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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hey, chandler Bolt.
Here and joining me today isMaha Abu Al-Anain, and I'm super
excited for this episode.
We literally just had a firealarm go off in the office right
as we started recording this,so I can only assume that that
means this is going to be a fireepisode and I apologize already
(00:27):
for that horrendous joke.
But we're going to have funtoday.
Maha, she's a bestsellingauthor of a brand new book.
It's called the Seven Rules ofSelf-Reliance.
She's been featured on Forbes.
She's a speaker, mentor and anadvocate for the power of
storytelling.
She's collaborated with somebig brands which, if we have
time, we'll ask about kind ofhow that came about.
(00:47):
Really interesting backgroundhas lived in Egypt, lived in
Dubai, lived in the US and donebusiness all over the place.
So we're going to talk abouther book.
She's just coming off of a biglaunch of that book, so we'll
kind of go behind the scenes andlearn about some of that stuff
and just dive into a bunch offun concepts.
So, maha, welcome, great tohave you here.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Thank you for having me.
I'm so excited to be here.
Thank you.
And it was kind of like a funthing and I was like I feel like
it's a whole theme going onhere.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
It takes me back to school.
Honestly, I was thinking aboutthat.
I'm like when's the last time Ihad a fire drill?
Speaker 2 (01:22):
At school.
Yeah, when you said there's afire truck outside, I'm like,
okay, this isn't like a drill,they don't just, you know, make
it makes me nervous.
I'm like you better go dealwith that.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Everyone's leaving.
I'm like the show must go on.
So here we are.
Hey, why a book?
You know, how did you see thisfitting in with your brand, your
business?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
I know it was a multi-year process to even get
this thing published, so why gothrough all the effort?
I mean, you know we live in adigital world and everyone's on
social and consuming contentthrough digital.
You know means and I love books.
I love reading books, I lovecollecting books, I love writing
in my books.
I always had a dream of writinga book.
I feel there's a certain levelof credibility and honor and
prestige with having a book andyou know, it wasn't about being
so much like.
I wanted to be an author.
(02:09):
I just wanted to put my ideasin a different format out into
the world and to scale it topeople in a different format
than what normally people areconsuming, and I always
respected books and so I reallywanted to tell my story.
I'm a 30-year career incommunications, but this isn't a
communications book.
It's more about how I didthings in my career and my life
(02:32):
versus what I did, and it's fullof practical things that people
can do today.
Today, and I feel we live in aworld that's full of so much
change and environment, and whatif we stop and pause and really
be the drivers of the changethat we want to see in the world
Because it starts with us, andself-reliance is a concept of
(02:54):
relying on yourself to advancethe things you care about, and
I'm really excited that the bookhas been so well received and I
can't wait for people to gettheir hands on it.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
That's cool, that's awesome.
So was this a?
It's interesting.
You said it's 30 years incommunications, but it's not a
communications book.
So was this a passion project?
Was this a business project forwhat you're working on now,
Like how, what was kind of the?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yeah, I mean it was more like a methodology of the
things that people can learnfrom how I did things in my
successful career in theirbusiness and professional life.
So there is one chapter that hasto do with how to build your
personal brand and how tocommunicate who you are and
articulate that, and that's thething that I'm really known for
is my consulting business isreally helping people find their
(03:40):
narratives, tell their stories,think about their reputation
differently, and I give theplaybook, online and offline,
and how to do it.
But I think the reason why Ichose self-reliance as a topic
because when I started thinkingabout all the through line of
things in my career, it was like, oh, I had to rely on myself to
create value for other people.
I had to rely on myself tocreate my own relationships and
(04:00):
build my own network instead ofrelying on yours.
If I need something, I had torely on myself to learn things
and invest in myself.
I wasn't waiting for someone todeliver a training to me.
I had to take initiative myselfso I can learn things that are
out there in the market for freeto advance my goals and my
needs.
I had to rely on myself to notwait for people to bring me
(04:23):
opportunities, because if youjust want to sit and wait for
opportunities, you'll be waitinga very long time.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Yeah, I agree with that.
So I want to talk through someof the concepts of the book and
then I want to talk through kindof how this is leading into
business stuff, how you launchedit.
I know there were some creativethings around the launch, all
that stuff.
But let's maybe big picture onthe concept and this is a big
question.
So you don't have to answer itdirectly.
If you don't want to, you cankind of give the high level.
(04:50):
But I'm sure everyone's askingwhat are the seven rules of
self-reliance?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
And how did you learn ?
Speaker 1 (04:56):
them.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
It actually just came out that the things I wanted to
share ended up being seven, andthose were the rules.
Seven is my lucky number, seven.
I was born on November 7th, soit's like a seven was a thing
for me.
First, the first rule of thebook is stay low, keep moving.
So I don't mean be low profile,I'm like stay low and under the
radar in terms of focusing onyour goals.
Chandler, there's so manydistractions in life social
(05:20):
media, family obligations,comparing yourself Like you can
just sit and live in what I callthis distracted world, or you
can stay low and stay focused onwhat you care about.
In order to get anything youcare about done, you have to
stay low because otherwiseyou'll just get pulled in all
these different directions.
Keep moving.
There's going to be setbacks,there's going to be bad days,
there's going to be economicdownturns, there's going to be
(05:42):
pandemics.
So you have to know, if you area self-reliant person, you know
the value of focusingrelentlessly on what you care
about and keep moving throughall those challenges.
That's the first rule.
The second rule is be a valuecreator.
So one of the things I learnedearly in my career that either,
if I wanted to keep my clientsbecause I'm in a consulting
(06:04):
business.
I have to learn how to bevaluable to them.
I have to learn how to createvalue for them on a daily basis,
on a weekly basis, on a monthlybasis.
That makes them sticky to me.
It lets them stay close to mebecause I'm giving them extra
information, I'm solving aproblem, I'm anticipating needs,
I'm creating value for them.
I'm thinking about theirbusiness and trying to see
(06:29):
around corners of what I can dothat they didn't ask me to do.
That's valuable for them.
So it's about listening to whatthey care about, listening to
what their problems are.
So rule number two is be avalue creator.
If, chandler, if you can createvalue for other people, you
become indispensable becausethey know that you're the secret
sauce for them.
You're the person who'sthinking about things and
helping their business.
The third rule is don't be awaiter.
(06:51):
I was called a waiter early inmy life.
I was waiting for things tojust happen to me because I
deserved them.
I felt like I worked hard.
I deserve these things.
I was waiting.
I was waiting for permissionfrom others.
I was waiting because I fearedfailure.
I was waiting because I fearedjudgment from other people
thinking who does she think sheis?
A lot of times, we findourselves unconsciously waiting.
(07:15):
We know that there's somethingwe're more capable of or there's
something's going to come alongand change our trajectory, and
so we're just waiting for it tohappen to us.
