June 3, 2025 • 26 mins
In this transformative episode, Aurora Winter shares how you can turn your story into a powerful brand to grow your business. If you’re struggling to stand out, or if you feel stuck in a job instead of a business, you won’t want to miss it.
You will discover:
- Why your brand is the story others tell to build trust and credibility
- How to use a book to scale beyond local limits and attract clients
- What neuroscience tips cut through noise to share your story effectively
This episode is ideal for for Founders, Owners, and CEOs in stage 2 of The Founder's Evolution. Not sure which stage you're in? Find out for free in less than 10 minutes at https://www.scalearchitects.com/founders/quiz
Aurora Winter, MBA, is an award-winning, bestselling author. She is a successful serial entrepreneur, media trainer, creator of the Spoken Author™ method, and founder of Same Page Publishing. Aurora left her lucrative career as a TV executive decades ago to become a full-time author, trainer, and entrepreneur. Using storytelling for business, she created a life of freedom, creativity, and contribution. Now, she helps her clients turn their words into wealth, wisdom, and wonder.
Want to learn more about Aurora Winter's work at www.aurorawinter.com/? Check out her website at https://www.aurorawinter.com/ and get a copy of her book, Turn Words into Wealth, at turnwordsintowealth.com
Mentioned in this episode:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Scott Ritzheimer (00:00):
Hello, hello and welcome. Welcome once
(00:02):
again to the secrets of thehigh demand coach podcast,
where here with us today isthe one and only Aurora winter
MBA, who is an award winning,Best Selling Author. She's
also a successful serialentrepreneur, media trainer,
creator of the spoken authormethod, and founder of same
page publishing. Aurora lefther lucrative career as a TV
(00:23):
executive decades ago tobecome a full time author,
trainer and entrepreneur usingstorytelling for business, she
created a life of freedom,creativity and contribution.
Now she helps her clients turntheir words into wealth,
wisdom and wonder. She'swritten the book, the
fantastic book, actually turnwords into wealth. Got a copy
(00:44):
of it here. Highly recommendit, and it sparked all kinds
of ideas and thoughts andquestions for me that I can't
wait to unpack with you,Aurora. So welcome to the
show. Super excited to haveyou here. I want to start off
with one of my personalfavorite points that you made
in the book, and I won't stealyour thunder. I'll let you
make it, but you make thepoint that our brand isn't
(01:06):
what a lot of us think it is.So tell us what our brand
isn't and what is it your?
Aurora Winter (01:12):
Your brand is not what you think it is.
Exactly right. Your brand isthe story that other people
tell about you when you're notin the room and our brand
doesn't have a lot of shelfspace for your story, so it's
very concise, but our brand isalso the biggest way to
leverage our revenue. If youdon't have a brand, then it's
a dive to the bottom. You'llbe competing with Walmart and
(01:35):
China and the lowest pricewind. You don't want that
equation. You want authority.You want status. You want some
special sauce.
Scott Ritzheimer (01:43):
Yeah, you talk. When you lay this out,
you tell some of Oprah'sstory. And I'm wondering if
you could share a little bitof like, how did that, how did
that strike you? Like, wheredid you first learn this, or
where did you first hear aboutthat story that made such an
impact for you?
Aurora Winter (01:58):
Well, one of the things that is outstanding
about Oprah, which most peopledon't even think of, is like
she is on the cover of everyOprah O magazine. It's, it's
amazing. She realized thatbuilding a brand was really
important, that it wasn't justabout, you know, the click
bait on the cover, but herimage repeatedly on the cover.
And many people have donethis, but I think she was
(02:20):
really the first to pioneerthat. And Oprah's got a, you
know, billion dollar brand.She broke through. I mean, she
came from basically nothing,almost worse than nothing,
because she was in the hole,had a terrible childhood, and
she's become, you know, one ofthe wealthiest women on the
planet.
Scott Ritzheimer (02:37):
Yeah, that's awesome, yeah? One, so
someone's okay, I'm in. I wantto share my story. One of the
frustrations that I've seenfor founders, kind of at this
point, is they go out to sharetheir story, and they're just
competing against the world'sbiggest brands, right? They're
in many of the same spaces,trying to break through the
noise. So you go into some oflike, the neuroscience behind
(03:00):
how we can really cut throughall the noise. What are some
of the key takeaways for you?For the underdog, if you will,
trying to build their ownbrand?
Aurora Winter (03:10):
Well, first, I just want to address the
underdog point. Yes, there arehuge names out there, you
know, like we're competingwith Seth Godin, we're
competing with Mel Robbins,we're competing with all
these. David Goggins. JKRowling, but are you really,
you know, as a coach, youmight be the only person that
somebody actually has in theircircle who can help them solve
(03:32):
that problem. So instead ofthinking, oh my gosh, Tim
Ferriss would do a better job.You know, they're probably not
going to get Tim Ferriss astheir personal coach, right.
So put that aside and justunderstand that you're the
answer to somebody's prayers,and you may be the only person
that they know who's in theirloose circle, or only person
available to talk to themabout solving their problem.
