Mastermind Student's Book Becomes Instant Bestseller. Here's How He Did It
Just because you’re good at selling doesn’t mean you’ll be good at leading. That’s something Ben Ward learned over 20 years of helping tens of thousands of sales leaders achieve industry-leading results in team sales.
“I’ve experienced this myself in sales and in transitioning into leadership. It’s different focusing on yourself and then helping other people become good,” he says. “Some of my top salespeople were the worst managers, the worst leaders.”
In his new book, Sellership, Ben reveals secrets of how top salespeople can become remarkable sales leaders.
“There’s a strategic plan, a system, a methodology to help somebody who’s really good at sales transition successfully into leadership,” Ben tells Published Author Podcast host Josh Steimle.
FIRST STUDENT FROM PUBLISHED AUTHOR MASTERMIND
Ben is the first student from Josh’s Published Author Mastermind program to finish a book. The program helped Ben refocus what that book should be about.
“This book I actually planned as my fifth book. I was going to write a whole different book, one that’s now going to be coming out later this year,” he says. “It’s for salespeople having to overcome the fear, the uncertainty and the doubt that you have to rid from your mind, like plucking a weed from a garden.”
But the book he ended up writing first, Sellership, was a better fit for the growth of his business: helping sales leaders master the skills of leading their teams to success. It’s something he also drives home in individual and group coaching sessions, keynote speaking and digital master classes.
RELYING ON MENTORS AND OTHER WRITERS
Ben leaned heavily on other mentors and writers in developing his book. Brian Tracy, who’s written countless best-selling books on sales and leadership, was an early inspiration, from his books on tape to a mastermind retreat he led that Ben attended. Brian ended up writing the forward for Sellership.
Greg Reid, who’s written dozens of similar bestselling books, jumped on board as Ben’s co-author of Sellership. “He loved the idea and he wanted to help me,” Ben says. “He helped me blend it into an easy-to-read story that’s packed with principles.”
A ghostwriter was also enlisted, particularly to help develop Ben’s writing voice and the book chapters. They developed a system of sending the ghostwriter transcripts from Ben’s YouTube channel and then discussing ideas over the phone.
“That ghostwriting experience was a bit of a challenge, but it ended up being amazing, taking my knowledge and concepts and having her put them in a way I could never have written myself,” he says.
The YouTube videos provided an additional benefit, allowing clients to share insights in team training meetings, coaching sessions and digital courses. “Doing those videos has been extremely valuable,” Ben says. “Recently, I’ve gotten new clients that way as well.”
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Josh Steimle
Today my guest is Ben Ward. He's the author of a new book just out called Sellership. And this is a little bit different interview today, because Ben is actually one of our students from the Mastermind student client. I don't know exactly what to say we're just friends. But Ben was the first person in the Mastermind to finish his book, and it just came out. And so we want to get him on the podcast here and talk about his new book Sellership, which was co-authored with Dr. Greg Reid and the foreword is by Brian Tracy. And anybody out there who knows anything about sales or read sales books is going to recognize that name, Brian Tracy. And yes, it's that Brian Tracy, who wrote the foreword for Ben's book. And Ben has been an executive and entrepreneur, he's run a public company. He's built up companies, he's lost companies. We'll hear a little bit about his history and some of what he's been through and what he's building now. But we'll especially talk about the book. But Ben, welcome to the show.
Ben Ward
Thanks, Josh. Great to be here.
Josh Steimle
Excited to have you here to talk about your adventure. This is the one instance on this podcast where I was actually there, witnessing you go through this journey of getting this book from idea to publishing. But before we get into the book, tell us a little bit more about who you are and your history, where you grew up, what you're all about, and some of your work history, the professional stuff that you've done.
Ben Ward
Yeah, thank you. So I grew up, and my parents were divorced. And so they both remarried. And between all of us, there were 15 kids. And every other weekend, I'd go visit my dad and we would just have sleeping bags on the floor, we crashed on the floor. And there was always this library. So I have my library here behind me, but I had I slept on the floor of my dad's library. And there were all these books and over the years, I noticed them, but I didn't know what they were. And one day I asked him, like, Dad, what are these? And turns out, they were books on tape until he gave me a few of them. And really, from that day, just I was the first time I ever started listening as it was in high school. And from that day, every time I'd come to his house, I'd bring back the books on tape that he gave me and he'd give me more. And I just developed this love for learning and growing and developing and that really laid a foundation for me to launch into a career in sales and leadership and in business. That's kind of like that's kind of the backstory and one of those books.