So don't be a waiter.
Rule number four is unlearn,relearn and invest in yourself.
The only way I am good at myjob is because I'm constantly
(07:36):
trying to learn things.
I'm constantly trying tosharpen my saw.
What's out there, what's in themarket, what's happening in
culture?
What's happening in the news?
How does it change my business?
How does it create anopportunity?
How is this challenge changingmy companies?
So I always think aboutinvesting in myself.
Paying to be in rooms, learningon the internet for free.
Podcasts are for free.
(07:57):
Youtube videos are for free.
Everything on the internet isfor free.
You have no excuse not to learn.
The reason why I wrote unlearnand relearn in the rule is
sometimes we have to questionour own thinking.
We have to unlearn thingsbecause times are changing.
What do we need to relearn?
And don't just take things asthey are.
Don't just take assumptions asthey are.
(08:18):
Try to question them and thinkabout why do we think that or
what's changed, and why does mythinking need to change along
with it?
Rule number five treat yourbrand as a currency, your
reputation as a currency.
Your name, chandler, is themost valuable asset you have.
What are you doing to protectit?
What are you doing to grow it?
It's like a currency what's itsworth?
(08:39):
And so I really want people tothink about building their
personal brands is not a nice tohave, it's a must have.
It's not about being a socialmedia influencer, it's not about
being.
It's not about idea promotion.
It's not about self-promotion,it's about idea promotion.
Rule number six that was six,no, that was five.
Six is be a long-term player Ina world where we live in a very
(09:02):
tap to pay and get going andinstant gratification like take
the long route, make deposits inother people's trust banks,
take the long-term approach.
And then the last one is noregrets.
Things that happened to yourlife don't define you.
How can you live with noregrets and turn your setbacks
into comebacks?
Speaker 1 (09:22):
My gosh, that was incredible.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
I love those rules.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
And I mean you have like a key, an answer key on
your computer, or was that frommemory?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
No, I just talked.
I read the book, so I know whatit's about.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
You know your material.
That's fantastic.
So stay low and keep moving.
Be a value creator.
Don't be a waiter.
Unlearn, relearn and invest inyourself.
Treat your brand as a currency.
Be a long-term player and noregrets.
Those are the seven rules.
I love it.
It's funny.
(10:00):
I really resonate with all ofthem.
But the one I really resonatewith off the top is be a value
creator.
I put a sticky note up on I'vegot my right behind my computer
here, I've got my goals for theyear and I've got my intention
and that sort of thing and thislittle sticky note, because I
think this leads to everything.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
How can I add exponentially more value today?
It's so key.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Because you get paid based on the value that you
provide.
Right and so whether it's sales.
You're trying to grow a business, whatever people pay for value,
and when you know that you'recreating more value than what
you're charging, it makes iteasy to sell and it makes it
easier to make more money andgrow your business because you
know that you're helping peopleand adding value in the process
(10:47):
and so they'd be crazy not to dothat.
And so if you focus on that andI think, everything grows.
So I guess my question to youwould be how do you do that in
your business and I'm assumingthis book was a big part of that
and kind of why the book was apriority but how do you do that?
Speaker 2 (11:06):
I mean.
A lot of times I start with asimple question asking how can I
help so I can understand?
What do you care about?
What are the things that you'resuffering from, or problems or
goals or things that you areinterested in?
And then I try to figure out doI have a connection there?
Do I have a relationship there?
Do I know somebody who can helpme with this?
Like it's about asking theright questions to understand
(11:27):
what people value.
And then it's about execution.
Can you execute against thethings that you're going to
propose to do?
Because you can't just be aone-hit wonder.
If you're going to create valuefor somebody, you have to know
how to execute it and see itthrough.
So follow up and follow throughare key.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Love it, and so I want to talk about the launch of
the book and how you did it.
I was speaking with Rachel onyour team and she talked about
just a bunch of differentavenues to get the book out
there.
What were kind of the corepillars of your launch strategy?
What worked, what didn't work?
How did you kind of think aboutthat?
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yeah, I mean I've never done this before, right.
So I do strategiccommunications.
I'm a consultant for clientsthat walk in my door and I
advise them.
I don't do like marketing ofproducts.
I never sold anything that wasfor $25.
I'd never done that before.
So I'm like, okay, first thingsfirst is you need to ask a lot
of questions from people whohave done it before.
What did you do?
(12:24):
How did it work?
What are some things youlearned?
What are some do's, what aresome don'ts?
Where should I spend my time?
Where should I not spend mytime?
The first thing was I want tomake sure that I have a really
solid press and podcast strategy, Like how can I get on media,
how can I get on podcasts, bigor small, so I can tell my story
and reach different audiences?
So one bucket was focusing onpress and podcasts.
(12:48):
Another bucket was how do Istart to create an email
database of users or consumersover time so I can start to talk
to them about my content?
What do I do and then talk tothem about the book, so
developing lead magnets, so anyreally valuable PDF like how to
get free publicity, how to buildyour podcast, how to do
(13:09):
networking through DM, how to doyour weekly planner.
So I created a lot of leadmagnets so I can help people
come into my network and comeinto my database.
So email database was a bigpart of it.
Email marketing was a big partof it.
A third pillar was I wanted toorganize an event, a live event,
on launch day, which I calledthe Self-Reliance Summit.
(13:30):
The Self-Reliance Summit wassomething that we were doing 10
minutes with different people inmy network Gary Vee, Halle
Berry, Matt Higgins, Lewis Howes, Jasmine Starr, Shelly Zalas,
Nima Naz, Jim Quick to reallycome in for 10 minutes and have
a chat with me just to getpeople excited about the book,
to talk about the book.
(13:51):
It was a live event, it wasfree, it was over Zoom, 2,000
people showed up.
It was fun.
I mean, it was like a big partof our strategy.
We also had a lot of people inthere that weren't part of my
community, so we talked a lotabout me, my story, the book,
and it helped, you know, sell usbooks but also bring more
people into my community.
And I gave away two tickets toTaylor Swift, which always helps
(14:15):
Anything to do with booksalways helps and so a lot of
people came in for that.
And then I did a thing where Ioffered people, if they bought a
bunch of books 50 books or morethat I would co-host an event
with them.
I would do an event, speak attheir company, come to them, use
free miles, go to their eventand speak to them.
(14:36):
That was wildly successful.
How do you spend time withpeople?
Exchange your time for a bunchof books?
I actually had so much fun.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
That's really cool.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
So we got PR and press, we got lead magnets
around the book, we got freelive events giving away Taylor
Swift tickets yeah, and I alsodid some corporate sales, of
course, talked to a lot ofcompanies, sold to companies and
asked them if, like I, couldcome speak in exchange for them
to buy 200 books, 300 books, 500books.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
And we did that books , 300 books, 500 books, and we
did that, nice.