(03:53):
And then we need to understandin order to make the biggest
difference that we can we needto understand the neuroscience
of communication and mostpeople blow it in the first
few seconds. They're at theRotary Club, or they're
introducing themselves. Youknow, they start by saying
their name and their companyname, and by that time, people
have zoned out. So it's reallygood to start with, what's the
(04:15):
problem that you solve? Youwant to start with a little
taste of novelty. Then youwant to give a little taste of
social proof, and then if youwant to show off a little bit
of your authority that canwork out and do all of those
things really quickly, so thatthen you can get onto the
deeper message, don't send theverbal equi the verbal
(04:35):
equivalent of an Excelspreadsheet. So quick example
this book turn words intowealth. The title itself is
that novelty. It's like, whattopic area are we in? And then
the, you know, it's at oneoutstanding non fiction book
of the year that's hitting thesocial proof. And then I can
go into explain the 27x ROI ona story.
Scott Ritzheimer (04:58):
That's awesome. I love that. And.
Love the Way You broke itdown. It's interesting. I've
not heard folks distinguish asquickly or as clearly between
social proof and authority,right? Because a lot of times
those are coming together. ButI love the book example. I
want to jump to this nextquestion, because I see it all
the time. It's very true forcoaches, very true for folks
(05:20):
in professional services, buthappens in a whole lot of
industries, and that is thatfounders working their various
degrees of success, but theycome to this really
uncomfortable realization,almost despite that success,
that they've started a job andnot a business, and, and, and
so once you get there, it'skind of like, what do I want
(05:42):
to do with that? And a lot offolks, the answer is, I want
to scale past that. I don'twant it to just be trading
hours for dollars or all thethings that go along with
that. But they're reallylimited to, like, they've
they've built a tremendousdegree of local trust and
credibility, but it reallyfalls off very quickly after
that. So like, how do you getpast that? How do you scale
(06:04):
beyond that local community orimpact and build trust and
credibility at a greaterscale?
Aurora Winter (06:11):
One of the key ways I love to do that is
through books. I mean, you, ifyou have a book on Amazon,
Barnes and Noble, it'savailable around the world.
And if you have a non fictionbook that clearly answers a
problem, that has greatkeywords in the title and the
subtitle, people can find youfrom from New York, from Los
Angeles, where I live, fromParis, from London. They can
(06:33):
find you if you have a verygood book with a solid title.
And I really love that becauseI mean, back in the day when I
started in publishing, itwasn't that easy to get a book
published. There were allthese gatekeepers. You were so
very likely to get no after noafter No. One of the clients
I'm working with, he got 100rejection letters, and now his
(06:54):
books have got over 3000reviews on Amazon and have won
10 awards. He just couldn'tget past the gatekeeper, and
anyway, back to if you ifyou're a coach or an author,
sorry, if your coach or anexpert or a leader of some
kind, a book can be a greatway to reach people around the
world. And there are sevendifferent ways to make seven
figures with your book.
Scott Ritzheimer (07:15):
I love that. And you took the words right
out of my mouth, becausethat's exactly where we're
going next. So anotherchallenge that I've seen,
especially for founders, havebeen doing it for a while,
right? And to some extent,like your own success can
create the biggest barrier.Here, you hit the kind of
high, medium, six figures, andit's kind of good, you know?
(07:36):
It's better than it was, butit's not all that it can be.
But if you're there longenough, it can start to shape
what you believe is possible,right? And there's a lot of
folks who've writtenthemselves, I could never make
a million dollars. I couldnever make seven figures, but
you offer in your book sevenways of doing that. I was
wondering if we could walkthrough those, because I
thought, well, it's just afascinating concept, but
(07:57):
there's some really practicalstuff in here as well. So I
want to kick off strategynumber one, attracting premium
clients. And the tell us alittle bit about what that is,
but also tell us, like, how isthat different from what most
of us are doing before reallysetting on this strategy?
Aurora Winter (08:13):
I think the authority that you get. The
root of the word authority isauthor. So attracting premium
clients at premium prices isone of the most valuable
things that you can do withyour book. The bottom line is,
if you are good at solving aparticular problem, how much
is that worth depends on whois the person that you're
(08:34):
serving. So I always like toask the question, you know,
what am I really, really goodat? Or have my clients ask the
question, what am I really,good at? What do I love to do?
So you want to have those twofilters. But then, who is it
worth the most to? I haveclients who are selling their
company for nine figures. Myservices helping them create a
million dollar message, or amulti million dollar message
(08:57):
and take it and get an awardwinning book is worth more to
the person then a personwho's, I don't know, retired
and writing a poetry book, whohas no vision for the impact
or the income. So by having abook, you can, and I've done
this multiple times, you canattract premium clients with
premium price prices, becausethe book can serve both as
(09:18):
attractor, but also as arepellent, it's kind of like
match.com you don't actuallywant everybody to contact you.
You want to have a filter. Andin a book, you can communicate
who you are, who you serve,and who you don't serve. So
for example, I'm prettyspiritual, and it's fairly
obvious in my book. Turn wordsinto wealth. So people who are
Die Hard atheists might go,Gosh, Aurora is not the code
(09:41):
for me, and vice versa.
Scott Ritzheimer (09:43):
And that's a good thing, right? I think one
of the things the traps is Ihave found, oftentimes the
best client, the one that'sthat you can create the best
impact for enjoy working withthe most are often the most,
like selective in who theyhire, right? Do Not always,
but many times. And so ifyou're like, hey, I do
everything for everyone, theperson who really wants one
(10:05):
thing done really, reallywell, or one small subset is
going to be much moreselective, and that's the
person you want to work with.But you can't do that by
saying, Hey, I help witheverything all the time.