Josh Steimle
Well, by the way, for all the kids out there a tape is what we used before there was Spotify and Audible and like digital stuff. It's before CDs, if any of you remember CDs out there.
Ben Ward
So funny. And one of the one of the books was on tape, you know, that I listened to in my Walkman, which if you don't know what a Walkman is, like the first mp3 player way back in the day. But Brian Tracy was an author that I really loved. And he was just all about teaching you how to be super effective in leadership and in sales. And I really gravitated to him early on. And he became one of my heroes. And he's written over 80 bestselling books. And he . . . I just loved studying from him. And I always just dreamed I was like, what if you know what if I could write a book, like Brian Tracy, and I actually wrote it down. I have tried to write my goals out. I've learned that when you write out your goals, it kind of ingrained them in. And so from years ago, I have a goal of writing, being a published author. And it's just . . . to fast forward. I mean, it's amazing that today, you know, Brian Tracy wrote the foreword, like Josh just shared. But it all started with that tiny seed of like passion and desire and thought listening to Brian's books back in the day, and having that come into fruition for me to write a book with him. I mean . . . it's just amazing.
Josh Steimle
It's fun to connect with your heroes that way to get to actually meet these people and realize like, hey, these are real normal people. And now I'm connected to one of them.
Ben Ward
And they say that, you know, you don't want to meet your heroes, because you'll be disappointed. But that has not been the case with Brian. He's so respectful. And he's just such a kind human being and brilliant. In fact, I'll share . . . I kind of went from the beginning and all the way to the end. Let me share something in the middle about 15 years ago, I had a mastermind retreat with a small group of about 15 of us and we Had Brian Tracy come in, and we rented out a cabin and we had him come in, and he, I got to spend some time with him. And this is the first time I . . . this is the second time I actually met him. And he shared something that day that it has been absolutely instrumental. And the reason why I asked him to write the foreword and be involved in this project, because he shared something in this meeting, he said that, you know, one of the biggest problems that he's seen in the sales industry, and especially as a salesperson starts to grow, and naturally evolves, you know, they naturally evolve into, like, you know, they now start teaching other people, and they started becoming a leader, right, whether it's a team leader, and like, you know, and, and, and then like management, and then really, ultimately, they just kind of progress towards leadership, right and leading other people. And he said that, I'll never forget this. He said, one of the biggest problems is that somebody that's good at sales, being promoted into leadership, there's a gap there. And there's the problem that just because you're good at selling, doesn't mean you're going to be good at leading. And I'll just never forget being there with them hearing, essentially, that message, and it just planted the seed in my mind. And I thought, first off, 100%, I've experienced this myself out in sales, and then transitioning into leadership. It's not natural . . . like it's different, focusing on yourself, and then helping other people become good. So I saw that for me. But then, as a leader, myself leading teams at that time, I found that that's just super true. Some of my top salespeople who are the worst managers, the worst leaders, and when Brian shared that in that mastermind retreat, it lit a spark in the room. And we ended up talking about that together as a group in a massive mastermind, like, what can we do to help things go right. And so that was the start of Sellership of this obsession that I've had over the years, over the last 15 years as I've led 10s of 1000s, now of sales leaders all over America, and producing, producing hundreds of millions of dollars. I'm not saying this to sound impressive, but just this is the experience that I had. I'm sharing this to impress upon you that there is a pathway that I've learned, there's some secrets, and from what was . . . like shooting darts in the air of like, oh, hopefully it works out, to know there's a there's a strategic plan, there's a system, a methodology to help somebody that's really good at sales to help them transition successfully into leadership. And that's what the book Sellership is all about. And so Brian Tracy's, you know, influence has been awesome, from early stages of my sleeping bag as a kid. And, you know, the library of my dad's while getting those books, and then studying, listening to them, and then meeting him and having him do some coaching, and then my experience with leading sales teams over the years to put that in a book. And he was so excited. He was like, Ben, thank you. Like, I'm so happy that you took those thoughts, and you did some amazing work around it. So he was honored to . . . I mean, I was honored to have him be, you know, as part of this work, but he was also on it was a really, really fun thing for both of us.
Josh Steimle
That's such a cool story. One of the things that stuck out there for me is that you had this thought years ago, and it stuck in your head. And one of the things we talked about in the Mastermind is how before you come up with a viral book, or you try to come up with a viral book, try to come up with a viral idea. And that's what you had. Brian Tracy gave you this viral idea that sat in there and festered and grew and stuck there. And you're like, there's something big here that I'm on to something with this idea. And I've got to do something with it. And so finally, we had the chance to see that come to fruition. Now, when you came into the Mastermind, you weren't planning on writing this book, though, right?
