Breaking Through Mental Barriers for Success (w/ Bryon Morrison)

On this episode of The Author Factor Podcast  I am having a conversation with high-performance coach and author, Byron Morrison.

Byron is the author of 3 best-selling books and over the last decade he has worked with CEOs, entrepreneurs and leaders in 15 different countries to help them take back control of their life and business.

Byron specializes in working with individuals who are facing obstacles in achieving their desired success. He understands this firsthand, as he once struggled with getting in his own head and making decisions out of fear, hindering his own success.

When he turned to mindset psychology to understand and make changes, he became a more effective leader, prompting him to pivot his business to help other struggling CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business leaders do the same. Now, his goal is to help others overcome their own stumbling blocks and reach their fullest potential.

Everything he’s done has built up to his new book Maybe you should give up - 7 Ways to Get Out of Your Own Way and Take Control of Your Life.

Learn more about Byron by visiting ByronMorrison.com.

For more details about our short, helpful book publishing program, visit BiteSizedBooks.com.

Transcript

Mike Capuzzi [00:00:00]:

Welcome to another profitable episode of The Author Factor Podcast. I'm Mike Capuzzi and I want to thank you for joining us. My guest today is Byron Morrison. Byron is the author of three bestselling books and over the last decade he has worked with CEOs, entrepreneurs and leaders in 15 different countries to help them take back control over their life and business. Everything he has done has built up to his new book, Maybe You Should Give Up Seven Ways to Get Out of Your Own Way and Take Control of Your Life, which will be available this coming June. Byron. Welcome to The Author Factor Podcast.

Byron Morrison [00:00:35]:

Hey, thanks for having me on. I'm excited to be here.

Mike Capuzzi [00:00:38]:

Well, listen, Byron, we and I were just getting to know each other and it's pretty amazing what you've done over the last seven or eight years. Multi bestselling Book Author but before we get in and talk about your book author journey, I'd love to hear a bit more about who you serve in your business and how you serve them.

Byron Morrison [00:00:57]:

Yeah, so primarily I work with people who, to be honest, are getting in their own way. Like if I go back to when I started my business, I was at a point where as the company was growing and scaling, I would just get stuck in my own head. I'd overthink, I would second guess myself, I would make decisions based out of fear. And all of this stopped me from creating the success I wanted. It was only when I really started diving into the mindset psychology to understand why I was actually getting my way here that I figured out that was the biggest stumbling block in my way own success. And that was why it was only once I really started making changes in my own life to start showing up as a more effective leader. That naturally the pivot for my business was working with other CEOs, entrepreneurs and business leaders who were struggling to do the same thing, who knew that they wanted to get to that next level of success, but something was getting in the way.

Mike Capuzzi [00:01:45]:

Yeah. And I would venture to say, and I don't know what your thought is on this, but I've got to believe it's, a lot of people have that, right? I mean, I would think a lot of people have some sort of block that's keeping them from getting to that next level when they know they have everything that it takes to get there. Has that kind of been your experience?

Byron Morrison [00:02:06]:

This is something that I've seen across the board. It's the biggest barrier in the way of most people's success. Because if I go back to when I first started my first company where I was doing with a lot of health and weight loss coaching and focusing on people who live like happier lives, the I was working with people from across the board. Whether it was business owners to stay at home mothers to kind of corporate professionals who wanted to get their health on track. And I saw time and time again, people who knew what they needed to do, but they weren't doing it. And that's why, even though from a business standpoint, we've narrowed down into the CEO and business leader world, because I've had such a range of experience working with people in 15 countries, it's allowed me to see how much we can be our own worst enemies. It's not just something that is related to one group of people. It's universally a challenge I think every single one of us faces.

Mike Capuzzi [00:02:51]:

Yeah, for sure. So you were saying that the new book, Maybe You Should Give Up is more of a mainstream book. Can you tell me a bit more about why you decide to write this book?
Byron Morrison [00:03:01]:

Yeah, so this book, I've essentially taken everything that I've learned over the last decade of helping people really get out their own way. And I wanted to pass on the seven big areas that I discovered are causing people to sabotage themselves. So the reason we wanted to go more of a mainstream is I wanted to do something that was going to create a bigger impact. I was like, how can I do something that's really going to have a positive influence on the world and help as many people as possible? People who I'm not normally going to be able to help with my coaching or other work that I'm doing. And that's why this book was all about empowerment. It was about helping people take what I learned, what I've discovered from helping people in so many different areas and give people the tools they need to really, actually get out of their own head so they can take control of the life they want.

