Ed Brenegar is a keynote speaker and leadership consultant focused on teaching people to become people of leadership within their workplace and social circles. He’s worked with senior executives for 30 years and authored ‘Circle of Impact: Taking Personal Initiative To Ignite Change’. Using his proprietary Circle of Impact model, Ed provides the tools for people to innovate and problem solve by addressing and exploring people’s ideas, relationships, and structures.

In this episode, Ed talks about how he spent decades developing his Circle of Impact model, five years writing the book, and how he engaged in face-to-face communication to learn how to get people interested in reading it. He also shares how he is now writing much shorter companion books based on his original ideas and how this supplementary material is helping him gain more traction.

Ed's Links:

https://www.facebook.com/EdBrenegarSp...

https://www.linkedin.com/in/edbrenegar

https://edbrenegar.com/

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Josh Steimle: Today, my guest is Ed Brenegar. Ed is a keynote speaker and leadership consultant focused on teaching people to become people of leadership within their workplace and social circles. He's worked with senior executives for 30 years and authored ‘Circle of Impact: Taking Personal Initiative To Ignite Change’. 

Using his proprietary Circle of Impact model, Ed provides the tools for people to innovate and problem solve by addressing and exploring people's ideas, relationships, and structures.

Ed, welcome to the show!

Ed Brenegar: Thank you, Josh. Glad to be with you.

Josh Steimle: So give us some more background on your business experience. You've got decades of experience in the business world. Tell us a little bit about your background and where you came from and that history. 

Ed Brenegar: I began my career as a Presbyterian minister doing community ministry in Atlanta. So I was working the streets and it was very interesting cause I met all kinds of people and about three years into that work, I was asked to join a local business association board. I was the clergy representative to the board. And I was representing about 13 congregations both Christian and Jewish in that neighborhood area.

And I discovered something there that I had never seen before. I was used to seeing boards where you had a single person who ran everything and the board kind of was quiet and passive aggressive and went along. But, this board was totally different. It was 45 people, very diverse. And they all worked as one. I'd never seen that before. And I said, “Okay, this is what leadership is. And this is what I want to do.” 

So I jumped in and I took some seminar courses in leadership and began to read about leadership. And I began to realize almost immediately that I disagreed with almost everything I read about leadership that was being written about in the business world. And so I spent really another 20 years diving into what leadership is all about. And during that time I developed a leadership model. It basically just came from observing what was going on. Why are things not working? Why are people trying to avoid actually fixing things? Why is this happening?

And I began to see patterns of behavior emerge that really made sense. And then I could see that I could apply. And that's where the model, the Circle of Impact model came from. And those patterns of behavior really are centered in three different dimensions. There's the dimension of ideas. We think about things. We want to be clear about things. We have a purpose. We have vision. We have values. Things like that. 

And then there are relationships. And I found in many places that relationships were really bad in many organizations and the people who are oftentimes in charge were treating people really poorly, for one reason or another. Or they were just ignoring them. And so there was a lack of respect and trust in those organizations. And then I saw that everything was dominated by the structure of the business and it was, the only way I can really describe what I saw was, if you try to describe to a fish what water is. They'll never understand that because they're so immersed in the water. They just can't see water for what it truly is. And that's what I basically found in my interactions with people whether it was early on in the church and then within higher education for a number of years. And then I started my own consulting practice because I wanted to go solve problems and this is where I learned all this stuff.

Josh Steimle: That's a fascinating journey. I think you're the first clergy that we've interviewed on the show here so far. And to make that leap from the church work to the business world. It's interesting because a lot of people would say if I'm interested in doing God's work, I'm going to leave the business world and I'm going to get into the church or into religious stuff. You took the opposite journey. Can you talk a little bit more about that? 

Ed Brenegar: Sure. You know what I was seeing, Josh, was the problems in the business world were the same problems that churches were having. So I was consulting both the businesses and churches and nonprofits and local governments and schools and individuals. And it was all across the spectrum of organizations and they all had the same problems. 

So people have in churches or in religious service organizations, they have a kind of a premise that they are doing this by faith in God. Well in business, they're also this kind of faith in the purpose of the organization. So faith has a component in this, but I found in many cases that that idea of what they believe in or what their purpose is, was never very clear. And it never really was practical enough to say for these are the values that we're willing to build our church on or build our business on or build our school on. 

And it was just never very clear. And if your values are never very clear, then you really don't know what you believe. And you'll end up being pushed all over the map and you'll just be manipulated to do whatever seems like the convenient thing or whatever the thing is that feels is the right thing to do in that moment. Which they might turn out to be the wrong thing, a month later or a year later.

