Episode 193: Executive Focus: How Leaders Use the Pauline Advantage for Unprecedented Resilience | Bob Wheatley

Bob Wheatley (USA Today Author / Brand Builders Group) reveals the 70/30 Rule that launched his niche book to #8 National Bestseller. Learn why Sales is Fast and how to master the strategy of Uniqueness.

We explore the Pauline advantage and why singleness can be a season of strength, purpose, and undivided devotion to God. Bob Wheatley shares the 30-day challenge structure, a five-week church curriculum, and the sales-first strategy that made a niche book a USA Today bestseller.

• The Pauline advantage as a reframing of singleness
• A 30-day challenge built on heart, soul, mind, and strength
• Practical daily actions that shape prayer, food, money, and friends
• Challenging the church’s hierarchy of marriage over singleness
• Creating singles ministries that disciple rather than speed-date
• Building a five-week curriculum for groups and churches
• Why marketing is slow and sales are fast in book launches
• Turning lived experience into a focused, useful book
• How Brand Builders Group supports authors and speakers

𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐦𝐩 𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧: https://youtu.be/mw84QYjonZw

• 0:00 Focus On Jesus: The Core Message 
• 0:23 Welcome Back And Guest Introduction 
• 1:37 Why Single-Minded Was Written 
• 3:06 Discovering The Pauline Advantage 
• 7:43 From Loneliness To Spiritual Advantage 
• 12:30 The 30-Day Challenge Structure 
• 16:40 Reframing Singleness In The Church 
• 20:50 Building Resources For Singles Ministries 
• 27:28 Sponsor Break And Return 
• 28:22 Why Most Book Launches Miss 
• 32:40 Sales Vs. Marketing In Book Launches

🎁𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐂𝐄!
𝘾𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙠 𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝗙𝗥𝗘𝗘 Strategy Call with BBG: https://coachjohngallagher.com/bbg/

𝘾𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙠 𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝗙𝗥𝗘𝗘 Wealthy and Well-Known audiobook: https://wealthyandwellknown.com/audiobook-rpp/?affiliate_code=158260

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➡️ Hit 𝐒𝐔𝐁𝐒𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐁𝐄 and 𝐅𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐖 (▶️ / @coachjohngallagher  ) for more Executive Leadership strategies!

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 Bob Wheatley:👇
➡️ 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐝𝐈𝐧 (primary): https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-wheatley/
➡️ 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐓𝐮𝐛𝐞: https://www.youtube.com/@bob_wheatley
➡️ 𝐖𝐞𝐛𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞:  https://bobwheatley.com/speaking/

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝗝𝗼𝗵𝗻: 👇
➡️ 𝐖𝐞𝐛𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞:  https://coachjohngallagher.com/
➡️ 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐓𝐮𝐛𝐞: https://www.youtube.com/@coachjohngallagher?sub_confirmation=1

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Chapters

• 0:00 Focus On Jesus: The Core Message
• 0:23 Welcome Back And Guest Introduction
• 1:37 Why Single-Minded Was Written
• 3:06 Discovering The Pauline Advantage
• 7:43 From Loneliness To Spiritual Advantage
• 12:30 The 30-Day Challenge Structure
• 16:40 Reframing Singleness In The Church
• 20:50 Building Resources For Singles Ministries
• 27:28 Sponsor Break And Return
• 28:22 Why Most Book Launches Miss
• 32:40 Sales Vs. Marketing In Book Launches

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Three words. Focused on Jesus. The book titled Single Minded. Single Minded on What? On Jesus. He's gonna change everything. Completely locked in, focused on Jesus, focused on God, and really crush it as a single person.

SPEAKER_01: 0:23

Hey Uncommon Leaders, welcome back. This is the Uncommon Leader Podcast. I'm your host, John Gallagher, and today is going to be awesome. I've got a second time guest, Bob Wheatley, who's with us. But this time he brings on an added moniker to his uh name author, Bob Wheatley, also a former professional athlete, also a brand expert with Brand Builders Group. But now we get to add USA Today best-selling author to his repertoire, to his bio, and make that happen. Bob, I can't wait to talk about not just about your book, but about the process you went through. Congratulations on USA Today best-selling author status. Great to have you back on the show. How are you doing today?

