Two days ago, I was on a call with a group of really successful non-fiction authors. Business. Self-help. Psychology. Technology. Futurists…

What was amazing to me is that the overwhelming majority never initially set out to write a book. They were all doing great in their previous careers.

Each of them had a trigger event.

Something punched them in the face that screamed at them: this is important, and the world should know about it.

One of them was a successful executive recruiter who couldn’t process the fact that all of the C-Level executives she was speaking with and working to place weren’t happy.

Success, and reaching the top of the ladder, did NOT equal happiness. She figured out what was missing.

One of them started realizing that all of his successful ideas were found in the pages of books and magazines that had nothing to do with his profession. He even found a great idea in Teen Magazine.

He created a process for uncovering ideas, predicting the future, and getting outside of your bubble.

For me, I got stuck on the idea that, while we all read reviews when a website is acting as the salesperson, the overwhelming majority of us skip the 5-star reviews, and go right to the negative ones…the imperfect ones. The 4’s, 3’s, 2’s & 1’s.

And products with negative reviews right under the products themselves actually sell better than products that have nothing but perfect, 5-star ratings. Why do we do this?

I discovered why, and how leading with our imperfections in human-to-human selling has the same effect – faster purchase decisions, higher win rates, better qualified opportunities, and if we’re going to lose, we lose faster.

There are so many of you out there who are sitting on that trigger. I talk to you every day.

Some commit to writing, then stop. They get stuck. They have other priorities, which include putting food on the table.

I faced that same struggle, but writing the book has been the most rewarding professional experience of my life.

I learned so many lessons along the way. So, as we enter the holidays and things slow down, if you’re sitting on a trigger, reach out. I’d love to talk you through the journey, and help you find yours…for no other reason than wanting to pay this forward.

And, here’s the first in a series of articles around the learning curve of writing the book. Each following article is linked at the bottom. Hope this helps:

The Writing Learning Curve – #1

Here’s a short video explaining the trigger concept in more detail, and specifically what was mine…