So speaking for, for bulk booksales, or or, and was that the
main strategy, or was it alsojust selling bulk into
corporations?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Just selling like companies.
So I can talk about the thingsCause a lot of these rules apply
to the business world.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Yeah, okay, I love that.
What, what was most, what?
What actually I'll?
I'll back up and ask oneclarifying question, then we can
talk about what moved theneedle the most.
One thing I saw that you didwhich I thought was super sharp
and I think not enough people dothis, is the book club.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Yes, you set up a book club.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
You got a guide, you got all that stuff to help
people facilitate that, and nowit's a one-to-many sale, right?
You sell the book club leaderand then that sells, maybe even
dozens of books.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
How did you do that and what was the thought process
behind that?
I mean, I like going to bookclubs, I like having discussions
around topics of books.
I mean, traditionally bookclubs are the ways that people
kind of engage at a deeper leveland I even offered to join
these book clubs and to spendtime with them talking about it.
So we put together a guideabout some of the things that
are in the book and justquestion points and reflection
exercises just to give thembonus content to activate the
(16:15):
things and themes of the bookthat they can apply into their
lives.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Now, of all those things, what moved the needle
the most?
Speaker 2 (16:25):
You know, I think it's just consumers.
When they saw the press and thepodcast, like went on to Amazon
about the book, I reallybelieve it was that one customer
at a time, ground strategy,ground game, that always is the
most effective.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Cool, and so what?
On the back end of the book wetalk about the concept of or
back into the book, back intothe book launch.
We always talk about theconcept of a one-year book
launch.
I think a lot of people thinkabout it as a week.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
No, it's an always on thing, yeah, so how are you
looking at that?
Well, you have to always thinkabout, like, what you can do to
keep weekly sales going.
So, doing LinkedIn lives, doingInstagram lives, talking to
small groups, small companiesI'm selling every week.
I mean, I have targets everyweek of selling the book.
So we're just always doingpodcasts, doing shows, keeping
(17:14):
it visible, making it relevantto different audiences, learning
from the readers what they lovethe most, expanding our content
based on that.
So it's a process, but it'slike it's not.
It's definitely not somethingyou just push for two weeks and
be done.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Yeah, so what?
Why the continuous push?
I think a lot of people wouldkind of say, hey, the book, the
book's been launched.
It's out Like why is thissomething that is important to
you to continue talking about,and how does it fit in with
moving the needle in yourbusiness?
Speaker 2 (17:48):
I feel well.
First of all, I want this bookin as many hands as possible.
I want every book that weprinted to be in the hands of
the people, so I want to makesure that we do it.
You know, I'm selling it today.
Last night, actually at 1130 atnight, I did a live interview
with BBC in London, which wastheir morning show.
Because I want make sure, likeI'm selling it in London, I'm
selling it in Dubai, I'm sellingit in Saudi and Egypt.
I sold the foreign rights inPortuguese for South America.
(18:08):
So I'm really continuing topush and I love this book and I
love this story and I wantpeople to read it.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
And what is the main revenue arm in your business?
Is that consulting, is thatspeaking?
Is that something else?
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Yeah, the main revenue of my business is
consulting.
I'm a communications consultingfirm, so a lot of the stuff
that we teach in the book thathas to do with building your
personal brand and buildingreputation, we do that as a
business.
As a consultant, we work forpeople like Gary Vee and other
people doing personal brand workMatt Higgins, jim Quick, other
people that we've supported ontheir personal brand so
(18:43):
definitely something that youknow.
The book is a part of thecompany and a part of me, and I
believe that you know it's areally good way for people to
learn about how we approachstrategy adding value to our
clients, building a goodrelationship, building the
network, creating value, notbeing a waiter, taking
initiative, learning all ofthese rules in the book we apply
(19:04):
to our work with our clients.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Do you send them to clients?
Speaker 2 (19:09):
All of my clients have actually bought it.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Nice, nice, yeah, which is nice.
I love that the way I thinkabout it is pretty similar to
what you're talking about,because this is my newest book
and-.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Published.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Published, yeah, and so we I mean I give it to every
new employee and say this ispart of your onboarding, right?
We give, give it to every newclient, it's part of their
onboarding.
I think it just.
It just brings such leveragebecause this stuff that you or
your team was having to explainin a one-off on every onboarding
call or every sales call orevery touch point with clients,
and all that stuff, or everysales call or every touch point
with clients and all that stuff,and now you say, hey, read the
(19:43):
book, and I found that it justhas.
Now there's a common languageand a starting point, and so it
brings leverage to everythingelse you're doing and leads to a
lot less one-off explaining.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Yeah for sure, it's all about scaling, because we
have not a lot of time to bedoing manual labor like that.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Yeah, so you've seen that kind of show up in your
business as well.
A hundred percent, a hundredpercent, yeah.
So how does this, how do yousee this book fitting in with
customer acquisition?
Like is that a big focus foryou, or like are you?
Yeah, I mean, it's not that,it's not a focus for me.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
I mean the book is like it helps with our
credibility as an organizationthat the founder of the company,
the CEO of the company, is apublished author.
Thought leadership matters.
Having that authority matters,understanding that you know your
stuff matters.
But it's not a tool that I'musing to generate clients and
saying, hey, read my bookbecause then I can consult for
you.
And saying, hey, read my bookbecause then I can consult for
(20:44):
you.
I'd love that, but that wasn'tthe reason I wanted to publish
the book.
It was not a lead generator forclients.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Right, because is your business model, is it?
Mostly, is it a handful ofclients that are on retainers
that are more high-end clientsyeah yeah, yeah, and so that's
the main focus and driver of thebusiness, yep, and so this is
more of a down market solution,if you will, to say, hey, if you
can't afford to work with us,buy the book.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Yeah, I mean, it's one of the many options that
they have to work with us.
They can come in the door andwork in a retainer, work on a
project.
We do online training, we doother.
We have other products andservices that we offer, but this
is just one to scale to manypeople.
It also has a lot of mybusiness personal stories that a
lot of people haven't heardbefore, so I put that out there
when I worked at Google andworked for the prime minister
(21:29):
and worked for Gary Vee and allthe different projects I've done
, and so that's what some reallife examples in there bring it
to life.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Cool and talk to me about that a little bit.
I thought that was prettyinteresting just in researching
your background leading up tothis episode, working with a lot
of big companies and seems likea core part of your.
That's just such a foreignthing to me.
I mean we're hardcore B2C, justhelping people publish books.
(21:56):
I mean that's our core business.
And so big brands, bigbusinesses, big contracts, all
that stuff and even just runningbusiness out of Dubai all
that's pretty foreign to me.
How did you land those bigbrand deals, you know like what
I don't even know?
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Yeah, so I worked for Google as an employee.
I was a full-time employee atthe company.
