Why You Need To Leave Things Better Than The Way You Found Them

Rob 00:00

You leave things better than you found is great advice. It’s advice to today’s guest, Azul Terronez, co founder of authors Who Lead Received as an Eagle Scout. And he’s kept that advice in mind throughout his life in the way that he cares for his family cares about the community around him hears about his team, and the clients that he serves as he coaches them through the book writing process. The zoo also talks about how to get past that question of should I write a book and how to get started? It’s a fascinating conversation. You’ll be glad you listened.

Rob 00:50

You’re listening to the truest fan podcast. And now here’s your host, Rob Brown. Welcome, welcome, everybody to this latest episode of the truest fan podcast. I am stoked today to have as my guest azul Coronas. And we just talked about how to say his name and I was okay with it before I had to start thinking about actually recording it and make sure I got it right. So, so I think I think I did okay. But the reason I’m really excited to introduce Azul is Azul is really one of the instigators behind the whole truest fan idea. Azul was my coach, as we wrote, or I wrote the truest fan book to his fan, live, love and lead with purpose and impact. So I don’t think I’d have the truest fan podcast if it wasn’t for azul. Azul is a co founder of authors who lead, he helps leaders, like you write books that people love. And he also spent over 25 years as a teacher, so a great background. So zoo, welcome to the podcast.

Azul Terronez 02:09

Thank you so much for having such a pleasure.

Rob 02:12

Yeah. Well, it’s great to have you. Great to have you on board. So to get started, I love to ask the question, What is your favorite baseball team? Because when we were brainstorming, or I was brainstorming, you’re helping me brainstorm whatever the right terminology is, to write the truest fan, the whole idea of being a truest fan, to my favorite baseball team, the Cleveland Indians now guardians was one of the guiding thoughts you kept kind of saying, Rob, don’t let that go. Don’t let that go. And I didn’t. So do you have a favorite baseball team?

Azul Terronez 02:52

Thank you for asking that. When I was growing up, I played baseball, like a lot of people did. Never really excelled at it. But I used to live in the Bay Area, roughly, I lived in Santa Cruz, California. And it’s when Rickey Henderson was just all the craze and watching him still basis and that so I think if I had to pick it might have been the A’s because that was where I remember my childhood fondness for for the game and going to games and seeing them also, you know, go into candlestick and watching the Giants play. 

So I think you’ll have to be between those two teams, that would be my favorite. And it brings back so many memories. When I even think about a team. Think about the connection to team. And so when you were talking, and it sort of just fell out of your mouth when you started describing your devotion to Cleveland. And you said the word truest fan. I remember thinking, wow, what did you just say? That was just blew my mind? And I think it was it came from that devotion that was brought up through that. So yeah, that’s the team that has that sort of feeling for me.

Rob 03:56

Yeah. Oh, great. And it’s it’s funny sometimes when you think about that, you go back to a player who then reminds you of the team. And so that idea of being a fan and really remembering and kind of attaching memory to it is more than sometimes in just just the team and of course, Rickey Henderson was one of the greatest of all time.

Azul Terronez 04:21

Yeah, yeah. And I it inspired me to just I think love the game from a different perspective. Loving it through a player was a really interesting because it wasn’t in my city. It wasn’t like somewhere I grew up but there was there was just more of a town where I grew up so it already seemed bigger than life because you’re going to the big city to see a game versus I could watch Rickey Henderson and feel like I was participating in some way.

Rob 04:45

Yeah, cuz I it’s hard to think of a player who was like more engaged in the game all the time because he was just always, always on the move. And I guess you can’t do that way when you steal that many bases.

Azul Terronez 05:00

All right, it was like, you get to watch him back. But then you get to watch him for four different, you know, batters or six or whatever to get across the bases. So you get to you were really he was the entire show in some way, like the entire game was centered around his action. And that’s that was unique, I think, at the time and was really inspirational to watch a player kind of dominate a game that can particularly only take place at the home plate.

Rob 05:27

Yeah, very, very few players can take over a game that way, and he certainly has certainly done it. But anyway, we could talk about baseball, especially Cleveland baseball the whole time. And that’s not the purpose of the podcast. But I think it’s great. I think you’re the first Bay Area baseball fan I’ve had on the podcast. 

So that gives you something else to be noteworthy for. But I my favorite question to ask to kind of dig in deep to this idea of being a truest fan is to get you to think back to advice you’ve been given through your life that’s really stuck with you and maybe been a guiding principle is there. Is there one piece or a couple of pieces of advice that really hang with you?

