From the Air Force (with time in the First Gulf War and Bosnian War) to an MBA and then a PhD in Leadership, Dr. Tracey Jones has seen a lot, and written about what she’s learned in 10 books (and counting).

In this episode she talks about her author journey to her latest book, SPARK: 5 Essentials to Ignite the Greatness Within, as well as what she’s learned about being an author from her time as President of the publishing company Tremendous Leadership. As the daughter of Charlie “Tremendous” Jones and having worked with authors like Brian Tracy, Zig Ziglar, and Ken Blanchard, you’ll find Tracey to be a wealth of wisdom for aspiring and current authors.

www.tremendousleadership.com

www.traceycjones.com

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Josh Steimle:

Welcome to the Published Author Podcast, where we help entrepreneurs learn how to write a book and leverage it to grow their business and make an impact. I'm your host, Josh Steimle. Today, my guest is Dr. Tracey Jones. Tracey is the president of tremendous leadership and the author of 10 books, including her latest Spark: 5 Essentials to Ignite the Greatness Within. Tracey is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, a decorated veteran who served in the first Gulf war and Bosnian war, earned an MBA, and then a PhD in leadership studies. Tracey has also worked with some of the most famous business authors like Brian Tracey, Zig Ziglar, Ken Blanchard, a bunch more. So, we've got a lot to talk about today. Tracey, welcome to the show.

Tracey C. Jones:

Thanks so much, Josh. And thanks to our listeners out there. Nice to be with you today.

Josh Steimle:

So before we even start recording, I was already quizzing Tracey a little bit about her background, but Tracey, give us a little bit of your story. I'm really interested to hear how you ended up in the air force and how you transitioned from that to a PhD and then ended up working in this publishing company with some of the most famous business authors of all time.

Tracey C. Jones:

Well, a lot of that goes back to my childhood and I heard Willie Jolley tell me there's three phases to your life, there's your imprinting, there's your influencing, and there's your inspiring. So, I was born to a motivational speaker, Charlie “Tremendous” Jones. So, right there, I got the DNA passage of into, you know, my blood type is A Pos. Okay. Literally and figuratively. I grew up the motivational speakers of father and I tell --

Josh Steimle:

So, Charlie “Tremendous” Jones is your dad?

Tracey C. Jones:

Is my dad.

Josh Steimle:

Okay.

Tracey C. Jones:

Is my father.

Josh Steimle:

So, I did not know this. So, just for clarity, I normally research my guests a little bit before they're on, but Tracey and I just got connected like two days ago, this all happened really quickly. And so I did not know that, but Charlie “Tremendous” Jones. That's amazing.

Tracey C. Jones:

He was and he was tremendous. And those of you that knew him, he was a bibliophile of the utmost, I mean like beyond belief. So, his famous mantra was that you'll be the same person five years from now that you are today, except for two things, the people you meet and the books you read. And that wasn't just a shtick tagline to sell books. This is how he lived his life. So, growing up I think I read How to Win Friends and Influence People before The Poky Little Puppy, you know, we would sit around the dinner table and he'd be like, Tracey, you know, what do you want to be when you grow up? And I'm like, I want to get to first grade, you know, kind of thing. So, he was, it was a cross between bootcamp and a sitcom. So, it was incredibly disciplined and focused, but it also was just, you were talking about that, John Boyd, he was such a wisenheimer. Those of you that have listened to him, we have his YouTube channel out there on tremendous life books. He was hysterical. So, to him, work and fun were two sides of the same coin and you got to love what you're doing. And even if it's something that isn't good, if you bring enthusiasm to it.
So, obviously I was brought up with the power of books, your attitude, think and grow rich. Like I said, power, positive thinking, all these wonderful things and positive thinking. Ken Blanchard, Norman Vincent Peale are people that when he would speak, I would trail along with him. And so I get to sit under these great speakers and I noticed a couple of things about them. Number one, they were the real deal. And I think even now when you can spot people that have perfected the speech, but they don't really have the credit back, they don't have their stripes or their combat stars on their uniform. But these gentlemen and ladies had really made a career of helping other people realize that they have greatness inside of them and you need to just, you need to live it. So, my dad grew up deep south broken family, intense poverty, flunked out of school in the eighth grade, but went on to become one of the top 25 legends of personal development.
So, needless to say, Josh in my home growing up, there was no thumb sucking. There was no crying, blaming the government, religion. How I grew up, blah, blah, blah. It was life's what you make it. And so I went into the military because he would say to me, Tracey, you have to go earn your stripes. You can't live in my shadows. And he was never military. Although he would have been rival Pat Maddy ever been allowed to get in the military, he had some health challenges. But he just let me know. So, I thought, where can I go? And what can I do where I can be me. Where Tracey Jones can carve her way and not be Charlie's daughter or Tracey “Tremendous”. And I thought, well, the military, because it doesn't matter if you're George LeMay or Schwarzkopf son or daughter, everybody has the same amount of time to make it to first lieutenant to captain to major, because the military is very, you get egalitarian, you know, it is what it is. There's no --