SPEAKER_00: 1:07

I'm doing great. Yeah. Thank you for having me on. Obviously, a second time we're going to run it back, but we always tell our clients there's no such thing as a best-selling author. There are only best-selling teams. And I had a great team to help me accomplish it. We had a really great summer, and now the book is out in the world and helping people. Ultimately, that's why you write a book. You want to change lives, you want to help people, you want to encourage. So yeah, thank you so much. It was a really fun August, that's for sure. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01: 1:34

And that book is kind of hanging behind your shoulder there for those watching on the video. It's called Single Minded: Finding Purpose and Strength in Your Season of Singleness. It's much more than a guide, though, within kind of singleness. And we're going to talk about that a little bit. It's a powerful lesson in resilience and intentionality in prayer, uh, ultimately in discipleship, you know, as you've been on that journey in life. And then we're going to get, frankly, a chance to talk about how the process of writing a book and becoming uh a bestseller. It's funny how you say that. I mean, it's called a bestseller, not a best written. We'll talk about that as well. But I want to dive into your book. Look, I find uh fascination. So I'm married, I've been married for 32 years, so I wasn't the target audience for your book. But when I read through and get a chance to share that with others, I love to jump into the introduction right off the bat because there's a story usually behind the writing of the book, and then the acknowledgments at the end to recognize there are people that had a big part in putting together all that stuff in the middle. And I loved your story at the start with regards to the Pauline Advantage that you defined. And I want you to talk to me about that, about how you ultimately it led you to writing this book. Uh what is the Pauline Advantage?

SPEAKER_00: 2:43

Yeah, so the book is structured as a 30-day challenge. It's meant to be read in bite-sized chunks, 10 minutes a day, day after day for 30 days. The initial intro chapter, like most nonfiction books, is just four or five pages of hey, here's why I wrote the book. So the book is called The Pauline Advantage, and or sorry, the chapter is called The Pauline Advantage. And essentially what the entire reason why this book came to be is I started reading First Corinthians seven. And I'm sure I had read that before and just kind of glossed over it and didn't really care much. I was really feeling single, if for lack of better words, I was feeling lonely, hopeless, left out. I was feeling behind on life. I'm now in my mid-30s, unmarried. I've always wanted to be a husband. I've always wanted to be a father. I'm neither of those things today. And I was feeling it whenever this was, let's say two, three years ago. And there's the Apostle Paul. That's where you get the word Pauline. The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 7 is writing to the Christians in this new church in Corinth, and he's talking about love and he's talking about relationships and how do we navigate these things. When speaking to the single Christians, this is my paraphrase, but he says, I, Paul, wish that you singles could remain single on account of the spiritual benefits that you have. He says that the married man, his interests are divided, but the single person can have a wholehearted devotion to God. That really challenged me because there I was sitting in my singleness, just wallowing, like, God, this is this is a prison sentence. This is a death wish. This is the worst thing ever. Or even on a lighter note, this is my waiting season. I'm sure you've never heard that before, John. When singles like, this is my waiting season. Like eventually my life will start when my husband, when my wife shows up. That is not a biblical statement. Here's the apostle Paul in First Corinthians seven saying, Hey guys, if you're single, I actually wish you would remain that way because it's so awesome. On a spiritual level, if your goal is to pursue the Lord and serve him, I wish you could remain single. But what really, like I said, I had read First Corinthians seven before and just glossed over it. I thought, oh, you know, Paul is this Christian superhero. I'm living here in 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee. I am not Paul. I could never do that. I'm wired differently. Paul had unique giftings, and I just I did not heed that advice. And then I was reading a book. It's called Bonhoeffer. It's by Eric Metaxis. It's a biography on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who, for those who don't know, he was a German pastor. He ended up getting martyred in World War II, sort of fought against the Nazi regime, not on the battlefield per se, but more so in politics, in letters, in thought leadership from the pulpit, essentially. So I was reading this book by Eric Metaxis called Bonhoeff, and the book is just awesome. I think it won the book of the year in 2008, whenever it came out. For hundreds of pages, I was reading about this martyred German pastor named Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and it was like apples to apples. It was the same person where personality types, very similar to me. The way he decorated his bedroom is very Spartan. It was just like a bed, a desk, some books. I saw so much of myself in him. And of course, it's this is a national best-selling book. You, as the reader, you always associate with the main character. You're like, I see myself in him, I see myself in her. But this was uncanny. The level of it was just so similar, all the way down to our birthdays. So Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born February 4th, 1906. I was born February 4th, 1992. When I saw that, I was just like, all right, this is my long-lost twin. We're separated by you know decades in a really big ocean. But I see a lot of myself in Dietrich Bonhoeffer, or that's how I felt. Then I came to this quote by another pastor at the time who was a mentor of Bonhoeffer. His name is Theodore Heckel. And it's written in the book, Theodore Heckel is praising Bonhoeffer, this young up-and-coming pastor. And then I got to the quote that changed everything. Heckel, speaking about Bonhoeffer, says he has, in addition, the special Pauline advantage in that he is unmarried. And that just crushed me. That was like dagger to the heart because hundreds of pages are like, I am Dietrich. Dietrich is me. This is my long-lost twin. This is awesome. I want to be like him. And then when I saw that, quote, not by the Apostle Paul, by a 20th century Christian and a pastor, somebody who is really doing the Christian walk well, saying, Yeah, he has the Pauline advantage in that he is unmarried. That changed everything for me because I have been feeling very single, very behind, stuck in my waiting season. God, when is this going to change? And then there's another double tap, a double stamp on Bob. I have something for you right now. You are in an advantage season. This isn't a season to sprint out of and pray, man, can it just end tomorrow? I have something for you. So that was really the genesis of the book. And like I said, it's a 30-day challenge. I walk the reader through 30 different areas of their life. So it is not necessarily a relationship book. We talk about money. We talk about music. We talk about friends. Of course, we talk about the more relational things like dating, marriage, sex, all that. But we are human beings. We're not just a husband, a wife. We are human beings. And God has a lot of awesome things for the single Christian that I was not tapping into until Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Theodore Heckel, and the Apostle Paul challenged me. That's how it started.

