← Living Your Legacy
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- [00:00]
A
Most people have this amazing story inside them. Right. And they can share through their story lessons, motivation, inspiration, wisdom that can help other people. Right.
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B
So funny you say that, because when I saw you were starting Legacy Makers and I said, I got to get on the show. Yeah, because we're totally aligned. Like helping people share how they were successful, which is going to help other people be successful too. Pete Grimes is a best selling author, global marketing strategist, and storytelling expert with over 30 years of experience guiding Fortune 500 leaders. With over 30 years of experience working alongside Fortune 500 executives, Pete knows how to craft messages that inspire and make an impact. I just want people to find their voice, share their story, because it's going to help so many people. And at the end of the day, if it helps just one person, would it be worth it? And most people I talked to said, even if I could help one person, it'd be worth it.
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A
Maybe they have a story or they want to write a book. You know, someone wants to build their own legacy. What tips do you have to get going?
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B
That's a great question. You know, and I tell people that.
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It spans the globe like a super high. Is cold Internet Elvis ready for free? Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone.
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It's not over until I win.
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The Living youg Legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy.
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That's extraordinary. The impossible has happened. Oh, that is sensational.
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Jordan Open Chicago was the lead.
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Usain Paul is the fastest man on the planet. You can live your dream.
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A
Hello, and welcome back to another podcast. We're here with Pete talking about how he helps a lot of executives. Entrepreneurs take their story and everything they do and turn it into a book and then uses that as a core piece for all of their marketing to grow their business. Pete, welcome to the show.
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B
Thank you, Rudy. I really appreciate it. I'm excited.
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A
Yeah, it's going to be a fun, fun day. You're here. You know, obviously you've got your main episode coming out, and this podcast is maybe a setup for that. So if someone's watching and they, you know, they're interested in what you do and how you help, you know, create these books and marketing machines. Do you mind giving a bit of an overview?
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B
Yeah. So I'd like to say that it's the easiest way to become an author, expand your impact and strengthen your legacy. So what I do is that there are a lot of people who have a great story and they have. They suffer from imposter syndrome or analysis paralysis, which is worse. And you know, there's also that writer's block, which is there are all these things that standing away from people sharing their story. And I believe that everyone has a story to share.
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A
Oh, yeah.
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B
And there's this golden information. You can take it with you. So why not leave a playbook for people to learn from your life and you know, and that helps them. It helps the leaders of the future. Right.
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A
And that's very similar to, you know, Legacy Makers and you're doing really helping in a similar fashion from the book side. Right.
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B
So funny you say that because when I saw you were starting Legacy Makers and I said I got to get on the show because we're totally aligned, like helping people share how they were successful, which is going to help other people be successful too.
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A
Yeah. And I think, you know, obviously I created the show with a similar passion to you of most people have this amazing story inside them. Right. And they can share through their story lessons, motivation, inspiration, wisdom that can help other people. Right. And that's really what this show and all the episodes and different people from different walks of lives designed to do. Right. Would you say the book's similar?
- [03:32]
B
So. Yeah, absolutely. But I think there's another level. You know, I think people forget that by helping other people, they're really helping themselves. Right. So there's, there's Maslov's higher hierarchy of needs and you fulfill these certain needs. But then there's another level of real self realization where people to feel self realized, it's helping other people, finding more purpose, finding more meaning. And I tell a lot of the executives I talk to, at one point in your career, you have to start measuring your success by how many people of your tribe went on to become successful as well. And that's the most important metric.
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A
Well, I think there's a famous saying, it's like if you spend enough energy and effort helping enough people, you'll never have to worry about yourself. Right. Because it will take care of it. Right.
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B
Yeah, right. That's true. There's that Zig Ziglar.
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A
Yeah. I mean, it is. Yeah. So. And let's talk about books because like, to me, books are this sacred staple authority piece. Right. Like books becoming an author. I meet so many people where they're always like, yeah, I wish I wrote a book, or I haven't got around to it. And they know that it's a really authoritative piece for their brand and marketing. Why do so many people want to write books but they don't do it?