Ben Ward
No, I had this other idea. So this book was planned as my fifth book, like a sales leadership book, specifically helping leaders lead their teams to success. And that was the original plan. It was a little bit . . . it's evolved. So that fifth book that I was planning on writing has actually evolved into Sellership, which is . . . which changed the direction of the plan that I had for that fifth book. Having said that, I was planning on doing a whole different book, one that I'm going to I'm working on now. That's going to be coming out later this year. But I think the book was . . .When I came into the Mastermind I told you hey I’m going to write this book about overcoming fear and every single salesperson, every sales leader . . . like the one skill that somebody in sales needs to overcome is the fear, the uncertainty, and the doubt and how do you do that? And I have this book called Pluck The Fud, you know, the fear, the uncertainty, the doubt. Like, get rid of it in your brain, like you would pull a weed out of a garden, you've got to pull a weed out of your mind. Pluck The Fud - that was my plan, my attention and as we strategized together, Josh . . . You and the Mastermind team, the Mastermind group . . . you know, you challenged me pretty hard and it was actually . . . I was a little ticked off! I'm like no this is the book I want to write! You know, and you're like yeah that'll work, sure. But if you want to just ultra-strategic let's take a look at let's take a look at that a little bit deeper on what your first book should be.
Josh Steimle
Yeah, we weren't shooting down the idea, it was just as err . . . you know, maybe the first book should be something else. So what was the point at which you bought into that and you said, you know what? Yeah, my fifth book is going to be my first book. What was the thing that did the switch for you or did the trick?
Ben Ward
You know, it was the challenge to build to have their book help you help me build my business and to have the book at the center right? And have all of the coaching, speaking, training, you know, the Mastermind groups, the digital courses . . . those things built around the message of the book. The book is a tool to help grow the business. That right there, it was a tough realization for me because I was just kind of sold on my idea of what I was going to do and how I was going to do it. And . . . but it was 100%. Once I got over myself and my plan and I was focused on what's the most effective thing for my business, and for the future, and to grow my business, it was 100% . . . just a reliever and like Yes! This is exactly what I need to do, and I never looked back and I’m just super grateful for that challenge.
Josh Steimle
And tell us about the business that you're building right now.
Ben Ward
Yeah, so I work with especially sales leaders . . . if you lead a sales team . . . so anybody that leads a sales team there's essential skills that every sales leader needs to master. And what I've done is I've packaged my own success as a sales leader over the last 20 years and help other others a lot like myself who have led teams and try to figure out strategies . . . and be able to help them lead their teams to success to draw out the best in the people they lead to achieve high-level results. So I put a business together coaching . . . So I do individual and group coaching, I do keynote speaking, I have a digital masterclass, and also I am now an author, I write books. I'm working on my second book right now.
Josh Steimle
And tell us a little bit more about your sales success over the past 20 years. Because sales is one of those things where everybody thinks they're a great salesperson and everybody's a sales consultant, but you've got some meat on those bones.
Ben Ward
Yeah. So I started my first sales job . . . Prior, I was stringing rackets at sports chalet and in 2001 string and racquet sports earned about $7 an hour while I was paying for my way through college. I grew up in a poor family and so I was at a community college and I just thought You know what, I need to be earning more money, it's like I'm barely scraping by like it's just not really working. And a friend of mine told me he made $10,000 in a summer and I was just like What! Are you serious? Like I would do anything to make $10,000 in like in a summer, right? And I ended up going out and knocking doors with him and it was the hardest thing. My first two weeks I sold zero and erm . . .
Josh Steimle
Were you 100% commission-only?
Ben Ward
100% commission.
Josh Steimle
Yeah, so at that point you're like maybe i should go back to string and rackets; at least I would have made a couple of bucks.