Aurora Winter (10:14):
Yeah, I help everybody with everything.
Answer disaster. The secondthing you can do with a
million dollar message, whichcould be in a book, but it
doesn't have to be in a book,is to attract, you know,
investors and launch astartup. So when I was living
in Silicon Valley, after I gotmy MBA in 2015 I took it. I
took a year off, went toItaly, got my MBA, and I came
back. I'm like, I could doanything, which was a problem,
(10:36):
because, you know, decisionfatigue, but I went to Silicon
Valley and I decided to helppeople with their startups and
like, well, who is that worththe most to a million dollar
message, or a multi milliondollar message is worth a lot
to people raising capital? Andevery client that I helped had
had gone from no funds raisedto raising seven or eight
figures. So there's a power ina clear, concise, compelling
(10:59):
message. And the startupentrepreneurs that I helped
were so brilliant, but thatwas sabotaging them, because
they were going 14 steps down.And first the person thinking,
maybe I could invest they had,like, no idea what are you
talking about. They had toslow down, create some
metaphors, create connection,and kind of dumb it down, and
(11:21):
then once the person was onboard, they could go deep. I
mean, a great example of ametaphor I loved on your
website. You know, yourexample of the sports
metaphor, which drove homeyour point about the different
kinds of leaders, and no, youdon't want to be the coach on
the sideline who catches theball, robbing everybody and
being, you know, a foul.That's not good. And it's
lovely when you have that kindof story, it makes it so much
(11:45):
easier for people to hear you.Yeah, and also, sorry, go
ahead.
Scott Ritzheimer (11:50):
No, I love it. So one of the things
that's really cool about folkswho've worked in the
investment space is like thefeedback loop is so short,
right? So even if you're notgoing after investors, there's
still so much to learn,because the same things that
get investors to pay attentionare the same things that get
everyone to pay attention. Andso this idea of of simplifying
(12:17):
your message, dumbing it down,that it feels surprisingly
scary to a lot of really smartpeople. How do you help folks
to just kind of process theinternal like, I don't want to
look stupid if I dumb down mymessage?
Aurora Winter (12:32):
I don't lean into that exactly. It's more
like encouraging people howthey could make a bigger
difference by, you know, in 10seconds having something clear
and concise. But you're right.I think the smarter the person
is, the more degrees theyhave, the worse this problem
(12:52):
can be. I mean, my olderbrother is a genius. He's got
PhD, he's got Masters ofEngineering, and he's quantum
physicist, and sometimes he'sextremely hard to understand
because he's so smart. Buthere's the takeaway that smart
people can understand is theydid a really interesting
study. It's published in thebook significant objects. They
(13:13):
had 100 distinct objects oneBay with a story or without a
story. The stories werewritten by 100 different
people, and they weren't hype.They were things like these
pot mitts are for sale. Mygrandmother has passed, but I
remember when I'd come homefrom school, she'd bake
chocolate chip cookies, andwe'd chat after school, and
(13:33):
she used these pot mitz. Nowyou're not getting the cookies
or the grandmother when youbuy the pot mitz, but adding a
story adds significance, andyou do get the significance.
And the result was that theobjects on eBay with a story
sold for 27 times more. Yeah,so that's a stat, but even
smart people can go, Oh, Ithink I should practice my
(13:55):
stories. I love that.
Scott Ritzheimer (13:57):
I think it was that same story, wouldn't
it was like a horse's head, orsomething that went for like,
43 times as much, or somethingoutrageous, like so cool. I
love that the significancedoes pass on. It's a brilliant
insight. Okay, I want to jumpto the next one here. This
one, I have to admit, caughtme out of the blue. I was not
expecting it, especially inthe number three spot, but
(14:19):
number three was movies andmerchandising. So how does
this work? Because there's nota lot of founders who have
making a movie as part oftheir business plan, but
maybe, maybe more of a should.
Aurora Winter (14:30):
Well, you know, my background is in Film and
Television. I'm an awardwinning screenwriter. I used
to be head of development forCanada's largest film and
television production company,and I raised 5 million with a
partner in London, England,and we went on and made eight
films. So it's part of my wayof thinking. I have written
the fantasy series, actuallyfor young adults. Magic
(14:50):
mystery in the multiverse isthe first book in that series,
and BBC has expressed interestin a 12 part series. So this
can really happen. So, buthere. Here's the interesting
thing. Well, with some of myclients who are working on
fiction, we are pitching theirprojects as TV movies or TV
series. And it's very cool tounderstand that if you have a
(15:11):
non fiction idea, there mightbe some possibilities. I was
blown away by Marie Kondo, whodoesn't even speak English as
her first language, Luca TJapanese woman who wrote a
book about the joy of tidyingup and Netflix, had a series
following her. She'd go intopeople's homes and help
hoarders tidy up. It was a bighit, and that, of course,
(15:35):
enhanced her brand and herreputation and brought many
people to her. So you may findthat if you're a coach or a
consultant, you have someexpertise that there might be
a possibility to consider, andcertainly that's where the
real money is.
Scott Ritzheimer (15:49):
Yeah, fascinating, very, very cool.
I like that. All right.Strategy number four, and it's
not just have a book, butthere's a specific way to use
a book to scale up and make amillion dollars. What is it
and why do you recommend it?