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B
It's a great question. I read in a New York Times article, And they're saying 81% of the U.S. population wants to write a book.
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A
What? Percent?
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B
81%. 80. On. Right. And how many people do it? I think it's one or two.
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A
Yeah. And the other 20 probably watch Netflix all day.
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B
Right. They lose a passion, what it is. And I'm talking to people, they just. The idea of writing a book sounds like a tremendous effort.
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A
Yeah.
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B
So I've created a system, you know, and you probably do the same thing. Any entrepreneur wants to solve a problem. Right. And so you list the problems they have, and one of them is analysis paralysis. One of them is imposter syndrome, and all these things. And so. And the other one is just losing. How much time is it going to take? So I figured out a way where they could speak their book into existence. Yeah. There's a way to really get off the sidelines and into it. Make it fast, quick, and painless. I joke around with people. It becomes very therapeutical. It's a lot healthier than drinking, and it's a lot cheaper than going to psychologist.
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A
Well, I've heard that about, you know, people that do write the book. It's like almost a journal or a diary. Right. And they get to get it all out. And so. So how does that pro. Summarize the process? If I wanted to.
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B
So, you know, I think one thing I wanted to mention as well is that, you know, it's not just the book in this formula. Right. The book is the beginning.
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A
Yeah.
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B
Because the book is just getting your idea. So we start out by, you know, it's what I call the three M's. It's like message, mission, and mindset. Everyone begins with a. Every. Everything begins with a mindset. Right. You have to have a healthy garden and grow healthy things. Otherwise the. The weeds get in there. You know, that lizard brain gets in your way. Right. And we. That's what happens to a lot of these. Our lizard brain gets in the way. No, don't do that. That's dangerous. Stay in your comfort zone. And really, growth comes from being outside of your comfort zone. That's evolution, you know, pushing. Human beings are always pushing it a little further.
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A
That's how we exist today. And we're not in the Stone Age, Right?
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B
Totally. We're the slowest animal, the weakest animal. But for some reason, you know, we got ahead, and that's why.
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A
Yeah.
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B
And so.
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A
So talk me. You know, the book, obviously, there's a lot that comes after the book, but say someone's listening and they're like, pete, you finally inspired me to get this done. How do they get started?
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B
Okay, it's really simply, it's, you have to clarify your message first, and then that message becomes your purpose, your why. As Simon Sinek says, once you know your why, that's going to help you stay motivated, which is really key. Next is then having a smoking hot outline. I'd like to say the outline then becomes your script. And so what we do is we create bullet points which include, you know, resources, information, reports, articles. So you're not talking just to talk. You have actually resources and facts behind it. Then your stories, your personal stories that it relates to. Create a bunch of bullet points, sound, sound bites, and you have that outline that's ready to go, and then you spend a weekend talking your book into existence. I tell people that they don't need to be alone. You know, a lot of people have this idea they have to be a Hemingway and be, you know, suicidal and, you know, alcoholic and get into fights and struggle for years and years and years trying to get their next book. It should be fun, enjoyable, therapeutic. Once you have the outline, you speak your book into existence. You know, the average book now could probably do in four to six hours.
- [07:56]
A
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I've done some books and I think it's like, it's like anything, right? It's like learning to ride a bike seems complicated than you do and it becomes habit. Right. And I think it's, I'm sure you see it like a lot of people once they go through the first one. Do they write many books after it becomes easy, right?
- [08:12]
B
You just, you take off that genie's bottle, right? You know, open up the genie's bottle. Yeah. And so, so that's really the key. And I think that it's really important to differentiate between having a ghostwriter do it who's. You're going to have the same interview, but then they're going to walk away and come back with the story. They. Their interpretation of the story. But when you're really telling your story, it's in your own voice, literally and figuratively. Right? And so that's important. And, and it is your seal of approval. And I think that one thing we have, you know, the other elephant in the room is AI People are writing books. I'm just gonna have AI do it. But I mean, people who are doing this, again, the self realization, these are successful people. They don't want, they want it to be their own book. They want it to be their own masterpiece. Right. And to do it, you know, strictly through AI, then that's not them.