Josh Steimle: Yeah. How does the scripture go? He who is unstable is like a wave of the sea pushed to, and fro. 

Ed Brenegar: Yeah, blown like winds of sand in the desert, blowing here and there. 

So it's an interesting thing because, I guess a piece of this and this is takes it to the next level, is that what I saw is that in all of these institutions, there was this hierarchical structure and I'm not talking about hierarchy from a merit sort of thing, or these are the very best people. No it was the structure of hierarchy where whoever was at the top was running things and they would determine what the values were. And in many cases there was never any conversation with anyone. I wouldbreak this down into executive, management, and worker level. There was never much conversation about what do we believe in, why are we doing what we're doing? 

And in the mid two thousands, I was hired by a company an electrical utility.

They'd been through a crisis with their executive team. And some of that executive team was removed and the new CEO came in and about four months into his tenure there, he hired me to come in and help write a value statement for the company. And they put together a nine person team of manager executives and the four officers of the union, which is really quite a gutsy thing on his part to bring that group of people together. 

And my first meeting with him, I say, “Well, how far back in time do we have to go to where this was a happy company?” 

And the president of the union said, “20 years.” 

I said, “What was it like back then?” 

He says, “We were a family. We all knew each other. We did things together. We played softball together. We did picnics together. As a company, we all knew each other and we were a family.” 

Then the new regime came in and they basically said, “We're going to make every decision, we're going to do this really hardcore top-down thing.” 

And they made some really bad mistakes and decisions about how they were going to manage some of the funds and the assets of the company. And as a result, they left, they were asked to leave. So the new guy comes in and he's starting with, “I'm going to get to know people.” So this is the electrical utility. So you've got these folks who go out in their trucks and they work up on the electrical lines every day. They're sending up utility systems. And he would go out there at five in the morning and take them breakfast and he'd be in his t-shirt and jeans. And they would be talking not about the business. They'd be talking about each other. And he was going to get to know these mostly men, and get to know them as Ralph or George or Harry or whatever their first name is. And also get to know who their wives are and their children are. 

And after that four months, he can't continue to do that. So he became known as Paul. He was not Mr. so and so, or here's the president or the CEO. And so when our project came to a conclusion, we had to present to him a value statement. And this is really important, I think, in understanding how actually organizations function. So, the last day, we did not have a statement. We entered the last three hours of our work without a statement. I had asked them as the team the day before, said, “If you want to write something, write it tonight, bring it tomorrow. We'll present it and we'll look at it and we'll talk about it and see if this is where we want to go.” 

So two of the guys had done this and then I said, “Why don't we take 20 minutes and if anybody else wants to write one, they had already presented it. Why don't we do that?” So we ended up with five value statements and then I gave each of them five votes and they could vote. They can allocate their votes, however they want to. Gave them little post-it notes and they could go post it up there. And one of the ones that had been written overnight won by a landslide. It was really quite good. 

And I said, “Are you all convinced that this is the right statement for the company going forward into the future?”

And they all said, “Yes.” 

“Are you prepared for Paul to come in and see this?”

They said, “Yes.” 

So one of the team went down and bought him up. We hid the votes, so he didn't know how the team had voted. And I said, “Paul, which one is the one that you would choose?” And he chose the one that they did. And the visceral emotion that went through the room that day was like, “Okay, we're going to be okay as a company. We can trust this guy and we're going to move forward.” And it was a remarkable thing. 

So out of that, I've come to see one thing and I'll just share this last thing, and then we can move into something else. But what I discovered there, and I've seen this in other places and I’ve particularly seen it in large corporations, is something I call a persistent residual culture of values. And these values that the people have, these are the people who work in the business, these values that they have persist because they reside in their relationships with one another. 

There's a very well-known international company, I can't say the name because I'm forbidden to describe the company itself, but I did some seminars for a team at the company. And one of the guys that got me into being able to do this, was taking me around his divisions offices, the executive offices. And we went into their office suites, very luxurious place. And I was introduced to one of the executive assistants. She works for one of the executive vice-presidents. And very formal, almost aggressively formal towards me, as if I was a threat. I'm not a threat, I'm just the guy, I'm here to find out what's going on and see if I can help out. I was introduced as to who I was and what I was doing there. And then I asked her about her experience at the company, and she had been there for 30 years and and it was obvious that she knew that she couldn't talk about what was going on.

