Tune into Part 2 of our enlightening series on Nerds On Tap featuring Steve Wilmer, who journeyed from the projects of Pensacola to becoming a renowned motivational speaker and author. In this captivating continuation, Steve opens up about his path to public speaking, starting with an unexpected break that catapulted him into professional engagements. He also unveils the ins and outs of self-publishing on Amazon, sharing actionable tips on writing, editing, and effective promotion, while highlighting the essence of content over grammar. Plus, delve into Steve's enthralling life story, a testament to resilience and following one's heart, spanning from his Navy days to Hollywood endeavors. Don’t miss this inspiring wrap-up as we dive deep into the realms of public speaking, writing, and the unwavering power of determination, all spiced up with our classic Nerds on Tap flair!
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Special Guest:
Steve Wilmer, President, Risk Advisor Institute and Steve Speaks
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3. Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale
4. Pensacola Original American Lager
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tim Shoop (00:00):
Hey, I'm Tim Shoop.
I'd like to introduce part twoof our two- part podcast with
Steve Wilmer.
The first episode coveredsegments one and two, about
Steve's rise through the ranksand how he used technology to do
that.
In this episode, we'll concludehis podcast with segments three
, the Power of Public Speaking,and segment four, where we'll
(00:24):
listen to sound bites ofmotivational speeches.
Guess who they are and see howSteve's journey relates to
either one.
If you miss part one, pleasetake the time to go back and
listen to that one beforelistening to this one.
Nerds on Tap is sponsored byDigital Boardwalk, one of the
fastest growing managed ITservice providers in America,
(00:45):
ranked number eight in thecountry, providing IT,
cybersecurity and cloudmanagement to small and medium
businesses, and Smarter Web, anAI and data-driven marketing
company, the sister company ofDigital Boardwalk, providing
leading edge marketing servicesto small, medium sized
businesses nationwide.
Brief overview of our episodetoday we'll be talking to Mr.
(01:09):
Steve Wilmer, sitting rightnext to me, and I'll introduce
him in just a minute.
We're going to be talking aboutthe Power of Public Speaking
and Writing, and then we'll wrapit up with a surprise segment
regarding motivational speakers,and then we'll get some
takeaways.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcometo Nerds on Tap.
(01:32):
I'm your host, Tim Shoop, and Icouldn't be more excited to
embark on this nerdy adventurewith all of you.
So grab your favorite brew,because things are about to get
exciting.
Suds (01:49):
All right beer.
Number three from the LexingtonBrewing and Distilling Company,
the Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale, american Strong Ale.
It's 8% ABV, a unique-stippingbeer with a distinctive nose of
well-crafted bourbon aged for upto six weeks in
freshly-decanned bourbon barrelswith some of Kentucky's finest
distilleries.
Subtle flavors of vanilla andoak, presently smooth and robust
(02:11):
.
Tim Shoop (02:12):
All right, let's taste this bad boy.
Did you catch up?
He just downed number two, sowe're going to make him this
one's a little bit darker.
I don't know about that one,hey.
Steve Wilmer (02:23):
I'm okay with a little bit darker.
Suds (02:26):
Yeah, whoa, there we go.
Tim Shoop (02:35):
Oh he just shot that.
That's not a shooter.
Well, it is now.
You liked it, but I do like it.
Yeah, that's definitely myfavorite one so far.
That's nice.
It's got a lot of tones in it,a lot of different, kind of a
nutty almost.
Steve Wilmer (02:51):
That was nice, it's like a nutty flavor.
Suds (02:54):
A little, orange a little nut, I don't know the most more
twang, but flavorful yeah.
More flavorful.
Well, I heard you like bourbon,so like that's why I got that
one hey there you go, bourbonand whiskey.
Steve Wilmer (03:07):
Love it Love it.
Tim Shoop (03:07):
We almost brought bourbon on the show, but we
didn't want to get off.
Brand Cancel.
All right, that was a tastybeer.
Let's get into segment threebefore we finish with our fun
surprise segment.
So we're going to talk aboutthe power of the power of
segment.
Yeah, You'll see.
All right.
Yeah Well, you already heardpart of it.
(03:28):
All right, the power of publicspeaking and writing public
speaking insights.
We're going to.
Oh yeah, I love this.
I want to talk about Steve'spublic speaking journey,
crafting Steve's speaks and thekey messages that you deliver in
your talk.
So take it away.
Steve Wilmer (03:47):
I started public speaking on accident.
I'm telling you, Tim, ourjourney.
I don't believe it.
Bro, BNI, not B&E, but BNI, BNIBusiness Network International.
They voted me the president.
And what does the president do?
Every single week Speaks thepresident, gets up, steve speaks
(04:11):
In front of a group of peopleand welcome people.
That's how I started.
So every week I'm doing that,I'm doing it, I'm doing it.
And then I started doing smallB&I presentations.
Remember Visitor's Day?
Oh yeah, I started doing smallpresentations.
And here's how it started Iwasn't even thinking about
speaking and Mary Riesburg cameup to me and she says to me
(04:34):
where did you learn how to dothat?
And I said do what?
What are you talking about?
She says you're speaking,you're this and that, and I'm
John Maxwell certified and allthis stuff.
And I said I don't know, I justspeak, yeah.
And she was talking about howshe's seen speakers and no one
can speak the way I speak, andy'all.
And then here's how I startedgetting paid.
I'm speaking one day for free,because I wasn't even thinking
(04:55):
about being a speaker.
I was going to be a State Farmagent.
I wasn't thinking aboutspeaking.
And somebody said this to mehow much would you charge me to
come and speak to?
Tim Shoop (05:12):
our group.
Steve Wilmer (05:13):
Money talks, Steve speaks Charge and bro, that's
how it started, so wait wait,hang on.
Tim Shoop (05:23):
Let's go back to B&I.
So the one thing I rememberabout B&I is when Steve speaks.
Or Steve spoke, we would bebuzzing him constantly because
he couldn't stop.
That's what I remember.
Steve Wilmer (05:40):
So you got to learn that when you're a
professional speaker, you got tostay on, mark man, I'm telling
you, you learn.
You learn so much when you area speaker and somebody's paying
you because I see this happen alot and you are being paid to
speak an hour, you speak 50minutes.
You're being paid to speak foran hour and a half.
You better speak for an hourand 15 minutes.
(06:02):
You want to leave that extratime?
You want to leave?
Tim Shoop (06:04):
that Q&A you want to leave that.
Steve Wilmer (06:05):
Q&A.
You want to make sure, and it'salways so.
I'm giving away some secretshere.
The reason that you want to dothat is you always want to be
invited back.
So if a company hires you tospeak for an hour and a half or
an hour, you speak for 45minutes.
It's always guys, I don't havea lot of time, got so much
information to give you, buttoday I just don't have a lot of
(06:28):
time to give you all thisinformation.
Maybe if we see each other, ifyou give them every single thing
yeah, you're just trying toReal men, I'm just telling you,
for those of you who want to bea speaker, I want you to
remember the two most importantrules to be in a speaker.
Here's rule number one younever give them all the
(06:49):
information.
Got it, I mean?
Tim Shoop (06:52):
that's like a good movie right.
Suds (06:54):
If you can leave a little to mystery right and a little
questions after you watch thefilm, that's going to impact a
lot of it.
Tim Shoop (06:59):
You could break down one talk into three talks, break
it up into three.
You're coming back two moretimes.
Steve Wilmer (07:05):
You're coming back two more times, so makes sense
I love it.
Tim Shoop (07:08):
So I watched your keynote on your trip to Chicago.
Did you do that?
Steve Wilmer (07:12):
earlier this year, Uh mid-September.
Tim Shoop (07:15):
Yeah, I saw that it was listed as earlier this year.
It was quite compelling.
Steve Wilmer (07:19):
Man, that was a huge one.
That was a huge, huge one.
I absolutely loved it.
Tim Shoop (07:26):
So why do you wear your fatigues?
So is that that creates thepersona that you're going for,
right?
The hey, I'm your drillsergeant for the day.
You're in boot camp.
Is that what you were?
I love it, um.
Steve Wilmer (07:45):
I don't remember the year, but it was one of my
earlier years.
I get invited to speak in LasVegas on 9 11.
Okay, wow, Las Vegas, 9, 11.
And I wasn't the keynote.
The keynote speaker, oh mygoodness, I can't think of his
(08:07):
name.
But we've all seen the movie Uh, loan survivor.
The movie loan survivor, ohyeah, it's a good one Okay.
Yeah, whatever that guy's nameis, I apologize, can't think of
his name.
He was the keynote speaker.
Okay.
All right, but I go and I said,okay, this guy's going to be
there, he's a keynote speaker.
I said I got to do something.
I got to do something different.
(08:27):
Uh, I spoke on my first book,which is, you know, 10 to win,
and all of everything I'mtalking about is drill
instructor.
I'm telling stories up toMarine Corps and something said,
just show up in Marine Corps,cammie's.
Yeah, and I showed up in MarineCorps, cammie's.
The crowd went crazy.
I made somebody do pushups andthey went crazy.
(08:47):
I'm like it's just, it's justpushups.