I had two full-time jobs in mycareer One's at General Mills,
where I was an employee of thatcompany, working in sports
marketing in Minneapolis, andthen the other one was working
for Google out of the Dubaioffice and really working as an
employee helping building theircommunications apparatus and
scaling and launching some oftheir products.
(22:37):
But I feel like, in general,for the big clients that we've
landed or people that we'veworked with, it's really about
what can you do to create valuefor them?
What's your secret sauce?
What's your experience?
How are you marketing yourself?
How's your reputation?
Well, how much time did youspend building a relationship
with them?
Landing a big client is notjust a matter of giving them the
(22:57):
right price.
You have to really bring valueto them.
You have to bring them someexperience.
You have to bring them a trackrecord of what you've been able
to execute and you know it'sit's all about timing, but
honestly, it's about bringingvalue in your experience to the
table.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Yeah, Be a value creator, One of the seven rules.
What do you think of theseseven rules?
What do you think is the?
Is the the one that people havethe most trouble with?
Speaker 2 (23:22):
The waiter one.
Tell me more, just that.
People just feel like theydon't realize they're waiters
until I define it for them.
They're like, oh, I've beenwaiting.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
And how would you define it?
And how would someone knowright now if they're listening
to this or watching this?
Oh, I'm being a waiter, andwhat should they do to change?
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Well, they know that they're capable of doing more.
They're just they're holdingback for a reason.
They're in their comfort zonebecause they just don't want to
put themselves out there,because they don't have the
confidence in themselves to doit, because they don't trust
their gut, because they don'tfeel that or sometimes they
might be waiting for permissionfrom other people, or they're
(24:02):
unsure about making a decisionbecause they don't want to make
the wrong decision.
There are no wrong decisions.
You make a decision with theinformation you have at that
time and then make another oneif it doesn't work out, and so I
think that's the reason whypeople wait is all those reasons
I just mentioned.
They just they're.
They'd rather be waiting for aperfect time for something to
happen, and that just doesn'texist.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
And so what's your advice for the, for the waiters?
Speaker 2 (24:28):
If you have a goal or a dream of something that you
really want to do, reverse,engineer it, like break it down
into the steps, like I want tobe able to do this, okay, what
are the things I need to do inorder to do that?
Break it down into smallerbites and then just take off one
bite of that apple, just one,just take it.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Love it.
What do you feel like on theother side of this biggest
lesson learned from the launchor from the writing of the book
that you would share with forpeople who are thinking about
writing or publishing theirfirst book?
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Writing a book is easy.
Selling a book is hard.
The end, it's a process.
Like you have to sell one bookat a time.
You have to really convince thereader what's in it for them.
Why should they spend time withyour book?
What is the key takeaway?
What is the book about?
Like, you really need tounderstand your reader and where
their pain points are and whereyour book is going to bring
(25:21):
value to them, because there'sso many books on the market.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
I think a lot of people would say that writing a
book is easy is not theirexperience.
Why was that?
Why do you think it was so easyfor you?
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Well, I'm in the communications business, so I
love communicating and I lovewriting.
So for me, writing it was easy,selling it was hard.
Um, you know, it's a processLike.
It took me like six or sevenmonths to think about the shape
of the book and the chapters andwhat I want to write about.
Is it going to be about this ornot?
Then, once I decided what itwas going to be about, then I
literally like for two months,just like I'm heads down.
(25:55):
I'm going to focus, going toknock it out.
I don't want this thing to takeon forever and be a dreadful
project.
I want it to be something Ienjoy.
So I was like going into it andgetting the stories and mapped
out how I wanted to do it.
But I feel that everybody'sdifferent on what their skills
are.
There's like what they'recapable of doing when it comes
to a big project and bringing it, breaking it down.
I just feel that the mostimportant thing is the
(26:17):
self-awareness that you getthrough this process.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Like.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
I learned to have a lot of stamina.
I learned that I'm like willingto be putting a lot of effort
in.
I'm willing to, you know, notknow what I don't know.
Like I was like, okay, I don'tknow how to do this, and every
time I'd start a call with myteam I'm like, let me remind you
, I've never done this beforeand just like telling people,
like I never know, I don't knowwhat I'm doing.
So, like, if you guys are likelooking to me for leadership on
(26:41):
the best practices, I'm not yourgirl, but I'm going to work
hard, I'm going to try, I'mgoing to ask the right effort.
I'm not going to leave anythingoff the court.
Like, I'm going to puteverything into this.
And I did.
And I was very successful in mylaunch, where so many people
came and said you wrote the newplaybook.
The way you did it was likeeveryone is watching in the
industry.
(27:02):
Even other people that know mewere like it was an incredible
launch.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
And I'm like, I'm glad because we put a lot of
effort into it.
A lot of effort, that's cool.
What would be your partingpiece of advice for the person
who's on the starting line oftheir book?
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Do it.
It's such a great process Likestart.
Don't overthink it If you havea book that you want to publish
or you have an idea that youwant to take to the market.
There's never been a bettertime.
And, by the way, books are back.
People love books, people arebuying books, people are
enjoying books.
Genres of different books arecoming out.
(27:41):
Everyone is hungry to learn.
We are living longer, we aremore adaptable to reading things
in formats that aren't on ourscreens, and I feel like books
are having their moment.
Take advantage of it andpublish your own book today.
That's good.
Books are back.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Books are back, baby.
I love that.
Where can people go to buy yourbook?
To find out Amazon.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Please buy my book on Amazon and share with me your
feedback.
I've gotten so many commentsabout how much people love this
book.
It's practical.
They put it to work.
The stories are fascinating, ifI do say so myself.
They're really interestingstories that just people are
gripped when they read them.
You can get it on Amazon orBarnes, noble or wherever you
buy your books, but Amazon'squick and cheap and faster.
(28:26):
Secondly, please follow me.
I have a LinkedIn newsletterthat I put together.
First name, last name is MahaBoulanen, which you guys can see
, I'm sure, in the show notesand I'm obviously on Instagram
if you'd like to connect with meas well.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
I love it.
Buy the book.
Connect on LinkedIn andInstagram the book.
If you missed it, it's calledthe Seven Rules of Self-Reliance
how to Stay Low, keep Moving,invest in yourself and on your
future.
She's knocking on the door of ahundred reviews on the book on
Amazon, so if you've read thebook, leave her a review.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Yeah, the reviews are so important.
I didn't know that Reviews arecritical for first-time authors.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Very important.
I'll send you a copy of my book.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Yeah, please do, and I should buy it.
I should buy it because that'swhat you should do.
If someone has a book, don'task for a free copy.
People Buy their book, supportthe author.
So I'm not going to let yousend it to me.
I'm going to send me a link andI will purchase it, I love it,
I love it.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
We'll do Well, maha.
Thank you so much.
This is awesome.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Thanks, chandler, have a great one.
