How to Achieve Excellence Through Following Your Passions: a Guide on Doing Your Best From Michael Heppell

0:00One day I met a guy called David Brown and he said okay read read these two books You need to read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. You need to read How to Win Friends and Influence, People like Dale Carnegie. I read these two books. I was like, wow. And that was when I realized I can do this. I can learn this. I can apply it, and it will make a difference. Michael Heffel, how you write a book, how you get the book to be a bestseller, how to be brilliant. He's going to blow you away. People believing in you, that's a massive one, right? When somebody sees more success in you than you see in yourself, that's huge.

0:31Michael Heffel, he is the one that you want to listen to when it comes to success. So Michael, your formula for success. Well, do you know, it's a great, first of all, it is one of those classic questions where it can probably change week by week. So right now, my formula for success is being a brilliant grandfather. I've become a grandfather recently. And that's a whole new thing that I've had to learn. Within my business, I'm in a transition period. I used to think it was all about seeing as many people as possible, getting massive audiences. but that was when my big goal was to positively influence a million lives.

1:05So it was all about the numbers. And then things have changed, obviously over the last few years, lots of things have changed. And now I feel like my measure for success is when somebody might say to me, you said this to me, or I read this in one of your books and I'm doing this because of that. And that for me, that makes me feel successful. Got it. So what is your definition of success then? My definition would be positively influencing people's lives. Okay. Obviously, it wasn't always that. No. As a young man, what was your definition back then? I used to want all the stuff, didn't I? I wanted the toys, and I wanted to, you know.

1:43And that's a good thing. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that at all. I used to visualize having this particular type of house with my wife and I in these home offices, and the PA in between and walking out into big grounds and all that type of stuff. And I'm very fortunate I have a version of that now, which is absolutely fine because I also have this belief how much is enough. And you can create a lot of problems for yourself if you over want stuff. And the want becomes more important than what you're actually providing for people. Hang on, let's talk to that for a second. That's really important.

2:19When the want becomes more important than what you're actually providing people. Explain that. So my big goal when I first started my business was that I kind of wanted to be famous. That was the whole thing. If I can get on TV, won't that be great? That was the thing. I'm so pleased I didn't get on TV. I nearly did. I made a trailer. I made a pilot program. I worked with some great people. And then it didn't get commissioned. I know some famous people now, and I am so pleased it didn't get commissioned. Because I can go out for a meal and not be bothered. They get people come up and say, can I just get a photograph?

2:55Can I just get an autograph or whatever? So that's changed over time. And I love the fact now that I'm very comfortable in my own skin. And when I look back at that person who I was, it's quite interesting. Now, I think you've changed as well. I mean, we all change. And your measure of success, though. Yeah, look, I think that, and if I ask you this, where did you choose success as your performance standard? That sort of, it didn't matter what you were going for. Your performance standard was greater than average. Yeah, that's the thing. I always wanted to provide more. I mean, I'm a total over-provider for service.

3:39If I'm doing an event, I'm going to be there first. I'm going to work with a crew. I'm going to do everything that I can. If I'm writing a book, I'm going to go deep into it. I'm going to write a lot more than I need, and I'm going to edit like crazy. But isn't that what makes you successful? Maybe. A bit of luck as well. You know, I know you create your own luck. Of course you create your own luck. But I think there's certain things when I look back. Another thing is people believing in you. That's a massive one, Brad. When somebody sees more success in you than you see in yourself, that's huge.

4:12That's huge. So what's your theory then on brilliance? because you talk about not just success, but brilliance. Yeah. So brilliant, I mean, it's another word for describing highly successful. I believe that all the rewards are in that last little bit. So doing a good job is no longer good enough. You know, you see people, oh, well done, good job. And then they wonder why their business doesn't work. And it's because they were doing a good job and good isn't good enough. We know some good brands that just don't exist anymore. And more of that is going to happen. I used to do a thing called Rate the Brand when I'd be doing workshops.

4:50And people used to put these amazing brands up, the best brands. You look at those same brands now, just 10 years later, and people aren't mentioning their names. 10 years from now, will they even exist? I don't know. Yeah, I think the world is changing at a rapid rate. And I think, though, that having a performance standard of success or brilliance, as you term it, having that performance standard that is a mark of what makes someone get there. So what's your theory then on those who decide to be at that level versus those who decide to be at good? What's the difference? Well, I think first of all, a lot of times people are good because they try to be brilliant at too many things.

