops up, we fix the problem, and then it pops up again. But there's this story that I love, it's from Howard Schultz, founder of Starbucks. He was driving and he saw a light out on this on a random Starbucks sign, like when the lights are out and it spell something funny, or you can’t really tell what it is. He saw a light out, and what will be the natural thing that most people would jump to it's, “Oh, who's the manager of this store? I'm going to call them giving them peace of mind, tell them they need to be managing their store better.” But what he did instead, which I thought was really interesting, when I read this book, is he said, “What's the system that we have on a national level that can keep this from happening ever again?” And that is the lightbulb. So, what's the lightbulb solution versus the whack-a-mole quick fix? So those are kind of a lot of the ways that I try to keep the team focused.
[00:34:01] JR: It's really good. That's really good. A big part of mastery of any vocation is having a great routine. I'm curious for you personally, what's your daily routine look like for the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed?
[00:34:12] CB: Yeah, I'm very structured in routine. It's one of those things where you grow up and there are things about your parents that you're like, “I will never do that or I will do that.” And I've told myself I'd never be as routine as my dad and sure enough, I am.
So, I mean, for me, it's the morning routine. That's the most important thing. Consistent wake up time, 6 AM. I have a pretty solid morning routine and reading, meditation, all that stuff and my buddy of mine wrote a book called The Miracle Morning. I highly recommend on that. That’s that's the one thing such that doing it makes everything else easier unnecessary. So, the morning routine is the most important part of my day and if I just do that, my day will be awesome. If I don't, it won't be. So, that's why I just never miss that.
[00:34:55] JR: So, dive a little deeper into this. Give us the detailed morning routine for you.
[00:35:01] CB: 6 AM wake up and evolve. Because I think when I first started implementing this, it's like, how do I have the most elaborate morning routine ever, because that's what successful people do, right? This two-hour thing. But it's pretty simple now, it’s wake up, make coffee, start reading, and I'm listening to an audio book while doing a little mini workout. So, 65 pushups, 65 sit ups, listening to an audio book, make coffee, read. And then from there, it's oftentimes meditate, and then I'm doing intermittent fasting now, but then it used to be like, make a smoothie or eggs and then put on work clothes, which working from home, that's big for me. I put on work clothes, and I go to my office. And then at the end of the day, I take off my work clothes.
So, just kind of help that separate the work from your home. That's the kind of deep dive on the morning routine. And then I mean, focused effort in the morning, I try to keep meetings out of mornings, and then specifically on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, as much as possible. And then it's focused time in the morning, this prime time for me. And so that's number one task, number one, I kind of do like quarterly, yearly, monthly, weekly goal setting and that sort of thing. And then one thing is a nap every day, every afternoon.
[00:36:22] JR: Interesting.
[00:36:24] CB: So, I woke up from my nap a few minutes before this podcast interview. That's nonnegotiable for me. And then, there's kind of like the wind down and the plan the next day, and now, wrap up the day 5:30, 6:00, maybe even a little bit later. But that's kind of the typical day.
[00:36:39] JR: It's good. I love it. All right, three questions we wrap up every conversation with. This first one, I usually ask guests, which books they gift most frequently. But since your mantra is books, change lives, I'm just going to put a different twist on it. Which books have most changed your life, Chandler?
[00:36:58] CB: So many. I've got a YouTube video, it's like the top 10 most impactful books in my life. I'm trying to remember all of them. But the biggest one is Extreme Ownership. That's one of the best leadership books of all time. And then as far as impact, I mean, I already mentioned it but The Miracle Morning. It's not a revolutionary book, but doing it is. It's just really well packaged.
[00:37:28] JR: Yeah, it's good. Who would you most like to hear on this podcast talking about how their faith intersects with their pursuit of great work?
[00:37:36] CB: Easy, Dabo Swinney, head coach to the Clemson Tigers football team.
[00:37:41] JR: That’s a good answer. Alright, what's one thing from our conversation today do you want to reiterate to our listeners before we sign off? And just keep in mind, this is a group of listeners who all love Jesus, very diverse in terms of what they do. What they share his love of Christ and his desire to do great work in service of him and others. What do you want to leave them with?
[00:38:02] CB: Yeah, I mean, I think that the big thing that I would leave folks with, and this is a little bit just specific to the stuff that we teach. If you think that you want to write a book, there's never going to be a perfect time to do it. If some of the things that you heard today resonated and you're thinking, “Okay, I want to crystallize this information into something that's going to live beyond me”, the timing is never going to be right. You're going to have to get started before you're ready. What I encourage you to do is as soon as this this podcast interview is over, just grab a blank sheet of paper, and write your book topic, the thing that you might think you'd write about in the center of the page, and then spend 15 minutes mind mapping everything that you can think of on this topic. So, stories that you have, lessons that you've learned, books that you've read, experiences, all those things and just start mind mapping, and you might just realize that this could really be a book, and you've got a whole lot of knowledge on this topic that you could share.
[00:39:00] JR: That's terrific advice. Chandler, I want to commend you for the exceptional work you and your team do every day. Thank you for coming alongside authors and just helping them tell the stories that God has put in their hearts. Thank you for inspiring our listeners to tell their own stories. This is super helpful, super practical. Guys, Chandler's terrific book is Published and you can learn more about the book, about his work at self-publishingschool.com. Chandler, thanks for hanging out with us.
[00:39:33] CB: Jordan, you're the man. Thank you so much for having me.
[OUTRO]
[00:39:36] JR: So as we got off the air, Chandler told me that he's going to send you guys 50 free physical copies of his terrific book, Published. First 50 people to claim it, get it, sign up right now at publishedbook.com/Jordan, that's me, J-O-R-D-A-N. First 50 People will get a free copy of his terrific book.
Hey guys, if you're are enjoying the Call to Mastery, do me a favor, go leave a quick review of the show on Apple podcasts, on Spotify, wherever you listen to your podcasts. Thank you, guys, for tuning in, I'll see you next week.
[END]