Hey, chandler Bolt.
Here and joining me today isMaha Abu Al-Anain, and I'm super
excited for this episode.
We literally just had a firealarm go off in the office right
as we started recording this,so I can only assume that that
means this is going to be a fireepisode and I apologize already
(00:27):
for that horrendous joke.
But we're going to have funtoday.
Maha, she's a bestsellingauthor of a brand new book.
It's called the Seven Rules ofSelf-Reliance.
She's been featured on Forbes.
She's a speaker, mentor and anadvocate for the power of
storytelling.
She's collaborated with somebig brands which, if we have
time, we'll ask about kind ofhow that came about.
(00:47):
Really interesting backgroundhas lived in Egypt, lived in
Dubai, lived in the US and donebusiness all over the place.
So we're going to talk abouther book.
She's just coming off of a biglaunch of that book, so we'll
kind of go behind the scenes andlearn about some of that stuff
and just dive into a bunch offun concepts.
So, maha, welcome, great tohave you here.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Thank you for having me.
I'm so excited to be here.
Thank you.
And it was kind of like a funthing and I was like I feel like
it's a whole theme going onhere.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
It takes me back to school.
Honestly, I was thinking aboutthat.
I'm like when's the last time Ihad a fire drill?
Speaker 2 (01:22):
At school.
Yeah, when you said there's afire truck outside, I'm like,
okay, this isn't like a drill,they don't just, you know, make
it makes me nervous.
I'm like you better go dealwith that.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Everyone's leaving.
I'm like the show must go on.
So here we are.
Hey, why a book?
You know, how did you see thisfitting in with your brand, your
business?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
I know it was a multi-year process to even get
this thing published, so why gothrough all the effort?
I mean, you know we live in adigital world and everyone's on
social and consuming contentthrough digital.
You know means and I love books.
I love reading books, I lovecollecting books, I love writing
in my books.
I always had a dream of writinga book.
I feel there's a certain levelof credibility and honor and
prestige with having a book andyou know, it wasn't about being
so much like.
I wanted to be an author.
(02:09):
I just wanted to put my ideasin a different format out into
the world and to scale it topeople in a different format
than what normally people areconsuming, and I always
respected books and so I reallywanted to tell my story.
I'm a 30-year career incommunications, but this isn't a
communications book.
It's more about how I didthings in my career and my life
(02:32):
versus what I did, and it's fullof practical things that people
can do today.
Today, and I feel we live in aworld that's full of so much
change and environment, and whatif we stop and pause and really
be the drivers of the changethat we want to see in the world
Because it starts with us, andself-reliance is a concept of
(02:54):
relying on yourself to advancethe things you care about, and
I'm really excited that the bookhas been so well received and I
can't wait for people to gettheir hands on it.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
That's cool, that's awesome.
So was this a?
It's interesting.
You said it's 30 years incommunications, but it's not a
communications book.
So was this a passion project?
Was this a business project forwhat you're working on now,
Like how, what was kind of the?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yeah, I mean it was more like a methodology of the
things that people can learnfrom how I did things in my
successful career in theirbusiness and professional life.
So there is one chapter that hasto do with how to build your
personal brand and how tocommunicate who you are and
articulate that, and that's thething that I'm really known for
is my consulting business isreally helping people find their
(03:40):
narratives, tell their stories,think about their reputation
differently, and I give theplaybook, online and offline,
and how to do it.
But I think the reason why Ichose self-reliance as a topic
because when I started thinkingabout all the through line of
things in my career, it was like, oh, I had to rely on myself to
create value for other people.
I had to rely on myself tocreate my own relationships and
(04:00):
build my own network instead ofrelying on yours.
If I need something, I had torely on myself to learn things
and invest in myself.
I wasn't waiting for someone todeliver a training to me.
I had to take initiative myselfso I can learn things that are
out there in the market for freeto advance my goals and my
needs.
I had to rely on myself to notwait for people to bring me
(04:23):
opportunities, because if youjust want to sit and wait for
opportunities, you'll be waitinga very long time.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Yeah, I agree with that.
So I want to talk through someof the concepts of the book and
then I want to talk through kindof how this is leading into
business stuff, how you launchedit.
I know there were some creativethings around the launch, all
that stuff.
But let's maybe big picture onthe concept and this is a big
question.
So you don't have to answer itdirectly.
If you don't want to, you cankind of give the high level.
(04:50):
But I'm sure everyone's askingwhat are the seven rules of
self-reliance?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
And how did you learn ?
Speaker 1 (04:56):
them.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
It actually just came out that the things I wanted to
share ended up being seven, andthose were the rules.
Seven is my lucky number, seven.
I was born on November 7th, soit's like a seven was a thing
for me.
First, the first rule of thebook is stay low, keep moving.
So I don't mean be low profile,I'm like stay low and under the
radar in terms of focusing onyour goals.
Chandler, there's so manydistractions in life social
(05:20):
media, family obligations,comparing yourself Like you can
just sit and live in what I callthis distracted world, or you
can stay low and stay focused onwhat you care about.
In order to get anything youcare about done, you have to
stay low because otherwiseyou'll just get pulled in all
these different directions.
Keep moving.
There's going to be setbacks,there's going to be bad days,
there's going to be economicdownturns, there's going to be
(05:42):
pandemics.
So you have to know, if you area self-reliant person, you know
the value of focusingrelentlessly on what you care
about and keep moving throughall those challenges.
That's the first rule.
The second rule is be a valuecreator.
So one of the things I learnedearly in my career that either,
if I wanted to keep my clientsbecause I'm in a consulting
(06:04):
business.
I have to learn how to bevaluable to them.
I have to learn how to createvalue for them on a daily basis,
on a weekly basis, on a monthlybasis.
That makes them sticky to me.
It lets them stay close to mebecause I'm giving them extra
information, I'm solving aproblem, I'm anticipating needs,
I'm creating value for them.
I'm thinking about theirbusiness and trying to see
(06:29):
around corners of what I can dothat they didn't ask me to do.
That's valuable for them.
So it's about listening to whatthey care about, listening to
what their problems are.
So rule number two is be avalue creator.
If, chandler, if you can createvalue for other people, you
become indispensable becausethey know that you're the secret
sauce for them.
You're the person who'sthinking about things and
helping their business.
The third rule is don't be awaiter.
(06:51):
I was called a waiter early inmy life.
I was waiting for things tojust happen to me because I
deserved them.
I felt like I worked hard.
I deserve these things.
I was waiting.
I was waiting for permissionfrom others.
I was waiting because I fearedfailure.
I was waiting because I fearedjudgment from other people
thinking who does she think sheis?
A lot of times, we findourselves unconsciously waiting.
(07:15):
We know that there's somethingwe're more capable of or there's
something's going to come alongand change our trajectory, and
so we're just waiting for it tohappen to us.
