In this episode, Stephanie Scheller Dupre shares how she was able to leave her job in just 5 short months, sell 4,000 books her first weekend, and how her book catapulted her to success. She also shares her time-management secrets, her motto (which made all the difference) and the truth about entrepreneurship.

Resources Mentioned:

Website: www.TheStephanieScheller.com

Books:
Friend Power: How the Friends You Choose Can Change the Course of Your Life

Getting Past the Gatekeeper: How to Turn Your Greatest Enemy Into Your Greatest Ally

3 Key Points

#1: It’s not enough to write a book, you have to publish it!

#2: Follow your passion

#3: Be willing to put in the work-it takes EFFORT!

Show Notes

[0:50] Introduction Stephanie Scheller Dupre an accomplished speaker from training to keynotes, worked with more than 600 businesses in the past 5 years, a TED speaker, a Forbes 30 under 30 nominee, a 2X bestselling author and dedicated to helping others do what she has done and walk away from her job in less than 5 months

[2:00] Stephanie has gone through Ellen’s processes, so they started there…tell us your journey about becoming an author how did you decide to write a book and how did they come about?

[2:33] At 6 years old in Alaska, she didn’t know how to write real words yet, but she would steal copy paper from her dad’s paper and scribble and use pages. She doesn’t know how her dad didn’t kill her for ruining all his printer paper. She was always writing books.

[3:07] Her first book, Friend Power, is on the 5th printing and is the most sold book she’s had. They love it and resonates with it. Everyone looks at the cover, the title-and most people don’t know Ellen came up with the title so Kudos to her. They think it’s awesome.

[3:44] She wrote the majority of it in 2012 and 2013 long before she knew how to publish a book. There is actually a line at the end of the book that says, “How do I know that friend power works? I know because I’m writing this book before I know how to get it published. So, if you’re reading this, it’s proof that the people you hang out with make a difference in your life”

[4:14] In 2014, her coached asked her if she had ever thought of writing a book and she said she already had one. He asked for a copy and she said she’d have to send it to him because it had never been published because she didn’t know how. And he said, she should get it published.

[4:43] So, she started rewriting it and polishing it and she got serious about it in February of 2015 and met Ellen in March 2015 so it didn’t have the final title but it had the content.

[5:05] The content ended up getting massively rewritten because she had grown in that time.

[5:19] The original title was The Company You Keep, which was a much longer title and much less exciting than Friend Power.

[5:45] I was getting ready to put it out there but I really did not know how to publish it. It was when I got connected with you and other people in our circle that I figured out,” Hey, here’s how you actually publish a book.”

[6:04] The whole published process was a lot easier than Stephanie expected. It wasn’t like it was easy…oh great! There was a lot of time involved, but it wasn’t difficult. As long as she was willing to put the time in, it wasn’t hard to do it.

[6:35] They sold close to 4,000 copies their first weekend end during a massive storm in the San Antonio area where she lives. She had to go to Panera Bread to do all the stuff Ellen taught her to do because there was no electricity in her home. And they were still able to make something pretty cool happen.

[7:19] The first one sold better than the second one. Stephanie said it’s because you put so much good stuff in the first book. People told her, “Your first book becomes your flagship book, so make sure it’s good.” And her second book is much smaller; It’s like a pocket-size handbook, which makes a difference as well.

[7:56] So, how do you use your book in your business?

[8:05] It’s actually funny, The Friend Power Book became this really great platform. All of the sudden, she was a published author, who had sold…. the majority of books published these days don’t sell more than 100 copies. Our first weekend, we outsold that massively; it’s consistently sold.

[8:36] So when she went to go for podcasts, or speaking event, it was “Hey by the way this is Stephanie Scheller, she’s this bestselling author, and so it created instant credibility. She found that when she got up on stage, she didn’t have to spend time explaining who she was or why they should listen to her. “It was like, Okay, let’s listen to her.”

[9:11] They were able to raise her speaking rates quite a bit instantly because they did start getting more requests for public speaking. It was also a piece of how they got her on to the TED stage.

[9:40] The book took her from a wanna be to someone who people just looked at and said “Wow, let’s listen to what she has.” It established her very firmly.

[9:53] And it’s a real book, which people care about. There are people who have a little short twelve-page ebook, and there’s nothing wrong with those, but when you have an actual physical book, it really means a lot to people.