Josh Steimle:

Everybody starts at the bottom.

Tracey C. Jones:

Yeah. Everybody starts at the bottom. That's the beauty of it. One of the many beautiful things about the military. So, I went in there and I was all over the world and I worked on fighter jets and it was so much fun. And although I was raised by a creative sales persona and I pulled a lot from him. I was much more of an analytic. I'm an engineer at heart. I dabbled with thinking about being a writer when I was a little kid, but that was back in the 60s and early 70s where it was like, oh no engineering. That's when all the computer revolution, all that stuff was coming up and they're like, no, no, no, going to engineering. So, of course that's what I did. It's all good. Because now I get to write later and now I have stuff to actually write about, not just be a little kid that wanted to be a writer. So, that's kind of what happened. I went into the military and I got out of the military at 12 years, went into high tech, moved to Austin, went to St. Louis, worked for defense contractor, Northrop Grumman and their space technology division. Then I worked for The National Security Agency in St. Louis. And then when my father immigrated to heaven in 2008, I thought, you know what? I just might have a little bit more entrepreneur in me than I thought. And so that's when I came back to run the company 12 and a half years ago. And that's my journey.

Josh Steimle:

Wow. That is incredible. I'm still thrown off just finding out that Charlie “Tremendous” Jones is your dad. I'm like that, that quote about “You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.” Is one of my favorite all time quotes. And I'm always saying it because I love books too. And I love people and I tell my kids this, I'm like, you got to read books, you got to meet people. That's how you change.

Tracey C. Jones:

And meet people. Right. Well, and that's why, you know, and he'd be like, oh, you're changing your job again because his generation was the greatest generation. I'm kind of a hybrid, very tail end of the baby boomer gen y. But he let me know, Hey, work is what you make it. So, you go and you do it. And you'll learn new people, see different parts of the world, learn new cultures, but the joys and the journey. So, I knew I was never longed for any one place. And the other thing in the back of my mind, Josh, I hoped that I would have the opportunity to come back and fill his shoes some day and pick up what he had started. And I got my wish.

Josh Steimle:

Cool. So, tell us a little bit about tremendous leadership then, what is this company? What is its mission? What does it do? Who does it work with?

Tracey C. Jones:

Well, it's still all about changing the world one book at a time and connecting wonderful people together. So, we had this unbelievable tribe, tremendous tribe of people that my father started. And I still get calls every day. I saw your dad 50 years ago, or I called your dad one day and I was complaining about something and he smacked me and said, you need to stop it. And it was the best thing that ever happened to me. So, I still get these legacy drips, but there's three areas that he focused on. Of course speaking, you know, sharing his wisdom because he would always tell me, Tracey, when you go through stuff, it isn't about you. It's so then you can share it with other people and be a blessing and an advocate and a resource for them. So, I always understood, even if something bad happens, it's not about me. Don't take it personal, learn from it. And then you be strong and then you help somebody else get through it. So, that was always a wonderful way to look at failure and adversity.
And as a matter of fact, Norman Vincent Peale was a friend of his. Norman Vincent Peale maintained, the more problems you have, the more wonderful your life is. Now, I know that's completely counter-cultural to everything today, but it is the God's honest truth. Okay? If your head's in the right place. So, speaking publishing. My father way back, even before Amazon came up very much was like, you got to have a book, you got to write a book, you got to write a book. And this is before we had Zoom and all this email and all this other stuff, eBooks. And he's like, you're going to be with me for a day. And then you're going to go back into the cold cruel world. But if you have books, books, books, stay with you forever. Okay. And then the third part that he did, he did wholesale distribution. And we still do all of these today, organizations that really pour into their company by getting them to meet tremendous books. And these are the people that typically are on commission. Okay. Wealth planners, real estate, CPAs, direct sales, all the people that really have to stay motivated to stay at the top of their game.
And so we still are a wholesale distributor for books. If you want to get how I raised myself from failure to success or new publications, or you know, Think and Grow Rich, we are still putting out our content, our speaking, our courses, and publishing has just been still so very, very robust. So, it was executive books. And then at the one-year anniversary of his home going, I'm like, well, it's not just really for executives. It's for anybody that wants a tremendous life. So, we rebranded a tremendous life books, which took the title of his best-selling book from 1967 that has never gone out of print. I still get royalties to this day from Kindle called Life is Tremendous. That was his flagship. That was the book. That was the book that did it for him. And then then we changed to tremendous leadership because the focus was also more on really leadership, not just in a corporate or a business setting, but leading yourself because that's the only person that we can lead Josh. And once we do that, watch out world, because it's about to change.

Josh Steimle:

And one thing you were showing me before we started recording is that you're releasing these smaller books that are kind of summaries of people's lives or people's books. Tell us a little bit more about that and why you're doing that?

Tracey C. Jones:

Well. He started this back in I think the first one he came out with, let me see if I have it is as a man think it or think and grow. Oh no, here it is. Okay. Oh, here we go. This is the one that starts life-changing classics. So, these people say, what do I read? There's 33 in the series right now. The next one is on Buckminster Fuller. The next one is on Frank Perdue, the chicken man, all different kinds of things. This is volume one. This is pretty much. In life, it isn't about how you feel. Everything that originates in our life starts here, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. So, if you feel bad that real, get rid of that for all your ENTP or the Myers-Briggs people. It all originates up here. So, this is phenomenal. Acres of diamonds. This one new common denominator success by Albert E.N. Gray takes about a half an hour to read. We sell tens of thousands of these to sales organization. I love Patton. Here's one on Patton. I love Booker T Washington Character Building, Bradford, You're Fired. So, these are wonderful things because the other thing is, and my dad started publishing these Josh back in, let me see 2000, probably 2002. So, really ahead of his time. But the research now shows that only 78% readers out there don't make it pass page 50. Okay.
And I, as a writer, I've written 10 books. I get books every day. I got to tell you at by page 50, I'm like, I got to go on to something else. Even if it's a really good book, I have some people, I was on a podcast with somebody two days ago and they said, no, it's by page 10. You're either in or you're out by page 10, you got to get him everything. So now just like these life-changing classics, these are the people that have immigrated to glory. Okay. These are the people, the Seminole thinkers, who we stand on, the new series is called A Tremendous Edge. And these are for new aspiring authors. Some of them are first time, but here's my new one coming out. I've written 10 books. My next book is going to be like this because I want organizations to be able to get it, to get a 100 or a 1,000 or 2,000 to be able to read and discuss and just get to, and then if you want to know more about me, all that stuff is in the back, so you can learn more about buying books. But this is my dad always said, don't give somebody your business card because they'll throw it away. Sometimes right in front of you. And he said this like 30 years ago, there's a YouTube video. That's he's like, give them a book, give them a book, even put your name and imprint on it or better yet you write this little book and you give it to them. Because I guarantee you they'll never forget you then and they’ll be like that little bit. Oh, that's right, Josh gave this to me. And Josh, you could write one of these on first time authors, what you would recommend to them because people just want little digestible chunks.
And I have the next three people in the queue doing this, two of them are first time authors. Two of them are best New York Times bestselling authors that already have tons of books. So, everybody's just looking for the next great way to be memorable and to really dispense quick solutions or feelings to people that they're looking for. And so there's that, that resonation, that identification. And then they understand, Hey, this is what Josh is about. Oh yeah, I need to, I need to stay connected with Josh. So, like I said, we have the old school, one of the ones that are already in glory, but I'm like, but there's so many great new people now and let's do more of a contemporary applied wisdom. So, we just trademark that and it's called A Tremendous Edge.