What.
Well, it's an opportunity though, Right, but so.
So here's what I found outreally quickly is that things
that we go through in themilitary the.
Navy, the Marine Corps,whatever the case would be
civilians.
They've never done that beforeand for them it's a big deal.
To us it's an average day.
So I made somebody do pushups.
(09:10):
They love it.
People been doing pushups everysingle time I speak.
Tim Shoop (09:13):
Right, that's awesome .
Steve Wilmer (09:14):
And you're right, I show up in my Marine.
Tim Shoop (09:16):
Corps.
I haven't done one yet, but Iwill.
I haven't done one yet.
I did 50 this morning.
Steve Wilmer (09:20):
If you come to my boot camp, you will do.
You will do pushups.
That's party, but that's what.
That's how it started.
Tim Shoop (09:27):
So so how do you balance?
How do you balance publicspeaking and entrepreneurship
and make it work?
That's a tough.
I know that's a tough one, butit.
Steve Wilmer (09:39):
Well, it's, well, actually it's.
It's one in the same.
How do I balance publicspeaking and entrepreneurship?
Tim Shoop (09:45):
We're public right now, which is taking me away
from my day to day, so I guessit's similar.
Steve Wilmer (09:51):
But for me it's not because this is.
I mean, I have my schedule, butthis is part of what I do
because it's it's a exposureright.
Your level of success isdetermined by your level of
exposure.
It's called a inside reality,outside perception.
Watch this, like it.
Inside reality, all right,inside reality.
(10:13):
If I were to say, tim, tell meabout what you believe about
digital boardwalk, you can,we're number one in this.
We can do this, we can do it.
Tim Shoop (10:22):
You go through it?
Yeah, I can go on and on foryeah.
Steve Wilmer (10:26):
That's the inside reality.
Here's the outside perception,depending on who you're talking
to.
I've never heard of digitalboardwalk.
What are you talking about?
Yeah.
This company's better?
Oh, digital boardwalk is thebest.
What is your outside perception?
So my inside reality, when itcomes to sales training?
When it comes to sales training, I'm the best.
(10:48):
That's the inside reality.
You ask me.
Oh, I'm the best.
Tim Shoop (10:53):
And what's the outside?
Steve Wilmer (10:54):
They don't know about me.
Tim Shoop (10:55):
Yeah.
Steve Wilmer (10:56):
You see what I mean.
Tim Shoop (10:56):
So you need exposure.
Steve Wilmer (10:58):
I need exposure because they don't know about me
when I went to Chicago Our 34listeners.
You're 34 listeners.
I need all 34 of you to sharethis.
Tim Shoop (11:09):
And I need you 34 listeners to share this with 34
more listeners so we can become.
So what Next year?
There you go 34,000.
Steve Wilmer (11:18):
There you go so that's what I mean about.
So again, the entrepreneursthat are listening, the business
owners that are listening yourlevel of success is going to be
determined by your level ofexposure.
The technology gets me exposure.
Yeah Right, the people that Ihire semi, which I wanna have
them on as a guest, helps me getexposure, because when I went
(11:42):
to Chicago think about it, itwas 300 and something business.
All business owners in therehad never heard me before, man,
when I tell you that my business, it was already blowing up.
I couldn't even take all the onthe business that I got that
day.
Tim Shoop (12:00):
So what I hear is I have job security.
Steve Wilmer (12:02):
Who had oh yeah, you got job security Absolutely
100%.
Tim Shoop (12:07):
We all have job security 100%.
So let's dive into your books.
Let's talk about being anauthor and your influences.
I wanna do kind of a deep diveinto the themes of your books,
how writing has influenced yourcareer and thought leadership in
(12:30):
your career and thoughtleadership and sales and
business.
How has writing kind ofintertwined with your or I don't
wanna say intertwined, butpulled those thoughts out of
your brain, put them on page andgive them to your audience and
how has that impacted you as anindividual?
Steve Wilmer (12:51):
So if you were to ask 100 people, would you like
to write a book?
Have you ever thought aboutwriting a book?
The overwhelming majority thenwould say yes.
But then if you ask how many ofyou have written a book, I bet
you it'll be two to 3%, two tothree people.
(13:12):
I agree, and here's the cause.
I was there, and here's thereason why is because you're
worried about what you're gonnawrite.
Is it?
Are people gonna like it?
You're worried about what Ihave to say.
Is it gonna make sense?
You're worried about what Ihave to say.
Is it gonna be good?
(13:32):
You're too concerned about whatother people think you just
gotta get it out there.
You just gotta get it out there.
So when I tell you it is easy,people don't believe this.
It's easy to write a book.
Tim Shoop (13:44):
You know why is it so easy for people to go out and
post whatever they frickingthink of in the moment on social
media, but afraid to write abook?
Steve Wilmer (13:53):
Do you know?
That's perfect example, tim,because you could write a book
on.
Here are my last 100 posts andmy thoughts.
You can self publish it.
So I know there are publishersout there that are gonna be
upset at me about saying this.
You don't have to get apublisher to publish a book, you
can.
I did not use a.
I used a publisher on one bookand only because I co-authored
(14:17):
the book with someone else.
My first watch this.
My first two books.
I self published my fourth book.
I self published my fourth bookmakes a killing, a killing, no
publisher.
Number one and two do you knowwhat book makes the least amount
of money?
What Book?
Number three why.
(14:37):
The one where I used a publisher.
Tim Shoop (14:39):
You used a book because the funds don't go to
you.
Steve Wilmer (14:41):
The front man and they it costs more to order the
book, and I'm not gonna evenname the publisher.
Tim Shoop (14:48):
So how did you?
So is it okay to tell theaudience how to print and go to
print with a book without apublisher?
Steve Wilmer (14:56):
Amazon.
Tim Shoop (14:58):
Okay.
Steve Wilmer (14:58):
Amazon, I'm just.
Guys are just being completelyhonest with you.
Amazon, you write your book,you hire somebody, I hire
somebody to do my pictures.
Tim Shoop (15:08):
Did you use a ghost writer?
Steve Wilmer (15:09):
No, heck, no, Every word I wrote is my word.
Tim Shoop (15:14):
Team, listen to me, I'm sorry, it's all right, it's
all right, I'm hitting thisbecause I'm hitting this dog on
table, because you don't need aghost writer.
Steve Wilmer (15:23):
Write your book.
Write your thoughts.
You will always be 100% correct.
Do you know why they're yourthoughts?
It's your opinion.
Tim Shoop (15:33):
You can't be wrong in your opinion.
So, ladies and gentlemen,you're taking your opinion,
you're putting it on page.
Steve Wilmer (15:40):
Yes.
Tim Shoop (15:40):
You're not using a publisher and I'm sure a lot of
people are gonna come out of thewoodwork and hopefully comment
on this out of my 34 listeners.
Steve Wilmer (15:49):
It's up to you.
Tim Shoop (15:50):
I'm telling you what I did, and so Steve's most
profitable book is the one thathe published himself, or he took
the Amazon.
Steve Wilmer (15:58):
The three, three, I'm telling you Number one,
number two and number four.
Okay, number one, number twoand number four my most
profitable, most profitablebooks.
Tim Shoop (16:08):
Can you tell me the titles of one through four real
quick.
Steve Wilmer (16:11):
So number one and two are motivational.
So number one is 10 to win Okay.
Number two nobody cares, workharder.
Now, three and four are salesbooks.
So three is supercharge yourmulti-line agency.
It's a sales book formulti-line insurance agents.
Tim Shoop (16:27):
So it's targeted at insurance agents, where the
other two were more generalized.
Steve Wilmer (16:33):
Other two were more general, but number four is
only for insurance agents.
Tim Shoop (16:39):
Okay, number four, but three was your most
profitable book.
Steve Wilmer (16:42):
No three was the least.
Tim Shoop (16:44):
Four was your most profitable Four.
Okay.
Steve Wilmer (16:46):
Yeah, I haven't written five.
The fourth one, right now Idon't need to write, I don't
need to write anymore, and sowatch this Number one charge 20
bucks.
Number two 20 bucks.
Number three 25.
Ah, Number four $397.
Wow.
Tim Shoop (17:07):
How many pages is?
I can't keep them on the shelf.
Man that's awesome.
So so would you mind providingour audience with a and this
isn't a scripted question, thisis just coming out of my brain
but provide them with like a,not necessarily a step by step
(17:29):
process, but what would they dofirst?
Steve Wilmer (17:34):
to write the book.
Yeah, oh, I got it.
Tim Shoop (17:35):
It's the first thing that they need to do.
Steve Wilmer (17:38):
First thing you need to do is get out of your
own head.
That's number one, alright,alright.
Number two start writing Every.
Listen to me, don't worry aboutpunctuation, that's not your
job, that's the editor's job.
Don't worry about punctuation,don't worry about sentence
structure.
Start writing every single day.
You should write something.
You got to decide what you wantyour book to be on.
(17:59):
Come up with a couple ofchapters but just continue to
writing.
Don't worry about should justgo first.
That's not your job.
Your job is only to write.
Now, once you got everything.
Now you have and I'm sure howto do this for free.