Ben Ward
Exactly, and my parents were like Ben come home. Like this is dumb. Like stop, you're not making any money. Like my car's broken down I'm out of money and it's just like it just wasn't working. But I decided somehow to . . . actually, it's not somehow. My roommate Trevor, he had $100 in his sock drawer of $1 bills and he told me like then because he knew I was just complete like . . . I didn't have any money. And I was just like, I don't know what I'm gonna do. And like Ben here. Like, he believed in me because he saw how hard I was working. He's like, it's gonna work out for you. And he's like, Look, you know, borrow this. I mean, I broke I remember breaking down just in tears being like, dude, like, Are you kidding me? Like, $100 back then was like, a month worth of just like air and oxygen and food, right? And like it took me a long way. Anyways, I took that. And the This changed my life. Because my first summer I ended up making $25,000. And, and then the next summer, I made $50,000. I mean, I'm going on lightspeed-fast, fast-forwarding. But I mean, my parents didn't make $50,000 like, it was just like game-changing. And that was during the summer. And so then the next year, I made over $100,000. And then I dropped out of school to go full time and that next year, I made $248,000, just full commission, straight commission, building teams. The following summer, I made over 400 grand. And so I'd made over 100, I'd earned a million dollars in sales commission within those five years, going from stringing racquets, and from Sports Chalet, and all the way to the summer jobs that I did, which changed everything. And then from there, I started a company, with the owner of the company I worked with, we started a company, a bundled service company, phone, Internet, TV, and security all bundled together, back when that was a new thing. And we recruited 2000 salespeople nationwide, and we blew it out of the water. We actually blew it out of water, then we were shot down to the ground, blew ourselves up and kept bouncing around like a big ol' roller coaster. And we ended up taking a company public in 2010. And it was an incredible experience. And then within a few years from there, I ended up losing everything again. And so that had to sink. And there was actually a whole backstory of that. But it was an operational piece that we oversold and under delivered. And it was a . . . you know, I learned some really hard lessons in that, but . . .
Josh Steimle
But you had the sales part together at least?
Ben Ward
Yeah, we were really good at selling . . .
Josh Steimle
The sales were great.
Ben Ward
Absolutely, our strength . . . and we struggle operationally, trying to make that happen. But man, some of the best experiences some of the best lessons, I've been able to take those and over the last seven or eight years now I've been coaching a mentor, I worked with an organization, an multibillion-dollar organization, and helped them scale from startup to $2.2 billion in their in, in one annual year. And in sales and leadership and I worked I coached and mentored with their top leaders, they had over 80,000 leaders nationwide. And my role was coaching and mentoring with our top leaders to help them with their business with their sales with their leadership, and also worked with their internal culture team to help embed, you know, help connect the internal operations with the field and to have cohesive . . . so that everyone worked together and to achieve major success. So that's a little bit of my backstory of just kind of lightspeed on my experience in sales and in leadership.
Josh Steimle
Which is great, because you had so much experience there that's so valuable, valuable. I mean, you had a company with 2000 salespeople or 2000 people working for you, and all the data and all the experience and seeing what worked and seeing what didn't work. I mean, this is going into this book and the other books that you're going to work . . . that you're going to write. Right, absolutely 100%. So let's talk a little bit more about the book. Now. One thing that's interesting is that this book is narrative nonfiction. It's a story. It's a fictional story. But it's said in the business world, and so anybody who's read track or not Traction, but if you've read Traction by Gino Wickman, he has another book called Get a Grip. That's kind of a story about how to use Traction or if you've read Leadership and Self Deception. And a bunch of the Patrick Lencioni books are narrative nonfiction. It's a story that is used to get across some business principles and teach some lessons. Why did you decide to write that kind of book versus more of the stereotypical business book?
Ben Ward
So I always dreamed of writing a story, but I'm like, I don't have the skill. I don't . . . I'm not like that seems really hard. I don't know how to do that. And that's where . . . so in the Mastermind with Josh . . . and we talk a lot about partnering with people that will help you in areas that you're not strong. And so, Greg Reid is an incredible author, entrepreneur, human being, and he was . . . meeting with him, and he has over 30 bestselling books and he's incredible. He's actually a five-times film producer. He produced the film Wish Man from make a wish foundation, and a bunch . . . and a few others and I was talking with him and just saying hey you know this is my idea, this is what I'm doing. I want to help sales leaders be able to just, you know, to transition from somebody who is really good at sales transition to become just a really good sales leader and helping other people. Like, really duplicating their success, the way they've been able to succeed, help others to do that, right? And he's like oh man that would be such a good . . . I mean you could do I was telling him like I plan on just doing you know nonfiction and just kind of sharing the principles and he's just like you should do it in a story. And he's like in fact like let me help you cuz I told him like I'm struggling I don't even know how to start I don't even how to start in writing you know a fiction like a parable. And then I've always dreamed of . . . .he's like here's the thing, I know how to. And I can . . . let me help you. Let me . . . if you want, let me go in on this with you. Because he loved the idea . . . good opportunity for him and an incredible opportunity for me. And it was just a . . . and then he also knew Brian Tracy really well. And so we got we actually texted Brian right then after we talked a little bit more and we texted Brian. And we're like Brian this is what we're thinking and like would you know . . . and he's like hey let's talk more. So that kind of collaboration - that was where it shifted from me from being just kind of a . . . not a boring book because I like nonfiction books that have all the principles . . . but from a straightforward, like here's a principle this is what you do and this is how you use it, to a . . . .blending it into an easy to read story that's kind of short that's packed with principles and so that's how that started.