Josh Steimle:

That's great. And for those who are not watching this on YouTube, they're listening to it on the podcast. Tracey has been holding up these very thin books. These are very quick reads and you see that there's a demand for this. We've got a whole company Blinkist that is all set up around summarizing famous books that are out there. We've had cliff notes. Of course, for years, everybody remembers that from high school, right?

Tracey C. Jones:

Yes.

Josh Steimle:

And there are other, there are other companies out there that only publish quick reads, short books that an executive can read on an airplane flight or something like that. And so there's this demand out there to get knowledge quickly and to get a lot of breadth. And so for a lot of authors out there, they feel like, oh, I've got to write a 200-page book or a 300-page book because then it's thicker and then people will respect me because it's thicker. It's not necessarily the case. Sometimes the thin book is the one that gets a lot more reach and gets people to know who you are. There's a great book by. Is it Phil Jones? It's called Exactly What to Say. I think it's, I know Jones is his last name and it's such a quick read it's 60, 70 pages or something. Well, when I picked up that book, it was so good. I read it four times in one day because --t

Tracey C. Jones:

See, that’s what you can do, right.

Josh Steimle:

Because you can do that with a short book. And so now I've never forgotten that book. And I recommended all sorts of people because I read it so many times and it was so good. A long book if I pick up a thicker book. Yeah. I might read that book multiple times if it's really, really, really good, but chances are, I'm going to read it once and then I'm going to put it down and it's just not going to stick there as much. And so there's something to be said for writing a very short book, especially when you're a first time author and you might be struggling with how do I come up with 200 pages of content.

Tracey C. Jones:

Right. And the other thing is still write those other books, like I said, I have 10 other books, but this is the distillation of my one theme that it all goes back to. So, you know, and the other thing is a little book is great to build your brand, to build your audience, to leave them wanting more. Also, if you want to get out and coach or consult, this is a wonderful thing. Then you can build courses around us. All my little five points in here, I can tease them out to, my latest book spark that came out. Well, yeah, it was a book. And then there's courses and then there's courses on each of the points. And then there's deeper dive courses on each of the books. And then, so it just goes on and on. So, don't think, oh my gosh, I got more to say than that. Of course you do. You have a lifetime of wisdom to dispense. But for everybody else out there, it is all about, like, I tell people, you can't clean the fish before you catch the fish. This is a great hook. And then once they're in your orbit, then they're like, oh, I got to have more Josh. You know, I got to have more of that.
And I'm just saying, if this doesn't devalue you as a matter of fact, like I said, I've got a couple of authors that are bestselling authors that are like, you know what, my dad published or co-published poly 25 books. But he had only that one hit that sold like 7 million copies Life is Tremendous, his first book. So for you to be a John Maxwell or a Grisham or, you know, a JK Rowling will be incredibly rare, but if you can have these little things and just keep tripping them out. And then the other thing is we all know what the price of gas is doing right now, shipping these, taking them to events, having them in your pocket on a plane to just hand them out, to give to somebody. But you can get these printed for like a dollar or less, depending on how many print that's like going to Kinko's and doing a marketing piece. Only they got a book with something that's going to help and all your information in the back. So, we're just really excited about, and I talked to Ken Blanchard about it. I'm like, you need to do one on servant leadership. He's like, yeah. wants to do one on the genius within us all. Yeah. Just, just short and powerful.