You guys gonna love it.
Now, once you got everything.
Now it has to put to be put instructure, alright.
(18:19):
So now I got all these pages ofyour random thoughts.
Now you got to hire an editor.
Alright.
Now you got to hire somebody,maybe to do a cover or, you know
, take a picture of you.
You got to have somebody breakit down.
They can do all that for you.
Somebody puts it in the format.
You take all of that.
You sit at the Amazon.
Amazon prints my books numberone and number two for three
(18:39):
dollars and twenty five cents.
That's what it costs me.
Land it at my door.
One book three twenty five.
I sell it for twenty bucks Okay.
Tim Shoop (18:49):
And and I don't want to get ahead of you Okay, I want
to, I want to let you continuewith the process, but I do want
to know how you promoted yourbook.
So I'm sure that's towards theend.
So let's get into that, afteryou keep going down this rabbit
hole.
Steve Wilmer (19:02):
Right now.
Let me show you how I.
Let me show you how I, how Idid it for free.
It's gonna blow your mind.
I want to say, cat, I'm notmistaken.
So here's what I did you.
You decide you're gonna write abook, and then you go to your
friends, you go to family, yougo to people that you know, and
I said this I said, all right,cat, I'm a Kathleen.
(19:24):
I said, hey, Kat, I'm gonnawrite a book.
The name of the book is called10 to win.
Once the book is published, I'mgonna charge twenty dollars for
each book.
Would you do me a favor andwould you pre-purchase a copy
for fifteen dollars?
And guess what Kat said?
Tim Shoop (19:41):
She probably said yeah.
She said yes, and that helpsyou get on the best sellers list
.
She gave me?
Steve Wilmer (19:45):
no, not even about the best.
Okay, no, that what you'retalking about is, uh, like,
amazon bestseller Right, no.
Tim Shoop (19:52):
I'm talking about.
Steve Wilmer (19:53):
That's what Quint does, all right, so I'm talking
about a printed book, okay.
So Kat gave me fifteen bucks,tim gives me fifteen bucks, bob
gives me fifteen bucks.
The whole time fifteen dollarsfrom everybody keeps going into
my account.
I keep writing Ah, you got it.
Okay, that's takes me.
Takes me ninety days to writemy first book.
(20:14):
All right, you know how manyfifteen dollars you get from
people.
So by the time it was time tohire an editor, editor charge me
X amount of dollars.
Good thing I got all this moneyin this account, right?
You see what I mean?
Yeah, no, I got you Right.
So everything that I had to payfor the book, I already had the
(20:35):
money and so at the end of it,amazon, I order books, all the
books come, I go to Kat.
Thank you so much, kat.
Here's your autograph copy.
I give it all these books.
And then I still had I rememberI still had like a hundred
books left Because, again, thereare only three dollars and
twenty five cents.
I got paid fifteen dollars fora three dollars and twenty five
(20:55):
cent book.
So I gave everybody their book.
I had the money paid,everything I needed to, and then
I had an additional hundredbucks that I charged twenty.
You do the math Twenty dollarstimes a hundred.
I made that money on my firstbook.
I love that and I did it fornumber two and by the time I got
to book number four my mostprofitable book it's a sales
manual.
I wrote that thing and had itbound in sixty days and it's
(21:17):
printed right here in Pensacolaby Tommy Armstrong.
Guess where I met Tommy.
I don't BNI.
Tim Shoop (21:22):
BNI.
I'm telling you right now Ihaven't seen Tommy in a while.
Oh man.
Steve Wilmer (21:27):
Tommy's business is blowing up.
He'll be telling you just likeyour business blew up from BNI,
mine his did as well.
Yeah, no, I believe it?
Tim Shoop (21:35):
Um, you, so where was I going with this?
So, um, printing the book?
So, you, you, you collect themoney.
Yep, you collect the money fromeverybody interested in the
book that hasn't been writtenyet.
Steve Wilmer (21:49):
Yes.
Tim Shoop (21:49):
You write the book?
Yes, you put it out there.
When you go to a speaking event, do you give away books?
Steve Wilmer (21:57):
I give away books, I sell, do both.
So I'll sell books.
So you sign them.
Oh, I sign them.
It's autograph, everybody is itautograph.
Of course it's alreadyautograph.
So I'll sell books for twentybucks.
I'll give them away because,again, man, I could you want to
talk about running a business?
When I first started Tim, Ithought that I was going to make
a lot, a lot of money from,from selling books.
Yeah, that's not where themoney is, but it promotes you.
Tim Shoop (22:20):
It promotes you.
It promotes who you are.
What's in your brain?
Steve Wilmer (22:22):
It's uh, what's the word I'm looking for?
Help me out here Um influence,influence.
It qualifies you as an expertbecause, like I said,
credibility.
Thank you, that's the word I'mlooking for.
It gives you credibility,because a lot of people want to
write a book and they go I don'thave the way to take the right
a book and you go.
You written for, oh my god,this guy's written four books.
Oh my god, he's so smart.
(22:43):
Yeah, he's so great, he'swritten four.
But I'm like, yeah, I'm anauthor, I'm a four-time so so
we're going to feed we're goingto feed our our favorite author
and speaker today, steve.
Tim Shoop (22:55):
One more beer before we go into our surprise segment
and then we'll.
We'll maybe talk about a coupletakeaways and we'll wrap up.
So, suds, take it away, let'slearn about the final beer of
the day.
All right?
Suds (23:06):
The final beer is from our own Pensacola Bay Brewery the
Pensacola original AmericanLager, made of the 100% American
Pills and Malt combined withnoble hops, delivering crisp,
light and extremely drinkablebeer.
Perfect for the Florida summer.
Tim Shoop (23:19):
Straight forward.
Good in the sun, good in theheat.
I can lay by the pool and drinkthat one.
So here's what we're going todo.
Steve's down in them.
We've got these little flight,these little six ounce uh
flighters, and he's justshooting them like shots.
That's good, and that's whyhe's been so speaky the last two
beers.
That's why we do this.
We get people to open up alittle more.
(23:41):
I don't think we had to do itwith Steve either way, but it's
good.
So we're going to go into ourfinal segment.
This is going to go quick,ladies and gentlemen.
We are going to play some soundbites for you, steve, okay, now
, you heard this first oneearlier, so try to act surprised
.
We're going to play three soundbites of inspirational quotes,
(24:04):
and all I need you to do isguess who it is and and maybe
add your own insight to thatquote.
Now, this first quote is verylong.
There's a pause in the middle,so let the pause happen and let
the quote finish before you getexcited and jump on the mic.
Okay, um.
So with that suds, let's hearthe first sound bite.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
You, me or nobody is going to hit as hard as life.
But it ain't about how hard youhit, it's about how hard you
can get hit and keep movingforward, how much you can take
and keep moving forward.
That's how winning is done.
Now, if you know what you'reworth, now go out and get what
you're worth.
But you gotta be willing totake the hits and not pointing
(24:48):
fingers saying you ain't whereyou wanna be because of him or
her or anybody.
Tim Shoop (24:52):
Cowards do that and that ain't you.
It's easy to find excuses forwhy you're not making the move,
steve, what are your thoughtsabout that?
Who is it, by the way?
Steve Wilmer (25:03):
First off, it's Rocky Bell Boy.
All right, I love it.
Rocky Bell Boy, SylvesterStallone and life.
And here's my take on it realquick.
So life happens to everybody.
Life is going to happen.
It's my second book.
Nobody Cares Work Harder.
And here's what I said aboutexcuses.
Excuses are the tools of theincompetent used to build
monuments of nothingness, andthose who specialize in the
(25:26):
frequent use of them seldomsucceed at anything else.
Therefore, I have no excuses.
Tim Shoop (25:33):
I love that Damn, you're gonna love me here in a
minute.
But so what I like aboutRocky's quote.
He's an iconic character rightin a movie that was one of the
sequels I don't remember if itwas five or six.
He definitely made animpression on my childhood.
He overcame all the odds tobecome who he was and, of course
(25:54):
, to allow multiple sequels inthe movie.
But you did the same thing youovercame the odds of coming from
the projects and how.
That kinda I don't wanna saysuppressed, but I think that's a
word that we might use isbecause it kinda suppresses
(26:15):
opportunity, I think when you'renot given the same odds as
maybe.
Well, I came from the baby ofsix in an army family, so I'm
not gonna.
You know I'm not.
My parents struggled, myparents struggled, but you know
it's across the spectrum.
So you know I love that.
I love that quote, I love how itresonated with your story and I
(26:40):
think they're synonymous oh,big time, big time.
So the next one I like becauseit sort of describes you all
right, you became a Marine, aState Farm agent, then an owner
and a motivational speaker forother agents and you did all the
overcoming the odds of someonewho grew up in the projects of
Pensacola, and the odds wereagainst you, the guy.
(27:03):
This guy was adopted by a manwho dropped out of high school
and a mother who dropped out ofcollege.
Then he himself dropped out ofcollege to follow his dream.
He's a tech, a pioneer, whoallowed fate to connect the dots
of his future, just like youdid, steve.
(27:24):
Listen and see if you know whothis is.