- [09:01]
A
Yeah. And, you know, we play. We use AI a lot in our business, and we actually tested it with books. And to me, never the same. Right. It's kind of like the book. It maybe works for an email or a blog post or a social post, but for a book, it's like. It's like a hand. You know, the right book is like a painting, a custom painting on your wall, whereas an AI is like a photo, print, stock, stock, image, print. Right. So. And a book. Something. Yeah. That you want to be proud of, I think, and you want it really be the authentic you. And that's why I don't think AI is a place to do that yet.
- [09:37]
B
Right. One thing I do use it for, though, and we have different tricks because I want to speed up the process for my customers. And one of the things we do is a book really should be a step by step for people behind you. You know, what is the lesson? They want to start from point A, get to point B. And how do you do that? So you could kind of brainstorm with AI, which is good. We give them scripts and prompts and make it really easy. And it helps for the outlines, finding resources.
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A
And sometimes we've done worksheets off the back of a training with AI. Like, you know, like, it can be great for the accessory things.
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B
I was talking to someone the other day, you know that like the great writers, you know, Michener and Grisham, they have teams of researchers.
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A
Yeah.
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B
They're doing this all the time. The good news is you don't need that team any longer because you could get that yourself. And so I just want to put it into context. And, you know, throughout history, people have had scribes as well.
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A
Yeah.
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B
And so it's not cheating to record it, you know, because everyone's had scribes before. And so I just want people to find their voice, share their story, because it's going to help so many people. And at the end of the day, if it helps just one person, would it be worth it? And most people I talked to said even if I could have one person, it'd be worth it.
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A
Well, and let's just talk about the post part of the book quickly. I think a lot of people are overwhelmed by the writing part, but then also equally overwhelmed by what happens once I've write it. Written it. Right. So how complicated is it? Like, say I've got my Google Doc of my book. Like, is it really that scary to then publish it? And sell it.
- [11:07]
B
Well, that's a great question. You know, and I tell people that even if you don't ever publish it, it's still worthwhile. Right. It's a legacy for your family, like, you know, your kids, your grandchildren. How did you do what you did? How did you get to where you are? And there's a lot of things. And you don't have to be, you know, create the cure for cancer. Yeah. Some people feel like they don't have a story because they're not in the headlines of their local newspaper. There's so many valuable lessons. People I like to call everyday superheroes that are doing amazing things. You know, like our parents, you know, our coaches, our teachers, you know, our bosses and managers.
- [11:47]
A
Yeah. And they all have lessons and wisdom and experience, which is invaluable.
- [11:52]
B
Right, Right. So to answer your question more directly, then you have your book, and from there, and you're a whiz at this, you could repurpose all this content. So you have this content. We do it in such a way where some of them are interviews while you're going through your book. So you have these videos. Yeah.
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A
Yeah.
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B
Great. And you could take extracts from your book and parse it out and turn that into a marketing machine, a content marketing machine. It's really important too, because one thing they know, it's Forbes and all the major magazines and business journals are reinforcing the idea of authenticity, you know, and like, you can't sell just a self song. You have to be authentic. When you write a book in your own voice and you have all this material to work with, even if you never publish a book, the next speech you get, the next presentation you give, the next conversation you have with someone on your team is so spart, you know, so like, spot on.
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A
Yeah.
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B
And it's, you know, your mission, you know your message, and you know, your stories, and you have the resources and the sources to quote and cite. It makes it a lot easier even if you don't publish it and go to that.
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A
Love that. Yeah, I know this has been great. Like, just really learning the process and debunking, I think a lot of the concerns and, you know, limiting beliefs people have around a book. And I love the fact that, you know, 80% of the world want to write a book and 80% can. Right. Like.