SPEAKER_01: 8:27

You know, there's so much in what you said. And first of all, I mean, thank you for sharing that background with the listeners of the podcast. And when you get the book, you'll get to hear that again and recognize that first of all, let's use the brand builders group analogy. You're most powerfully positioned to help the person that you once were. In this case, you still are, but that's what makes you authorized, in essence, to write this book in terms of where you all are on your journey. I love the transparency in terms of recognizing that you also just kind of skimmed over it as you read it before. Look, the first time you're on the podcast, I know this about you, Bob, you are a reader of the Bible. There's a number of years, I think it's more than 20, that in a row that you've read the entire Bible all the way through. And so there's some reason at this point in time where you're feeling down that you recognize these words. They jump off the page a little bit differently. And again, this happens in the Bible as a Christian in terms of how we're listening for the voice of God. It happens as readers in terms of leadership books, like, yeah, that's me. Who here I am right here. He's talking to me. I can hear his voice by reading these words and letting me know that. So to recognize that at that point in time, clearly there was not an accident as to when you read those words. And then lastly, to set up the structure the way you did to help others in terms of these, you know, to be done in 30 days, or however you end up doing it. You got these 30, you know, chapters that are set up, each one of them start with your something. And I had written down ones that you mentioned, some of them, your God, yourself, your pride, your loneliness, your money, and all those things. I love the construct of the book that you've done, and I know it's going to help more. I want to talk about that in more how you're using it to help others as well, so that you can share that. But talk to me a little bit about the structure of how you wrote the book as well. So you started out with a scripture that was uh connected to that topic, and then you kind of wrote the body of the chapter, if you will, and then finished with a call to action or a challenge. Tell me a little bit about what was there as you walk through that.