5:29You can't be brilliant at everything. You've got to choose. If you, I mean, you've met some extraordinary people. You see the people who are at the top of their game, especially in things like sport. or they sacrifice a lot of other stuff. Other things don't happen. So if you say, oh, I want to be brilliant in my business, I want to be brilliant at this, I want to be brilliant at that, I want to be a brilliant dad, I want to be a brilliant partner, I want to be brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, all these things, whoa, whoa, whoa, choose three. You can be fantastic at lots of things, you can be good at loads of things, but brilliance needs that level of commitment to absolutely laser focus.

6:03Dang. Once you said a comment about in sports, there's only one gold medal, but in life everyone can get the gold medal if they do that. Explain that one to me. So this is this thing where we talk about, you know, give the example of brilliance. I talk about Usain Bolt winning the gold medal at the 2012 Olympics. And the reason I mention it, I was there. I managed to get a ticket, couldn't believe it. He did some other stuff in front of me. And everybody remembers that moment. Two billion people watched that on TV. Largest sporting audience of all time. Who came second? No idea. The other Jamaican.

6:40The other Jamaican. And he got a silver medal in a LucasAid contract. That's a Red Bull contract. It could do with more energy was the message with that. So we look at that and we go, right, okay, that level of brilliance is what people want. In sport, there can only be one. There can only be one Usain Bolt. There's only one gold medal. In a business, the more people who are brilliant, the more people can be brilliant. It's a complete symbiotic relationship. It's the higher the tide all ships rise If you have a restaurant If you've got a brilliant chef But the front of house people are crap Then you don't have a business If you have a brilliant chef Who's encouraging brilliant front of house people Whoosh, away it goes Brilliant pot washer The best restaurant that I've ever been to The pot washer has been there since day one And when they got their third Michelin star He was front and center of all the photographs Because he's a brilliant pot washer and the chefs can't do what they need to do unless he's putting everything through his system in and out the machines up on there.

7:42It goes to the exact right place on the right shelf. He's brilliant. People want to headhunt him. People want to pay him 50 grand to be a pot washer in their restaurant. He's not going anywhere. So if you go back in time, where do you feel you as a man or as a young boy chose success? Like what time did you say, I am going to be successful? Was there a moment? Was it a family thing? or was it just the way you're right? How did that work? So I did the classic thing. I left school 16, classic entrepreneur, no qualifications, blah, blah, blah, boring. Everybody does that. I started to work for my dad as a roofer.

8:19My dad was a brilliant roofer. Now, this is the interesting thing. My first experience of brilliance was with my dad and his business. He trained the British roofing team who won the world championships. He wrote the manuals for the roofing companies on how to fix their slates. He was the guy who the consultants came to see to do consultancy work. He was brilliant. I was so close I didn't realize at the time. I realized it more since he's passed, actually, which is quite interesting. When I left there to go and do youth work and then become a fundraiser, I kind of thought there's some people who are really good at this.

8:51I'm going to ask them how they did it. That's my secret. I'm going to find out from other people by asking lots of questions. And one day I met a guy called David Brown, the guy who invented the Caterpillar, you know, the big split axle trucks. He invented that. He's a phenomenal guy. I got a donation from him for£250 ,000. When you're a fundraiser, that's a good day's work. And then I started asking all the questions. So I'm asking him, look what I'm saying. What about this? And what about that? And how would you do this? And what time do you get up? And after about an hour, he said, Michael, you've got your money.

9:22We've been sat here for an hour. It's getting dark. Before you go, I want to ask you two questions. He's like, yeah, sure. What are they? First question, what was the last book that you read? I couldn't even remember what it was and then second question what was the last course that you went on I was all set to say it and he said that you paid for, not work that's a good question, the last course that you went on that you paid for, not work so I said well what do I need to do and he said okay read these two books and he said these two books and you'll laugh now Brad because he said you need to read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill never heard of it, you need to read How to Win Friends and Influence, people like Dale Carnegie never heard of it those is how to go to the bookshop and order them and they came in a week later I read these two books I was like wow and I started to go on courses and pay for it myself and that was when I realized actually I can do this I can learn this I can apply it and it will make a difference Michael Heppel books you've written a bunch what's the difference between a good book and a great book or a brilliant book in your terminology do you know it's it's I write non fiction books, personal development books and business books, I think that the first mistake people make when they go to write them is they have this weird belief, it'll be the best business card you ever have.