Speaker 5 (27:26):
Okay.
You have to trust in somethingyour gut, destiny, life, karma,
whatever because believing thatthe dots will connect down the
road will give you theconfidence to follow your heart,
even when it leads you off thewell-worn path, and that will
make all the difference.
Steve Wilmer (27:46):
Don't know who that is.
Tim Shoop (27:47):
You mentioned him earlier in this talk, Steve.
Steve Wilmer (27:50):
No way.
Tim Shoop (27:51):
That's Steve Jobs.
Steve Wilmer (27:52):
No way.
Tim Shoop (27:53):
Yeah, steve Jobs.
I haven't heard that.
Steve Jobs' parents weredropouts from high school and
college and they didn't want himto be.
He was an adopted child.
His mom wanted him to beadopted.
She was giving away her child,wanted him to be adopted by a
(28:14):
very esteemed professor orsomeone like that definitely
someone who graduated fromcollege.
The family didn't want it.
The family that he was supposedto go to didn't want him.
This family took him and he wasa last minute, I guess, choice
through the whole adoptionprocess.
(28:34):
His mom found out later and wasextremely upset that he didn't
go to college graduates.
I did not know that.
And look what they did.
They wanted him to go tocollege.
So they were putting him incollege because they didn't have
that opportunity and he droppedout himself.
But connect the dots.
(28:56):
It's not about and we talkedabout this before history is
always gonna be with you, butwhere you go in the future,
that's solely up to you.
So, steve, so what I wastalking about is Steve Jobs.
All the odds weren't reallyagainst him.
I mean, he had a greatchildhood.
(29:16):
He had great adopted parents.
They weren't what hisbiological mother expected to
raise him, but he dropped out ofcollege and he tells other
people in a keynote otherstudents connect the dots.
So what he's telling them isyou're gonna connect the dots,
(29:37):
you're gonna have a journey ofyour own, no matter where it
takes you.
Me personally, I always talkabout how I had several chapters
in my life.
I had my early years, the NavyI had this post-Navy part An
actor yeah, where I lived inCalifornia trying to be an actor
.
I was poor as dirt.
(29:57):
I was scrounging up money on aFriday just to get a six pack of
beer yes, I drank beer backthen too, folks Just to get some
beer.
I ate tuna crackers and ramennoodles because I couldn't
afford steak and I will nottouch ramen noodles and tuna
(30:18):
anymore, mainly because Iremember that period and it had
a psychological effect on me.
But the dots connected.
I followed the dots.
I went to California to be anactor but I met two
technological technology mentorsthat took me under their wing,
(30:39):
kind of showed me some of theropes, got me back into IT and I
followed my dream and I wrotemy first business plan while I
was out there and the rest ishistory.
But it was a course changer forme and all the dots in my life
connected and when I look backevery dot, I call it fate.
(31:00):
A lot of people, if you're notreligious, fate means something,
because I think there is astory written for every single
one of us sitting here today andwe're gonna end up where we're
supposed to end up and it's thejourney and we're not expecting
the journey as it's played outfor us.
(31:21):
I mean, we've all had our highsand lows, but we end up where
we're supposed to be.
Steve Wilmer (31:26):
So you are one person away, a one relationship
away from blowing up.
Tim Shoop (31:32):
Like it.
So we have one more quote.
I hope you can guess this lastperson.
I really like this guy.
He's motivational, his energy'scrazy high and I've seen him
rise through the ranks over theyears.
Let's see if you can guess whothis is.
Steve Wilmer (31:51):
Okay.
Excuses are the tools of theincompetent, used to build
monuments of nothingness, andthose who specialize in the
frequent use of them seldomsucceed at anything else.
Therefore, I have no excuses.
You gotta be willing to moveforward.
Who is that, steve?
That guy's a hack.
Don't listen.
He has no idea what the hellhe's talking about.
Tim Shoop (32:17):
I pulled that out of your Chicago talk, did you
really?
Yeah, and I was impressed.
I'm like, alright, I see whathe's doing here.
Steve Wilmer (32:25):
And, of course, those.
I don't know if your listenerswill believe this or not.
Right, but that was not planned.
Oh, it wasn't.
I mean, I don't believe inexcuses.
Man, what you just heard me sayand what you just played, all
of my kids know that, do they?
I make them know it, becauseexcuses get you nowhere in life.
(32:48):
I'm not saying that you didn'thave a bad issue.
I'm not saying you didn't havea bad life.
I'm not saying you didn't havea bad childhood.
I'm not saying that yourhusband didn't leave you.
I'm not saying that your wifedidn't cheat, that you didn't
get beat.
I'm not denying any of that.
But the truth of the fact ofthe matter is this Life happens
(33:11):
to everyone, everyone.
Yours may have just been alittle bit harder or a little
bit different, but no one hasjust had a peachy king life you
see what I mean.
Yeah, I'm not going to make adecision.
Am I going to let that beat medown, keep me down, hold me down
?
Or am I going to pick myself upand continue to move forward?
(33:33):
Because I hate to say this, butit's the absolute truth.
The second book is nobodyreally cares.
Nobody really cares.
Do you know?
When I wrote my second book isI was working for the post
office.
This is where inspiration camefrom.
I was working for the postoffice.
I get a phone call hey, yourson is in the hospital.
(33:56):
Got to go to the hospital.
I go to the post office.
Hey, my son's in the hospital.
I go to the hospital and within30 minutes of me being there,
he died.
Okay, lose the son, you'redevastated.
You're devastated when it wasdone.
You're devastated, you go tothe funeral and everything.
The job says all right, we'reso sorry to hear that.
(34:17):
When are you coming back towork?
My mortgage company says oh myGod, mr Wilma, we're so sorry to
hear that.
When can you make that payment?
The electric company said we'reso sorry to hear that.
When's the electric bill?
When can you make that electricbill payment?
The life kept going.
I'm just being honest, lifekept going and that was the
(34:40):
trigger for me to go.
Man, that was the twist.
Nobody really cares.
Because here's the point Otherpeople have lost children.
Somebody else's son died.
Somebody else's mother died.
Somebody else's daughter died.
Somebody else's father died.
Somebody else got raped.
Somebody else did this.
Somebody else lost it, somebodyelse.
I'm telling you, I had torealize, man, I'm not that
(35:04):
special, I'm not that special.
So if this stuff is happeningto every single person, what's
going to be the difference?
Am I going to lay down and quitand give up?
Yeah, am I going to pick myselfup and continue to move forward
?
Nobody cares, bro.
You just got to work harder,you got to pick yourself up.
Tim Shoop (35:22):
Not every day is going to be peachy keen.
You have got to learn to drillthrough it.
I love that.
And that comes back to wearingthe thick skin, having patience
and knowing that your futurestory is laid out for you.
You just got to follow your ownjourney to get there.
Steve, we're going to wrap up.
(35:42):
Why don't you tell our audience?
Look up at the camera and tellour audience if you have any
upcoming events, how they canconnect with you and any parting
words you might have for ourlisteners.
Steve Wilmer (35:55):
Yeah, I've got an event coming up in November, but
it's in Iowa and I apologize, Idon't know the city.
I don't probably know until mystuff gets booked.
Somebody makes it.
I know it's in Iowa.
I'm speaking in Iowa, you'regoing to eat corn.
Of course I'm going to be inIowa, but that's the last event
(36:15):
that I'll do for the year,unless somebody really wants me
to you know.
Tim Shoop (36:19):
How can our audience connect with you?
Steve Wilmer (36:21):
Connect, then I'll come in December you can go to.
So if you want to connect withme, you can connect with me
through Facebook and I'm underSteve Speaks, so you can look
that up, steve Speaks, you canalso.
Let's say, if you want to hearfrom me constantly, you can join
my master class.
So you can go to my website,stevespeaksmasterclasscom.
(36:46):
Stevespeaksmasterclasscom.
And you can become a member, aPatreon member.
I do live videos.
It's like a class Again.
It's class Now, teaching whatman I teach on everything From
the things you heard todaystarting a business, writing a
book, motivation, inspiration,leadership, life lessons.
(37:09):
Just go in there and you'll see.
Tim Shoop (37:12):
Don't forget about the book giveaway.
Make sure you follow our promosand check out the show.
Steve wants to give you a book.
Next episode.
We have a wonderful person thatI've known for many years, just
like Steve, coming on.
She's from the real estateindustry yeah, yeah, the young
(37:36):
and will be coming on, andshe'll be coming on to talk
about the infusion of technologyin her, her rapid scale.
That she's been, she'saccomplished, she is blowing up,
just like Steve and the rest ofus.
We all come from the same place.
We've all started in the in thepoise of BNI.
Steve, I want to thank you somuch for coming on.
(37:58):
The show man.
It's been a pleasure a newneighbor of mine as well, and we
still haven't hung out in theneighborhood, so we may have to
continue this beer drinkingsession back to Star.
Lake so ladies and gentlemen,again Steve Speaks.
You know where to find him andI appreciate you for coming.
(38:20):
Make sure you subscribe andlisten to more shows.
Nerds on tap is going to blowup.