Azul Terronez 06:14

That’s a great question. And when you pose it even in preparing for this, I, I really struggled with the one piece of advice. But I think you know, I was very fortunate in that I grew up being in scouting. And for me, being an Eagle Scout had been a really wonderful moment for me, starting from Cub Scouts all the way through. And I think some of the best advice might have come from my Scoutmaster in some regards, and it was more about leaving things better than the way you found them. 

And at the time, I thought it was about campgrounds and camp fires and picking up litter and checking the streams for things that were left behind by fishermen. And making sure you left it better than you found it. And that was sort of how he approached it. But what I realized after I grew up was that it was a beautiful metaphor for life. 

Whether you’re spending time with somebody, or you’re working in a place or anything, you could apply that principle, like leave it better than you found it. And so that’s made a lasting impression on me over the years. And I watch myself picking up after people and doing things because that’s what kind of we were expected as a kid you kind of like, if I didn’t do this, why do I have to do it? But I think it’s there’s some thing about the devotion to in service to others that was ingrained in me at a very young age. So I think that advice, even though it was such a subtle piece of advice has really impacted me the way I see the world.

Rob 07:53

Yeah, that’s awesome. And that’s, I think that’s one of those great nuggets that when you say it, you know comes across as being something that is should be simple, right? Just leave it better than you found it. But in application, you have to take action, you have to remember to do it because you can take it for granted and say do I have to leave it better than I found it this time? Does that? Yeah. Does that make sense?

Azul Terronez 08:25

Yeah, for sure. Because, well, if you ply it to non tangible things, if you remove it from litter, and you put it to people’s hearts, or something like very delicate and intangible. If you walk into a place and someone’s demeanor is negative or harsh. It’s hard to put that principle in action, like how do I leave this situation better than I found it, I came to it and was really negative and heavy. 

Do I want to add to this? Or how can I leave this person who just had a negative experience? Maybe with the person ahead of me in line, for example? How can I leave their day better than I found that when I encountered them, that becomes infinitely harder because I’m an introvert. So like that takes work. And I tend to like well, I could just feel bad for them and move on. But what could I do here? 

For me in those instances, that’s where it becomes challenging in business as well. There are times when you are delivered or get received something that isn’t ideal. And your goal is so how can it make this better than when it sort of it is now for the client or for even the team members that are trying to, you know, fix or improve a situation. So that’s when that advice becomes infinitely more challenging to apply. I don’t think it’s like the golden rule in the regards, you know, which is the other part of that is to love in hard times right to give when it isn’t the easiest thing to do. Because everyone’s threshold for that experience is different.

Rob 09:54

You know, I think both the golden rule and your leaving things better than you found them are also examples of examples. Because if you’re, if you do it and you do it right, other people see it, and you don’t do it that way. Because you expect other people to see it and compliment you for and say, Oh, wow, look at Zul he is the, you know, he’s leaving things better than you found them. 

But they’re thinking, Hey, I just, I just learned something from him because he, he did something that I noticed to that person in line in front of me or to a teammate. So I think I think that’s another extension of why that kind of lesson is so valuable.

Azul Terronez 10:45

Yeah, yeah, for sure. And I think, I think that’s when your moral compass is tested. To treat people the way you want to be treated in all circumstances, not just the ones that are easy. The same thing goes with leaving something better than you arrived. Because if you arrive to a Airbnb, and it’s a mess, because the guests before it left something on done, you could complain, or you could at least notify somebody, but you could also clean it up or pick it up or do something. 

And if you see it as a joy, and as your role on this planet, you’re never feel negative about it, you feel like oh, this is my job, great opportunity to do something I really want to do, which is serve. And in our society today, and social media, and likes and downloads and clicks and all that stuff, if sometimes feel like you’re supposed to be noticed for those things, and and the truth is, I feel more inclined to do one or not notice, because I think I’m just oriented around the service part more than the gratification that comes from being noticed. But that took a while. I mean, that that starting at a young age, having that demeanor helped, because I didn’t we didn’t you know, we didn’t grow up with the Internet. So it wasn’t like anyone’s noticing us anyways. You know, very few. So yeah, I think it’s different to to apply it now, I think in in many circumstances.