Aurora Winter (16:03):
So item number four, we're going through
these really quickly, is thefree book plus upsell. So
before I've written 10 booksor published 10 books, I've
written more than 10. So whenI got my MBA in 2015 prior to
that, I was doing somethingelse. I actually had founded
the grief coach Academy, and Iwas helping people through
(16:24):
grief. But I realized, youknow what, I don't want the
rest of my life to be aboutgrief. People were coming to
me and saying, Hey, how didyou get on TV? How did you get
on radio? How did you write somany books? And I thought,
well, maybe people would beinterested in having me as a
marketing mentor. But my list,small list of 12,000 they knew
me as the grief coach Academyfounder. So it's a pretty big
(16:45):
pivot from talking about griefto talking about marketing and
messaging. So I thought Ishould test this idea before
going in whole hog. And Itotally recommend this. If you
have a new idea, you want tostart a new product or service
or launch a new business orpivot, why not test it for 90
days? So what I did is Icalled up a friend who was the
(17:07):
director of coaching for TonyRobbins. He'd interviewed me
before about grief coaching. Isaid, Hey, would you interview
me about marketing? He's like,Absolutely, I know who you
are. I know your story of knowyou've launched several seven
figure businesses. Cool, let'sdo it. So I choreographed the
interview. This is the partthat people miss. You have to
choreograph the interview andbe prepared with with your
(17:27):
answers and your stories.Anyway, he interviewed me, and
we did that in front of about100 of Tony Robbins coaches. I
recorded it. I really likedit. I tidied it up a little
bit. Bing, bang, boom. Overthe weekend, had a PDF, okay,
and that little book's calledMarketing Fast Track. So with
that PDF, I then actuallycalled some people that had
(17:48):
been on TV before I got two TVappearances, and then I
started reaching out to mylist and offered them the free
book with some videos to addmore value around marketing
and messaging. And then at theend, hey, if you'd like to
know more and you'd like aBusiness Breakthrough call,
you can do that here. So thatbook, once it was actually
(18:09):
printed, people could get thebook for free, but they would
pay $4.77 shipping andhandling. This is actually
pretty key point, though. Iwant to circle back around to
that anyway. So that book, Ispent about $12,000 in
advertising, and it generated$250,000 in 90 days. Wow,
(18:30):
$250,000 in 90 days from$12,000 ad spent. So why did
that work? It worked because Ido know about marketing and
messaging, so it was a goodMessenger, and it was it also
worked because it was shortand clear, and the added
trick, so to speak, or hack,even if people invest only a
(18:52):
couple of dollars, even $4.77they're far more serious
prospects than if they getyour eBook for free also, then
I had their contactinformation and could follow
up. Also, even though eBooksare great if you have a
physical book in hand, it'slike a silent sales person,
and so it reminds the personabout you. So people would get
(19:15):
my book, they would read it,and then the book was still
there on their shelf. Maybethey would call me, you know,
a week or two later, or set upa call so they the free book
and upsell. I've done it. Manyother people have done it.
Jeff Walker, so in the book,turn words into wealth. You
can see a number of differentexamples, and you can see
people have can offer variousdifferent opportunities to
(19:39):
invest at different levels. Ididn't do that. I just went
from the book to do you wanthelp with your messaging and
publishing your book?
Scott Ritzheimer (19:47):
Yeah, I love that. I love that. So we are
running short on time, and thetwo, two of my favorite
strategies, are the ones we'reactually going to leave the
reader to get a copy of. Yourbook to find out, but I want
to skip ahead to strategynumber seven. It was best for
last your favorite again, I'llleave the big reveal to you.
(20:08):
What's the seventh strategyand why is it your favorite?
Aurora Winter (20:11):
I love this one. It's it's the Evergreen
best seller. So one of thethings I really love to
encourage people is, don'tthink about getting a New York
Times bestseller or WallStreet Journal bestseller, or
that big spike of sales forjust one day. Instead, think
of your book like your baby,like your child, and you want
to launch it powerfully andeffectively, yes, but you want
(20:34):
it to make a difference fordecades to come. It's your
intellectual property. It'spart of your legacy, and a
book is like, amazing. LikeJordan Peterson said, it's
amazing that a book is like,more durable than a castle. A
book can really make adifference to many people for
many years. I mean, one of thethings I love about books is
I've been mentored by so manypeople who aren't even alive.
(20:59):
So your book can be like that.It can be a seed that can
germinate whenever somebodyreads it. So I really love
people to lean into their bookas an evergreen best seller.
Scott Ritzheimer (21:10):
I love that. So before I let you go, I've
got one more question for youhere, Aurora, and that is, I
just want to ask all myguests, what would you say is
the biggest secret that youwish wasn't a secret at all.
What's that one thing you wisheverybody watching or
listening today knew?
Aurora Winter (21:25):
I think the biggest secret that I wish
that wasn't the secret at all,is that you are capable of far
more than you think we allare, and we need to well, what
works best is to lean intomindset first. And I the way I
do that is just, you know, useme. How can I be of service?
So I think when we show up asa contribution, seeking to be
(21:47):
a service, we can achieve somuch more than we think, or so
much more can be achievedthrough us than we think.