Josh Steimle
Sweet. So what were some of the challenges that you faced along the way? I mean, one of them was figuring out how do I write this book, how do I actually get it done? And you got a co-author, which is somebody who could help you. Now you also employed a ghostwriter as well to help with the process, right?
Ben Ward
Yes. And so one of the challenges early on was, you know, in working with a ghostwriter was how do I get these ideas and get them into this person, and do I trust this person to know . . . to be able to have my voice and take these principles. . . . which. I know what I want to share, how do I share it? And so that was one of the first challenges. And it wasn't super smooth right off the bat. But as we work together I started to create a little bit of a system that started to work. I started a YouTube channel about this time and I started talking about the principles that I'm passionate about and I started categorizing them and doing a video on a chapter that I want to have my ghostwriter write. Like, so chapter one, here's some of the principles. So I did a YouTube video and then I used the transcription . . . . pulled the transcription from the YouTube video, sent it over to a ghostwriter, sent her the video, and then we would hop on a phone call for about an hour. And we did this. The first one it was a little bit rough and she sent back some thoughts and I was just like No this is not good. This is not what I want. And so I polished, I changed, I gave it much, like, real feedback. And like they're like . . . little things like, let's see, let me see if I give an example of err, I mean just a little dumb on like . . . . one, so I don't drink coffee, OK, so they had . . . the premise of this coffee shop and the person was . . . and that's okay, like that's fine. But I . . . just like that it's not really me and people who know me . . . . it's like they're not gonna really . . . . so just little things that . . . . then the messages there was like missed. . . and so I actually took some time to work back and forth to where by the third or fourth chapter of doing a YouTube video, sending the transcription, and having these phone calls, my authentic voice started to unfold in this book. And so that ghostwriting process was a little bit of a challenge for me but it ended up being just amazing . . . taking these ideas and having her put them in a way that there's no way I could have been able to write myself.
Josh Steimle
Yeah, and it's interesting because people have this idea that you hire a ghostwriter and they just write your book. It's like well no how can they just write your book? You've got to talk with them, you've got to tell them what the book is about, they don't just magically read your mind and they know what you would write. It's a lot of back and forth. It's a lot of investment on the part of the author to make sure that the ghostwriter knows what they're talking about and understands it. Because that's the thing, the ghostwriter has to really fundamentally understand the material of the book in order to be able to write it, as well as the author.
Ben Ward
A 100%. And it's interesting, in talking to her . . . I developed an incredible relationship with, with her. And she mentioned that some people literally just give her . . . this is what it is, and go to town and like, get Tell me when it's done. And she's like, seriously, a lot of people, that's what they do. There's the author who has the idea, understands the topic, and all the nuances involved in it. And so that is one thing that is possible that a lot of people do. But to do it and to get it, you know, the way that you as an author want your book to be, it is a ton of work, it's actually a lot, it's, it's probably as much work as just going and writing it yourself, as far as like time and energy and effort. But having somebody who's a highly effective writer, which I'm not . . . . being able to have that partnership where you bring, you know, . . . . as the author, I brought the concepts, the extreme knowledge and the skill, the concept. She brought to extreme knowledge and writing, and being able to marry those two is just profound.
Josh Steimle
I love how you utilize the videos that you didn't just say, Hey, I'm going to record videos and send them to you, and let's use this. But you're like, I'm going to record a video, and we're going to put it up on YouTube. And we're going to use it to write this book. Like, let's get more out of this. And I had a professor when I was at college, and he called this type of thing, Shadow time, and he would use it to talk about spending time with your kids. He's like, Hey, if you're gonna go on a business trip, take one of your kids and you're spending time with your kid and you're going on the business trip. That's shadow time. But I love to apply this to business stuff where it's like, hey, if I'm making a video, why don't I turn that into a YouTube video? Why don't I take out the audio and turn it into a podcast? And then I give it to the ghostwriter. And we can turn it into a book like let's get as much value out of this one hour of recorded time as possible. And that's what you did. And not only did you do that, but it's working out really well. Tell us a little bit about the YouTube channel and what you've gotten out of it and how it's performing.