Rob 12:08

Yeah. That that humbleness of doing it? Again, not because you’re trying to get something for you’re not like the guy at the US Open yesterday that had his barber come and cut his hair. You know, on court. What was? Let’s get noticed.

Azul Terronez 12:29

A little bit absurd. Yeah, exactly. That’s a great example of that.

Rob 12:35

But I also was thinking about, you know, many years ago, I worked with a fella who was well into his 70s he was the not he was not what is it when you’re no longer the chairman, chairman emeritus of the board of the company that I work for is a company that was named after his grandfather, and I was walking to a meeting with him. And he’s this proud old gentleman. And I watched him bend down and pick up, you know, a piece of paper, a small piece of paper on the floor that had fallen out of somebody’s notebook and place it in the trashcan. 

And I said, That’s awesome. I said, you really care about this place, you notice the little things? And he goes, Yeah, he goes, my mom taught that to me a long time ago, that you just pick up after yourself, and you keep things looking nice. And it’s a it’s a habit that I’ve never lost. And you know, that little simple example was maybe more like the going camping with the Boy Scouts and that he was leaving the the camp our office nicer. But it was also an example of everybody around him that a this guy who had just been a great business leader, a great leader in the community was willing to do the small things.

Azul Terronez 14:01

Absolutely, you know, and one of the things you told me when we were kind of dissecting, what you might write about was that you said everyone deserves a truest fan. And I thought that that might have been some of the best advice I think I’ve heard in recent times. Like, that was a nugget that stuck with me. 

Because no matter who you are, and you talked about rooting for the underdog, and how important that is, but in that essence is that we’re all underdogs, right? And everyone deserves that truest fan moment to feel supported, despite how you’re performing despite the record as it stands, you know, and I think that’s, that comes from a deeper place from you, as as as a leader, and, you know, you recognize that and other people. 

Ironically, before I was a teacher, I worked in television and I worked for Dick Clark for a while and one of my first times working for him, ironically, was that the American Music Awards, he had to I started it a few years before, because he was the founder of that. And my my friend and I, we worked there together. And you know, they have these big parties afterwards. And, you know, we stayed because we were part of the production team. And, you know, we were, we were probably a little bit younger than we should have been drinking, to be honest, carrying out bottles of wine, they told us, you could take this because we can’t keep this, we can send it back if you want to take it. Alright. Okay, we’re stuffing, our shirts, and our pants are polyester suits, as we’re leaving. 

And we’re walking down the stairs of the Shrine Auditorium. And one of us I don’t remember if it’s myself or my friend dropped a bottle of wine at almost nearly the top of the beautiful grand staircase and watching and thinking, please don’t break, please don’t break. And you know, it’s pretty empty. No one’s really there. But it’s, there’s a few people milling around, it goes down the bottom. And, and finally, this gentleman stops it with his foot and looks up at us. I thought, Oh, we’re in trouble. 

One we shouldn’t probably be taking this much wine into, you know, we’re dropping it. And we walked down the bottom. And it was Dick Clark, who stops you know that, you know, we’re just, you know, I don’t even he doesn’t know who we are. We’re just working for the company. And he reached down to pick it up and handed it to us. He goes, thank you for doing such a great job today. I really appreciate it didn’t say anything about the bottle of wine or will that were had our arms full of what, but just was gracious and wanted to pick up the wine and hand it to us because our hands were full. 

And I thought, what and that, to me what showed his leadership I didn’t. I didn’t know much more about his personal life. But I watched and observed how he treated us very low level people on the totem pole. And that always struck me about that didn’t take any effort or money on his part. But it took a lot of humility. And I have that stuck with me.

Rob 16:46

Right? Yeah. And I think that’s one of the things about that whole idea of everybody needs to truest fan is that, you know, sometimes you’re at this low embarrassing moment when maybe you don’t even want to be notice. But it’s it’s okay to tap on my shoulder and say, Hey, it’s okay. You know, I care about you, I get where you are. And I appreciate you. Because it’s harder to do it than than it is, you know, when you’re out on the field of play, and you just hit a home run. You know, everybody’s your truest fan. Exactly. At that point.