Scott Ritzheimer (21:54):
Yeah, Aurora, absolutely amazing
books. Great. This episode hasbeen fantastic. Where can
folks find more out about you,the work you do? Where can
they get a copy of your
Aurora Winter (22:03):
Well, they can get a copy of Turn words into
wealth, wherever books aresold, or if they'd like the
free ebook, they can go toturnwordsintowealth.com. And
same page publishing is thatsame page publishing.com?
Thanks, Scott, that's such apleasure connecting with you.
Scott Ritzheimer (22:19):
Likewise. Thanks for being on really an
honor having you here today.For those of you watching and
listening, you know your timeand attention mean the world
to us, I hope you got as muchout of this conversation as I
know I did, and I cannot waitto see you next time. Take care.
Hello, hello and welcome. Welcome once
(00:02):
again to the secrets of thehigh demand coach podcast,
where here with us today isthe one and only Aurora winter
MBA, who is an award winning,Best Selling Author. She's
also a successful serialentrepreneur, media trainer,
creator of the spoken authormethod, and founder of same
page publishing. Aurora lefther lucrative career as a TV
(00:23):
executive decades ago tobecome a full time author,
trainer and entrepreneur usingstorytelling for business, she
created a life of freedom,creativity and contribution.
Now she helps her clients turntheir words into wealth,
wisdom and wonder. She'swritten the book, the
fantastic book, actually turnwords into wealth. Got a copy
(00:44):
of it here. Highly recommendit, and it sparked all kinds
of ideas and thoughts andquestions for me that I can't
wait to unpack with you,Aurora. So welcome to the
show. Super excited to haveyou here. I want to start off
with one of my personalfavorite points that you made
in the book, and I won't stealyour thunder. I'll let you
make it, but you make thepoint that our brand isn't
(01:06):
what a lot of us think it is.So tell us what our brand
isn't and what is it your?
Aurora Winter (01:12):
Your brand is not what you think it is.
Exactly right. Your brand isthe story that other people
tell about you when you're notin the room and our brand
doesn't have a lot of shelfspace for your story, so it's
very concise, but our brand isalso the biggest way to
leverage our revenue. If youdon't have a brand, then it's
a dive to the bottom. You'llbe competing with Walmart and
(01:35):
China and the lowest pricewind. You don't want that
equation. You want authority.You want status. You want some
special sauce.
Scott Ritzheimer (01:43):
Yeah, you talk. When you lay this out,
you tell some of Oprah'sstory. And I'm wondering if
you could share a little bitof like, how did that, how did
that strike you? Like, wheredid you first learn this, or
where did you first hear aboutthat story that made such an
impact for you?
Aurora Winter (01:58):
Well, one of the things that is outstanding
about Oprah, which most peopledon't even think of, is like
she is on the cover of everyOprah O magazine. It's, it's
amazing. She realized thatbuilding a brand was really
important, that it wasn't justabout, you know, the click
bait on the cover, but herimage repeatedly on the cover.
And many people have donethis, but I think she was
(02:20):
really the first to pioneerthat. And Oprah's got a, you
know, billion dollar brand.She broke through. I mean, she
came from basically nothing,almost worse than nothing,
because she was in the hole,had a terrible childhood, and
she's become, you know, one ofthe wealthiest women on the
planet.
Scott Ritzheimer (02:37):
Yeah, that's awesome, yeah? One, so
someone's okay, I'm in. I wantto share my story. One of the
frustrations that I've seenfor founders, kind of at this
point, is they go out to sharetheir story, and they're just
competing against the world'sbiggest brands, right? They're
in many of the same spaces,trying to break through the
noise. So you go into some oflike, the neuroscience behind
(03:00):
how we can really cut throughall the noise. What are some
of the key takeaways for you?For the underdog, if you will,
trying to build their ownbrand?
Aurora Winter (03:10):
Well, first, I just want to address the
underdog point. Yes, there arehuge names out there, you
know, like we're competingwith Seth Godin, we're
competing with Mel Robbins,we're competing with all
these. David Goggins. JKRowling, but are you really,
you know, as a coach, youmight be the only person that
somebody actually has in theircircle who can help them solve
(03:32):
that problem. So instead ofthinking, oh my gosh, Tim
Ferriss would do a better job.You know, they're probably not
going to get Tim Ferriss astheir personal coach, right.
So put that aside and justunderstand that you're the
answer to somebody's prayers,and you may be the only person
that they know who's in theirloose circle, or only person
available to talk to themabout solving their problem.
(03:53):
And then we need to understandin order to make the biggest
difference that we can we needto understand the neuroscience
of communication and mostpeople blow it in the first
few seconds. They're at theRotary Club, or they're
introducing themselves. Youknow, they start by saying
their name and their companyname, and by that time, people
have zoned out. So it's reallygood to start with, what's the
(04:15):
problem that you solve? Youwant to start with a little
taste of novelty. Then youwant to give a little taste of
social proof, and then if youwant to show off a little bit
of your authority that canwork out and do all of those
things really quickly, so thatthen you can get onto the
deeper message, don't send theverbal equi the verbal
(04:35):
equivalent of an Excelspreadsheet. So quick example
this book turn words intowealth. The title itself is
that novelty. It's like, whattopic area are we in? And then
the, you know, it's at oneoutstanding non fiction book
of the year that's hitting thesocial proof. And then I can
go into explain the 27x ROI ona story.