Ben Ward
Yes, thank you. So also, yeah, so one other piece too, as well as being able to post little clips of the YouTube channel, the YouTube videos, just on social media on LinkedIn, and Facebook, and there's little like nuggets to share out there to create that awareness. And so this YouTube channel has been just really valuable to one who helped me think through the message, the messages that I want to share that I've used and applied, be able to think through them and put them in a way where it's meaningful on video. And what's been really valuable is as I've been meeting with clients, and as we're talking and they're like, yeah, I'm kind of struggling with this, this one thing we talked through, and as we're just . . . and the video has been on the . . . like, Hey, you know what, I did a video on this, so you might want to take a look at it. And I'll send them a link to it . . . know right now I have like, I don't know, 40 or 50 videos, I just started it maybe six months ago. But 40 or 50 videos out there that have been really valuable with clients and then they're sharing them with their teams and be like oh my goodness! And I'm getting feedback from a lot of people saying like, Hey, I watched your video and we just use this in like our team training meeting and it started creating awareness and 1. adding value and creating awareness in my business to where people are more aware of what it would be like to work with me by watching my video and seeing concepts. And so you're right Josh it's, you know, doing those videos has been actually extremely valuable and being able to take that content and, you know, put it into things like my book, putting into the framework for my digital course putting into the to helping with individual coaching and teaching as I'm working with my clients and as future clients people I'm like maybe interested in working with me, like hey, check this out and see just kind of get a taste and I've . . . recently I've gotten clients that way as well. So it's been a great investment of time.
Josh Steimle
One of the fun parts of your story is that when we talked about setting up your personal brand website and getting a domain name that is your name. The challenge is Ben Ward is pretty common. I mean there are a lot of Ben Ward's out there. And yet you were able to do it. You were able to go out and get Ben Ward com for your personal brand website, which I'm still thrilled about because I'm like that is such a win to get that common of a name and get that domain name. Tell us a little bit about that story.
Ben Ward
Yeah, this is a mini-miracle that happened where I tried 10 years ago to get Ben Ward com. And it wasn't happening. And through the course . . . and Josh has a workbook that is incredible. It breaks down just the importance of having your personal brand website to help with speaking and I was just deflated, I'm just like, Ah, there's no way like, I'm gonna have to go get not even word dot net not even like those are available. And so I'm gonna have to do like Ben Ward 6493 for like, dot com. And anyways, I just had this impression to reach out to try again, reach out to these people that nobody was really using it. It wasn't like a dominant domain. And while I was doing the workbook, I'm like, you know what, I got to get this domain. Anyways, my YouTube video . . . .so check this out. This is like one of those miracles where the YouTube video, investing that time and energy, you never know how things are gonna work out when you get started and you start taking action. But I reached out to these guys and said, hey, I've been trying to get this for years, I'm noticing that it's not really being used. At the same time I scrolled through Facebook, and I didn't even know this, but there's over 1000 Ben Wards just on Facebook alone, like worldwide. And I was just like, super bummed. I'm like, there's just like, ha ha, man, if I could only get my domain that would be amazing. Anyways, I reached out to these guys and just said, Hey, I wouldn't, you know, I'm like, kind of transparent. I'm like, I feel really exposed because I'm sending them an email from Ben Ward. Like, Ben, my Ben Ward email. So they know that like, like, they have all the leverage in the world.
Josh Steimle
Yeah, they know that you want it.
Ben Ward
They know that. So here's what happened. Josh it was crazy. They go to research me, they didn't respond right away. That's internet, email. They researched me and they find my YouTube channel. And in the comments . . .I wish I had a picture right here to show you. In the comments, though. They, they're like, Hey, we all were the ones who own benmore.com. We just watched this video. And we're seeing, like, kind of the type of work you're doing. We were . . . just talked to him and his partner. Like, we love what you're doing. We love We love your passion. And we've had a ton of people reach out to us. Recently, we decided we're gonna sell this sometime this year. And . . . but you know what, we will sell it to you. And they made a comment in my YouTube video saying, hey, it's us. You know, like, let's talk more, because we're good. We'll sell it to you. We'll provide it to you. And anyways, then we took it offline. And they emailed and said, Hey, here's the thing, and it's just this big miracle. And I ended up getting Ben Ward com. It's up right now, go check it out. Anyway, it gives a little taste on what I'm up to.
Josh Steimle
Man, it's such a great story as somebody who's . . . I've bought and sold 1000s of domains and to hear that story is just thrilling because . . . . domains are like real estate. But the problem is, there's only one of everything there is literally no two domains and . . . yeah, if you couldn't get Ben Ward dot com, you'd get like Ben dash Ward dot com. Of course, that's probably taken to every variation. And yeah, you'd end up with some weird thing with a bunch of numbers or something that doesn't make sense. And you'd always be like, oh man, if I could just get Ben Ward com but there's only one but you got it. That's just . . . it's amazing.