Azul Terronez 17:21

Yeah. And that’s, that’s the beauty. I mean, to me, I know when you were writing this book, how you parlayed this notion of your devotion to Cleveland to being the cheerleader, as you called it at the time for other people. And how important that was to that, that you should stand in that gap for somebody and how that made you feel. Important that fan hood fandom was where you felt most comfortable. And being people supporter. That’s, that’s a gift. Not all of us have that in us. And as you know, that’s for Cleveland fans, that’s really true. Because there’s true for every fan group that doesn’t have that, you know, Limelight every year, you have to be committed. And that’s true for humans, right? We’re not always hitting you know, that out of the park. And to be a fan of those times is really what your books about this really beautiful allegory about what it means the deeper faith behind this principle of being a truth fan.

Rob 18:23

Well, I appreciate your saying that. But obviously feel that way very much about you and the way that I see you going about your business and supporting the authors that you serve through authors who who lead but before we dig into that a little bit more, you know, one of one of the things that I always like to remember about truest fan is what I call lesson number four is that smiles and kind words go along way i i shouldn’t have a favorite lesson. 

But I I think that’s it, because that’s also a way to leave things better than you found them. Because when you are in a space or a place where you can have interaction with somebody and all you have inside of you is a little bit of a smile or or a hello that can make a big difference to and you may not see how that difference plays out. But it sticks. I know it has for me in situations like that and I bet it as for you.

Azul Terronez 19:34

Ya know for sure. Being a being a principal can be a thankless job, it can’t be a job where you’re thrusted into the limelight or into public eye but a lot of times you’re doing work that involves a lots of different parts of the operations. You know, it doesn’t take much to smile and talk to the custodial staff about their day. How’s your daughter How’s college going? You know? But so many people walk by them, and don’t notice the people don’t notice, because their role doesn’t seem as significant as their role that they have. I think smiling is like the most powerful tool I think humans can have. 

And the things that make me smile is, are simple. They’re not. They’re not the big milestones in life, actually. It’s when I remember, oh, my gosh, I’m alive today. This is amazing. Like, so many people didn’t wake up today, like incredible. And when people say cash, your smile, you’re just smiling, you must be really happy. Something good happened. Like, actually, yeah, this is the best day of my life. We were like, What do you mean, the best day of your life like, this is the only day I have I don’t know, if I’ll get another and yesterday is gone. So like, this is the best day of my life. That’s a beautiful, infectious feeling when you see someone living like that. So I think I think that the blessing of a smile is yeah,

Rob 20:57

it’s it’s sort of the idea of waking up happy, right? If you wake up happy with a smile on your face, you just, there’s a much better chance of you having the kind of day that you want to have and as you go about your business, you’re gonna probably let that infect other people, you know, which I think is really a powerful thing.

Azul Terronez 21:18

Yeah. 100% I agree with that so much. I’m glad that’s one of your favorite chapters, for sure.

Rob 21:53

Yeah, so. So tell us a little bit about writing a book, I get lots of questions about it, from my clients and from other others that I run into that talk about the different things that I’ve done, or I’ve helped my clients with, and in writing a book is just one of probably one of those top five things that that people say they want to do, but they just don’t have it in them.

Azul Terronez 22:21

Yeah. You know, writing a book is unlike any other creative endeavor I’ve experienced, even from people who are creators regularly, for example, people that I’ve worked for, like Pat Flynn of the Smart Passive Income blog, and podcast has created millions of words to his podcasts and his blog. 

And I’ve helped YouTubers who have huge followings, who can create content that blows your mind. But then when it comes to writing a book feel like they’re frozen, like, they just don’t know what to do next. And I think the biggest mistake that people make is thinking that if I get the outline off, be able to write the book. And logically that makes sense. I’m not saying don’t have an outline. 

But what I’ve noticed and observed when I coach people is that the outline becomes so intimidating because they think, Oh, my gosh, how am I ever going to write all this? How do I know if this is the right thing, just putting an outline together. And the truth is, you don’t know if that’s the thing. Outlines don’t necessarily solve that problem. So that’s why people get stuck. So one of the things I try to encourage authors to do is just discover yourself through your writing. Think on the page, not in your head, a lot of people want to think the book perfectly and spit it out. 

So it looks perfect. I’m like, Well, that’s the whole books are born. Their births, and then they get reshaped and reformed. And books really are created during the rewriting process. As you discovered more than it is on the writing process. The writing process is the initial, as I call it, the lump of clay on the potter’s wheel. Without the lump of clay, it’s hard to try to shape a vase, ideally in your mind, and then just take clay and like throw it on the potter’s wheel to shape it to a face, you really just need a lump of clay first. 