SPEAKER_00: 10:30

Yeah, I wanted the book to be an interactive experience. And you just laid it out perfectly where the initial start to every chapter, there's going to be a Bible verse to kind of set the tone, then a brief story, whether it's in my own life or we're talking about the Titanic or George Washington. There's something to prove a point. And then the book ends, or sorry, the chapter ends in a challenge where every day there's something that I'm calling the reader into. Some things are super easy. It might be a prayer. It's like you close the book, minute later, you're done with a challenge. Other things require a little more legwork. It might be calling a friend. It might be cooking a meal. There's a chapter on your food. How do we, as a single person, if we have this advantage and we can really seek God in this season, what does how does our food, what we're going to have for dinner tonight, how does that help us further connect with God? That's a day. So on that day on the challenge, I encourage the reader, hey, either cook or go out and buy your favorite meal. How's that for a challenge? And use that as an opportunity to connect with your father. Every good and perfect gift is from above. So those, you know, burger and fries, steak and potatoes, a massive salad if you're more of the health kick. That's from him. That is your father giving you something awesome to enjoy with him. He could just give us astronaut food, or he could make us like plants and trees or Superman. We could just get our energy from the sun. No, we don't have that. We have millions of different fruits and vegetables and salt and sweet and all of that stuff, different cuisines from all over the world. That's simply because God is a God of variety and he wants us to have an awesome life. That's just a blessing from him. So to bring it back to the structure of things, the entire purpose of the book is to help the single Christian who feels behind, who feels hopeless, who feels like I am going to be stuck in this less than season forever. The purpose of the book is to pull them out of that, maybe point them in the direction of an apostle Paul, of a Dietrich Bonhoeffer and say, Your God, your father loves you. There, this is not a if you're watching this on video, marriage is not higher and then singleness is lower. No, the Bible says they are equal. It's almost like as a Christian, we cannot lose. You can't lose. If you're single, awesome. The Apostle Paul says you might even want to stay that way because it's, in his opinion, better. If you do get married one day, great, you can't lose. That's what you've been praying for the whole time, anyway. You have companionship, you can have kids, guilt-free sex is on the table. You can't lose. But again, if you're watching this on video, this disconnect of marriage is higher, singleness is lower. That's oftentimes how people feel and how the church somewhat teaches things. It's like we feed into that today. Oh, like we're coming into the holiday season. Christmas is coming up. There are going to be people who go home and see their parents or their grandparents and they're 34 years old and not married. And it's kind of the, hey, when are you going to give me some grandkids? Like it's the classic joke. Oh, yeah. Like, I'm sorry. Sorry, guys. That 34-year-old's singleness or their relationship status, it is not about giving you grandkids. It is about serving God. And if the apostle Paul was at your Christmas dinner, he might have something else to say to that 34-year-old. So I what I really wanted to do in the book is change the conversation in the church to where we don't look at single Christians as people that are less than, or that's so cute. Like one day you'll level up from JV to the varsity. No, I want to, I want us to encourage the single person. We do not need to be fixed. We need to be unleashed. We are fully available. We can do God's bidding. We need to be unleashed as single Christians. We don't need to be fixed.

SPEAKER_01: 14:20

Bob, man, that's so good. That's so good. And I love the picture. I mean, again, those of you seeing the video of recognizing, and as I, as I think and I reflect just as you're talking, I recognize that the church doesn't do a phenomenal job of ministering to that community. We're going to talk to just a second about how, you know, what your book is doing for that community as well to help level that up, to bring them, if you will, into recognition that they are not less than a married person. I was smiling when you were talking about food as well. I just had the chance to be with my men's group this morning, and we had a guy bring over a plateful of Danishes and set them in the middle of one of our tables. And I was at that table, and a couple of them uh partook in the Danish, and a few of us did not partake in that Danish. And you mentioned that in terms of food, and I just love the reference to I wrote them down as a note that every gift is a gift from above. And even those Danishes and uh blueberry muffins that were there, and those that took it, hey, if that's what they want inside of that space, it was a gift from God. And those that choose not to take it was okay as well. I think that's so connected. But I love how you've back to you know, really the message of your book. I love how you've made that visual of we're not less than. And so the book was just a book, and we'll talk about how you got it to a bestseller here in a minute. But how are you taking it even further with regards to the book? And what other resources are you making available that allow you to close that gap between uh married and the single person in the church?

SPEAKER_00: 15:50

Yeah, one of the biggest challenges that I see in the church today is there's simply not a place for the single person. They, we oftentimes feel left out in the church because if you're not in the young adults group, which is 21 to 29, what happens if you're 34? All right, you're not invited here. You've aged out of young adults. Now you're just an adult adult. So where do you go with that? Okay, well, I can't go to the married group, I can't go to the newborns group. How do I raise my first child? What do I do? And I also recognize the challenge from the church's side as well, because are you tired of being tired?