Ben Ward
Thank you I know it's crazy. And here's what I want to share right now with those that are watching and listening. What I found . . . so that's like a mini miracle. I mean, that's a big miracle. That's like awesome for me. What I've found is I've worked with leaders and successful people over the years is that these little miracles. Now your miracle may not be the same as mine. Maybe you're not going to get like your specific domain or maybe you already have it. But maybe like . . . but as you start taking action you step in from the light where you're comfortable into the darkness where it's like I don't know how it's gonna go. When you start taking action and decide to move towards your dreams . . . I can't . . . I don't know what exactly it's gonna look like but little miracles will start happening. They'll start happening, you're gonna have opposition . . . you're gonna have like all the opposition is going to come, but as you keep going through the opposition and push forward. Listen, the easy part is learning the skills to succeed. The hard part is guarding our minds and taking action despite fear. And so when we do that, when we guard our minds and take action, despite fear, these little mini-miracles start happening. And I've seen lots of them happen for me as I stepped into the dark. And this one little impossible thing about my domain, like somehow came into fruition. And I know the same is true with you, as you have an idea for your book, right? As you have an idea for something that's on there, as you just committed, say, Alright, I'm going to take action towards it, and you keep moving towards that, I found that just that alone gets us into motion to where all the sudden, I mean, this miracle happens where like my first book, it's done. And you can too. And so I just want to share that, that they're like these many miracles, this will happen as we start moving towards the things that we want in our life.
Josh Steimle
For sure, action begets action begets results. So you already hinted at it, but you've got a few more books that you're going to be working on. Tell us about the next one that's going to come out.
Ben Ward
So the next one . . . is I shared a little bit of the idea about a garden and just like . . . got to get rid of the weeds in a garden or else it chokes out the plants. I found the number one skill, the number one thing that holds us back in sales and in leading a sales team and in life really, let's get real, just in general, is what holds us back is inevitable fear, uncertainty, and doubt things that . . . they're like, Oh, I can't do that. Because of this. Oh, no, I there's no way. Who am I to be able to do this. These seeds of doubt and things that will stop us from achieving . . . from moving towards our goals. And the number one skill to become successful is learning how to get rid of those, how to uproot them. And so I've developed a formula, I call it the fearless formula. And putting that together and my next book called Pluck the Fud. And so, Josh, I've done keynotes on this all over. And this one thing, people who have been in those rooms with me, there've been 1000s of people to this day, like . . . so many people like Ben pluck the fud! And it's just been this catchy . . . you know, like, it's kind of like a pattern interrupt. It's like, wait, you said what? Like, and anyway, so this idea has been . . . over the years has been so helpful. For me personally, to get rid of my own fear, okay, Ben, you got to pluck the fud. Get rid of that thought, that's, you know . . . in these four words, these four magic words, the tool - I reject that thought, like, you might have thought, it's like, I reject that thought, like, you got to get rid of those. And so I'm really excited because this formula has never been trained on before and never been taught before. It's never been put . . . you've never seen it in any books. You've never seen it anywhere. It's a formula born out of 20 years of extreme, intense rejection and facing fear day and . . . like door-to-door sales 10 years personally, door-to-door sales and leading teams myself in the trenches with teams and like . . . how do you like, like, in a practical day-to-day manner . . . How do you get rid of that fear when it shows up? And how do you keep getting rid of what's the strategy around that? So that's my book that's coming out and I'm excited about it.
Josh Steimle
How would you apply this concept of pluck the fud to being an author? Because there are a lot of authors out there first time authors who are saying, I want to write a book, but nobody's gonna care. I want to read a book, but nobody will read it. Nobody will buy it, or I want to write a book, but I'm gonna invest all this time. And then am I really going to get the ROI on it? There's a lot of uncertainty, doubt, fear, for first-time authors. And heck, not even just first-time authors, even 10th time authors. So how would you walk a first-time author through getting over that using your pluck the fud methodology?