Become part of the coreaudience that makes that happen.
Thank you so much and have agreat day.
Third or thousand thanks, guys.
Cheers my fellow nerds and beerlovers.
(38:42):
Stay tuned for more nerds ontap.
Oh, and one more thing help usspread the nerdy love and the
love for grape ruse by sharingthis podcast with your friends,
colleagues and fellow beerenthusiasts.
Let's build a community thatembraces curiosity, innovation
(39:05):
and the enjoyment of a cold one.
Hey, I'm Tim Shoop.
I'd like to introduce part twoof our two- part podcast with
Steve Wilmer.
The first episode coveredsegments one and two, about
Steve's rise through the ranksand how he used technology to do
that.
In this episode, we'll concludehis podcast with segments three
, the Power of Public Speaking,and segment four, where we'll
(00:24):
listen to sound bites ofmotivational speeches.
Guess who they are and see howSteve's journey relates to
either one.
If you miss part one, pleasetake the time to go back and
listen to that one beforelistening to this one.
Nerds on Tap is sponsored byDigital Boardwalk, one of the
fastest growing managed ITservice providers in America,
(00:45):
ranked number eight in thecountry, providing IT,
cybersecurity and cloudmanagement to small and medium
businesses, and Smarter Web, anAI and data-driven marketing
company, the sister company ofDigital Boardwalk, providing
leading edge marketing servicesto small, medium sized
businesses nationwide.
Brief overview of our episodetoday we'll be talking to Mr.
(01:09):
Steve Wilmer, sitting rightnext to me, and I'll introduce
him in just a minute.
We're going to be talking aboutthe Power of Public Speaking
and Writing, and then we'll wrapit up with a surprise segment
regarding motivational speakers,and then we'll get some
takeaways.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcometo Nerds on Tap.
(01:32):
I'm your host, Tim Shoop, and Icouldn't be more excited to
embark on this nerdy adventurewith all of you.
So grab your favorite brew,because things are about to get
exciting.
Suds (01:49):
All right beer.
Number three from the LexingtonBrewing and Distilling Company,
the Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale, american Strong Ale.
It's 8% ABV, a unique-stippingbeer with a distinctive nose of
well-crafted bourbon aged for upto six weeks in
freshly-decanned bourbon barrelswith some of Kentucky's finest
distilleries.
Subtle flavors of vanilla andoak, presently smooth and robust
(02:11):
.
Tim Shoop (02:12):
All right, let's taste this bad boy.
Did you catch up?
He just downed number two, sowe're going to make him this
one's a little bit darker.
I don't know about that one,hey.
Steve Wilmer (02:23):
I'm okay with a little bit darker.
Suds (02:26):
Yeah, whoa, there we go.
Tim Shoop (02:35):
Oh he just shot that.
That's not a shooter.
Well, it is now.
You liked it, but I do like it.
Yeah, that's definitely myfavorite one so far.
That's nice.
It's got a lot of tones in it,a lot of different, kind of a
nutty almost.
Steve Wilmer (02:51):
That was nice, it's like a nutty flavor.
Suds (02:54):
A little, orange a little nut, I don't know the most more
twang, but flavorful yeah.
More flavorful.
Well, I heard you like bourbon,so like that's why I got that
one hey there you go, bourbonand whiskey.
Steve Wilmer (03:07):
Love it Love it.
Tim Shoop (03:07):
We almost brought bourbon on the show, but we
didn't want to get off.
Brand Cancel.
All right, that was a tastybeer.
Let's get into segment threebefore we finish with our fun
surprise segment.
So we're going to talk aboutthe power of the power of
segment.
Yeah, You'll see.
All right.
Yeah Well, you already heardpart of it.
(03:28):
All right, the power of publicspeaking and writing public
speaking insights.
We're going to.
Oh yeah, I love this.
I want to talk about Steve'spublic speaking journey,
crafting Steve's speaks and thekey messages that you deliver in
your talk.
So take it away.
Steve Wilmer (03:47):
I started public speaking on accident.
I'm telling you, Tim, ourjourney.
I don't believe it.
Bro, BNI, not B&E, but BNI, BNIBusiness Network International.
They voted me the president.
And what does the president do?
Every single week Speaks thepresident, gets up, steve speaks
(04:11):
In front of a group of peopleand welcome people.
That's how I started.
So every week I'm doing that,I'm doing it, I'm doing it.
And then I started doing smallB&I presentations.
Remember Visitor's Day?
Oh yeah, I started doing smallpresentations.
And here's how it started Iwasn't even thinking about
speaking and Mary Riesburg cameup to me and she says to me
(04:34):
where did you learn how to dothat?
And I said do what?
What are you talking about?
She says you're speaking,you're this and that, and I'm
John Maxwell certified and allthis stuff.
And I said I don't know, I justspeak, yeah.
And she was talking about howshe's seen speakers and no one
can speak the way I speak, andy'all.
And then here's how I startedgetting paid.
I'm speaking one day for free,because I wasn't even thinking
(04:55):
about being a speaker.
I was going to be a State Farmagent.
I wasn't thinking aboutspeaking.
And somebody said this to mehow much would you charge me to
come and speak to?
Tim Shoop (05:12):
our group.
Steve Wilmer (05:13):
Money talks, Steve speaks Charge and bro, that's
how it started, so wait wait,hang on.
Tim Shoop (05:23):
Let's go back to B&I.
So the one thing I rememberabout B&I is when Steve speaks.
Or Steve spoke, we would bebuzzing him constantly because
he couldn't stop.
That's what I remember.
Steve Wilmer (05:40):
So you got to learn that when you're a
professional speaker, you got tostay on, mark man, I'm telling
you, you learn.
You learn so much when you area speaker and somebody's paying
you because I see this happen alot and you are being paid to
speak an hour, you speak 50minutes.
You're being paid to speak foran hour and a half.
You better speak for an hourand 15 minutes.
(06:02):
You want to leave that extratime?
You want to leave?
Tim Shoop (06:04):
that Q&A you want to leave that.
Steve Wilmer (06:05):
Q&A.
You want to make sure, and it'salways so.
I'm giving away some secretshere.
The reason that you want to dothat is you always want to be
invited back.
So if a company hires you tospeak for an hour and a half or
an hour, you speak for 45minutes.
It's always guys, I don't havea lot of time, got so much
information to give you, buttoday I just don't have a lot of
(06:28):
time to give you all thisinformation.
Maybe if we see each other, ifyou give them every single thing
yeah, you're just trying toReal men, I'm just telling you,
for those of you who want to bea speaker, I want you to
remember the two most importantrules to be in a speaker.
Here's rule number one younever give them all the
(06:49):
information.
Got it, I mean?
Tim Shoop (06:52):
that's like a good movie right.
Suds (06:54):
If you can leave a little to mystery right and a little
questions after you watch thefilm, that's going to impact a
lot of it.
Tim Shoop (06:59):
You could break down one talk into three talks, break
it up into three.
You're coming back two moretimes.
Steve Wilmer (07:05):
You're coming back two more times, so makes sense
I love it.
Tim Shoop (07:08):
So I watched your keynote on your trip to Chicago.
Did you do that?
Steve Wilmer (07:12):
earlier this year, Uh mid-September.
Tim Shoop (07:15):
Yeah, I saw that it was listed as earlier this year.
It was quite compelling.
Steve Wilmer (07:19):
Man, that was a huge one.
That was a huge, huge one.
I absolutely loved it.
Tim Shoop (07:26):
So why do you wear your fatigues?
So is that that creates thepersona that you're going for,
right?
The hey, I'm your drillsergeant for the day.
You're in boot camp.
Is that what you were?
I love it, um.
Steve Wilmer (07:45):
I don't remember the year, but it was one of my
earlier years.
I get invited to speak in LasVegas on 9 11.
Okay, wow, Las Vegas, 9, 11.
And I wasn't the keynote.
The keynote speaker, oh mygoodness, I can't think of his
(08:07):
name.
But we've all seen the movie Uh, loan survivor.
The movie loan survivor, ohyeah, it's a good one Okay.
Yeah, whatever that guy's nameis, I apologize, can't think of
his name.
He was the keynote speaker.
Okay.
All right, but I go and I said,okay, this guy's going to be
there, he's a keynote speaker.
I said I got to do something.
I got to do something different.
(08:27):
Uh, I spoke on my first book,which is, you know, 10 to win,
and all of everything I'mtalking about is drill
instructor.
I'm telling stories up toMarine Corps and something said,
just show up in Marine Corps,cammie's.
Yeah, and I showed up in MarineCorps, cammie's.
The crowd went crazy.
I made somebody do pushups andthey went crazy.
(08:47):
I'm like it's just, it's justpushups.
What.
Well, it's an opportunity though, Right, but so.
So here's what I found outreally quickly is that things
that we go through in themilitary the.
Navy, the Marine Corps,whatever the case would be
civilians.
They've never done that beforeand for them it's a big deal.
To us it's an average day.
So I made somebody do pushups.
(09:10):
They love it.
People been doing pushups everysingle time I speak.
Tim Shoop (09:13):
Right, that's awesome .