So don't be a waiter.
Rule number four is unlearn,relearn and invest in yourself.
The only way I am good at myjob is because I'm constantly
(07:36):
trying to learn things.
I'm constantly trying tosharpen my saw.
What's out there, what's in themarket, what's happening in
culture?
What's happening in the news?
How does it change my business?
How does it create anopportunity?
How is this challenge changingmy companies?
So I always think aboutinvesting in myself.
Paying to be in rooms, learningon the internet for free.
Podcasts are for free.
(07:57):
Youtube videos are for free.
Everything on the internet isfor free.
You have no excuse not to learn.
The reason why I wrote unlearnand relearn in the rule is
sometimes we have to questionour own thinking.
We have to unlearn thingsbecause times are changing.
What do we need to relearn?
And don't just take things asthey are.
Don't just take assumptions asthey are.
(08:18):
Try to question them and thinkabout why do we think that or
what's changed, and why does mythinking need to change along
with it?
Rule number five treat yourbrand as a currency, your
reputation as a currency.
Your name, chandler, is themost valuable asset you have.
What are you doing to protectit?
What are you doing to grow it?
It's like a currency what's itsworth?
(08:39):
And so I really want people tothink about building their
personal brands is not a nice tohave, it's a must have.
It's not about being a socialmedia influencer, it's not about
being.
It's not about idea promotion.
It's not about self-promotion,it's about idea promotion.
Rule number six that was six,no, that was five.
Six is be a long-term player Ina world where we live in a very
(09:02):
tap to pay and get going andinstant gratification like take
the long route, make deposits inother people's trust banks,
take the long-term approach.
And then the last one is noregrets.
Things that happened to yourlife don't define you.
How can you live with noregrets and turn your setbacks
into comebacks?
Speaker 1 (09:22):
My gosh, that was incredible.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
I love those rules.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
And I mean you have like a key, an answer key on
your computer, or was that frommemory?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
No, I just talked.
I read the book, so I know whatit's about.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
You know your material.
That's fantastic.
So stay low and keep moving.
Be a value creator.
Don't be a waiter.
Unlearn, relearn and invest inyourself.
Treat your brand as a currency.
Be a long-term player and noregrets.
Those are the seven rules.
I love it.
It's funny.
(10:00):
I really resonate with all ofthem.
But the one I really resonatewith off the top is be a value
creator.
I put a sticky note up on I'vegot my right behind my computer
here, I've got my goals for theyear and I've got my intention
and that sort of thing and thislittle sticky note, because I
think this leads to everything.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
How can I add exponentially more value today?
It's so key.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Because you get paid based on the value that you
provide.
Right and so whether it's sales.
You're trying to grow a business, whatever people pay for value,
and when you know that you'recreating more value than what
you're charging, it makes iteasy to sell and it makes it
easier to make more money andgrow your business because you
know that you're helping peopleand adding value in the process
(10:47):
and so they'd be crazy not to dothat.
And so if you focus on that andI think, everything grows.
So I guess my question to youwould be how do you do that in
your business and I'm assumingthis book was a big part of that
and kind of why the book was apriority but how do you do that?
Speaker 2 (11:06):
I mean.
A lot of times I start with asimple question asking how can I
help so I can understand?
What do you care about?
What are the things that you'resuffering from, or problems or
goals or things that you areinterested in?
And then I try to figure out doI have a connection there?
Do I have a relationship there?
Do I know somebody who can helpme with this?
Like it's about asking theright questions to understand
(11:27):
what people value.
And then it's about execution.
Can you execute against thethings that you're going to
propose to do?
Because you can't just be aone-hit wonder.
If you're going to create valuefor somebody, you have to know
how to execute it and see itthrough.
So follow up and follow throughare key.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Love it, and so I want to talk about the launch of
the book and how you did it.
I was speaking with Rachel onyour team and she talked about
just a bunch of differentavenues to get the book out
there.
What were kind of the corepillars of your launch strategy?
What worked, what didn't work?
How did you kind of think aboutthat?
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yeah, I mean I've never done this before, right.
So I do strategiccommunications.
I'm a consultant for clientsthat walk in my door and I
advise them.
I don't do like marketing ofproducts.
I never sold anything that wasfor $25.
I'd never done that before.
So I'm like, okay, first thingsfirst is you need to ask a lot
of questions from people whohave done it before.
What did you do?
(12:24):
How did it work?
What are some things youlearned?
What are some do's, what aresome don'ts?
Where should I spend my time?
Where should I not spend mytime?
The first thing was I want tomake sure that I have a really
solid press and podcast strategy, Like how can I get on media,
how can I get on podcasts, bigor small, so I can tell my story
and reach different audiences?
So one bucket was focusing onpress and podcasts.
(12:48):
Another bucket was how do Istart to create an email
database of users or consumersover time so I can start to talk
to them about my content?
What do I do and then talk tothem about the book, so
developing lead magnets, so anyreally valuable PDF like how to
get free publicity, how to buildyour podcast, how to do
(13:09):
networking through DM, how to doyour weekly planner.
So I created a lot of leadmagnets so I can help people
come into my network and comeinto my database.
So email database was a bigpart of it.
Email marketing was a big partof it.
A third pillar was I wanted toorganize an event, a live event,
on launch day, which I calledthe Self-Reliance Summit.
(13:30):
The Self-Reliance Summit wassomething that we were doing 10
minutes with different people inmy network Gary Vee, Halle
Berry, Matt Higgins, Lewis Howes, Jasmine Starr, Shelly Zalas,
Nima Naz, Jim Quick to reallycome in for 10 minutes and have
a chat with me just to getpeople excited about the book,
to talk about the book.
(13:51):
It was a live event, it wasfree, it was over Zoom, 2,000
people showed up.
It was fun.
I mean, it was like a big partof our strategy.
We also had a lot of people inthere that weren't part of my
community, so we talked a lotabout me, my story, the book,
and it helped, you know, sell usbooks but also bring more
people into my community.
And I gave away two tickets toTaylor Swift, which always helps
(14:15):
Anything to do with booksalways helps and so a lot of
people came in for that.
And then I did a thing where Ioffered people, if they bought a
bunch of books 50 books or morethat I would co-host an event
with them.
I would do an event, speak attheir company, come to them, use
free miles, go to their eventand speak to them.
(14:36):
That was wildly successful.
How do you spend time withpeople?
Exchange your time for a bunchof books?
I actually had so much fun.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
That's really cool.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
So we got PR and press, we got lead magnets
around the book, we got freelive events giving away Taylor
Swift tickets yeah, and I alsodid some corporate sales, of
course, talked to a lot ofcompanies, sold to companies and
asked them if, like I, couldcome speak in exchange for them
to buy 200 books, 300 books, 500books.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
And we did that books , 300 books, 500 books, and we
did that, nice.