SPEAKER_01: 16:27

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SPEAKER_00: 16:56

Now, let's get back to the experience. As I speak to more and more churches, they're like, Yeah, we have a ton of single people that are asking us, can you give us something? Can you give us a group, a curriculum, a gathering, something we feel really left out? The challenge that the church is facing is really twofold. Number one is you got to ask yourself the question, who's actually gonna lead it at the church? Unless there's somebody who is sprinting to the front of the room, hey God, send me. Who's gonna lead that group? It's not something as obvious as a young adult's because there's gonna be a lot of people from 21 to 29 every single year. As the 30s age out, the 20s age in. So that's something that's gonna be consistently there. And unless it's a specific burden or group that's on your heart, there's just not a lot of people in church leadership that will raise their hand and say, Yes, I'm gonna volunteer to lead the singles group. The second challenge is let's call it like it is a lot of people that are going to that singles group are not necessarily going there because of the Pauline advantage. They're going there to hopefully find a spouse.

SPEAKER_01: 17:59

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 18:00

And that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. And for the record, my book is not the you should be single forever because Paul was book. That is not my message. That's not even what Paul says in First Corinthians seven. He also says, Hey, if you want to be married, it's not a sin. If you're burning with passion, get married. Again, as Christians, we can't lose. Single, that's a win. Married, that's a win. But the challenge for the church is all right, we don't want to set up a dating service. All the most of the people that are coming to this event would love to be out of this group in six months anyway, versus a young adult. Let's say they start in that group at 23 years old after they leave college, they're going to be in that group on purpose happily for seven years. So I understand the challenge. What I wanted to do in this book is I created, yes, a 30-day challenge for the individual, but I also have a five-week church curriculum that goes along with it. It's basically just guiding uh not an individual, but a group through the book. So week one is everybody gets their books. We talk through the Pauline Advantage. It's sort of a reframing of your season of singleness. Hey guys, let's crush it. If you're here, you're probably single. Let's crush it when we're single. And you might be married this time next year, but you're single today. How do we crush it? That would be week one. And then weeks two, three, four, five is basically just walking the 30-day challenge. And if you remember, John, the book is broken up into those four sections heart, soul, mind, strength. That's the five-week curriculum. I wanted to give the church an excuse to start singles groups. And even that name, singles groups, like there's gonna be some negative undertones with that. Like, oh, here's the less thans, here's the people that are sad and lonely and depressed, the singles group, or here's the you know, the speed dating group. It's like, no, guys, we need to define singleness as the apostle Paul did, as your Bible does. Singleness is awesome, it's very unique. There are definitely challenges to it. I myself, I still want to be married. I believe, I still praying for that. And there are definite difficulties. I get lonely. I'm a human being. And yet, those promises and those challenges, those exhortations in 1 Corinthians 7 are still there. So I'm doing the best I can to crush it before marriage and help other people to do the same. I think that's so cool.

SPEAKER_01: 20:21

And again, the recognition of by naming it something, right? It gets an immediate stigma inside the church, especially, frankly. I mean, you look at the different groups that are created, they tend to be formed around problems rather than um opportunities. Uh people change when they're inspired or when they're in desperation. And you know, they might be around shame or around financial peace because they're in debt and they want to get out of debt. So by reframing that season that you're talking about and making it great, making an opportunity, I think that can be really, really powerful. And I hope we can get that information uh into the hands of more, including, uh, I want to share with my pastors of church as well. And I'm gonna share this episode with them to start off and then the book to really get them in mind. We talked about that. I told you the name would come to my mind as well, because you know, we've got, I'll tell you that afterward. I wrote it down just to make sure I won't uh make it known on the podcast, but there are others that I can see who would benefit from this. Because the other side of that, to your point, who's gonna run to the front? Uh you're not gonna get a married person to run to the front to teach a single-minded course. You got to get a single person to say, I'm up for it. Let's go do this and make that happen. So important. I love the book, Bob, in terms of what's there within the book. Uh, with regards to our conversation, I do want to make it a little bit of a shift. Uh, the other side of what we're talking about is that best-selling author status, that new ribbon that's on your book, that sticker that says USA Today, best-selling author. Look, the niche of your book, you already talked about this, is pretty small with regards to who you're trying to reach and recognizing who you wrote it for. How in the world did you turn this into a best-selling book then with a niche that small?