And most people don’t like the idea of their messy, ugly draft because they want it to look good, and they don’t want to wrestle with it. And that’s a lot of training from schools like what I used to do for kids before I knew better, which was make them work really hard at becoming editors before I let them be writers before I let them discover what they have to say in the world. And tuning into their most unique aspect. Your unique aspect was the fact how devoted you were to Cleveland. Your Genius is in your service service to being a fan. 

That’s amazing. You do it in lots of areas for your church community, for the people you serve in your local community. That’s one of the things you shine but it’s so easy to focus on what you know and what you’re good at versus who you are in your core. And I think so people think that it books about your knowledge it is but it’s your knowledge through the lens of how you see the world But, and so that’s why it becomes really complicated. 

It’s not hard. It’s one word after the other but, but your brain gets so focused on this being, quote, good, that you almost can’t produce anything. So that’s, that’s one of the challenges of book writing. And I try to help people let go of the attachment to everything so that they can just discover firsts. And that’s, that’s really, one of the hardest parts about writing a book is find out what’s your message.

Rob 25:24

And I have to admit, through the process that we went through, that was the part that probably scared me the most, because you just had to convince me that, hey, there was something out there. I mean, I had this rough idea of what I wanted to do even the type of book that I wanted to write. 

But it just took the competence of knowing that if you really spend time dreaming and thinking about what’s really on your heart, and what you’re trying to get after, and then just kind of start writing, not not feeling like, you’ve got to write the book in order. I know I’ve talked with people before, who’ve got great outline. So I’ve got I know, I’d be great at writing a book because I have an outline. And I said, Well, why do you only have an outline? To go? Well, I haven’t gotten time for it yet. And, and maybe that’s part of it. But I’m sure you see that all the time.

Azul Terronez 26:22

Oh, yeah. I mean, I wish I could say that I was immune to that thing. I wish I could. But whenever I tell myself a story about why I’m not writing, then I know, I’m lying to myself. Whenever there’s a story, they vary, I am writing or I’m not writing everything else in between as a story. And if you don’t get attached to the words, you realize I can write bad words, whatever, in your mind is bad, like not good. 

Not I don’t want people to see this words. But words, words are a tool, I say books aren’t really aren’t words, they’re messages that are contained in words. Because the truest fan is something you live out. The true span is something that’s a principle, to deeper understanding, that’s a message that’s a really worthy message. The words are what you’re trying to wrestle with, so that people can understand it when they’re not with you. 

Because if you will observe you, Rob Brown and watch your life, you’ll see that come to life. But to paint it into a picture where other people can interpret it. That’s why words are a tool, but the message is already in itself a valuable asset. And I try to convince people this, like your message is more important than the words that will hold it. And they’re like, no, no, if I get these words, I get this outline, it’d be great. I’m like, I like to TED X sort of topic of like ideas were spreading books or ideas were spreading to they’re just not in this on the stage, they’re in words on the page. But if it’s not worthy of spreading as an idea of what adding words to it won’t make it better. It’s something that takes time to wrestle with.

Rob 28:02

And as you were talking about that, I was also thinking about the fact of how tricky words can be, you know, you think about that, relative to writing a book writing 2030 40,000 words. But I run into plenty of people who were just trying to help them with a simple two or three sentence, elevator pitch or, or value statement. And, you know, it takes if you don’t allow yourself to just, you know, pull from your heart and what you really believe about what you’re doing, and you try to edit before you write those three sentences can be just as hard as the 30,000. words in the book

Azul Terronez 28:45

100% agree with you. And that that’s exactly right. And I think what you said is like when you start to edit, when you’re creating, that’s when the problem begins. And most of us were trained to be editors, not writers. And what I mean by that is, in school, you’re given an assignment by a teacher, by a professor. Here’s the deadline. Here’s the rubric or the sort of the plan, here’s what the grading system is. 

Your job is to write for that purpose, like how do I edit this to meet the needs of the teacher to make this, pass the class, get the grade, I want, etc. Most of us didn’t do much writing that wasn’t from a sign from somebody else. So we ended up editing before we start even writing because that’s our, that’s our default. And that’s actually really difficult. When you’re trying to be a creator. 

A creator is creating new ideas, new relevant topics. That takes that’s a creative process. That process is not the same as editing editing is like judging, deciding if it’s good or bad, getting rid of it, two different halves of your brain. So if you think you’re going to edit and write at the same time, you’re going to end up taking one a lot longer, and two parts Probably editing out some really good stuff because you’re judging yourself too soon. Oh, this isn’t good. 

