How exactly does a person create five multi-million dollar companies, become the youngest-ever winner of the British Excellence of Sales and Marketing Award, and produce the most listened-to non-fiction audiobook of all time?
These are just a few of the accolades that EWTS founder Phil M. Jones discussed recently when he joined podcaster and friend Josh Linkner.
They covered a lot of ground, including how to enter the speaking world, how to write a best-selling book, and the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people can help you stay on track.
Success Leaves Clues
Phil started his first business at 14, washing cars. He learned early on that if he worked hard, he could earn good money. But how exactly do you go from teenage entrepreneur to world-renowned speaker and best-selling author?
It comes down to the ability to work hard, remain focused, and adapt and change when needed.
From an early age, Phil believed in himself and his abilities. Much of this was down to the fact that he was always prepared to do the work before the work. He never had a ‘pay me, and I’ll do it mindset,’ he’s always believed in doing the work and then getting paid.
When you see someone who has done well or someone you admire, do you ask yourself how they’ve done it? Often, there’s a reason for the success and analysing it can give you a blueprint to do the same.
Early on, Phil discovered that success often leaves clues, and if you’re brave enough to follow those clues, then the chances are it might work out well for you, too.
How Did A Career In Speaking Come About?
To date, Phil has mounted up to 2,500 presentations across 57 countries and 5 continents. His speaking career is prolific, but it might surprise you to hear that it came about almost by accident.
Speaking had always been a feature of his work. Opening big department stores meant that he managed high levels of recruitment, often explaining to people why they should work with him, whilst selling the narrative and the brand story.
But he’d always attributed this kind of speaking to training – professional speaking had always felt like something that he could tackle when he was older and more established.
However, the speaking world had a different plan. Career shifts and changes, as well as creating a name for himself in the retail world, led him to be invited again and again by business owners to share his experiences.
People seeking his advice led him to create One Day Sales Training Workshops, which evolved into a one-on-one coaching and consulting business.
It was through these successful workshops and events that he built a legitimate speaking business.
Listen To Your Feedback
In his one-day sales training workshops, he used to ask people to complete feedback forms. They would nearly always say, ‘ I loved your magic words.’
These magic words were things that he’d sprinkle in to lighten the mood during breaks or comebacks. They were precise words that would be used as an illustration of the principle that was just talked about.
Everyone loved it so much that when Phil thought about writing a book, he decided to focus on this element of his workshops.
He took a two-page PDF that had been used for a training event called 17 Magic Words for Influence and Persuasion, How to Sell Without Sounding Salesy, and turned it into a book.
Imagine his surprise when a book that he’d adapted from a two-page PDF event ‘takeaway’ ended up getting downloaded 120,000 times in 7 days!
For many years, he used it as a revenue generator, an upsell at speaking events and gigs, until 2016, when he started to finetune it. Reworked and renamed Exactly What to Say, it became an instant best-seller.
Could You Write A Book?
Phil’s book is one of the biggest audiobooks in history, but the reason for its success is that it’s not a new idea.
If you’re a speaker thinking about writing a book, you probably fall into one of these two categories: the big idea book or the proven method book.
If you’ve got a big idea, then you’ll be looking for a major publisher to believe that your big idea is a big idea. A publisher will enable you to take the plunge. They could give you a giant advance to create it and test it in the market to see if your big idea is actually as big an idea as you hope it will be.
The proven method book is in many ways more valuable, especially to speakers. It’s your IP, your signature calling card.
Exactly What to Say is very much a proven method book. Everything within it has been tirelessly tried and tested.
Could it be possible that you’ve got a proven method book idea?
The chances are you’ve already written it. You just need to re-edit, repackage, reposition, and bring it to market in a way that you own and that you can control.
Masterminds
Professional speaking has opened a lot of doors and provided many opportunities to expand his brand, but the most successful speakers learn from those around them.
The speaking industry is big, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t enough room for everyone. Most speakers will tell you there’s a lot of camaraderie among everyone.
Phil is proud to say that he can and does learn from absolutely everyone – both positive role models and negative ones. But one thing he highly recommends is joining a mastermind group.
He is part of a five-person group where all the members are of a similar age, they are all speakers who charge similar fees, and they are running ancillary businesses.
It’s a purposefully put-together group with similar interests. They are good at keeping each other in check, and even though they only meet a couple of times a year, they each regard them as incredibly valuable get-togethers.
It’s not a high-touch mastermind, but it is a high-impact one with many benefits.
The people that you associate with can teach you so much about sustainability and growth. Pay attention right, and you can learn from those who’ve come before you.
Do you have a group? Have you ever considered creating one?
Forming a mastermind group could be what you need to stay laser-focused and become more successful.
Phil’s advice when it comes to creating a mastermind group is:
- Be very clear in your expectations - what do you want this mastermind to be able to deliver? Is it a place where you can just be and be collegiate and have fun and a chance to be able to hang with like-minded peers? Should it be a more strategic business-focused group?
- Make sure that everybody knows what the group's focus is. That way, all members can contribute toward it.
- Invite the right kinds of people - You are forming a board of advisors, so make sure that the people you invite are competent for the role.
- Determine the dynamic - Is your group a mixed skillset or a group of peers?
- Create a sustainable format - make your meetings count. This doesn’t mean that you have to do one once a week. It just means that when you get together, it’s worthwhile and productive.
Next Steps
After so many professional milestones, what is the next leg of the race for Phil M. Jones?
For Phil, he believes that you should always be working on your future bio.
EWTS is now running a certified guides program with 37 independently licensed, certified practitioners. These Guides carry the message of Exactly What to Say out into the world, building their own speaking, training, coaching, and consulting businesses while standing in front of the brand.
He also hopes to one day see the EWTS acronym become as well known as the NLP acronym. His future bio might someday read: “Founder, creator of the world-renowned EWTS training systems.”
But most of all, he wants his book to keep selling. It’s his life’s work, and he intends to nurture it and look after it so that it can continue to provide for his family.
You can stream the podcast below or listen to it on the Mic Drop website.