SPEAKER_00: 21:57

Yeah, it was an amazing result. So, the USA Today, for those who don't know, there's 150 books on the list. That would be the online version, 150 books. It's saying these are the top 150 books in the nation this week. Now, the newspaper prints 50. So I would have loved to be number 149. That would still be a USA Today bestseller, but it's kind of cool to have your name, your book in the papers. Like, okay, I'm kind of shooting for the top 50. The book was number eight, top 10, number eight in the country came out. It was just an amazing result. And the benefit that I had in working, I have a full-time job with Brand Builders Group. John, obviously, we've met through BBG. The benefit that I had is we run probably 12 book launches a month. It's something that we consistently do. Some are smaller than mine, some are significantly bigger than mine. John Maxwell, Ed Milette, Amy Porterfield, Lewis Howes. These are all New York Times, Wall Street Journal best-selling authors, people that were helping. So I had the benefit of number one, having a very good plan, a very good sales strategy as far as my launch, but also seeing some other failed launches because I'm privy to that type of information and seeing, I'm just in that world. I see a lot of book launches on a monthly basis. So we saw some near misses, and I was able to self-diagnose and see, okay, what happened? What went wrong? Why did this person miss the list? And I won't share any names just for the sake of privacy. It's their story, it's not mine. We had a client, John, who did our bestseller launch plan workshop. And it was an awesome two-day event. I was actually a part of it. So I was there to see all the strategy and everything that we encouraged them to employ. And they did none of it. They didn't follow the plan. Or I should say, none of it is not completely accurate. They opted for more of the marketing stuff. It was updating the website, it was the social media posts. We always tell our clients marketing is slow, but sales is fast. Marketing is slow, but sales is fast. And so this again, nameless client that missed the list, they had a massive platform. We're talking hundreds of thousands, almost almost a million followers on social media now. They had a membership of thousands of paying clients, thousands of paying customers. I sold three times as many books as they did. And I today, I'm not famous. I have 3,500 followers on Instagram. So you might be listening to this, you're like, all right, here's Bob and Brain Buddhist group throwing out John Maxwell. He's the number one leadership author of all time. I could never be John. Guys, I have 3,500 followers on Instagram. I am not famous, but what I did have is a great plan. What I saw in that failed launch is okay, I cannot focus on marketing. I can't make this cutesy book launch website and hope that people find me. I need to old fashion this thing. I need to pick up the phone, smile and dial, and do some sales. So that was really my strategy. And it was the perfect storm. It was how do I still do the marketing stuff? I did update my website. I did post on social media, but how do I take that and then add in the speaking appearances, the podcast appearances? I wrote a number of guest blogs for people. I did a crowdfunding campaign because a lot of these churches, they don't have great budgets for this. Like as we're recording this, I have a speaking event. I'm speaking at a university on Monday, 250 student athletes. It's going to be an awesome stage. It's going to be a great chapel service. Yet they did not have the budget. Let's say I'm selling my book for$15. What's$15 times$250?$5,000,$6,000, like in that ballpark? They're not, they didn't have a budget for$6,000 for a chapel speaker. So what I had to do is get the get the stage commitment from the university. And then I did fundraising, friends, family. It's stuff like that. That's a sales mindset. That is sales is fast. I'm picking up the phone, I'm making things happen versus marketing is I'm going to post this on Instagram and hope people care about it. You see the difference?

SPEAKER_01: 26:13

So it's just a very passive, absolutely. Baseball world. You're catching it, right? Rather than pitching it kind of thing and going forward. I mean, the two the two positions, active and passive, are very different in terms of what you're telling me. So in uh I've not written a book before, although I've had a conversation and when last time I was with some folks from BBG, I probably slowed uh my role down just a little bit in terms of when I wanted to write a book because of what we're talking about right here. The actual act of writing the book versus the selling of the book feels a little bit to me like a fitness plan for yourself, where I would often say, if I just exercise hard enough, I can eat whatever I want to. But I know that I can't out-exercise a bad diet and that in my journey to physical health going forward and where I've been, it feels like it's about 70% nutrition and 30% exercise. What I hear you saying, it's about to a certain extent, it's about 30% writing the book and about 70% selling the book. Is that what it felt like to you? And is it in terms of time, in terms of energy?