They’re not going to like that. Like all that stuff you take out Oh, that’s a good story. But no, that’s embarrassing or whatever it is the vulnerability factor starts to go out the window and you write a very technical how to book which is not necessary anymore. We don’t need very many how tos. I know as a kid, I want to learn ventriloquism, I rode my bike six miles to the public library to check out a book on ventriloquism because there was no other way to learn unless you knew it ventriloquists. 

Now I could click on my phone, right? We don’t need as much how to, because we’re drowning in information now. Now, we need a reason to do it. Pay attention to trust, what is this? And why do I care? More of a book, these days that are impactful, or those kinds of conversations? And that doesn’t take knowledge alone, it takes your own unique perspective.

Rob 30:51

Yeah, that’s, that’s awesome. That’s awesome. I really think those are really important words for folks to reflect on, who are thinking about writing a book, because my advice to most people that I run into, say, because they know that I’ve written a couple of books, why should I write a book? I said, Well, yes. 

There’s there’s Yes, and, and, and, even if it’s just something that you write, because you want to create some sort of, you know, memoirs, share, you know, your, your, your story with future generations of your family, and, and, and then and then to start writing it. Not worrying about who’s going to read it next, like when you’re writing that book. You know, don’t don’t write like, you know, 30,000 people are looking over your shoulder reading right behind you. And when a correct, you know, every word or question every idea, just right to write write for your self, and then that, that that message really pours out.

Azul Terronez 31:54

Yeah, and keep, if it’s hard writing yourself, keep one person in mind, I think you did a good job of having an ideal reader in mind. That helps, because you’re only talking about one person, like, it’s a letter to them like this is for you, I’m writing to you. And when someone when you read a book, you feel like they get you and they they really understand you, you feel less you feel hurt, you feel like this is my person, and then they start following you wanting to know more about you, your programs, your business, and at the very least, their life shifted or changed your perspective. Because most people overstep books with information and they realize, too late that they could have been two or three books. 

But the truth is, if you can get someone to just look in a different direction they were paying attention to, they just might transform their entire life. If you ask them to get up and round dance test floor, like you’re asking too much of them, they’re not going to do it. One, you’re competing with every other thing in their life. 

But to Who are you to tell them to turn 180 degrees, maybe just offer them another way of looking at the world. That can be really powerful. And like you said, maybe you’re writing a book to just leave a legacy, or to speak your piece. I had one woman, beautiful, lovely woman that I worked with on her book. 

She’s very devout in our Christian faith. She’s had immigrated from Southeast Asia with her family and her was brought up by a very religious family in India. But one of the challenges of her faith was she had some really challenging times with the people she should trust in her faith and some issues around, you know, incest that was really difficult for her to write, because she didn’t want to smear the faith that she had believed still believes in to this day. 

But she wanted her daughter to understand why things were so hard, why she fled her home, and left her behind until she could get settled in the US. That was a challenging thing to write. But she wrote it because she wanted her family to understand her. And it was her mission wasn’t to sell million books was just to be able to share her truth with her family and be able to say that she wouldn’t under a pen name, she still wanted to protect her family’s background. But she ended up passing away. 

And that was some difficult times. But her daughter reached out and said, You know, I just want you to let you know that this is one of the biggest goals in her life. And the last few years that she wrote this book, we became closer. And I just want you to know how impactful it was. And to me, that’s what a powerful purpose for a book. It doesn’t always have to be to sell or build businesses, it could be simply for that purpose. And it’s probably one of the books that will be on my heart forever just because of that powerful impact it had on her and her family.

Rob 34:40

Yeah, it doesn’t take a lot of people it’s kind of like being a truce fan for everybody. You’re going to have that impact maybe small in terms of the scope of people, because we want to count numbers we’re gonna count likes or followers or whatever. But deep in terms of somebody saying, you know, I read those words, and that that really made a difference to me, it reminded me of something that I’ve long since forgotten, or something that I wish I had learned years ago. And, and that’s just, that’s just an amazing thing. And I think writing a book is one of the few ways that you can accomplish that.

Azul Terronez 35:24

Yeah, one of my friends how Elrod who wrote the book, The Miracle Morning, was talking to a group of people about his book journey. And it was a self published book. And people you know, it’s one of the most successful self hosts books on Amazon has ever had. But the truth about it was it was kind of quiet and didn’t have much traction for almost five years. He just was persistent about the belief and the messages of this miracle morning principles, because it really changed his life. And I think too many authors give up too soon on their message, because they think well, no one’s buying and, and they don’t give it its attention. When I tell authors, writing a book is maybe like an event. 