10:38That is an absolute myth. Only if the book's really good is it a good business card. Because otherwise, imagine you wouldn't hand out a tatty old business card with the wrong number on it. You've got to write a good book. So number one, make sure you know your stuff. Secondly, put all your best stuff in the book. That's the other mistake people make. People write, I'm writing a business book or I'm writing a personal development book, but I'm not going to put all my good stuff in there because I'm going to use it as a lead magnet and I'm going to attract people and then I'll sell that. Absolute BS.

11:10Put your best stuff in and put it right at the front because most people don't read a whole book. So put really great stuff. So people are like this, wow, this is so good. This is so good. Chapter one. And then they'll come to you and then you can sell other stuff. So I think in terms of personal development books and business books, best stuff, put it right up at the front next thing is write every single day if you are an author if you're a writer it's your job don't look at it as a sideline you've got to think right every single day i'm going to write something even if you've got nothing to write still write and i have this expression that i teach people which is there's no such thing as write a block just write shite just write shite write 500 words of shite and i promise you in those 500 words there will be one or two things.

11:55One or two ideas. And you're going to go, oh, actually, that's quite good. And you might get 50 words from it, and then you've developed those. So writer's block is for lazy people. I think you just need to write every single day, and you will get there. And then maybe the other thing is, obviously, think of a great title. You've got to have a good hook. People forget the content so, so quickly. But if they can remember a name. So my first book was called How to Be Brilliant. And I didn't realize what a fabulous title that was until my publisher said, you've got an extraordinary title there. We love that.

12:34This is gonna, it's gonna go really, really well. And it translates very well. The other thing is, if you're gonna do a how-to book, it has to be absolutely super succinct. So my best title for a how-to book with my time management book, How to Save an Hour Every Day, translated in 27 different languages, It works in 27 different languages. The promise is on the tin. It's there. And I think they're the main things that I would encourage people to do. So let's go right back. I've got an idea for a book. Yeah. Where do I get started? What's the process of getting it down? Because I think a lot of people have a theory of a book, an idea of a book, but don't get it started.

13:13Yeah. So I think the first thing is to write the back cover. Write the pitch. What will your book provide for the reader? Start with the back cover. get that information and then think okay how am i going to make sure this promise is fulfilled with the words so that's the first thing it's a very difficult to write the back cover yeah i i often actually it's interesting because i've done that with a lot of information products over the years i would write the ads yeah and then from the ads create the the book yeah huh so i've always created a model yeah for my books like in the book it's the five ways of this or the circles of that Do you teach that or how does that work for you?

13:52Where do most people get on that? I think you can do that if it fits, but don't try and put a round peg in a square hole. Sometimes people say, oh, I've got this amazing hook idea, but what they're writing about doesn't fit with it. And you can feel that. You can almost feel people forcing titles. So the secret of, and then the second chapter, the secret of, and the third chapter, the secret of, well, that's not even a secret. but they're determined to use the words secret for everything. And that looks a bit dodgy. So if I'm, you know, when I've talked to some authors who said, make it as simple as possible, and others who make a 380-page book, and where do you fit on that scale?

14:35Simple. Simple? Yeah, I am, you know what, here's the thing. You are not writing for you. So you know a lot more than the reader. the reader needs to get it and then be able to do something with it straight away so I'm reading a book at the moment called Strength to Strength I know it's a good book because there are post-it notes, I'm underlining stuff all over the place I'm thinking this is superb it's like he's talking to me, how does he know this about me, well it's just a really good match and the promise is there and it fits really really well, other times I'll pick up a book and I get a lot of books and I've got a library with about four and a half thousand books in it.

15:17People send me books all the time. You know, you'll have the same thing. You'll get it. You go, oh, that looks interesting. Come on, come on. And they get there. Why I'm writing this book. I mean, unless that is a killer story. Don't even put it in. You know, I overcame this problem in my life. So what? Nobody gives a share. Unless you've climbed Everest in flip-flops, then you know what? Nobody cares that you went to base camp. I did a walk to base camp and it changed my life. Yeah, so what? I read a book about a guy who climbed all the top peaks in the world in 60 days. I mean, that's interesting.