Steve Wilmer (09:14):
And you're right, I show up in my Marine.
Tim Shoop (09:16):
Corps.
I haven't done one yet, but Iwill.
I haven't done one yet.
I did 50 this morning.
Steve Wilmer (09:20):
If you come to my boot camp, you will do.
You will do pushups.
That's party, but that's what.
That's how it started.
Tim Shoop (09:27):
So so how do you balance?
How do you balance publicspeaking and entrepreneurship
and make it work?
That's a tough.
I know that's a tough one, butit.
Steve Wilmer (09:39):
Well, it's, well, actually it's.
It's one in the same.
How do I balance publicspeaking and entrepreneurship?
Tim Shoop (09:45):
We're public right now, which is taking me away
from my day to day, so I guessit's similar.
Steve Wilmer (09:51):
But for me it's not because this is.
I mean, I have my schedule, butthis is part of what I do
because it's it's a exposureright.
Your level of success isdetermined by your level of
exposure.
It's called a inside reality,outside perception.
Watch this, like it.
Inside reality, all right,inside reality.
(10:13):
If I were to say, tim, tell meabout what you believe about
digital boardwalk, you can,we're number one in this.
We can do this, we can do it.
Tim Shoop (10:22):
You go through it?
Yeah, I can go on and on foryeah.
Steve Wilmer (10:26):
That's the inside reality.
Here's the outside perception,depending on who you're talking
to.
I've never heard of digitalboardwalk.
What are you talking about?
Yeah.
This company's better?
Oh, digital boardwalk is thebest.
What is your outside perception?
So my inside reality, when itcomes to sales training?
When it comes to sales training, I'm the best.
(10:48):
That's the inside reality.
You ask me.
Oh, I'm the best.
Tim Shoop (10:53):
And what's the outside?
Steve Wilmer (10:54):
They don't know about me.
Tim Shoop (10:55):
Yeah.
Steve Wilmer (10:56):
You see what I mean.
Tim Shoop (10:56):
So you need exposure.
Steve Wilmer (10:58):
I need exposure because they don't know about me
when I went to Chicago Our 34listeners.
You're 34 listeners.
I need all 34 of you to sharethis.
Tim Shoop (11:09):
And I need you 34 listeners to share this with 34
more listeners so we can become.
So what Next year?
There you go 34,000.
Steve Wilmer (11:18):
There you go so that's what I mean about.
So again, the entrepreneursthat are listening, the business
owners that are listening yourlevel of success is going to be
determined by your level ofexposure.
The technology gets me exposure.
Yeah Right, the people that Ihire semi, which I wanna have
them on as a guest, helps me getexposure, because when I went
(11:42):
to Chicago think about it, itwas 300 and something business.
All business owners in therehad never heard me before, man,
when I tell you that my business, it was already blowing up.
I couldn't even take all the onthe business that I got that
day.
Tim Shoop (12:00):
So what I hear is I have job security.
Steve Wilmer (12:02):
Who had oh yeah, you got job security Absolutely
100%.
Tim Shoop (12:07):
We all have job security 100%.
So let's dive into your books.
Let's talk about being anauthor and your influences.
I wanna do kind of a deep diveinto the themes of your books,
how writing has influenced yourcareer and thought leadership in
(12:30):
your career and thoughtleadership and sales and
business.
How has writing kind ofintertwined with your or I don't
wanna say intertwined, butpulled those thoughts out of
your brain, put them on page andgive them to your audience and
how has that impacted you as anindividual?
Steve Wilmer (12:51):
So if you were to ask 100 people, would you like
to write a book?
Have you ever thought aboutwriting a book?
The overwhelming majority thenwould say yes.
But then if you ask how many ofyou have written a book, I bet
you it'll be two to 3%, two tothree people.
(13:12):
I agree, and here's the cause.
I was there, and here's thereason why is because you're
worried about what you're gonnawrite.
Is it?
Are people gonna like it?
You're worried about what Ihave to say.
Is it gonna make sense?
You're worried about what Ihave to say.
Is it gonna be good?
(13:32):
You're too concerned about whatother people think you just
gotta get it out there.
You just gotta get it out there.
So when I tell you it is easy,people don't believe this.
It's easy to write a book.
Tim Shoop (13:44):
You know why is it so easy for people to go out and
post whatever they frickingthink of in the moment on social
media, but afraid to write abook?
Steve Wilmer (13:53):
Do you know?
That's perfect example, tim,because you could write a book
on.
Here are my last 100 posts andmy thoughts.
You can self publish it.
So I know there are publishersout there that are gonna be
upset at me about saying this.
You don't have to get apublisher to publish a book, you
can.
I did not use a.
I used a publisher on one bookand only because I co-authored
(14:17):
the book with someone else.
My first watch this.
My first two books.
I self published my fourth book.
I self published my fourth bookmakes a killing, a killing, no
publisher.
Number one and two do you knowwhat book makes the least amount
of money?
What Book?
Number three why.
(14:37):
The one where I used a publisher.
Tim Shoop (14:39):
You used a book because the funds don't go to
you.
Steve Wilmer (14:41):
The front man and they it costs more to order the
book, and I'm not gonna evenname the publisher.
Tim Shoop (14:48):
So how did you?
So is it okay to tell theaudience how to print and go to
print with a book without apublisher?
Steve Wilmer (14:56):
Amazon.
Tim Shoop (14:58):
Okay.
Steve Wilmer (14:58):
Amazon, I'm just.
Guys are just being completelyhonest with you.
Amazon, you write your book,you hire somebody, I hire
somebody to do my pictures.
Tim Shoop (15:08):
Did you use a ghost writer?
Steve Wilmer (15:09):
No, heck, no, Every word I wrote is my word.
Tim Shoop (15:14):
Team, listen to me, I'm sorry, it's all right, it's
all right, I'm hitting thisbecause I'm hitting this dog on
table, because you don't need aghost writer.
Steve Wilmer (15:23):
Write your book.
Write your thoughts.
You will always be 100% correct.
Do you know why they're yourthoughts?
It's your opinion.
Tim Shoop (15:33):
You can't be wrong in your opinion.
So, ladies and gentlemen,you're taking your opinion,
you're putting it on page.
Steve Wilmer (15:40):
Yes.
Tim Shoop (15:40):
You're not using a publisher and I'm sure a lot of
people are gonna come out of thewoodwork and hopefully comment
on this out of my 34 listeners.
Steve Wilmer (15:49):
It's up to you.
Tim Shoop (15:50):
I'm telling you what I did, and so Steve's most
profitable book is the one thathe published himself, or he took
the Amazon.
Steve Wilmer (15:58):
The three, three, I'm telling you Number one,
number two and number four.
Okay, number one, number twoand number four my most
profitable, most profitablebooks.
Tim Shoop (16:08):
Can you tell me the titles of one through four real
quick.
Steve Wilmer (16:11):
So number one and two are motivational.
So number one is 10 to win Okay.
Number two nobody cares, workharder.
Now, three and four are salesbooks.
So three is supercharge yourmulti-line agency.
It's a sales book formulti-line insurance agents.
Tim Shoop (16:27):
So it's targeted at insurance agents, where the
other two were more generalized.
Steve Wilmer (16:33):
Other two were more general, but number four is
only for insurance agents.
Tim Shoop (16:39):
Okay, number four, but three was your most
profitable book.
Steve Wilmer (16:42):
No three was the least.
Tim Shoop (16:44):
Four was your most profitable Four.
Okay.
Steve Wilmer (16:46):
Yeah, I haven't written five.
The fourth one, right now Idon't need to write, I don't
need to write anymore, and sowatch this Number one charge 20
bucks.
Number two 20 bucks.
Number three 25.
Ah, Number four $397.
Wow.
Tim Shoop (17:07):
How many pages is?
I can't keep them on the shelf.
Man that's awesome.
So so would you mind providingour audience with a and this
isn't a scripted question, thisis just coming out of my brain
but provide them with like a,not necessarily a step by step
(17:29):
process, but what would they dofirst?
Steve Wilmer (17:34):
to write the book.
Yeah, oh, I got it.
Tim Shoop (17:35):
It's the first thing that they need to do.
Steve Wilmer (17:38):
First thing you need to do is get out of your
own head.
That's number one, alright,alright.
Number two start writing Every.
Listen to me, don't worry aboutpunctuation, that's not your
job, that's the editor's job.
Don't worry about punctuation,don't worry about sentence
structure.
Start writing every single day.
You should write something.
You got to decide what you wantyour book to be on.
(17:59):
Come up with a couple ofchapters but just continue to
writing.
Don't worry about should justgo first.
That's not your job.
Your job is only to write.
Now, once you got everything.
Now you have and I'm sure howto do this for free.
You guys gonna love it.
Now, once you got everything.
Now it has to put to be put instructure, alright.
(18:19):
So now I got all these pages ofyour random thoughts.
Now you got to hire an editor.
Alright.
Now you got to hire somebody,maybe to do a cover or, you know
, take a picture of you.
You got to have somebody breakit down.
They can do all that for you.
Somebody puts it in the format.
You take all of that.
You sit at the Amazon.