Ben Ward
Thank you. Yes. Okay. So for me, what I found is that when I was writing this book, there's kind of two things happening. One is how I do it technically; like, what are the technical skills to even write a book? And what's the pathway? So I'm going to show you, I have these note cards, like, you know. How do you think through, you know, the structure of the book and what are the principles you put in those? There's all that, and the skill set required that you learn and develop. And then there's the other side, which is the fear side saying, like, every minute that I just spent, got me nowhere. Like, I'd like what I just wrote. It didn't take me forward. And it feels like a vacuum of wasted time and space and the fear and doubt saying, You're wasting your time, at least for me, was real. So to your question like how do you deal with that, right? How do you take this methodology and get rid of that? And here's what I found - there's a natural tendency . . . it's normal. It's normal to fixate on what you don't want, right? And so there's this fixation error, which is like, I don't want . . . for me it was, I don't want to waste all this time and not finish my book. I don't want to waste all this time and not finish my book. I don't want to waste my time and not finish this book. What am I doing? This is a waste of time. What am . . . . I and I started fixating. And as soon as I fixate on, hey, this is wasting my time, it's not going to produce anything. I've spent hundreds and actually 1000s of hours on these ideas, like, and I've spent hundreds of hours writing and I'm not where I want to be. And there's just this natural tendency to fixate there. But here's the key is you got to . . . is rather than, for me, rather . . . what I learned, rather than fixating and focusing on what I don't want, shifting that focus on what I do want, and that's . . . I envisioned myself as a published author, I envisioned myself being able to take these ideas that I know are there and bring them to life in a book and complete it. And so fixating . . . when we start fixating, it's normal to fixate on what we don't want. What's not normal is to uproot that and be like, no! And fixate on what it is that we do want. And in my case, I want to become a published author. And if I wouldn't have made that shift to focus, because where focus goes, energy flows. Right? And, and so when we're focusing on . . . and if we're focused on, like, how hard it is, and why this isn't gonna work. And, you know, this is a waste of time, because it's just not getting out. And I'm never gonna . . . I'm not enough. I'm not like, how could I even do this? And shift that into focusing on what it is that you do want. Your ideal is the dream of . . . the vision. And like I said, although my last thought on this piece, is that the easy part is learning the skills of, like, what do you do? And how do you do it? And one way it's easy is because you hitch your trailer on somebody who knows what they're doing, like, for example, Josh Steimle. Like, Josh says, as a mentor of mine, like Josh, you've been able to help me go from not knowing how the technical pieces of it . . . and like what to do in the system and the format and the formula, and how does it work and, and you have a workbook, which is . . . is I couldn't recommend any more to anybody listening to this right now. And if you want to hear more about if you want to hear me rant and rave, call me, I'll take your phone call, let's schedule the call . . . let me tell you why and how this workbook is so powerful. But that's the technical skill. That's the easy part. The hard part is guarding your mind, and taking action in the face of fear. And so you've got to pluck the fud, and take action towards your daily goal and writing your book.
Josh Steimle
I would guess that if we talked to an evolutionary biologist, they would say that we evolved this way to have the fear, uncertainty and doubt because we used to be in caves and it was, gee, I want to go get some food, but there's a saber-toothed tiger out there that's going to kill me, or a mastodon will step on me or something. And so that was a very useful thing to have that fear, uncertainty, and doubt it kept us alive. But today, we don't have to deal with that type of stuff, most of us. And when it comes to publishing a book, what's the worst that can happen? We're not going to die. You're not going to go broke writing a book, you're not going to lose your career. You're not going to ruin your life. I mean, you could I guess, but probably not going to happen. The worst-case scenario is, nobody reads it. Nobody cares. That's not that bad. But the upside, the potential benefit, is that a bunch of people read it and they do care. And then they want to hire you. And then your business is doing fantastic. So I mean, there's really very little downside other than losing a couple of hours, and there's this huge upside. And so we have to resist our biology that tells us to fear, and just move forward like you're saying So, thanks for sharing that. I just put Ben on the spot. With that he wasn't prepped for that or anything. So that was great. Well, Ben it's been great to talk to you about your book, Sellership: How Top Sales People Become Remarkable Sales Leaders. If you're into sales, you definitely have to read this. If you're into just business, generally, you'd still probably want to read this, because sales is part of everything with business. And we know the best place to find you is Ben Ward dot com. But you can also find Ben on YouTube, you can find him on LinkedIn, you can find them everywhere. any parting words, Ben, before we say bye-bye?
Ben Ward
Oh, thank you, Josh, you've been an incredible mentor for me. I just want to just personally thank you for all of your mentorship and helping to, for me to become a published author for the first time, taking my dream, and helping to have this become a reality. So I deeply, sincerely thank you.
Josh Steimle
Well, thank you, Ben, it's been a pleasure to have you in the group. And I've been so thrilled to get this book and see the book and look at it. I mean, I didn't write the book. But just looking at it, knowing that, you know, I kind of had a small role in this, like, that makes me so excited to get this out there and see people reading it. So we'll be excited to monitor the progress of it and see what it does. We'll have to have to have you back in a year or two to say, Okay, here's how I actually leveraged the book, and here's what it's done for my business. So I look forward to that follow up story. Thanks so much, Ben, for being with us here today.
Ben Ward
Thank you, Josh.