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B
Right.
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A
It's not that. Yeah, it's not that complicated. So. So let's just, you know, I want to talk a little about you still and your journey and your story and your legacy. So how did you get here? What's your story and all this?
- [13:28]
B
So that's great. No, I grew up in San Francisco. I was born in San Francisco. Living in a city, even though as small as San Francisco is compared to New York or larger cities, still has all the things cities have. And we are really independent. You know, we're out all day with kids, riding our bike all over town. Just be back home before dark. No cell phones, nothing. And so you learned how to avoid trouble, but living in a city, you sometimes it finds you. So you learn how to get out of trouble really quickly, too. And so that was kind of, you know, like, has an impact on one's personality. Right. Because you have to be able to kind of fend for yourself. So one of the things I wanted to talk about is, you know, these everyday heroes. And we mentioned this earlier, and I want to talk about my parents. So there was a time when, you know, my mom was fighting cancer. She was still taking care of us as kids. And that's one of those Mama bear things where they lift up a burning car because the kids inside and they find the strength. And she had that strength. And when she did pass away, which was 40 years to the day today, actually, on the day of this filming fun, my dad brought us together and he said, we're still fine, my brother and sister and I. And that was his. My dad saying, keep it together. We're going to keep it together. And those are those everyday superheroes. And we have those people all around us. And this has been my mission, too, that, you know, there'll be struggles, you know, there's no playbook for life. The good news is, is we can write our story, right? And that's what I want to do when I was in school, and I would take the bus to cross town to go to class, and I would sit on the bus and watch people around me and, you know, little kid alone on a bus. Sometimes I wonder if my parents just wanted to knock me off anytime. No, I'm just kidding. Yeah. And no. But I would just look around and look up these. The faces of these people make up stories and, you know, it's kind of fun. Yeah. And I was in a creative writing class at the time. It turns out when I graduated, this is elementary school, they. I got a prize for the writing prize, you know, creative writing. And what I didn't know until maybe two years ago that that had my name as a Peter Grimes Creative Writing Award. Every year in the school, they would give it out. I didn't Even know till the other day.
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A
Crazy.
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B
So how I got to this journey was a little bit by accident, in fact, because I was in this international executive speaking circuit with C level executives from Fortune 500 companies and all of them were all wondering, what's next? And there was a really impactful story where one of these executives bounded off the stage that got given a great keynote address, said, you are amazing, great job. You should do this full time. And far from, you know, I thought I was going to, you know, motivate them and they would be really enthusiastic and welcome this comment. I could see their shoulder strug shrug and they dropped. And suddenly I could see this gentleman was depressed. I said, what's wrong? He said, you know, I'd really love to, love to. I just don't know how. I don't know even where. I don't even know where to start. So he sauntered off. I like to say he probably went to the bar to end the sorrows. But it was really early in the morning still. But it was a couple minutes later, I had an epiphany. I was thinking, wow. I mean, it was painful for both of us to go through this experience. But I realized I could help him. I'm a marketing executive, been doing it for years. Help him find his message and then help him expand his message and get reach for his message. I didn't ever find this particular person again, but I started finding other people who wanted to do this.
- [16:54]
A
So that was the catalyst that was for all of this. Wow, that was cool.
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B
Yeah.
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A
And then what about, you know, obviously you'll talk about it in the episode more, but the legacy for you, like what, what do you want that to be?
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B
So we kind of touched on it earlier before is that how many people's lives can you impact positively? Yeah, you know, I mean, we're all here in this planet, you know, to live together, work together, play together. You know, I think that there's so many stories out there. If there's ever a time we need a stories to bring people together, it's now. I mean, the whole world is super polarized, you know, and at the end of the day, we do to care for our families. We do want to care for, you know, our brethren. Right. And so a lot more that brings us together than divides us.