Amazon prints my books numberone and number two for three
(18:39):
dollars and twenty five cents.
That's what it costs me.
Land it at my door.
One book three twenty five.
I sell it for twenty bucks Okay.
Tim Shoop (18:49):
And and I don't want to get ahead of you Okay, I want
to, I want to let you continuewith the process, but I do want
to know how you promoted yourbook.
So I'm sure that's towards theend.
So let's get into that, afteryou keep going down this rabbit
hole.
Steve Wilmer (19:02):
Right now.
Let me show you how I.
Let me show you how I, how Idid it for free.
It's gonna blow your mind.
I want to say, cat, I'm notmistaken.
So here's what I did you.
You decide you're gonna write abook, and then you go to your
friends, you go to family, yougo to people that you know, and
I said this I said, all right,cat, I'm a Kathleen.
(19:24):
I said, hey, Kat, I'm gonnawrite a book.
The name of the book is called10 to win.
Once the book is published, I'mgonna charge twenty dollars for
each book.
Would you do me a favor andwould you pre-purchase a copy
for fifteen dollars?
And guess what Kat said?
Tim Shoop (19:41):
She probably said yeah.
She said yes, and that helpsyou get on the best sellers list
.
She gave me?
Steve Wilmer (19:45):
no, not even about the best.
Okay, no, that what you'retalking about is, uh, like,
amazon bestseller Right, no.
Tim Shoop (19:52):
I'm talking about.
Steve Wilmer (19:53):
That's what Quint does, all right, so I'm talking
about a printed book, okay.
So Kat gave me fifteen bucks,tim gives me fifteen bucks, bob
gives me fifteen bucks.
The whole time fifteen dollarsfrom everybody keeps going into
my account.
I keep writing Ah, you got it.
Okay, that's takes me.
Takes me ninety days to writemy first book.
(20:14):
All right, you know how manyfifteen dollars you get from
people.
So by the time it was time tohire an editor, editor charge me
X amount of dollars.
Good thing I got all this moneyin this account, right?
You see what I mean?
Yeah, no, I got you Right.
So everything that I had to payfor the book, I already had the
(20:35):
money and so at the end of it,amazon, I order books, all the
books come, I go to Kat.
Thank you so much, kat.
Here's your autograph copy.
I give it all these books.
And then I still had I rememberI still had like a hundred
books left Because, again, thereare only three dollars and
twenty five cents.
I got paid fifteen dollars fora three dollars and twenty five
(20:55):
cent book.
So I gave everybody their book.
I had the money paid,everything I needed to, and then
I had an additional hundredbucks that I charged twenty.
You do the math Twenty dollarstimes a hundred.
I made that money on my firstbook.
I love that and I did it fornumber two and by the time I got
to book number four my mostprofitable book it's a sales
manual.
I wrote that thing and had itbound in sixty days and it's
(21:17):
printed right here in Pensacolaby Tommy Armstrong.
Guess where I met Tommy.
I don't BNI.
Tim Shoop (21:22):
BNI.
I'm telling you right now Ihaven't seen Tommy in a while.
Oh man.
Steve Wilmer (21:27):
Tommy's business is blowing up.
He'll be telling you just likeyour business blew up from BNI,
mine his did as well.
Yeah, no, I believe it?
Tim Shoop (21:35):
Um, you, so where was I going with this?
So, um, printing the book?
So, you, you, you collect themoney.
Yep, you collect the money fromeverybody interested in the
book that hasn't been writtenyet.
Steve Wilmer (21:49):
Yes.
Tim Shoop (21:49):
You write the book?
Yes, you put it out there.
When you go to a speaking event, do you give away books?
Steve Wilmer (21:57):
I give away books, I sell, do both.
So I'll sell books.
So you sign them.
Oh, I sign them.
It's autograph, everybody is itautograph.
Of course it's alreadyautograph.
So I'll sell books for twentybucks.
I'll give them away because,again, man, I could you want to
talk about running a business?
When I first started Tim, Ithought that I was going to make
a lot, a lot of money from,from selling books.
Yeah, that's not where themoney is, but it promotes you.
Tim Shoop (22:20):
It promotes you.
It promotes who you are.
What's in your brain?
Steve Wilmer (22:22):
It's uh, what's the word I'm looking for?
Help me out here Um influence,influence.
It qualifies you as an expertbecause, like I said,
credibility.
Thank you, that's the word I'mlooking for.
It gives you credibility,because a lot of people want to
write a book and they go I don'thave the way to take the right
a book and you go.
You written for, oh my god,this guy's written four books.
Oh my god, he's so smart.
(22:43):
Yeah, he's so great, he'swritten four.
But I'm like, yeah, I'm anauthor, I'm a four-time so so
we're going to feed we're goingto feed our our favorite author
and speaker today, steve.
Tim Shoop (22:55):
One more beer before we go into our surprise segment
and then we'll.
We'll maybe talk about a coupletakeaways and we'll wrap up.
So, suds, take it away, let'slearn about the final beer of
the day.
All right?
Suds (23:06):
The final beer is from our own Pensacola Bay Brewery the
Pensacola original AmericanLager, made of the 100% American
Pills and Malt combined withnoble hops, delivering crisp,
light and extremely drinkablebeer.
Perfect for the Florida summer.
Tim Shoop (23:19):
Straight forward.
Good in the sun, good in theheat.
I can lay by the pool and drinkthat one.
So here's what we're going todo.
Steve's down in them.
We've got these little flight,these little six ounce uh
flighters, and he's justshooting them like shots.
That's good, and that's whyhe's been so speaky the last two
beers.
That's why we do this.
We get people to open up alittle more.
(23:41):
I don't think we had to do itwith Steve either way, but it's
good.
So we're going to go into ourfinal segment.
This is going to go quick,ladies and gentlemen.
We are going to play some soundbites for you, steve, okay, now
, you heard this first oneearlier, so try to act surprised
.
We're going to play three soundbites of inspirational quotes,
(24:04):
and all I need you to do isguess who it is and and maybe
add your own insight to thatquote.
Now, this first quote is verylong.
There's a pause in the middle,so let the pause happen and let
the quote finish before you getexcited and jump on the mic.
Okay, um.
So with that suds, let's hearthe first sound bite.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
You, me or nobody is going to hit as hard as life.
But it ain't about how hard youhit, it's about how hard you
can get hit and keep movingforward, how much you can take
and keep moving forward.
That's how winning is done.
Now, if you know what you'reworth, now go out and get what
you're worth.
But you gotta be willing totake the hits and not pointing
(24:48):
fingers saying you ain't whereyou wanna be because of him or
her or anybody.
Tim Shoop (24:52):
Cowards do that and that ain't you.
It's easy to find excuses forwhy you're not making the move,
steve, what are your thoughtsabout that?
Who is it, by the way?
Steve Wilmer (25:03):
First off, it's Rocky Bell Boy.
All right, I love it.
Rocky Bell Boy, SylvesterStallone and life.
And here's my take on it realquick.
So life happens to everybody.
Life is going to happen.
It's my second book.
Nobody Cares Work Harder.
And here's what I said aboutexcuses.
Excuses are the tools of theincompetent used to build
monuments of nothingness, andthose who specialize in the
(25:26):
frequent use of them seldomsucceed at anything else.
Therefore, I have no excuses.
Tim Shoop (25:33):
I love that Damn, you're gonna love me here in a
minute.
But so what I like aboutRocky's quote.
He's an iconic character rightin a movie that was one of the
sequels I don't remember if itwas five or six.
He definitely made animpression on my childhood.
He overcame all the odds tobecome who he was and, of course
(25:54):
, to allow multiple sequels inthe movie.
But you did the same thing youovercame the odds of coming from
the projects and how.
That kinda I don't wanna saysuppressed, but I think that's a
word that we might use isbecause it kinda suppresses
(26:15):
opportunity, I think when you'renot given the same odds as
maybe.
Well, I came from the baby ofsix in an army family, so I'm
not gonna.
You know I'm not.
My parents struggled, myparents struggled, but you know
it's across the spectrum.
So you know I love that.
I love that quote, I love how itresonated with your story and I
(26:40):
think they're synonymous oh,big time, big time.
So the next one I like becauseit sort of describes you all
right, you became a Marine, aState Farm agent, then an owner
and a motivational speaker forother agents and you did all the
overcoming the odds of someonewho grew up in the projects of
Pensacola, and the odds wereagainst you, the guy.
(27:03):
This guy was adopted by a manwho dropped out of high school
and a mother who dropped out ofcollege.
Then he himself dropped out ofcollege to follow his dream.
He's a tech, a pioneer, whoallowed fate to connect the dots
of his future, just like youdid, steve.
(27:24):
Listen and see if you know whothis is.
Speaker 5 (27:26):
Okay.
You have to trust in somethingyour gut, destiny, life, karma,
whatever because believing thatthe dots will connect down the
road will give you theconfidence to follow your heart,
even when it leads you off thewell-worn path, and that will
make all the difference.
Steve Wilmer (27:46):
Don't know who that is.
Tim Shoop (27:47):
You mentioned him earlier in this talk, Steve.
Steve Wilmer (27:50):
No way.