Josh Steimle:

Quick break here. Are you an entrepreneur? Do you want to write a book that will help you grow your business? Visit publishedauthor.com, where we have programs fit every budget programs that will help you write and publish your book in as little as 90 days starting at just $39 per month, or if you're too busy to write your book, we'll interview you and then write and publish your book for you. Don't let the valuable knowledge and experience you have go to waste, head on over to publishedauthor.com to get the help you need to become a published author. You've already waited long enough. Do it today. Now back to the show. Oh, so good. Well, let's get back to you Tracey, and your author journey. What was the first book then that you wrote? You grew up around this, your dad telling you, you got to write a book, you got to write a book. So, when was it and how did it come about that, you ended up actually writing that first book?

Tracey C. Jones:

Well, my first book that I wrote was in 2011 and of course I'm still publishing books. So, all these books are coming out and people like, when are you going to write a book? And I'm like, who wants to hear what I have to say? And honestly, guys, to be honest with you, memoirs, I still got to go with that unless you landed a plane on the Hudson river, nobody really cares. And I don't say that to be rude. I just say that to be factual. And it wasn't that I was suffering from imposter syndrome or insecurity. Yeah. Well, write about your father. Yeah, my dad was great, but there's a lot of great people out there. So, how am I going to couch this? So anyways, I'm like, I got to write a book. I got to write a book. So, I'm a big animal rescuer.
So, I had rescued this dog in Austin, Texas, Mr. Blue, this self-blue Merle, six pound, little Fuzzball Australian Shepherd. And I would take him into work and I would hold up every time we publish a book, I'd say Mr. Blue sniffed out a great new title and I'd put it up there. And when I would put my writings up there, my blogs and I was fanatical. I'm from the military. I would blog at least 500 words a week. I was very diligent about it and put it out there. I get one or two comments. Oh, that's nice Tracey. I could see your father and you, it's nice. Okay. I'm not, I'm thankful. But when I would put something with Mr. Blue up there, I get like a hundred likes and comments. And I'm like, what, what? And suddenly I realized people are as crazy about books, dogs, and leadership as I am. So, somebody said to me, write your first book from the dog's perspective, from the dog's voice. So, my first book was called True Blue Leadership, the top 10 ways to lead your pack by none other than Mr. Blue. And it was his persona sharing leadership lessons about don't bite the hand that feeds you. In other words, don't put crap about your boss on Facebook. You know, old dogs have to learn new tricks, let the tail wag the dog, hurting isn't leading, dealing with workplace bullying. And so that was the first one. And it was when I was like, it was very scary. But then I thought, well, who's going to not like adopt a book written by a dog, but that was the first one.
And my second book was written in the persona of my dog, Ruby Red saucy icy living. And then somebody said, are those kids' books because there's a dog on the cover. And I go, well, no, they're not kids’ books, but then I thought, but they could be kids’ books, loyalty, bullying, thankfulness. So, I took all my books and made them kids' books. Okay. So, I wrote five kids' books and the dude that wrote who moved my cheese. He was a kids' book author too. Okay. So, children's books, because I'm like, kids need to learn leadership, like I did early 5, 4, 3, you know, learn it early and then you have more tremendous years. So, finally I'm like, okay, I have to write a book as a human. I have to write a book as a human. What am I going to write a book? What am I going to write a book on? And that's where I did pull from my blogs. I had four years of hundreds and hundreds of 400 to 500, very tightly written blogs. And what I did is I went through all of them being the researcher that I am.
And I said, here's some themes. You know, like I didn't just want it to be this collection of Tracey's musings, because I just don't think people care about my music. But I went back and I saw there were three things that I constantly went back to leadership heating your passion. In other words, doing you, I did so many things throughout my life, I have no regrets about any of them. But I realized at least half the time I was doing this, because that's what somebody else wanted me to do. So, heating your call. And then lastly reading the power of reading, the more you read, the better writer you're going to become, the better person, the better spouse, the better everything. So, I in the beginning I was like, oh dad, you know, reading is for people that can't go out and do stuff and get it done. And I'm like, man, could I have been any more wrong? Yeah. You want to go out and get street smarts, but you also need the book smarts. That’s where the beauty comes. That's where you blend a theory with the grit. Okay. And that's why I got a PhD in leadership after 40 years of leading people. And I'm like, oh, maybe that's why that didn't work out so good because then I was reading about it and I understood it.
So beyond tremendous was when the first human book. And that was really a compilation of my blogs. So, for the aspiring writers out there, don't sit down to put 80,000 words down, just write every day, commit to 15 minutes of writing. And you're going to notice that there's certain themes that you get very excited about. That's your voice coming out. It's in there, but you have to cover it out. You don't have to figure it out. You have to uncover it because it's been layered with all this self-doubt what you think people want to do your own negativity. And so you just got to let that it's waiting there like a little T like, you just got to get all the crap and dust and nonsense off it and let it shine brightly. But you won't know that until you take the time to tender that writer's fire inside of you. So, I tell people, just write a little bit and you say, I don't know what to write about. Great. Then read. Because for the 15 minutes that you write a day, you should be reading at least an hour a day because you're going to learn the art of writing. When I got my PhD, I had already published nine books. When I got my PhD, I learned how to research, how to site, how to thread points and not in with my opinion, I learned so much about how to be a better communicator. So, the more you, I'm not saying you have to go back for a PhD, although I'd recommend it. But the more you read, the better writer you're going to be, and then that writing is going to spark something in your head. And then you're going to be like, you're going to know what to write about. So, that's some recommendations I would have for our writers.