Mike Capuzzi [00:03:42]:

So I'm going to ask you, Byron, to share some tips from the book, just to entice our listeners to go grab a copy. But I'm very intrigued by the title first. All of it's a great cover design. I told you that when I went, you were kind enough to send me a digital copy. Tell me. Maybe you should give up. What are you trying to say there? And then, if you don't mind, share a couple of tips from the book.

Byron Morrison [00:04:03]:

Yeah, sure. So the whole reason why the book is called Maybe You Should Give Up is it's counterintuitive. Because when it comes to self-help or personal development, everyone thinks that never quit, keep pushing. But what I found from working with so many different people is that actually we've all got seven different mental blocks that we hold onto that stop us from getting the life that we want. And that's why the book is not about giving up on your goals and dreams. It's about getting you to give up on everything that's holding you back from actually achieving them. Whether that's being controlled by fear, comparing yourself to others, being too hard on yourself or even putting off your happiness. It's about breaking through those mental barriers so that you can take control of the life that you want. So ultimately, it's about empowerment and positivity and getting people to a point where they can live a happy life. So as for a few tips, one of the biggest reasons I found that most people don't achieve their goals is they focus too much on what they want, and they don't figure out who they need to become to make it happen. And the reason why this is so important is every new level of success requires a new level of you. Which is why your current habits, your behaviors, your way of doing things that got you to where you are isn't going to get you to the next level. And that's why if you actually want to break through, you need to give up on your current way of doing things and instead figure out who it is you need to become. Who's the version of you that's turned their goals into a reality? Because if you can get a mental image right now of yourself in the future, living the life that you want, you can ask yourself, like, what did that person do to make it happen? What habits did they develop? What routines did they create? What non-negotiables did they take on that's going to allow you to create a roadmap of what you need to start doing in order to actually create the life that you want? Knowing that, though, is not enough. What you then need to start doing is pushing yourself to show up as that person in everything that you do. This part of the reason people stay stuck is they rely on motivation or discipline or willpower, which just doesn't work. And that's why whenever you're faced with something that you need to follow through with, ask yourself, what would the person I want to become do right now? Would they make excuses? Would they put it off? Or would they push themselves to take action? Because when you start making decisions based on the person you want to become, that's how you'll start embodying that new identity. And that's how, over time, you're evolving to that next level version of yourself.

Mike Capuzzi [00:06:16]:

I love it. And do you find Byron in your own experience? And again, this book, just to remind everybody, this is a book for everybody, correct. Not just CEOs and business owners?

Byron Morrison [00:06:25]:

Correct? Yeah. This book, I wanted to do something I was really much thinking about what did I need to hear when I was 25 and I was feeling stuck at a point in my life. But then as I was going through it, I saw that the lessons were transferable. Whether it's a young entrepreneur, a CEO running a billion-dollar company like a mother staying at home looking after kids, we all have doubts and fears. We all second guess ourselves. We all compare ourselves to others or worry about problems that haven't happened yet. These are universal mental blocks that every single person deals with in one way or another. And that's why I found that we all need to overcome them if we actually want to move forward with our life.

Mike Capuzzi [00:07:03]:

So I'm interested in just kind of ask you a left field question here. In your experience though I mean a lot of folks get energized. They'll read the book and they'll get energized but how do they sustain that? How do they actually sustain what it takes to become that person they want? Aside from the initial excitement that the book will generate in your experience is it working with a coach? How do they accountability partner? I would think people start off strong. I'm in the book publishing business so I know they get all excited by their book and then when their book is done is when they sort of start getting lazy with the marketing. For example. In your world how do people sustain that and become that person?

Byron Morrison [00:07:43]:

They want coaching and accountability. All things are fantastic and can make the journey easier. But in my experience the way that you actually sustain your results is creating an identity shift where you start developing the right routines and habits and behaviors. Because that's why with this book I wanted to do something different. I just didn't just want it to be some motivational thing that someone hears. They get inspired for a few days and then just falls off track. And I found time and time again the way that someone sustains results is by changing at a foundational level the way that they do things. It's figuring out okay what are the habits, the behaviors? Developing the right routines really letting go of everything that's keeping them stuck in their current way of operating and starting to introduce these new behaviors. Because when you have that new foundation in place and then you get out of your own head you break through the fears and the doubts and the reasons not to do it. That's how it's actually sustainable. And this is why for me it's not about getting someone results for 90 days. It's all about the testament to whether or not it works is are they still sticking to it five years from now? And that's why I went back to the journey I went through as someone who struggled with this weight who struggled with confidence and really was not a good point of his life. I was like what worked for me to get to a point there a decade later I'm still sustaining it. How did I keep off over 50 pounds? How did I get out of that kind of negative mindset? I really had to figure out how do I pass it on to others to do the same thing?