Tim Shoop (27:51):
That's Steve Jobs.
Steve Wilmer (27:52):
No way.
Tim Shoop (27:53):
Yeah, steve Jobs.
I haven't heard that.
Steve Jobs' parents weredropouts from high school and
college and they didn't want himto be.
He was an adopted child.
His mom wanted him to beadopted.
She was giving away her child,wanted him to be adopted by a
(28:14):
very esteemed professor orsomeone like that definitely
someone who graduated fromcollege.
The family didn't want it.
The family that he was supposedto go to didn't want him.
This family took him and he wasa last minute, I guess, choice
through the whole adoptionprocess.
(28:34):
His mom found out later and wasextremely upset that he didn't
go to college graduates.
I did not know that.
And look what they did.
They wanted him to go tocollege.
So they were putting him incollege because they didn't have
that opportunity and he droppedout himself.
But connect the dots.
(28:56):
It's not about and we talkedabout this before history is
always gonna be with you, butwhere you go in the future,
that's solely up to you.
So, steve, so what I wastalking about is Steve Jobs.
All the odds weren't reallyagainst him.
I mean, he had a greatchildhood.
(29:16):
He had great adopted parents.
They weren't what hisbiological mother expected to
raise him, but he dropped out ofcollege and he tells other
people in a keynote otherstudents connect the dots.
So what he's telling them isyou're gonna connect the dots,
(29:37):
you're gonna have a journey ofyour own, no matter where it
takes you.
Me personally, I always talkabout how I had several chapters
in my life.
I had my early years, the NavyI had this post-Navy part An
actor yeah, where I lived inCalifornia trying to be an actor
.
I was poor as dirt.
(29:57):
I was scrounging up money on aFriday just to get a six pack of
beer yes, I drank beer backthen too, folks Just to get some
beer.
I ate tuna crackers and ramennoodles because I couldn't
afford steak and I will nottouch ramen noodles and tuna
(30:18):
anymore, mainly because Iremember that period and it had
a psychological effect on me.
But the dots connected.
I followed the dots.
I went to California to be anactor but I met two
technological technology mentorsthat took me under their wing,
(30:39):
kind of showed me some of theropes, got me back into IT and I
followed my dream and I wrotemy first business plan while I
was out there and the rest ishistory.
But it was a course changer forme and all the dots in my life
connected and when I look backevery dot, I call it fate.
(31:00):
A lot of people, if you're notreligious, fate means something,
because I think there is astory written for every single
one of us sitting here today andwe're gonna end up where we're
supposed to end up and it's thejourney and we're not expecting
the journey as it's played outfor us.
(31:21):
I mean, we've all had our highsand lows, but we end up where
we're supposed to be.
Steve Wilmer (31:26):
So you are one person away, a one relationship
away from blowing up.
Tim Shoop (31:32):
Like it.
So we have one more quote.
I hope you can guess this lastperson.
I really like this guy.
He's motivational, his energy'scrazy high and I've seen him
rise through the ranks over theyears.
Let's see if you can guess whothis is.
Steve Wilmer (31:51):
Okay.
Excuses are the tools of theincompetent, used to build
monuments of nothingness, andthose who specialize in the
frequent use of them seldomsucceed at anything else.
Therefore, I have no excuses.
You gotta be willing to moveforward.
Who is that, steve?
That guy's a hack.
Don't listen.
He has no idea what the hellhe's talking about.
Tim Shoop (32:17):
I pulled that out of your Chicago talk, did you
really?
Yeah, and I was impressed.
I'm like, alright, I see whathe's doing here.
Steve Wilmer (32:25):
And, of course, those.
I don't know if your listenerswill believe this or not.
Right, but that was not planned.
Oh, it wasn't.
I mean, I don't believe inexcuses.
Man, what you just heard me sayand what you just played, all
of my kids know that, do they?
I make them know it, becauseexcuses get you nowhere in life.
(32:48):
I'm not saying that you didn'thave a bad issue.
I'm not saying you didn't havea bad life.
I'm not saying you didn't havea bad childhood.
I'm not saying that yourhusband didn't leave you.
I'm not saying that your wifedidn't cheat, that you didn't
get beat.
I'm not denying any of that.
But the truth of the fact ofthe matter is this Life happens
(33:11):
to everyone, everyone.
Yours may have just been alittle bit harder or a little
bit different, but no one hasjust had a peachy king life you
see what I mean.
Yeah, I'm not going to make adecision.
Am I going to let that beat medown, keep me down, hold me down
?
Or am I going to pick myself upand continue to move forward?
(33:33):
Because I hate to say this, butit's the absolute truth.
The second book is nobodyreally cares.
Nobody really cares.
Do you know?
When I wrote my second book isI was working for the post
office.
This is where inspiration camefrom.
I was working for the postoffice.
I get a phone call hey, yourson is in the hospital.
(33:56):
Got to go to the hospital.
I go to the post office.
Hey, my son's in the hospital.
I go to the hospital and within30 minutes of me being there,
he died.
Okay, lose the son, you'redevastated.
You're devastated when it wasdone.
You're devastated, you go tothe funeral and everything.
The job says all right, we'reso sorry to hear that.
(34:17):
When are you coming back towork?
My mortgage company says oh myGod, mr Wilma, we're so sorry to
hear that.
When can you make that payment?
The electric company said we'reso sorry to hear that.
When's the electric bill?
When can you make that electricbill payment?
The life kept going.
I'm just being honest, lifekept going and that was the
(34:40):
trigger for me to go.
Man, that was the twist.
Nobody really cares.
Because here's the point Otherpeople have lost children.
Somebody else's son died.
Somebody else's mother died.
Somebody else's daughter died.
Somebody else's father died.
Somebody else got raped.
Somebody else did this.
Somebody else lost it, somebodyelse.
I'm telling you, I had torealize, man, I'm not that
(35:04):
special, I'm not that special.
So if this stuff is happeningto every single person, what's
going to be the difference?
Am I going to lay down and quitand give up?
Yeah, am I going to pick myselfup and continue to move forward
?
Nobody cares, bro.
You just got to work harder,you got to pick yourself up.
Tim Shoop (35:22):
Not every day is going to be peachy keen.
You have got to learn to drillthrough it.
I love that.
And that comes back to wearingthe thick skin, having patience
and knowing that your futurestory is laid out for you.
You just got to follow your ownjourney to get there.
Steve, we're going to wrap up.
(35:42):
Why don't you tell our audience?
Look up at the camera and tellour audience if you have any
upcoming events, how they canconnect with you and any parting
words you might have for ourlisteners.
Steve Wilmer (35:55):
Yeah, I've got an event coming up in November, but
it's in Iowa and I apologize, Idon't know the city.
I don't probably know until mystuff gets booked.
Somebody makes it.
I know it's in Iowa.
I'm speaking in Iowa, you'regoing to eat corn.
Of course I'm going to be inIowa, but that's the last event
(36:15):
that I'll do for the year,unless somebody really wants me
to you know.
Tim Shoop (36:19):
How can our audience connect with you?
Steve Wilmer (36:21):
Connect, then I'll come in December you can go to.
So if you want to connect withme, you can connect with me
through Facebook and I'm underSteve Speaks, so you can look
that up, steve Speaks, you canalso.
Let's say, if you want to hearfrom me constantly, you can join
my master class.
So you can go to my website,stevespeaksmasterclasscom.
(36:46):
Stevespeaksmasterclasscom.
And you can become a member, aPatreon member.
I do live videos.
It's like a class Again.
It's class Now, teaching whatman I teach on everything From
the things you heard todaystarting a business, writing a
book, motivation, inspiration,leadership, life lessons.
(37:09):
Just go in there and you'll see.
Tim Shoop (37:12):
Don't forget about the book giveaway.
Make sure you follow our promosand check out the show.
Steve wants to give you a book.
Next episode.
We have a wonderful person thatI've known for many years, just
like Steve, coming on.
She's from the real estateindustry yeah, yeah, the young
(37:36):
and will be coming on, andshe'll be coming on to talk
about the infusion of technologyin her, her rapid scale.
That she's been, she'saccomplished, she is blowing up,
just like Steve and the rest ofus.
We all come from the same place.
We've all started in the in thepoise of BNI.
Steve, I want to thank you somuch for coming on.
(37:58):
The show man.
It's been a pleasure a newneighbor of mine as well, and we
still haven't hung out in theneighborhood, so we may have to
continue this beer drinkingsession back to Star.
Lake so ladies and gentlemen,again Steve Speaks.
You know where to find him andI appreciate you for coming.
(38:20):
Make sure you subscribe andlisten to more shows.
Nerds on tap is going to blowup.
Become part of the coreaudience that makes that happen.
Thank you so much and have agreat day.
Third or thousand thanks, guys.
Cheers my fellow nerds and beerlovers.
(38:42):
Stay tuned for more nerds ontap.
Oh, and one more thing help usspread the nerdy love and the
love for grape ruse by sharingthis podcast with your friends,
colleagues and fellow beerenthusiasts.
Let's build a community thatembraces curiosity, innovation
(39:05):
and the enjoyment of a cold one.
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Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!