Josh Steimle:

That was one of my next questions was how did your PhD assist you as a writer? Because yeah, that's not something everybody can do, but some people they do it. Some people do it. I've interviewed a lot of people on this podcast who have PhDs. Can you tell us a little bit more about how working on a PhD has helped you as an author?

Tracey C. Jones:

Well, my main topic of writing is leadership. So, when I was speaking more and more, I realized at least half the people had in my audience probably had a PhD and I had my MBA, but I thought, you know what, if I'm going to be earmarked as the leadership expert, I need to get the terminal degree. So, it just so happened that I was on a college as a trustee and I still paid for it. But I thought, you know what, have a leadership program. I study and write about leadership and why not study it. And I knew I'd get a book out. Ken Blanchard became famous writing about his situational leadership theory that he wrote for his PhD. So, everything that you write for your PhD, you then converted to layman's term, Dr. Henry Cloud, Dr. John Maxwell, all these guys are really smart guys that take these beautiful principles, but they tease them out layman's term because truth is timeless and they just strip away the academic speak.
So, I knew with my PhD that this would be my next book, which was Spark. And of course I studied the theory of motivation. Can we really motivate anybody? You as a leader, is that your job to motivate somebody? Are we able to do that? And, you know, that kind of thing. So, that's really what I was, I really wanted to drill down because when you talk about motivation and leadership, boy, there's a whole lot of different things on it. And I just wanted to be the top student in this one area of leadership. And it gave me four glorious years to really drill down into it and study it. So, when I do talk to it and I wrote about it, I can speak with credibility. I can think, speak with authenticity. And I really want to make sure that my readers, that I present them with the most amount of content that is really well-researched and well grounded, not just my experience because my experience Josh could be a red herring.
You know, maybe I never had any bad leaders in my life. How many people do you know like that? But yet if you listen to somebody like that and you have a bad leader, you're like, am I doing something wrong? No, they're just, they're an anomaly, you know? And so it really, I'm sorry guys, I thought I turned this off. I just know I did turn off, but the cats turned it on. How about that? I'm going to blame it on the cats. So, you know, it just really helped me get clear on my voice because as a writer, the more you know your topic, the more your voice comes out with confidence and conviction versus well I'm kind of thinking that this is how it is, so that that's what I love about, knowledge is power. That's not just a PSA cliche from when we were in high school, knowledge is power and there is truth and truth is timeless.
So the more, the beauty of the PhD is you really drill deeply into the existing body of knowledge and you add one little tiny nugget into the sea of knowledge from which future generations to build on. And that's a really, really cool thing. That's what personal development and growing a business is all about. You and your business have found something that worked for you that others need to hear it. And the reason people will listen to you or this podcast, or me, or want to publish is people are desperately looking for solution or a feeling, you want to present what you found in a great way, so they can have the answers, the tools, the means the resources they're looking for.