Mike Capuzzi [00:09:07]:

And the proofs in the pudding because your previous three books are all bestsellers and you were sharing as we were getting to know each other before we hit record, you have some very lofty goals with the marketing of this book. Now, just for everyone's information, all of your books have been published. These aren't self published books, right?

Byron Morrison [00:09:25]:

My first books were all self published. This one's okay. This one's?

Mike Capuzzi [00:09:29]:

Publisher. Very good. All right. Very good. So if you don't mind, Byron, because I was impressed by the goals that you have for the new book, the one that's coming out this June, can you share a little bit more about what your goals are? And I think what would be very instructional for our listeners is what you're doing today, what you probably have done for the last several months to get ready for essentially this big book launch.

Byron Morrison [00:09:55]:

Yes. So the way I'm seeing that my career and business are going is I wanted to use this book as a stepping stone to launch my speaking career. If you look at someone like a Gary Vaynerchuk or Brendon Burchard, like the Jay Shetty, like the big names who are speaking around the world, impacting millions of people. That's where I see myself going next. But in order to do that, I knew that the book couldn't just be a self published, like, sell a few hundred copies. We'd need to have hit at least The Wall Street Journal, potentially New York Times in order to position me as a thought leader to jump up to that level. So, as you know, that is not an easy endeavor. So this is something that my background is marketing. And after selling so many books of my other kind of books that I've done, I could sit down and be like, okay, what do I actually need to make this happen? So it started last November, and I put down a holistic approach plan, hitting it from various different angles. So angle number one was my current audience. Most of my audience is on LinkedIn. I also sold quite a lot of books from my previous books. I had a decent sized email list, but that alone wasn't going to make a big enough dent. So I've also spent since November a tremendous amount of time building out Instagram and TikTok, as well as platforms to reach more people. From an influencer standpoint, I also hide an assistant who's absolutely crushed it. So she's been looking at Pinterest, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Facebook reach out to influencers. She's got over 200 people who said that they want to share the book with their audience. I've also spent more time than I want to think about reaching out to YouTubers and book review blogs and all the time at this point, I've posted out about 100 books. I've sent out a ton of eBooks just to people to get them to review it and share it with their audience. I also have another assistant who's been booking me on podcast, so she's booked me on about 60 or 70 shows at this point. And then I've also taken a substantial kind of amount out of the business I'm using for marketing. So that's going to be putting money into Facebook ads, Amazon ads, BookBub ads, and a few other various different sources to then drive sales week one as well. So that's just like hairbirds eye overview of what we've been doing. But it's been a lot.

Mike Capuzzi [00:12:08]:

Yeah, I mean, for the goals that you have, that's why I want you to share it. Because for the goals that you have and they're admirable goals, and you're absolutely right. All this investment of time, energy, money that you're doing now for that future self of you because you're still continuing to evolve, I think that's very cool. This is what it takes. And it sounds like, Byron, that with all that you're doing that you should definitely be able to hit. I know it's never simple and there's no slam dunk, but it sounds like you've got a really solid plan in place.
Byron Morrison [00:12:40]:

Yeah, I'm happy to share because I've had that question asked from my clients because even though I don't work with people writing books, like working with leaders, like a lot of them want to write a book and they've been asking me out the process. So I'm happy to share behind the scenes because I don't think most people realize how much actually goes into it. Which now that I've just said all that out loud, it's pretty insane to think. And we're still about 75 days from launch, so it's still a lot to be done.

Mike Capuzzi [00:13:04]:

Yeah. And what is the target? The time frame is it has to be one week in June or that time frame, is it just the one week measurement? Yes, that's the important.

Byron Morrison [00:13:16]:

So Wall Street Journal, you can hit any time, but for New York Times it's got to be the first week. So that's why we're doing a big push week. They track it from Monday to Sunday. So the books coming out on the Tuesday, they factor in all pre orders and then basically whatever you sell, we sell between Tuesday and Sunday is what they'll tally up. I think Wall Street Journal, you've got to hit about 3800 sales to hit the list. New York Times could be anything from 5000, but as you know, that's done by committee, so you could sell 20,000, but if they don't like the book, they may not include you. So that one's like there's no way of certainty to do it, but Wall Street Journal, as long as you hit the numbers, you'll make the list.