Scott Ritzheimer (04:58):
That's awesome. I love that. And.
Love the Way You broke itdown. It's interesting. I've
not heard folks distinguish asquickly or as clearly between
social proof and authority,right? Because a lot of times
those are coming together. ButI love the book example. I
want to jump to this nextquestion, because I see it all
the time. It's very true forcoaches, very true for folks
(05:20):
in professional services, buthappens in a whole lot of
industries, and that is thatfounders working their various
degrees of success, but theycome to this really
uncomfortable realization,almost despite that success,
that they've started a job andnot a business, and, and, and
so once you get there, it'skind of like, what do I want
(05:42):
to do with that? And a lot offolks, the answer is, I want
to scale past that. I don'twant it to just be trading
hours for dollars or all thethings that go along with
that. But they're reallylimited to, like, they've
they've built a tremendousdegree of local trust and
credibility, but it reallyfalls off very quickly after
that. So like, how do you getpast that? How do you scale
(06:04):
beyond that local community orimpact and build trust and
credibility at a greaterscale?
Aurora Winter (06:11):
One of the key ways I love to do that is
through books. I mean, you, ifyou have a book on Amazon,
Barnes and Noble, it'savailable around the world.
And if you have a non fictionbook that clearly answers a
problem, that has greatkeywords in the title and the
subtitle, people can find youfrom from New York, from Los
Angeles, where I live, fromParis, from London. They can
(06:33):
find you if you have a verygood book with a solid title.
And I really love that becauseI mean, back in the day when I
started in publishing, itwasn't that easy to get a book
published. There were allthese gatekeepers. You were so
very likely to get no after noafter No. One of the clients
I'm working with, he got 100rejection letters, and now his
(06:54):
books have got over 3000reviews on Amazon and have won
10 awards. He just couldn'tget past the gatekeeper, and
anyway, back to if you ifyou're a coach or an author,
sorry, if your coach or anexpert or a leader of some
kind, a book can be a greatway to reach people around the
world. And there are sevendifferent ways to make seven
figures with your book.
Scott Ritzheimer (07:15):
I love that. And you took the words right
out of my mouth, becausethat's exactly where we're
going next. So anotherchallenge that I've seen,
especially for founders, havebeen doing it for a while,
right? And to some extent,like your own success can
create the biggest barrier.Here, you hit the kind of
high, medium, six figures, andit's kind of good, you know?
(07:36):
It's better than it was, butit's not all that it can be.
But if you're there longenough, it can start to shape
what you believe is possible,right? And there's a lot of
folks who've writtenthemselves, I could never make
a million dollars. I couldnever make seven figures, but
you offer in your book sevenways of doing that. I was
wondering if we could walkthrough those, because I
thought, well, it's just afascinating concept, but
(07:57):
there's some really practicalstuff in here as well. So I
want to kick off strategynumber one, attracting premium
clients. And the tell us alittle bit about what that is,
but also tell us, like, how isthat different from what most
of us are doing before reallysetting on this strategy?
Aurora Winter (08:13):
I think the authority that you get. The
root of the word authority isauthor. So attracting premium
clients at premium prices isone of the most valuable
things that you can do withyour book. The bottom line is,
if you are good at solving aparticular problem, how much
is that worth depends on whois the person that you're
(08:34):
serving. So I always like toask the question, you know,
what am I really, really goodat? Or have my clients ask the
question, what am I really,good at? What do I love to do?
So you want to have those twofilters. But then, who is it
worth the most to? I haveclients who are selling their
company for nine figures. Myservices helping them create a
million dollar message, or amulti million dollar message
(08:57):
and take it and get an awardwinning book is worth more to
the person then a personwho's, I don't know, retired
and writing a poetry book, whohas no vision for the impact
or the income. So by having abook, you can, and I've done
this multiple times, you canattract premium clients with
premium price prices, becausethe book can serve both as
(09:18):
attractor, but also as arepellent, it's kind of like
match.com you don't actuallywant everybody to contact you.
You want to have a filter. Andin a book, you can communicate
who you are, who you serve,and who you don't serve. So
for example, I'm prettyspiritual, and it's fairly
obvious in my book. Turn wordsinto wealth. So people who are
Die Hard atheists might go,Gosh, Aurora is not the code
(09:41):
for me, and vice versa.
Scott Ritzheimer (09:43):
And that's a good thing, right? I think one
of the things the traps is Ihave found, oftentimes the
best client, the one that'sthat you can create the best
impact for enjoy working withthe most are often the most,
like selective in who theyhire, right? Do Not always,
but many times. And so ifyou're like, hey, I do
everything for everyone, theperson who really wants one
(10:05):
thing done really, reallywell, or one small subset is
going to be much moreselective, and that's the
person you want to work with.But you can't do that by
saying, Hey, I help witheverything all the time.
Aurora Winter (10:14):
Yeah, I help everybody with everything.