But once it’s birthed into the world, it’s, it’s it’s alive, you don’t just celebrate your child’s birthday. And then that’s it, you have to nurture them all the time and in between and afterwards. And that’s kind of what books are, you can’t just give up on it. Because the first three months, you only sold so many. 

So now you’re moving on a book has a life, if you nurture it, it will continue to grow, especially if the message matters to you. So I encourage anyone who has a book who’s not doing as well, with that might just take some tweaking some improving more than likely the author just got tired of their own message. And you can’t you have to care more than than the reader. Because if you don’t care, how to expect the readers to

Rob 36:44

Yeah, some other great advice. Because I know in my book writing journey, there have been some a lot of highs, and I would, I am forever grateful that I took the time to do that and had your help. But there have also been some times since then, where I haven’t been able to give it the attention deserved it was something that was beyond my control, but it was still there. And it just it just gnaws at me every day, because I just I really believe that that whole message is being so important. So again, something that a book allows you to do is to share what you really believe and feel in a way that you can proactively change the world even if it’s just one person at a time. So remember, you are Go ahead, I’m sorry,

Azul Terronez 37:31

all the thing you remember, it’s new for the person who hasn’t heard of you every time you talk. It’s just not new to you.

Rob 37:37

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, that’s I again, it’s funny, because something starts to get a little bit of a John Oh, everybody saw that, right. But if you’ve, you know, if you’ve ever, you know, pay close attention to some of like, your favorite weekly emails that you get from, you know, from one of your favorite marketers or whoever, you start to notice that they use some of the same emails over again, because they’re just really good messages. And not everybody remembers them. And sometimes people didn’t see them because they do delete and all that other kind of stuff. Yeah. True. 

All right, well, we have gone a little bit over time, but it’s been well worthwhile. It’s been so fun, both listening, you talk about this idea of leaving things better than you found them, and how that really makes a huge difference in our lives. And lots of things, the way that you impact your family, the way you impact your team, your clients, and just just the world around you that just one little simple piece of advice that can last a lifetime. So as we close here, I just want to remind people about that, because we got into talking about the book process, which is also an incredibly important thing to be thinking about. But with that last or second point in mind, what’s the best way for somebody to get to know you and maybe begin exploring the idea of writing a book? I’m sure you’d, you’d love to help?

Azul Terronez 39:07

Yeah, well, thank you for asking. If you go to authors who lead.com That’s probably the best place to connect with me. There’s our podcasts by the same name authors who lead because you can hear from authors like yourself, people who have big publishing deals, people who have never written a book in their life, young 14 year olds who’ve written books, it’s just really interesting to hear behind the scenes and kind of learn from them. 

Learn from people like you about what it’s really like to write a book versus what, what people say, because I think that’s there’s a difference sometimes. So, yeah, if you go to authors who lead.com That probably the best way to connect.

Rob 39:41

Okay, awesome. Well, we’ll definitely be sure to put that in the show notes. And I’ll even put a separate link into the episode that I did on your podcast because I think, actually maybe the first podcast on which I was ever a guest, which maybe is part of the reason that I’m doing a podcast I just I owe everything to you

Azul Terronez 40:01

That’s very generous. I think I could do it the other way round. I think so many people owe who they are to you. So it’s great to be able to serve you in that way.

Rob 40:09

Yeah, well, let’s not have too much of a mutual admiration society. Just go on about our lives being a truce fans of each other and those that that we encounter. So any any final words, any last pieces of advice you’d like to give to the audience thinking about what we’ve talked about today?

Azul Terronez 40:29

Yeah, if you’re thinking about writing a book, do it. There’s no better time. You’ll never be less busy. I know you think you will. You’ll never have more time. But I think everyone’s message is worthy to be heard. And I really hope that everyone does it because it will make a difference in their lives and hopefully the lives of their readers.

Rob 40:50

Absolutely. I think that is that is great advice to end this because that is certainly something that I share anytime somebody says should I write a book say yes. No, no. All right. Well, that’s all thank you so much for being a guest on the podcast today. I wish you nothing but the best and all you do. We’ll talk soon.

Azul Terronez 41:11

Thank you so much.