I just said to her, “Listen, I know that these are hard times here, but I want you to know that a company is not defined by its leadership or its tragedies. It's defined by this persistent residual culture of relationships and values that exist. That culture is going to outlast all the executives that are in this business. They're going to come and go. But you all are going to be here. And you all need to understand that you have a set of values that bonds you together, that cause you to love this company, because you're willing to sacrifice to make this company as great as it can be.” 

And so that, that was part of the kind of the solution end of seeing these patterns of behaviors that were not functioning well in many of the organizations that I was working with.

Josh Steimle: I love that. I'm almost getting goosebumps as you talk about that because I'm an entrepreneur too. And as I'm trying to create a company that will outlast me, this is the type of thing that I think about is how do I create that culture that will outlast me? And just talking about it, just hearing you talk about it in that conversation, that's inspiring because I can see how if I were working at a company and somebody came to me and said, “Hey, you're a part of creating this culture. You have the power to make this culture something that endures and is good and will outlast your time at this company.” That would put a weight of responsibility on me. That makes me feel like my life has meaning at this company. It's not just a job. There's something more than just a paycheck that I'm getting out of this. 

Ed Brenegar: Absolutely. I think when we feel like there's something at stake in the work that we do, then we will give our best to it. And this is why my definition of leadership is very different than everyone else's. Because if you read through the literature, you'll see that leadership is treated as a role in a title in an organization. And my definition is that all leadership begins with personal initiative that’s a great impact, that makes a difference that matters. So that means that everybody in a company can function can function as a leader. 

They won't necessarily have the role of leader, but they can function as leader because they're making a difference that matters to the work that they do. And to see that happen in places, it's just very gratifying because what you're giving to that person or these people is really the privilege of fulfilling their own purpose as a person. And many people don't feel like they have that. I think it's part of the reason so many people are resigning from the work that they've been doing. that we're having this thing called “The Great Resignation” now, or they're resigning because of the work is not meaningful and they realize that, “I can probably do something better by starting something myself.” 

And I'm seeing that. Which is kind of fun to watch.

Josh Steimle: Yeah. I think it's a great thing. People talk about how it's terrible. We can't hire people. We can't get people to work for us.

To me, if people are becoming more discriminating in the jobs that they're willing to take, that is a net benefit for society, because like you said, people want meaningful work. They want to know that their life matters. They don't just want a job. And that's fantastic because what kind of people do we want to hire? As business leaders do we want to hire people who see the job as just a job? Or do we want people who are searching for that meaning?  And then that gives us the opportunity to find that meaning for them. And once they have that, we're going to have somebody who's much more loyal and much more hardworking and much more creative than somebody who's just there to get their paycheck.

Ed Brenegar: Yes, I absolutely agree. I agree with you. And I think part of the problem that I see is that people rise to being the “leader” in an organization. But one of the things that happens along the way is they lose touch with some of the things that define them as a person, they lose touch with who they are and why they have a certain set of talents and skills. And as a result, they become somewhat isolated and somewhat insecure in their role. But if you're the leader of a company and you feel insecure, you're not going to expose yourself by saying, “I really don't know what I'm doing here.” When you really should be saying, “I don't know what I'm doing here, I need help. And I will facilitate. (Let me put that word in there.) I'm going to facilitate all of you helping me help you be better leaders for the company.”

Josh Steimle: Yeah, this is great. Okay. So let's get to the point where you said I've got these ideas. I've been researching leadership for decades at this point. Now, at what point did you say I need to put this in a book? What was that thought process like?

Ed Brenegar: The beginning was 2004, when I was hired to write a business leader column for the Asheville Citizen Times. I was living in Western North Carolina. So I wrote a business leadership column twice a month for four and a half years. And at the same time, I started blogging. After those four and a half years, the recession hit, the great recession.They let me go. And that was fine. I basically said everything I needed to say through that vehicle. 

And then there was a shift taking place in my blogging. So before then for, about five years, I was commenting on other people's thoughts. Then all of a sudden I crossed the threshold and I began to have my own thoughts and I began to write about my own thoughts and and I began to write longer and longer blog posts. Some of them were, a thousand words, then that became 2000 words, 3000 words. And so at that point, I began to realize that there was a book that should be written about the Circle of Impact. And I went through a series of several what I call losses. My marriage ended, I closed my consulting practice because it just kind of dried up, thanks to the recession. And I was operating a non-profit organization. I was the Executive Director for a nonprofit then I got fired because the board didn't want to raise money. So we ran out of money. 

So went through those three losses and I said, “Okay, what am I going to do with the rest of my life?”