Answer disaster. The secondthing you can do with a
million dollar message, whichcould be in a book, but it
doesn't have to be in a book,is to attract, you know,
investors and launch astartup. So when I was living
in Silicon Valley, after I gotmy MBA in 2015 I took it. I
took a year off, went toItaly, got my MBA, and I came
back. I'm like, I could doanything, which was a problem,
(10:36):
because, you know, decisionfatigue, but I went to Silicon
Valley and I decided to helppeople with their startups and
like, well, who is that worththe most to a million dollar
message, or a multi milliondollar message is worth a lot
to people raising capital? Andevery client that I helped had
had gone from no funds raisedto raising seven or eight
figures. So there's a power ina clear, concise, compelling
(10:59):
message. And the startupentrepreneurs that I helped
were so brilliant, but thatwas sabotaging them, because
they were going 14 steps down.And first the person thinking,
maybe I could invest they had,like, no idea what are you
talking about. They had toslow down, create some
metaphors, create connection,and kind of dumb it down, and
(11:21):
then once the person was onboard, they could go deep. I
mean, a great example of ametaphor I loved on your
website. You know, yourexample of the sports
metaphor, which drove homeyour point about the different
kinds of leaders, and no, youdon't want to be the coach on
the sideline who catches theball, robbing everybody and
being, you know, a foul.That's not good. And it's
lovely when you have that kindof story, it makes it so much
(11:45):
easier for people to hear you.Yeah, and also, sorry, go
ahead.
Scott Ritzheimer (11:50):
No, I love it. So one of the things
that's really cool about folkswho've worked in the
investment space is like thefeedback loop is so short,
right? So even if you're notgoing after investors, there's
still so much to learn,because the same things that
get investors to pay attentionare the same things that get
everyone to pay attention. Andso this idea of of simplifying
(12:17):
your message, dumbing it down,that it feels surprisingly
scary to a lot of really smartpeople. How do you help folks
to just kind of process theinternal like, I don't want to
look stupid if I dumb down mymessage?
Aurora Winter (12:32):
I don't lean into that exactly. It's more
like encouraging people howthey could make a bigger
difference by, you know, in 10seconds having something clear
and concise. But you're right.I think the smarter the person
is, the more degrees theyhave, the worse this problem
(12:52):
can be. I mean, my olderbrother is a genius. He's got
PhD, he's got Masters ofEngineering, and he's quantum
physicist, and sometimes he'sextremely hard to understand
because he's so smart. Buthere's the takeaway that smart
people can understand is theydid a really interesting
study. It's published in thebook significant objects. They
(13:13):
had 100 distinct objects oneBay with a story or without a
story. The stories werewritten by 100 different
people, and they weren't hype.They were things like these
pot mitts are for sale. Mygrandmother has passed, but I
remember when I'd come homefrom school, she'd bake
chocolate chip cookies, andwe'd chat after school, and
(13:33):
she used these pot mitz. Nowyou're not getting the cookies
or the grandmother when youbuy the pot mitz, but adding a
story adds significance, andyou do get the significance.
And the result was that theobjects on eBay with a story
sold for 27 times more. Yeah,so that's a stat, but even
smart people can go, Oh, Ithink I should practice my
(13:55):
stories. I love that.
Scott Ritzheimer (13:57):
I think it was that same story, wouldn't
it was like a horse's head, orsomething that went for like,
43 times as much, or somethingoutrageous, like so cool. I
love that the significancedoes pass on. It's a brilliant
insight. Okay, I want to jumpto the next one here. This
one, I have to admit, caughtme out of the blue. I was not
expecting it, especially inthe number three spot, but
(14:19):
number three was movies andmerchandising. So how does
this work? Because there's nota lot of founders who have
making a movie as part oftheir business plan, but
maybe, maybe more of a should.
Aurora Winter (14:30):
Well, you know, my background is in Film and
Television. I'm an awardwinning screenwriter. I used
to be head of development forCanada's largest film and
television production company,and I raised 5 million with a
partner in London, England,and we went on and made eight
films. So it's part of my wayof thinking. I have written
the fantasy series, actuallyfor young adults. Magic
(14:50):
mystery in the multiverse isthe first book in that series,
and BBC has expressed interestin a 12 part series. So this
can really happen. So, buthere. Here's the interesting
thing. Well, with some of myclients who are working on
fiction, we are pitching theirprojects as TV movies or TV
series. And it's very cool tounderstand that if you have a
(15:11):
non fiction idea, there mightbe some possibilities. I was
blown away by Marie Kondo, whodoesn't even speak English as
her first language, Luca TJapanese woman who wrote a
book about the joy of tidyingup and Netflix, had a series
following her. She'd go intopeople's homes and help
hoarders tidy up. It was a bighit, and that, of course,
(15:35):
enhanced her brand and herreputation and brought many
people to her. So you may findthat if you're a coach or a
consultant, you have someexpertise that there might be
a possibility to consider, andcertainly that's where the
real money is.
Scott Ritzheimer (15:49):
Yeah, fascinating, very, very cool.
I like that. All right.Strategy number four, and it's
not just have a book, butthere's a specific way to use
a book to scale up and make amillion dollars. What is it
and why do you recommend it?