15:53How do you do that? Yeah, yeah. So, okay, we've got the idea of the book. We've written the back cover. We now go through. Do you structure out a book first? Do you chapter plan it? How do you do that? Yeah, if I'm writing a personal development book, absolutely. Structure plan. And it has to make sense. The journey has to be there. Now, there are some books which you can pick up and you can jump in anywhere, and it's kind of going to make sense. So I wrote a book called The Edge, How the Best Get Better. Studied 200 super successful people, complete waste of time. After I'd interviewed 10, they were all saying the same thing.

16:26So it was kind of, you know. Well, hey, what did they say? Tell me about that. I mean, before we get into the book stuff, I was in The Edge. Here's a classic example of interviewing people for The Edge. I did this thing. One day I interviewed a guy called General Sir Mike Jackson, who was head of the British Army. I mean, phenomenal guy. He's kind of got a boy like this, you know. And he saved the world from World War III. I mean, that's one of his stories. Literally, there could have been a World War III, and he said, I'm not starting World War III for anybody. An averted nuclear war. Good story, right?

16:57So I'm meeting him one day. The next day, I met Danny Mayer, the restaurateur. Yeah. Right? Founder of Shake Shack. You know, amazing guy. I've got these notes, and we have a set of questions that we ask somebody. I go home, I'm looking at the notes. I could have reversed the name at the top, and they almost said the same things. So in my head, I thought Danny Mayer could run the British Army and General Sir Mike Jackson could run Shakespeare. Because a lot of the stuff they said was the same. And so here's number one. Work on yourself all the time. Continuous personal development. You can't be better for your customer unless you're better for yourself first.

17:32That's how I sum it up. So you can do all this wonderful customer service stuff, but unless you're working on yourself, it doesn't matter. Secondly, absolute trust in people. Implicit trust. Train them so well that you can trust them. And here's the thing. Why do people not trust somebody? Because you haven't trained them well enough. There's not the confidence there. You don't believe in them because you haven't done a good enough job. So these people who are in the edge, they've trained their people, they've developed their people, they've recruited really good people, and then they're given this huge amount of trust into them.

18:03And then the other thing which jumped out for almost everybody, they're not just one step ahead, they're three steps ahead. so I wanted to kind of distill this sort of knowledge and then put that into a book where someone who picks up goes oh how can I learn from General Sam Mike Jackson how can I learn from Danny Mayer and my job as the author is to take a complex model and make it simple for anybody to be able to achieve that to me is I believe the most important part of what you've said today complexity into simplicity what do you say to someone that makes their book so dang complex They want to be a university professor, basically.

18:41Yeah, I say, do you want to sell books? Do you want to sell any of these? Or is this a vanity project? I mean, here's the thing. Loads of people. So we've been running this program called Write That Book, and we've had over 1 ,000 people through it now. And some people join, and Brad, you'll love this. They start from the join. They go, I just want to write my book. I'm not really bothered if anybody buys it until they publish it. And then suddenly the different Facebook ads and the unboxing videos and they've got their sites set up. You've got to start thinking, I have to sell books. Yeah. Right?

19:14A publisher, the number one thing they want to do isn't to educate the world. They're here to sell books. My publisher, Pearson, biggest education publisher in the world, how are we going to sell books? Oh, we might educate some people. That's the byproduct. Yeah, yeah. Sell books, sell books, sell books. Now, what you do brilliantly in your books, right, is you go, right, there's a subject. Here's the BS that other people do around it. Here's what you need to do. Step one is this. Tick. Step two is that. I have to get to the end of your book if I want to know the rest of that holy grail. Yeah.

19:48A lot of books, a whole lot of theory in the front. Oh, I can't even be bothered to go on anymore. Yeah. And my biggest pet peeve with books is that it's a great concept. And oh, my God, they make it so boring. Yeah, totally. Like, don't tell me stories, give me the facts. Exactly. That's the thing with stories, you see. People believe their stories are great. They really do. But the worst ones, and I hate to say this, if anybody's watching this who's been on my Write That Book program, I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about other people. When people write their autobiography, and they go, it's 180 ,000 words.

20:27I might have to do it in two volumes. And I'm thinking, what have you done in your life that warrants 180 ,000 words. Barack Obama's was half that. But let me tell you one thing. If an author doesn't approach you to write your life story, it's not that interesting. Exactly. Michael Heppel, you've coached, worked with, trained best of the best, worst of the worst, prisoners, the whole thing, right? What is the difference between someone who goes for good and someone who goes for great or brilliant in your mind. Do you know that was a conversation I've just had literally 10 minutes ago before we came through the door.