- [17:37]
A
Basically love that. And someone's watching, they, they're inspired by this. Maybe they have a story or they want to write a book, but they don't know where to start. Like, you know, someone wants to build their own legacy. What tips do you have to get going?
- [17:52]
B
So first and foremost, being clear that they have a story to share. Right. That their story is valuable, you know, because that's. That's the purpose. That's their why.
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A
Yeah, yeah.
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B
And that's going to be the beginning on my website, we'll share later, I guess, is that I have some activities, and one of them is just, you know, if you think about, you know, many of these leaders have had these conversations hundreds of times of people in their inner circle about coming to them for advice and then just giving them their insights. And they don't even have to leave their room. Like they could do it in the car on the drive to work. These. Replay these conversations in their head where they talk to people who came to them for advice and what did they tell them and how that felt, to see that that person took that advice and did something with it and how that made them feel, both of them. And that's one of the exercises I talk about. And so once you do that, you realize not only do you have a message, but you have an audience now you're realizing that it landed well for this particular audience and you're off to the races at that point.
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A
I love that. So, last couple of questions. What are some things they're going to learn from your episode or take away or be inspired from your episode?
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B
That's great. So, you know, Legacy is about creating a ripple effect. You know, like, you help one person who's going to help another person who's going to help another person, and that's really going to make the difference. You know, that makes it. I don't want to oversell it to say you're going to be immortalized, but really, in a way, you are the same way. My dad said we're still five people can impact your life and you still carry that strength in them. And it's the same with your leadership teams or teams that you have. But the cool thing to think about it is this way is that if you're a leader, you have the choice of staying silent and not helping your team. Many people don't do that, letting someone else coach them, and a lot of times that could be a mistake because we don't all agree which is the best way to do certain things. And if you are very clear that yours is a better path to follow, you owe it to these people to share it with them. And lastly, if you see that you feel satisfied and you see the results of impacting your inner circle, how cool would it be to Expand that impact, Right. To make that, you know, to dozens or hundreds or potentially millions. Right. To get your message out there. And that is. And then that exponential effect, that ripple effect that grows in exponentially as these people are going to be kind of motivated by your goodwill by paying it forward as well, you know, so.
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A
Love that.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Last question. You know, if people, they want to start the process with a book, they want to learn more about you, maybe they want to do one of these exercises to start flushing it out. Where do they find you? How do they learn more about you?
- [20:30]
B
So I was very creative in my website name. It's called petegrimes.com. yeah. You know, I spent a lot of time thinking about that. I used AI it was tremendous. Pete Grimes dot com. Same name for LinkedIn. That's have a lot of always posting content on LinkedIn, but on my website, I show videos. I show cheat sheets, kind of. I have a tool that's called the Busy Executives Quick Start Guide for Writing a Book. So you really. You even go through the exercises, how your outline will start to look. Obviously, it's a Quick Start Guide. So you're not going to download a PDF and have your book done. There's some work that's required, but what it does is it gets you off the sideline, you know, and that's the thing we talked about.
- [21:10]
A
Hardest part starting, right?
- [21:12]
B
Hardest part is starting. Yeah. And getting out of your comfort zone. And so this has been my life is, you know, understanding that, like we talked about this before, evolution means dealing with struggles, dealing with obstacles. Yeah. And how you deal with them is a real question. And turning your mess into a message is really important. Right. Yeah. So that's kind of what I like to do and tell people that. That they should. They should do that. Everyone has a voice, everyone has a message. And even if it helps just one person, how satisfying would that be? Even it's for your family. A family heirloom.
- [21:47]
A
Yeah.
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B
Yeah.
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A
I mean, I think that just in itself's great for everyone to remember. So super excited for your episode and to see more of this and more about your story and how you help people and yeah, guys, check him out if you're interested in, you know, working on that book or pulling that story out of you. Those resources sound a great place to. To start. And obviously LinkedIn. And of course, check out his full episode. So that's a wrap for another episode of Legacy Makers. I'll see you guys soon. Keep building a legacy.