So speaking for, for bulk booksales, or or, and was that the
main strategy, or was it alsojust selling bulk into
corporations?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Just selling like companies.
So I can talk about the thingsCause a lot of these rules apply
to the business world.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Yeah, okay, I love that.
What, what was most, what?
What actually I'll?
I'll back up and ask oneclarifying question, then we can
talk about what moved theneedle the most.
One thing I saw that you didwhich I thought was super sharp
and I think not enough people dothis, is the book club.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Yes, you set up a book club.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
You got a guide, you got all that stuff to help
people facilitate that, and nowit's a one-to-many sale, right?
You sell the book club leaderand then that sells, maybe even
dozens of books.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
How did you do that and what was the thought process
behind that?
I mean, I like going to bookclubs, I like having discussions
around topics of books.
I mean, traditionally bookclubs are the ways that people
kind of engage at a deeper leveland I even offered to join
these book clubs and to spendtime with them talking about it.
So we put together a guideabout some of the things that
are in the book and justquestion points and reflection
exercises just to give thembonus content to activate the
(16:15):
things and themes of the bookthat they can apply into their
lives.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Now, of all those things, what moved the needle
the most?
Speaker 2 (16:25):
You know, I think it's just consumers.
When they saw the press and thepodcast, like went on to Amazon
about the book, I reallybelieve it was that one customer
at a time, ground strategy,ground game, that always is the
most effective.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Cool, and so what?
On the back end of the book wetalk about the concept of or
back into the book, back intothe book launch.
We always talk about theconcept of a one-year book
launch.
I think a lot of people thinkabout it as a week.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
No, it's an always on thing, yeah, so how are you
looking at that?
Well, you have to always thinkabout, like, what you can do to
keep weekly sales going.
So, doing LinkedIn lives, doingInstagram lives, talking to
small groups, small companiesI'm selling every week.
I mean, I have targets everyweek of selling the book.
So we're just always doingpodcasts, doing shows, keeping
(17:14):
it visible, making it relevantto different audiences, learning
from the readers what they lovethe most, expanding our content
based on that.
So it's a process, but it'slike it's not.
It's definitely not somethingyou just push for two weeks and
be done.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Yeah, so what?
Why the continuous push?
I think a lot of people wouldkind of say, hey, the book, the
book's been launched.
It's out Like why is thissomething that is important to
you to continue talking about,and how does it fit in with
moving the needle in yourbusiness?
Speaker 2 (17:48):
I feel well.
First of all, I want this bookin as many hands as possible.
I want every book that weprinted to be in the hands of
the people, so I want to makesure that we do it.
You know, I'm selling it today.
Last night, actually at 1130 atnight, I did a live interview
with BBC in London, which wastheir morning show.
Because I want make sure, likeI'm selling it in London, I'm
selling it in Dubai, I'm sellingit in Saudi and Egypt.
I sold the foreign rights inPortuguese for South America.
(18:08):
So I'm really continuing topush and I love this book and I
love this story and I wantpeople to read it.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
And what is the main revenue arm in your business?
Is that consulting, is thatspeaking?
Is that something else?
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Yeah, the main revenue of my business is
consulting.
I'm a communications consultingfirm, so a lot of the stuff
that we teach in the book thathas to do with building your
personal brand and buildingreputation, we do that as a
business.
As a consultant, we work forpeople like Gary Vee and other
people doing personal brand workMatt Higgins, jim Quick, other
people that we've supported ontheir personal brand so
(18:43):
definitely something that youknow.
The book is a part of thecompany and a part of me, and I
believe that you know it's areally good way for people to
learn about how we approachstrategy adding value to our
clients, building a goodrelationship, building the
network, creating value, notbeing a waiter, taking
initiative, learning all ofthese rules in the book we apply
(19:04):
to our work with our clients.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Do you send them to clients?
Speaker 2 (19:09):
All of my clients have actually bought it.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Nice, nice, yeah, which is nice.
I love that the way I thinkabout it is pretty similar to
what you're talking about,because this is my newest book
and-.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Published.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Published, yeah, and so we I mean I give it to every
new employee and say this ispart of your onboarding, right?
We give, give it to every newclient, it's part of their
onboarding.
I think it just.
It just brings such leveragebecause this stuff that you or
your team was having to explainin a one-off on every onboarding
call or every sales call orevery touch point with clients,
and all that stuff, or everysales call or every touch point
with clients and all that stuff,and now you say, hey, read the
(19:43):
book, and I found that it justhas.
Now there's a common languageand a starting point, and so it
brings leverage to everythingelse you're doing and leads to a
lot less one-off explaining.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Yeah for sure, it's all about scaling, because we
have not a lot of time to bedoing manual labor like that.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Yeah, so you've seen that kind of show up in your
business as well.
A hundred percent, a hundredpercent, yeah.
So how does this, how do yousee this book fitting in with
customer acquisition?
Like is that a big focus foryou, or like are you?
Yeah, I mean, it's not that,it's not a focus for me.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
I mean the book is like it helps with our
credibility as an organizationthat the founder of the company,
the CEO of the company, is apublished author.
Thought leadership matters.
Having that authority matters,understanding that you know your
stuff matters.
But it's not a tool that I'musing to generate clients and
saying, hey, read my bookbecause then I can consult for
you.
And saying, hey, read my bookbecause then I can consult for
(20:44):
you.
I'd love that, but that wasn'tthe reason I wanted to publish
the book.
It was not a lead generator forclients.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Right, because is your business model, is it?
Mostly, is it a handful ofclients that are on retainers
that are more high-end clientsyeah yeah, yeah, and so that's
the main focus and driver of thebusiness, yep, and so this is
more of a down market solution,if you will, to say, hey, if you
can't afford to work with us,buy the book.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Yeah, I mean, it's one of the many options that
they have to work with us.
They can come in the door andwork in a retainer, work on a
project.
We do online training, we doother.
We have other products andservices that we offer, but this
is just one to scale to manypeople.
It also has a lot of mybusiness personal stories that a
lot of people haven't heardbefore, so I put that out there
when I worked at Google andworked for the prime minister
(21:29):
and worked for Gary Vee and allthe different projects I've done
, and so that's what some reallife examples in there bring it
to life.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Cool and talk to me about that a little bit.
I thought that was prettyinteresting just in researching
your background leading up tothis episode, working with a lot
of big companies and seems likea core part of your.
That's just such a foreignthing to me.
I mean we're hardcore B2C, justhelping people publish books.
(21:56):
I mean that's our core business.
And so big brands, bigbusinesses, big contracts, all
that stuff and even just runningbusiness out of Dubai all
that's pretty foreign to me.
How did you land those bigbrand deals, you know like what
I don't even know?
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Yeah, so I worked for Google as an employee.
I was a full-time employee atthe company.