[10:09] People will buy the book for giveaways all the time, and Stephanie will hear from people she’s never met and have never seen her speak and say” Oh my gosh, this is my Friend Power story: This is how I got to where I am, and it blows me away, it’s made so many connections for me.” So, that’s what it’s done, its opened doors.

[10:39] How did you get to be a Ted Talk Speaker and Forbes 30 Under 30?

[10:57] It really is the people she hangs out with. She set clear goals. She set a goal to be on the TED Stage and on the Forbes list. She got nominated but didn’t make it, which bummed her out. But, being nominated was pretty big. To get that email in her inbox saying” Hey you’re an official nominee…” It was such a high point for her.

[11:32] It was the people who helped her meet the right people to get on the stage, who helped her put together a TED talk, because her original ideas for how to put together a TED talk were not really congruent with what TED was all about.

[12:33] For those people who don’t know what a TED speaker is Stephanie shared that the whole thing started with a reclusive researcher billionaire who put together the smartest minds he could find to put together 15-minute talks on anything from technology, entertainment, or design, which is TED. He brings all these people together and he started by just inviting his closest friends. He put on this event, eighteen people originally who are really smart, and it grew and grew to where thousands of people apply just to attend the TED conference every year-you have to be invited just to attend it.

[13:31] Then they branched out into franchises across the U.S. and across the globe. They are constructed and put together in the TED style from the main TED stage out in California and she believes in Vancouver B.C. And the franchises put on their own TED events locally She went on the one in San Antonio, which is one of the longest running franchises and they put on some of the largest ones other than the original. You’ve probably seen one.

[14:20] Famous TED Talks include Simon Sinek, The Golden Circle, Tony Robbins has an incredibly famous TED Talk, Brene Brown… a lot of names have been made on the TED stage. These videos get millions and millions of views. Go look them up; they are cool stuff.

[14:54] So, what Stephanie was saying before was write the book, give yourself the credibility, then it makes it a lot easier for these other things to happen.

[15:04] Stephanie said it really does. She’ll use the book for follow up when she connects with someone she wants to stay in touch with long term-it makes for a great piece of follow up. She’ll get their mailing address and send them a copy of the book.

[5:20] How many people can get a copy of a book from the person they just met that is signed personally to them? And it all came from writing the book-get it out there.

[15:31] Stephanie had said she’s worked with over 600 businesses and thousands of individuals, which is awesome for someone who is still so young. It blows Ellen away because she didn’t start (her online business) until she was over 50. Ellen wanted to know how she had worked with so many people so quickly.

[15:52] Stephanie was extremely blessed with her first job, and she puts a lot of time and energy into her business; it’s a big piece of her life. She still routinely works 60-70-hour weeks- not 80-120 weeks anymore. And she loves what she does. She has put in that kind of energy for the last decade. In her very first job, she was put in charge of 400 campaigns at a high level in one year-which was ridiculous- and then the next year, dug deep into about 115 companies and got to know them and their campaigns and their companies, and has continued helping three to five companies a week. It’s a high level of energy and commitment.

[17:22] Ellen added that she worked a lot of hours in the early years too and loves what she does-going from eighty hours a week down to forty. But, she isn’t sure
If doing the podcast will make her hours go up or down from there- will see. But when you have the commitment, you don’t see all those hours as work because you’re doing what you enjoy doing. So, her day off is great because she gets to work on her projects.

[17:54] Stephanie agreed. She works 6 days a week but has learned to take one day off. Even on Saturday she works four to eight hours but doing what she loves to do.

[18:28] Stephanie is hyper-effective with her time too. She doesn’t drive out to see people unless she absolutely has to. She makes sure every minute is used. She tracks her time on her calendar. All the lost time gets tagged, so she can see where she’s wasted time each week, and they’ve made time management an art so she spends all her time in production. Ellen hired Mary Boiselle to get her time under control It makes a huge difference.

[19:17] Closing thoughts:
1. Her motto she lives by is Passion creates action and actions create results. If you can find what you’re passion about, and you can find it and apply it to anything you’re doing. But find what you’re passionate about because Stephanie tried four or five times to build a business and replace her fulltime income, but she did not have success until
she built this company, but it was because she was so passionate about it that she wouldn’t let anything get in the way.

And 2. Always remember that you are going to have to put some effort in. And effort is ….effort…it’s WORK! But effort stands for earned freedom for
overcoming real tempests. And if you write that one down it spells out EFFORT. Tempest is a storm. We all go through storms. Don’t think you’re special, you’re not that special. So, the question is: Is your life worth the effort to make it great!

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