Josh Steimle:

So, with your book Spark, I get the impression you could probably write 20 more books. So, the book Spark, why was that the book that you said, this is going to be my next book, and this is important enough that I'm going to put this at the front of the line. What was the motivation driving that?

Tracey C. Jones:

It’s a motivation, while the PhD came out in December, 2019. And of course, then we all know what happened 2020. So, I'm writing this book about it and it was ready to go to print. And then of course COVID happens and I'm like, okay, no, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. My book is all about igniting the greatest within everybody out there thinks they're going to die and they're scared. Is there going to be? And I'm like, no, no, whatever's going on externally here. It's all about what's internal to here. And so Spark was an acronym, the five steps that I found in my research that you need to ignite the greatness within you.
There's two things that you have to bring to the table S and P, your singularity and your persistence. Josh, I don't know what you're meant to do in this life. That's between you and God. Okay. And I can't do the work for you. I can assist you, but only you can do the work. The externals are A, R, and K your advocates, the people that want your success more than you. The resources, which is the tools and the means, your podcast, your website, your printer, your editor, your marketing, your website, your sales funnel, you know, you got to have that just because, you know, it's not this isn't field of dreams. If you publish it, they will buy. That's not how it works. Okay. And lastly is knowledge publishing has changed in the last 12 years. Publish has changed in the last 12 months. Publishing has changed in the last 12 days. So, you have to be in this constant growth mode of, okay, that's what worked last month, but what else is out there?
And I love that because I love now that anybody at any time to get on Amazon KDP or all these other wonderful sites or contact us, and you can get your book out there. If you do Amazon KDB overnight, you know, or, you know, if you go with another publisher within a couple of weeks or couple months. So, that's really what that was is, I realized people come to me and say and my avatar, my market is 60 up. And I thought, oh, I'm going to appeal to the new leaders that want to be leaders. I appealed to the people. My avatar is the people that have already done a couple careers successfully, but are just like, okay, I'm 60. And I'm just figuring it out, what's next. And that's a beautiful space to be in because you have the kids grown, you have the resources, you have the retirement, and you have the wisdom to be able to pour into people.
So, that's really, that's really and a lot of times for our listeners out there, you don't know who it's going to hit with, but you put it out there and you watch, and it's like fishing. You see who starts to resonate with your message and who identifies with it. And that may be completely background backwards, you may have some marketers listening going. She's completely wrong with that. Well, I'm probably wrong about a lot of things, but for me I'm very much as you know this, for me being in the military, let's just launch it. Good enough is good enough. Let's get the book out there. Let's see where it lands. If I need to tweak it, change it, reflow it. Guess what? I pulled the files down off of the internet and I re-upload them the next day. So, I want to let people know that our publishing, don't get to analysis paralysis about this. You know, all truth is God's truth. He's already got that figured out. So, you don't have to create any new truth, because it's already out there, but just let's get it out there. Let's see who it lands with. And let's start building your brand.

Josh Steimle:

Ready, fire aim?

Tracey C. Jones:

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And then adjust as necessary that, and then, like I said, who was I talking to? Jeff, then introduce you to me every day. I have more tremendous conversations and then I wouldn't have known you, but when you're open, if I just sat there and said, I have to know everybody before I launch my book, I never would have launched anything. Just get it out there. People will find you.

Josh Steimle:

Yeah. So, having worked with so many authors and so many amazing authors, what are some of the common traits, trends, practices, habits that you've seen in these successful authors that other authors can take away from that?

Tracey C. Jones:

Well, I call it like the three legged stool. Okay. So, first of all, these guys all weave together their personal experience. Okay. And that means they've done it. And whenever I hear people and it's just a book of how other people have done it, I'm like, but I could go read their own autobiography. So, there's a thread of they have their stripes. So, I'm going listen to them because you don't want to write on something, if you really, I mean, if you're doing fiction, that's a totally different thing, but we're talking to people that really want to do personal development. So, have a little element of that in there. And then number two, have some historical examples, go back to Walt Disney or Sam Walton or Lincoln, go back to some of the greats and thread it so people can see this isn't just you but it's a universal. We've all been through this. Life is a beautiful things and sad things that happen to all of us. So, I love it when people link back to historical grades, because it lets you know that you're not alone. Thirdly, they thread in a tool because what good is it you telling me what needs to happen.
Josh, I know what needs to happen, but I'm a tool girl, give me something, connect me with somebody, give me a methodology, give me a construct, give me a taxonomy, give me something, give me a planner that I can, the tools to get to work. So, I've watched a lot of these people, right. I love it when they put their own experience in there. And then they have another great person that persevered and made it happen. And then they say, and guess what, Tracey, I'm not going to leave you hanging. If you do this, if you apply this principle, you will achieve results because success and personal development, they're like scientific laws. And people are like, oh, that person got lucky. They didn't. There is no such thing as luck. It's the same principle. It's the same law of consequences. It's the same habits, new common denominator of success. We haven't Spanish too.
The only difference between a failure and a success is that a success has made a habit out of doing things the failure wouldn't. And that's the same thing with writing. You look at successful writers versus failure writers. They have made a habit of doing the things that will make them successful. And nobody likes doing them. Okay. You are writer, we're all writers. A lot of us out there it's hardware for all of us. But you make a habit out of it. So, that's really like about the people we publish. Our niche is really personal development, helping other people live a tremendous life and to do that, you let them know they did it. Here's other people that did it and here's the tool, so you can do it. And when I can hear all three of those things and I'm like, I'm almost like a case, prove it. Well, here's one, here's two, here's three, I'm sold. I'm on board. Let's do it.

Josh Steimle:

So, you mentioned earlier that good writers read a lot and the more you read the better you'll get at writing. So, who are some of your favorite authors? What are some of your favorite books that you've read?

Tracey C. Jones:

Well, anything Henry Cloud wrote, Dr. Henry Cloud. I'm like obsessed with him. Boundaries, necessary ending, safe people because my field of study is leadership and followership. And it's very much understanding who do you need on your team? That is going to be all in with your mission, because trust me, no matter how good a leader you are, you are going to have some people on your team that not all in and some may be actually attacking you. And so I really resonate with him. I love him. I love Eric Metaxas. I'm a big Dietrich Bonhoeffer fan. I've read everything Dietrich Bonhoeffer has ever written. I love Charles Spurgeon, Oswald Chambers. They're kind of my daily devotionals because they're so rich in the scriptures, but also an application. I love Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich. I could read that pretty much once a month. I love Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning that, that changed my life. Bob Burg's books, endless referrals.
I mean, it just, I love Ken Blanchard stuff, because it's all stuff leadership. But and even if I read a book and I only get one good thought, like I've probably read 500 books, but I probably skimmed 50,000. That's okay for the people out there. If you get into it and you're like, Hmm, I'm not totally feeling this. It's not seventh grade. You don't have to finish it, put it down, even if you got one good thought of it. And I keep files for all my books, I learned this in my PhD because I'll go back and I'm like, oh, I want to quote that. Where did I hear that stat from? So, I'll keep files on all my books and folders, because as you start reading, you're going to be talking to people. And they're like, where did you hear that? Where'd you hear that quote, how did you know that story? How did you know that parable? And you just become this great, what reservoir of accumulated wisdom from all these other people. And, you know, that's, that's going to pour out in your writing.

Josh Steimle:

Tracey, this has been such a fun conversation and I wish it could go on forever. Because I just want to like dig in and ask you questions about all these different authors and all these experiences and everything. But we've got into this at some point. So, this has been such good information now for people who want to learn more about you and what you're doing, where's the best place for them to connect with you?

Tracey C. Jones:

Absolutely. Thanks Josh. www.tremendousleadership.com and or if you go to tremendous light books or executive books, but tremendous leadership. There's a publish with us. There's all our little books, you can check it out. If you sign up for our E-Blast, you get two free weeks of our little life changing classics. My podcast is on there. My leaders on leadership podcasting, we have free webinars, we have courses, all things tremendous. Come on over to tremendous leadership.

Josh Steimle:

Perfect. Thank you so much for being with us here today, Tracey.

Tracey C. Jones:

You're welcome, Josh. Thank you for the opportunity to share.

Josh Steimle:

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