I had two full-time jobs in mycareer One's at General Mills,
where I was an employee of thatcompany, working in sports
marketing in Minneapolis, andthen the other one was working
for Google out of the Dubaioffice and really working as an
employee helping building theircommunications apparatus and
scaling and launching some oftheir products.
(22:37):
But I feel like, in general,for the big clients that we've
landed or people that we'veworked with, it's really about
what can you do to create valuefor them?
What's your secret sauce?
What's your experience?
How are you marketing yourself?
How's your reputation?
Well, how much time did youspend building a relationship
with them?
Landing a big client is notjust a matter of giving them the
(22:57):
right price.
You have to really bring valueto them.
You have to bring them someexperience.
You have to bring them a trackrecord of what you've been able
to execute and you know it'sit's all about timing, but
honestly, it's about bringingvalue in your experience to the
table.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Yeah, Be a value creator, One of the seven rules.
What do you think of theseseven rules?
What do you think is the?
Is the the one that people havethe most trouble with?
Speaker 2 (23:22):
The waiter one.
Tell me more, just that.
People just feel like theydon't realize they're waiters
until I define it for them.
They're like, oh, I've beenwaiting.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
And how would you define it?
And how would someone knowright now if they're listening
to this or watching this?
Oh, I'm being a waiter, andwhat should they do to change?
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Well, they know that they're capable of doing more.
They're just they're holdingback for a reason.
They're in their comfort zonebecause they just don't want to
put themselves out there,because they don't have the
confidence in themselves to doit, because they don't trust
their gut, because they don'tfeel that or sometimes they
might be waiting for permissionfrom other people, or they're
(24:02):
unsure about making a decisionbecause they don't want to make
the wrong decision.
There are no wrong decisions.
You make a decision with theinformation you have at that
time and then make another oneif it doesn't work out, and so I
think that's the reason whypeople wait is all those reasons
I just mentioned.
They just they're.
They'd rather be waiting for aperfect time for something to
happen, and that just doesn'texist.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
And so what's your advice for the, for the waiters?
Speaker 2 (24:28):
If you have a goal or a dream of something that you
really want to do, reverse,engineer it, like break it down
into the steps, like I want tobe able to do this, okay, what
are the things I need to do inorder to do that?
Break it down into smallerbites and then just take off one
bite of that apple, just one,just take it.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Love it.
What do you feel like on theother side of this biggest
lesson learned from the launchor from the writing of the book
that you would share with forpeople who are thinking about
writing or publishing theirfirst book?
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Writing a book is easy.
Selling a book is hard.
The end, it's a process.
Like you have to sell one bookat a time.
You have to really convince thereader what's in it for them.
Why should they spend time withyour book?
What is the key takeaway?
What is the book about?
Like, you really need tounderstand your reader and where
their pain points are and whereyour book is going to bring
(25:21):
value to them, because there'sso many books on the market.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
I think a lot of people would say that writing a
book is easy is not theirexperience.
Why was that?
Why do you think it was so easyfor you?
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Well, I'm in the communications business, so I
love communicating and I lovewriting.
So for me, writing it was easy,selling it was hard.
Um, you know, it's a processLike.
It took me like six or sevenmonths to think about the shape
of the book and the chapters andwhat I want to write about.
Is it going to be about this ornot?
Then, once I decided what itwas going to be about, then I
literally like for two months,just like I'm heads down.
(25:55):
I'm going to focus, going toknock it out.
I don't want this thing to takeon forever and be a dreadful
project.
I want it to be something Ienjoy.
So I was like going into it andgetting the stories and mapped
out how I wanted to do it.
But I feel that everybody'sdifferent on what their skills
are.
There's like what they'recapable of doing when it comes
to a big project and bringing it, breaking it down.
I just feel that the mostimportant thing is the
(26:17):
self-awareness that you getthrough this process.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Like.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
I learned to have a lot of stamina.
I learned that I'm like willingto be putting a lot of effort
in.
I'm willing to, you know, notknow what I don't know.
Like I was like, okay, I don'tknow how to do this, and every
time I'd start a call with myteam I'm like, let me remind you
, I've never done this beforeand just like telling people,
like I never know, I don't knowwhat I'm doing.
So, like, if you guys are likelooking to me for leadership on
(26:41):
the best practices, I'm not yourgirl, but I'm going to work
hard, I'm going to try, I'mgoing to ask the right effort.
I'm not going to leave anythingoff the court.
Like, I'm going to puteverything into this.
And I did.
And I was very successful in mylaunch, where so many people
came and said you wrote the newplaybook.
The way you did it was likeeveryone is watching in the
industry.
(27:02):
Even other people that know mewere like it was an incredible
launch.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
And I'm like, I'm glad because we put a lot of
effort into it.
A lot of effort, that's cool.
What would be your partingpiece of advice for the person
who's on the starting line oftheir book?
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Do it.
It's such a great process Likestart.
Don't overthink it If you havea book that you want to publish
or you have an idea that youwant to take to the market.
There's never been a bettertime.
And, by the way, books are back.
People love books, people arebuying books, people are
enjoying books.
Genres of different books arecoming out.
(27:41):
Everyone is hungry to learn.
We are living longer, we aremore adaptable to reading things
in formats that aren't on ourscreens, and I feel like books
are having their moment.
Take advantage of it andpublish your own book today.
That's good.
Books are back.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Books are back, baby.
I love that.
Where can people go to buy yourbook?
To find out Amazon.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Please buy my book on Amazon and share with me your
feedback.
I've gotten so many commentsabout how much people love this
book.
It's practical.
They put it to work.
The stories are fascinating, ifI do say so myself.
They're really interestingstories that just people are
gripped when they read them.
You can get it on Amazon orBarnes, noble or wherever you
buy your books, but Amazon'squick and cheap and faster.
(28:26):
Secondly, please follow me.
I have a LinkedIn newsletterthat I put together.
First name, last name is MahaBoulanen, which you guys can see
, I'm sure, in the show notesand I'm obviously on Instagram
if you'd like to connect with meas well.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
I love it.
Buy the book.
Connect on LinkedIn andInstagram the book.
If you missed it, it's calledthe Seven Rules of Self-Reliance
how to Stay Low, keep Moving,invest in yourself and on your
future.
She's knocking on the door of ahundred reviews on the book on
Amazon, so if you've read thebook, leave her a review.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Yeah, the reviews are so important.
I didn't know that Reviews arecritical for first-time authors.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Very important.
I'll send you a copy of my book.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Yeah, please do, and I should buy it.
I should buy it because that'swhat you should do.
If someone has a book, don'task for a free copy.
People Buy their book, supportthe author.
So I'm not going to let yousend it to me.
I'm going to send me a link andI will purchase it, I love it,
I love it.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
We'll do Well, maha.
Thank you so much.
This is awesome.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Thanks, chandler, have a great one.
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