Aurora Winter (16:03):
So item number four, we're going through
these really quickly, is thefree book plus upsell. So
before I've written 10 booksor published 10 books, I've
written more than 10. So whenI got my MBA in 2015 prior to
that, I was doing somethingelse. I actually had founded
the grief coach Academy, and Iwas helping people through
(16:24):
grief. But I realized, youknow what, I don't want the
rest of my life to be aboutgrief. People were coming to
me and saying, Hey, how didyou get on TV? How did you get
on radio? How did you write somany books? And I thought,
well, maybe people would beinterested in having me as a
marketing mentor. But my list,small list of 12,000 they knew
me as the grief coach Academyfounder. So it's a pretty big
(16:45):
pivot from talking about griefto talking about marketing and
messaging. So I thought Ishould test this idea before
going in whole hog. And Itotally recommend this. If you
have a new idea, you want tostart a new product or service
or launch a new business orpivot, why not test it for 90
days? So what I did is Icalled up a friend who was the
(17:07):
director of coaching for TonyRobbins. He'd interviewed me
before about grief coaching. Isaid, Hey, would you interview
me about marketing? He's like,Absolutely, I know who you
are. I know your story of knowyou've launched several seven
figure businesses. Cool, let'sdo it. So I choreographed the
interview. This is the partthat people miss. You have to
choreograph the interview andbe prepared with with your
(17:27):
answers and your stories.Anyway, he interviewed me, and
we did that in front of about100 of Tony Robbins coaches. I
recorded it. I really likedit. I tidied it up a little
bit. Bing, bang, boom. Overthe weekend, had a PDF, okay,
and that little book's calledMarketing Fast Track. So with
that PDF, I then actuallycalled some people that had
(17:48):
been on TV before I got two TVappearances, and then I
started reaching out to mylist and offered them the free
book with some videos to addmore value around marketing
and messaging. And then at theend, hey, if you'd like to
know more and you'd like aBusiness Breakthrough call,
you can do that here. So thatbook, once it was actually
(18:09):
printed, people could get thebook for free, but they would
pay $4.77 shipping andhandling. This is actually
pretty key point, though. Iwant to circle back around to
that anyway. So that book, Ispent about $12,000 in
advertising, and it generated$250,000 in 90 days. Wow,
(18:30):
$250,000 in 90 days from$12,000 ad spent. So why did
that work? It worked because Ido know about marketing and
messaging, so it was a goodMessenger, and it was it also
worked because it was shortand clear, and the added
trick, so to speak, or hack,even if people invest only a
(18:52):
couple of dollars, even $4.77they're far more serious
prospects than if they getyour eBook for free also, then
I had their contactinformation and could follow
up. Also, even though eBooksare great if you have a
physical book in hand, it'slike a silent sales person,
and so it reminds the personabout you. So people would get
(19:15):
my book, they would read it,and then the book was still
there on their shelf. Maybethey would call me, you know,
a week or two later, or set upa call so they the free book
and upsell. I've done it. Manyother people have done it.
Jeff Walker, so in the book,turn words into wealth. You
can see a number of differentexamples, and you can see
people have can offer variousdifferent opportunities to
(19:39):
invest at different levels. Ididn't do that. I just went
from the book to do you wanthelp with your messaging and
publishing your book?
Scott Ritzheimer (19:47):
Yeah, I love that. I love that. So we are
running short on time, and thetwo, two of my favorite
strategies, are the ones we'reactually going to leave the
reader to get a copy of. Yourbook to find out, but I want
to skip ahead to strategynumber seven. It was best for
last your favorite again, I'llleave the big reveal to you.
(20:08):
What's the seventh strategyand why is it your favorite?
Aurora Winter (20:11):
I love this one. It's it's the Evergreen
best seller. So one of thethings I really love to
encourage people is, don'tthink about getting a New York
Times bestseller or WallStreet Journal bestseller, or
that big spike of sales forjust one day. Instead, think
of your book like your baby,like your child, and you want
to launch it powerfully andeffectively, yes, but you want
(20:34):
it to make a difference fordecades to come. It's your
intellectual property. It'spart of your legacy, and a
book is like, amazing. LikeJordan Peterson said, it's
amazing that a book is like,more durable than a castle. A
book can really make adifference to many people for
many years. I mean, one of thethings I love about books is
I've been mentored by so manypeople who aren't even alive.
(20:59):
So your book can be like that.It can be a seed that can
germinate whenever somebodyreads it. So I really love
people to lean into their bookas an evergreen best seller.
Scott Ritzheimer (21:10):
I love that. So before I let you go, I've
got one more question for youhere, Aurora, and that is, I
just want to ask all myguests, what would you say is
the biggest secret that youwish wasn't a secret at all.
What's that one thing you wisheverybody watching or
listening today knew?
Aurora Winter (21:25):
I think the biggest secret that I wish
that wasn't the secret at all,is that you are capable of far
more than you think we allare, and we need to well, what
works best is to lean intomindset first. And I the way I
do that is just, you know, useme. How can I be of service?
So I think when we show up asa contribution, seeking to be
(21:47):
a service, we can achieve somuch more than we think, or so
much more can be achievedthrough us than we think.
Scott Ritzheimer (21:54):
Yeah, Aurora, absolutely amazing
books. Great. This episode hasbeen fantastic. Where can
folks find more out about you,the work you do? Where can
they get a copy of your
Aurora Winter (22:03):
Well, they can get a copy of Turn words into
wealth, wherever books aresold, or if they'd like the
free ebook, they can go toturnwordsintowealth.com. And
same page publishing is thatsame page publishing.com?
Thanks, Scott, that's such apleasure connecting with you.
Scott Ritzheimer (22:19):
Likewise. Thanks for being on really an
honor having you here today.For those of you watching and
listening, you know your timeand attention mean the world
to us, I hope you got as muchout of this conversation as I
know I did, and I cannot waitto see you next time. Take care.
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