So I ended up moving to Wyoming to start all over. And starting over was to write a book. And I spent basically five years writing the book and marketing the book and the experience was life-changing. And I wouldn't recommend people do what I did. But I would recommend people begin the process of writing so that they know what they think and out of that may come a book that is worth going through all the extreme effort that it takes to produce something that other people will read.

Josh Steimle: So I want to point out to listeners here, you put in the work, in terms of research, in terms of going out there, implementing your ideas, researching, reading, observing. So you're collecting information for all these years. And then you spent five years working on the book, writing that book. And I've had people here on the show who have written a book in two weeks and they were drawing upon the knowledge that they already have. So it's not like they just had an idea and came up with a book in two weeks. They were taking knowledge they had been gaining for years. And I have other people who have spent like you 5, 6, 7 years writing their book, but you really did the work there. And I just want to point that out to listeners, it doesn't always come quick. Sometimes it takes time to get it done the way that you want to do that.

Now, during those five years, what was the process that you were following? What did it look like to get that book written during those years?

Ed Brenegar: Well, I hired a company to help me develop the book and develop me as a keynote speaker. So I thought I saw those two things as intertwined. And I did the first three chapters of a book and it was sent off to a well-known editor. And in there, there was some stuff about the Circle of Impact, but it was not about the Circle of Impact. And she sent back her review and she said, “Everybody's talking about what you're writing about. So you don't have really have anything special to say here. But your Circle of Impact model is different and that's something that you should do.” 

And I don't know why I hadn't thought of that. I just, I think I felt like it was not practical enough, it was too abstract a model. It's crazy to think that you could take something that you can put on one side of a piece of cardboard or postal paper and turn it into a book. 

So I wrote the first draft of the book. It was 70,000 words, 17 chapters. Went off to the editor. And the second version turned out to be 40,000 words and 9 chapters. And then my agent said it really needs to be in the mid fifties in terms of numbers. And so I ended up with about 56,000 words and 13 chapters, a preface, an introduction, and an epilogue. 

And it was a whole lot of work, but I would not trade it for anything in the world. It was a fun process. And now maybe this is worth adding to this, just because you write a book doesn't mean it's going to be successful. I think you probably have had many conversations with people. And the launch of my book was not successful. Even though I was promised that we would sell a thousand copies on launch day, we sold 41. 

Josh Steimle: Ouch

Ed Brenegar: Ouch. But because I had developed a model. That is a problem solving model. I looked at it and I knew where it was going. I knew that we had developed a lot of content and we had delivered that content to the world through social media, blog posts, and stuff.  But what we had never done was develop an audience. We had never developed a set of relationships with people who were expecting and looking forward to and anticipating the book coming out. 

Josh Steimle: Yeah. And expert authors, who have been out there, will say this over and over again, that they wish they had built an email list sooner. They wish they had built an audience or a platform sooner because Hey, if you've got a couple thousand people on an email list. Well, the day you launch your book, you email it out to all those people and a bunch of them will buy it.

Ed Brenegar: That's interesting that you bring that up. So the book came out in September of 2018. And in April we launched the newsletter. And immediately we had 80 people sign up. In May, when the next edition of the newsletter went out, we still had 80. In June, we still had 80. In July, we still had 80. In September, we still had 80 people. So after the initial signup, we didn't have any growth in the newsletter. And to this day, I don't know why that happened. But it just is indicative of how difficult it is to build an audience. And I think you have to build an audience that's about more than simply getting people to be ready for a book to be released. That you have something to say that people really want to hear, and you're going to be talking about it a lot. And so they're going to want to come to you and listen for that and interact with you, engage with you in wanting to have conversation about these ideas that you have.

Josh Steimle: Yeah. So now the book launch didn't go so well, but then how have things gone since then?

Ed Brenegar: Oh, very surprising. I decided that I needed to hit the road and go out engage with people. And that's where my real core strength is, and it is in the engagement with people. So I spent 10 and a half months on the road all over the United States doing about 40 book events, from North Carolina all the way to California. And up and down the east and west seaboards. And it was fantastic. 

So one of the things that I did, which I'm really glad I did, was I bought a large number of copies of my book. And I carried boxes of books in my car. And I would sell them or I would give them away. So this little book here, became a calling card. It's like a business card. Like, I met a woman in a laundry mat in St. Louis, and we were watching the news, watching the weather, and she was getting ready to leave to go back to Louisiana. And so we had this interaction and it was like the meetings of minds. And she's in a position of responsibility and authority, both in her local community, but on a national basis. And so I said, “I'm going to give you a copy of my book. I want you to read this because I want to help you develop this thing.” And and so we talked for awhile, and the opportunity to help her was pushed out so far that it never really happened. But it still might happen. Who knows?  I stay in touch with her. 