21:11Somebody came up to me and they said, oh, Michael, you coached Davina McCall. So in the UK, Davina McCall is one of the most well-known people. What did you do? What did you say to her? I said, well, a great coach wouldn't actually say anything. They would just ask questions. I'm not a great coach. You guys do the great coach. I recommend action coach. But when anybody says to me, I want to do some business, I just say action coach. Much easier for me. And plus, you know, the guys love the referrals. But anyway, if it's a personal thing like that, you know, I'll say, Milk, let's sit down and we'll just have a look at your wheel of life.

21:47It's a great place to start with any coaching session. Start with a wheel of life. Davina, this is how brilliant she is. She went through a wheel of life and she was so annoyed with it. She was so frustrated with it. She goes, that's not me That's not me on that piece of paper What do I need to do? And I said, well, you're one of the most successful people On television in the UK right now And for your career, you've given yourself a three Why is that? And she explained why And I said, okay, so here's what we're going to do We're going to take massive action The manager that you have right now You don't particularly like Let's get you a new manager And you could just see her like, okay, what have I got to do?

22:27So if you could have anybody as your manager, who would it be? So she said, okay, yeah, I've got somebody in mind. I've got somebody in mind. I said, right, ring him. She said, now? Like, yeah, massive action equals massive results. So she picks up the phone and she gets it and goes, hi, can I speak to Simon, please? It's Davina McCall. She said, oh, he's in LA at the moment. Right, yeah, no problem at all. If you could just tell him that I've called, that's fine. Great. Put the phone. She said, oh, I did it. I did it. I did it. I was terrified. I was absolutely terrified. A minute later, the phone rings.

23:00I said, oh, whoa. Hello? Yes, I did. I just rang your office. Yeah, of course. Yeah, that would be brilliant. Look, I'm just with somebody right now. Can we set it up for next week? Brilliant. Put the phone down. At one call, she called this guy. And I want to let her say, here he is. I already said, Simon, that's a little bit too much. She said, let's meet up next week. When I'm back in the UK, they met up. He said, I think you're amazing. right now, I think your career is stagnant. If I was managing you, this is what I would do. And it's not how, it's who. She starts doing the who can help. Within 90 days, she'd left the biggest show that she was presenting.

23:43She got a new manager and she completely redesigned how she was going to do her life. So that for me, when I look at somebody and I go, that is success, Yes, that's amazing. This same person who we're talking about, I was out for a meal with her about a year later, came out of a restaurant in London. There's a guy sat there, stinking, filthy. I mean, proper homeless. You know, there's homeless and there's proper homeless. This guy is there. And he went, hi, can I have some money for a place to stay? And I just went, yeah, no problem. Get something wet. Why do you think they're staying? Oh, such and such.

24:15All right, is Gary still there? Yeah, yeah, yeah, Gary, he runs the place. Great. Would you say that? I said, hello. Oh, God, you're her. You're Davina. Oh, but can't get an autograph. So, anyway, between me, my husband, the guy at the door, my wife, none of us have a pen or a piece of paper. And this guy's all like this. And Davina said, tell you what, instead of an autograph, how about a hug? She took a hold of this guy. I cry about it, I think about it now. She took a hold of this guy, and she held him and really held him. And after about 30 seconds, a long time hugging somebody, your shoulders just went would you let go really gently how's that he said better than an autograph that's success well hey there and thanks for listening I've noticed that 78 % of you are brand new which means you haven't hit the subscribe button yet by subscribing you help us bring on even better guests better quality content and serve you better with even more podcasts so please hit that subscribe button it only takes a second it makes a huge difference If you support us, we're going to support your success and help you achieve big success together.

25:26I think it's because they have a burning desire to fulfill what's in there. So you can't do it from there. It has to start there. So all of the people who have coached in entertainment, they are all really wanting to put it out there. They want to entertain. They want to be on stage. They want to show off. They want to do that. Nothing wrong with that. It's not for everybody. that's what they want to do. Business people, they have this thing about, I'm going to fix a problem and I'm going to do really well off the back of it. And they have that burning desire there and then they work it out there.