SPEAKER_00: 27:14

Well, it truly depends on your goal. So when you break it down to the 70-30, what we're assuming there is that person's goal is to be a national bestseller, where the goal is sales. If that is true, 100%. Yeah, I mean, it's the classic, it's a Robert Kiyosaki quote. It is not New York Times best writing author. It's New York Times bestselling author. And what's funny is 98% of best-selling books hit the list in week one and then never hit it again. Now, sometimes you'll have the perennial seller, the atomic habits of the world that's on the list for five years. 98% of books like mine hit it in launch week and then fall off because I'm not a James Clear atomic habits. So I had to, I had to have a book launch tsunami. I need all of the vectors, everything. It's like calling a trick play in football. Everything just needs to point in the same direction to hit on one week. And so with my first podcast appearance with you, I came up with a book in 2023. And my goal for that book was not to be a national bestseller. I wasn't even sniffing the USA today. I just wanted to have a book out. So it depends on the goals. But if you're an active business, if you're an active personal brand and you say, you know what, it would really change the trajectory of my career to hit a list. Yeah, 100%. We would say that the sales component of it is what gets you on the list. The writing itself, like my 30 days, my Pauline Advantage, my chapter on food, that is what is going to take that first reader and help them refer it to other people. That allows for the long-term sales. Is the book actually good? Because it's just kind of inside baseball. What if you think about it, 98% of books hitting the list in launch week, those are all pre-orders, which means nobody has actually read the book. Isn't that funny? Right. Yeah, it is kind of interesting. Back to the best-selling component of what's happening there, right? So you could see a book that hits the New York Times or hits the USA today. It's like, wow, they were a number, number five New York Times bestseller, and nobody knows what's in the book. That's that's pretty wild. So that is if you're listening to this and thinking about writing a book, the sales component is so important. It is the most important when it comes to hitting a list. Now, of course, you got to write a good book because you might be a sales maven, but if the book is terrible, nobody's gonna read it a second time or refer it. So you'll have a really good launch week and then it just falls flat. You got to do both. That's the moral of the story.

SPEAKER_01: 29:45

Love that. And we, you know, we have that connection together with uh this group called Brand Builders Group. I would hold your book up, but I've given my copy out to let somebody read it, to let them borrow it to get it back. And I still have my Kindle copy that helped me get ready for this. But you know, that that's That is the space, the organization, brand builders group, wealthy and well known. That's when I heard from Rory Vaden, who was the author, co-author of Wealthy and Well Known, which is a New York Times bestselling book as it came through. You know, your team, your organization inspires, encourages, and equips authors to hit that list if they want to. Absolutely. So talk to me a little bit about how you advise authors and speakers generally. And I've had the question said turn their books into a successful business, but I'm actually the other way in terms of the question. How do you encourage authors who have a successful business to then potentially become an author as well and go through that journey?

SPEAKER_00: 30:40

Yeah. Well, you alluded to it earlier in our conversation today. It's the classic, this is like the brand builder's bumper sticker. This is what we tell all of our clients. You are most powerfully positioned to serve the person you once were. We all we also say that a book is usually your conclusion on a matter. It's not something that you're, I'm still considering this, I'm still researching this. No, if you're gonna put 200 pages together on a subject, you have a conclusion. So there might be some business owners that aren't ready to write a book. You're in your first couple of years in business, you got to worry about cash flow and payroll and things like that, is totally fine. The book is a, you know what? I have come to my conclusion, and the past version of me would have really benefited from this subject matter. So yeah, as far as the book, there's a lot of great businesses, John, that don't have books. It's not something that's a prerequisite to serving people, not at all. We help hundreds of clients that will never be authors. But if you want to publish a book, game on. We're great at that. We love helping people with that, but it's really going back to your personal brand as a whole. You are here to make the world a better place, to serve the person that you once were. In a nutshell, you know, the classic Larry Wingitt quote, we say this again all the time at brand builders events live. We need to find your uniqueness and exploit it in the service of others. That's the entire reason why we start a business, write a book, give a TED talk. We need to discover how is John different? That's your uniqueness. And then you don't hog that uniqueness, you don't hog those gifts and talents and passions. No, you go out in the world and you serve people with it. Find your uniqueness, exploit it in the service of others.