So I met people like that everywhere I went and I would talk with them. And they'd come up to a book signing and they would say, “So what's your book about?” And this is important for people who are marketing, that you need to have a pitch that fits with the audience that you think are going to buy the book. And my pitch, I had two pitches and one was, “It’s a book for people in trainsition. Doesn't matter what kind of transition you're in. If you're in transition, this book can help you.” Or if it was obviously a business person, I said, “It's a book for businesses that are in transition who want to elevate the leadership capacities of their people.” 

And every time I said either one of those things, it had such a positive response. It was almost to the point of saying, it's really clear that we live in a time of transition and that if you were not able to talk about the world being in transition, then you're not going to be able to communicate to people about the things that really are the questions that they're having about themselves and about the world.

Josh Steimle: It's like the saying goes, the only constant is change.

Ed Brenegar: The only constant is change, but the question is it disruptive change or is it positive change?

Josh Steimle: And sometimes disruptive change can be positive change. Can't it?

Ed Brenegar: Absolutely. It certainly can be.

Josh Steimle: So now you did this book tour and you got to connect with a lot of people.

And what result did that generate for you and your speaking business and with book sales and consulting, whatever else that you were doing.

Ed Brenegar: I would say that all of that effort, which is valuable in me understanding who the public is, did not build a movement. But here's only one way to learn things. And so in many respects, you can hear someone say that, but I learned it firsthand. So people are looking for answers for themselves and not many are actually looking for answers for the bigger picture. And so it didn't really develop a movement of people who are now doing Circle of Impact leadership stuff. But it put me in a position to be asking the right questions. So when the season of travel to promote the book was over, I realized that, “Okay, I've come to the end of a period of time in my life. The chapter that had begun in the winter of 1984 was now over and something new was about to start.” 

And so I'm on the board of a children's home here in North Carolina. And I ended up going to a a conference in Thailand that was dealing with orphans on a global scale. And I'm standing in the lobby. I'm just the guy, I'm going to go to a party and be the first one there and the last one to leave. I'm going to talk to everyone that walks through the door. And I'm standing there in the lobby of the hotel and in walks this entourage of Africans and almost immediately, they come and surround me and we start talking and almost immediately, we become best friends. It's the only way I can describe it.

And within 10 days, I had three invitations to go to Africa. And at this point in time, two years ago, I was in Africa after six weeks being home from Thailand. And then I went back for five more weeks in February of last year. And what happened there was that culture was far more ready to hear what I had to say in this book than many places here in the US. And I'm not saying that as a negative, I'm just saying it is an observation.Okay. This is where we are. 

So I arrived late February in Nairobi, and then having lunch with a guy that I had met in December. He brings another guy along and this guy says, “So what do you want to do while you're here?” And I already had a training event scheduled for out in the Western part of the country.

He said, “Do you want to do any talking?” 

I said, “Sure.” 

So over the next three weeks, I did seven talks that he had an organized. And out of that was really clear that there was an opportunity to do something there, which I hadn't been able to accomplish here. So one of the things that's emerged is a leadership conversation with a group of people in Nairobi, that we've just started as a monthly thing.

And the other is that we're rewriting this for Africa. And we'll come out next year. It'll be Circle of Impact Africa or something like that. And it will be far more culturally attuned to the African world. And so it may be that the surprises of publishing a book, it's not that the book itself is winning things. It's also putting you in a position where you can change your own life and you can become something other than what you thought you were going to be. 

And in the middle of all this. I get an email from my agent and he says, “You need to sign the document and send it back to me as fast as you can, because there is a Chinese publisher that wants to publish Circle of Impact.” So, I don't know how the sales are going there. They never know, but they pay for the rights to publish the book. Josh, all I'm saying is that you have to be open to whatever comes your way and you have to take advantage of, this is a very entrepreneurial sort of thing, and you have to take advantage of what opportunities are presented to you on a daily basis. 

So I guess the last thing to tell you about that is that. So I come back from Africa at the end of February, 1st of March, and a week later, the pandemic lockdown coronavirus thing is declared. And that meant I was not going to make two trips to Africa the rest of the year, that were planned. So what am I going to do? And so I decided that I was going to write about all these questions and all these stories and all these situations that people have been presenting to me for two years. So out of that, I produced seven short books that I sell published on Amazon. And I can tell you that working hard and to work fast, to produce something is the way to go.