SPEAKER_01: 32:20

Love that. And Bob, look, I can still remember the conversations we had, you know, almost four years ago as we come up on this date about brand builders group and the potential value as I was learning about them, and you were the salesperson who was making me aware of the benefits that were there. Still today, I'm a big fan of Brand Builders Group and also still being coached by Brand Builders Group in my brand journey as well. If folks want to learn more about Brand Builders Group and that process, how do you suggest they really get engaged in that activity?

SPEAKER_00: 32:51

Yeah, well, I am so there's a number of different ways that we connect with clients. If we can, I'd love to just give the audience the audiobook for free. That's something that we're doing. The book is already out, like you said, it was a New York Times bestseller in July. Guys, we already hit the list. We're doing great. So we're just giving away the audiobook for free. So if we can, let's just let's throw the link in the show notes to give away the book. That's going to be a great free resource for folks. And I think for sure. Yep. Yeah. And I think we had set up a link for you because you've been a client. You've been a client for many, many years. And so we always we find that our best relationships come from people that are already in the program because we're not hiding anything from you, John. You've been a paying client for many years. You know what's going on. And so, didn't you have a website personally? We do.

SPEAKER_01: 33:39

We'll put that in there as well, the coachjohngallagher.com forward slash BBG. And that gives an opportunity to really set up uh a free conversation with the folks at Brand Builders Group to see if they might be able to help you on your journey, whether it's as an author, as a speaker, as a coach, or ultimately anywhere in your business where you're looking to build a personal brand. And you know what I talk about when folks go there is that you know the study that's done, you all set up the study that 74% of people will buy from someone they trust with a personal brand versus buying from a company. So I continue to see the value and what's there for brand builders groups. So we'll put that link in the show notes as well, coachshawngallagher.com forward slash BBG. We'll put the link to the free audio book to get your copy of Wealthy and Well Known. Uh that's the New York Times bestselling book. And Bob, how do we get them in touch with you as well directly about your book? Where do you want them to go? And also to learn more about you.

SPEAKER_00: 34:35

Best place is just bobwheatly.com. Everything's there, both my books, all my speaking assets and things like that. If you, let's say you're listening to this and you do have a church and you say, Man, I believe there's a gap there. I believe there's a lot of single people that could benefit from this. Just again, there's a contact page. It'll just send you directly to bobwheatly.com. Just shoot me an email and yeah, we'd love to serve however we can. We're doing workshops across the country with this. And if there's an opportunity to help your community as well, let's do this. That's why I wrote it. We want to help people. So yeah, thank you for that.

SPEAKER_01: 35:05

I'll put that link in the show notes as well, bobwheatly.com before to be sure to go out there and connect with him and look into some of those resources that are coming out. You know, those of you uh certainly uh that can provide this opportunity for folks who may be in this season. Bob, I so appreciate how you uh told the story. I'm gonna give you the last word here and then I'll close us out ultimately. But when you think about the message that you continuously try to convey, I'm gonna give you a billboard. You can put any message that you want to on that billboard. What's that message you want the listeners to hear and why do you want them to hear that message?

SPEAKER_00: 35:39

Very simple. Every morning when I sat down to write this book, I had a sheet of paper telling me what the message was. Three words. Focus on Jesus. The book title, Single-Minded, single-minded on what? On Jesus. He's going to change everything. That's what the apostle Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 7. Why is the single Christian in an advantaged season? Because their interests are not divided. They don't have to worry about the husband, the wife, the kids, the soccer practice. They can be completely locked in, focused on Jesus, focused on God, and really crush it as the single person. So yeah, if I had a billboard, be those three words, focus on Jesus.

SPEAKER_01: 36:18

Love that. Bob, thank you so much. I know you've added tremendous value to the listeners of the Uncommon Leader podcast. And I know you're going to add value to so many more with your book and with your study that you're doing and having the impact on the people that you want to. Thank you so much for being a guest. Thank you for having me. Hey, listeners, I think you know someone who has to hear this message. If you know someone who does, please share this episode and whatever platform that you can. Let them know. And also, I bet you know someone who needs to get a copy of this book. I would ask that you really uh think about who that is uh in your life that needs to receive a copy of this book and look to gift that for them. That would be something to be really powerful. Certainly, if you appreciated our conversation, we would love it if you would also leave a review on the podcast and let folks know. That's how we get this message into more and more people's hands. Otherwise, thank you for listening and getting to this point in the podcast. Until next time, go and grow champions.