Unless you're having to do a lot of research, but if you're just responding to what people are saying to you, you're going to be able to say something which other people are going to respond. So my challenge now is simply to market all this.

Josh Steimle: That's where a lot of my blog posts and articles have come from is people email me a question, I start responding, and by the time I'm done with the email, I think, “Gee, I just wrote another blog post here. I should just publish the response I just sent to this person.”

Ed Brenegar: Absolutely.

Josh Steimle: And it's usually I know that other people are going to resonate with it because if this person has that question, I know other people have that question.

Going through your story with your book and everything there in Africa, and what's happened, like you said, being open to the opportunities that come along. If you had tried to plan all that, you never could have imagined it up and said, “Here's my plan. And yet, these things happened because you were open to it and because you created a door. You open the door for those opportunities to come to you. 

So what are your plans for the future then? You've got your book in China, you got Circle of Impact, you're rewriting that, you're writing these short books. What are you trying to create here? What's the vision that you have now, as you still remain open to opportunities wherever they might lead?

Ed Brenegar: In the Circle of Impact book, I talk about an idea that I called two global forces. And there is the global force of centralized institutions, governance, and finance, and the global force of decentralized networks of relationships. And I think we see that centralized institutional structure being played out in the pandemic. But what I've seen,  and I've seen this throughout my whole career, is entrepreneurial type people, and they may not even call themselves entrepreneurial, but they are, they're doing things in their local communities. They're having an impact. And I decided that what I was going to do is I was going to begin to facilitate these individuals who oftentimes were isolated because they were the only ones who were interested in taking initiative. And they had the motivation, they had the energy, and nobody else was going to follow them because they just were not oriented that way. So I decided I was going to facilitate the formation of these networks of relationships.

So in July, I formed the Global Impact Network. And with two guys in Uganda, one is a pastor, one runs an orphanage, I connected them together. They already knew each other, but they weren't connected. They weren't networked together. And so we started talking about the issue of feeding their people because food scarcity had become a real problem in Uganda because of the way the government had locked down the country.

So we were talking about: How are you going to generate food? And the pastor, his name is Emmanuel had the previous year, he and I have been talking about this, and I said why don't you go to your local elected official and say, if you get the food, I’ll distribute it. And that worked.

And then he went out and leased some land and they grew maze. And so he fed his people. So he's being very entrepreneurial, but he's doing it all by himself. So he and David are now connected and I've got a third guy that I want to connect with them. So I want these little pockets to grow as networks where they support each other. They do problem solving together. They do resource development together. And this other leadership conversation in Nairobi is a form of that as well. 

So the Global Impact Network formed. I need to talk more about this. So, you'll love this because I have decided I'm going to start a podcast called The Global Impact Network. And I'm going to interview people like you're doing, I'm going to interview people who are having an impact in their local communities worldwide, and I'll do 52 weeks a year. My goal is to have someone from every continent. And I don't know about Antarctica, but at least to have people to make this a truly global conversation about how we take care of our local communities. So that's the next big thing. And so this idea of these two global forces will become the basis for the next major book. It will be the followup to Circle of Impact. And my goal is to have a manuscript done by next December.

Josh Steimle: Sounds exciting. This is great. Ed, thank you so much for being with us here today to share your story about your book journey, your author journey. Like we were talking before we started recording, everybody's story is different and certainly your story is very unique and different than anybody else we've interviewed here on the show.

If people want to reach out and connect with you and learn more about you and get in touch, what's the best place for them to go. 

Ed Brenegar: The easiest thing is to go to my website, which is edbrenegar.com. You can click a link there and you can get on the newsletter. And if you actually want to email me, you can email me at ed@edbrenegar.com and I'll be glad to talk.

And there is now a survey monkey survey out there for people who would like to be considered for being on my podcast. So I'll be glad to share that with people when they reach out to me. 

Josh Steimle: Perfect. Do you already have a name for the podcast? 

Ed Brenegar: Global Impact Network. 

Josh Steimle: All right. So people listening to this can search for that. 

Ed Brenegar: Unless someone convinces me otherwise, I think it says everything about what I'm about. And we can talk about all three of those, we can talk about global stuff, we can talk about impact stuff, and we can talk about network stuff. 

Josh Steimle: Perfect. Thank you so much, Ed, for being with us here today on The Published Author Podcast. 

Ed Brenegar: Thank you, Josh.