Mike Capuzzi [00:13:55]:

Yeah, well, listen, good luck with that. And again, I don't think I've heard had anybody on my podcast that has built such an extensive book launch. I did have another gentleman who was a New York Times bestseller. He sold about a half a million copies of his book when it came out, but it was the kind of book that people, consumers were very interested in. So it was a very timely sort of book. That's how and he didn't even try. He didn't even know what he was doing. He just published the book and it just took off very organically. But yeah. So I wish you the best of luck with that. So, Byron, when it comes to the fact that you've published already three books, this is now your fourth book. I'd love to hear from your experience, either a word of warning or something that you would want to warn our listeners about or just acknowledge that something that you've learned that you wouldn't even do if you yet do another book, or maybe you didn't do it with this book. Any mistakes made or just something that someone would find helpful as they're on their book journey?
Byron Morrison [00:15:00]:

Yeah, I think it's just being realistic on what it's going to take. Because for every single one of my books, what I found is and I've got better at just judging this now, but it's probably going to take you out five times longer than you anticipate. So you've really got to give yourself the time. Because when you factor in, it's not just the writing, it's the editing, it's going through and kind of rewrite working everything, it's really going to be a much bigger project that you anticipate. So I think that a lot of people get in their own way because they think that it's going to be a lot quicker, and then they get frustrated and stressed and overwhelmed. So that'll be the first pattern then also just factoring in what you actually need to include. Because my first book, I had no clue what I was doing. I was still in a corporate job. I wanted to pass on everything I learned about nutrition and health. And it basically became like an encyclopedia. And it took me nearly two years to write. And in hindsight, that should have been three different books. But because I didn't know what I was doing and I was very young and naive, it was just disjointed. Luckily, I got great feedback and reviews and it's done really well, but I definitely wouldn't have done it in the same way. It's like, if you look at my new book, maybe you should give up. It's like a third of the size of my first book because a lot of people aren't just going to read something that thick. So it's like going for what message do you want to get across and how do you do it in a way that connects with your reader that they're actually going to consume it and also just having a realistic timeline for what it's going to take to put that into reality?

Mike Capuzzi [00:16:26]:

Yeah, well, you're singing my song. Because all we publish for our clients are we call them short, helpful books. They're books that are about a one to two hour read. They're real books like yours, but they're specifically designed to be shorter. And I always say instead of writing a 300 page book, write 3100 page books. For a lot of folks readers, they just appreciate that content. The shorter content, they appreciate the fact that they can read it and not get bogged. I'm reading a book right now. It's written by a medical doctor. Really interesting book. I bought it on Kindle, so it's a little harder to know how far along. I have been reading it for weeks now. And I look down, I'm like only 50% way of the way through it. I'm like, oh my gosh. So it's probably a 500 page book.

Byron Morrison [00:17:10]:

But anyway, the interesting thing there is just think as a reader, because it's like exactly what you did Mike, when I wrote this. This book is 150 pages you can read in under 2 hours. Because the reality is most people don't finish books the start them and just never get all the way through. Whereas if you do it a manageable length. People can think, oh, I can get through this, it's not that much further to go. Whereas when it's like double the size, it just seems daunty and overwhelming because ultimately you want someone to consume all the content.

Mike Capuzzi [00:17:37]:

I agree 100%. I just got a book as a gift from another author. Sent it to me as a gift. I don't have it next to me right now, but it's probably 400 pages. It looks awesome, but I don't know when the heck I'm going to read that book. It was heavy, but again, I definitely agree, and I'd love to hear how your book launch goes. So Byron, as we get ready to wrap up here, you are a multi book author, bestselling book author, and soon to be big time best-selling book author. I'd love to hear what it has meant to you being a book author about the impact that's made either for you, for the people that you're impacting. I just would love to hear from your own words what being a book author has meant for me.

Byron Morrison [00:18:24]:

It's just surreal just knowing that there's people around the world reading the books and just having it just always means so much when I have people popping up on LinkedIn. Just being like, your books helped me in such a positive way and it's meant so much. I had one guy recently, he's read one of my books. He messaged me saying it's helped him free up 20 hours a week in his business. And it's just like people you otherwise never wouldn't even know that you're helping. And I just get like random messages all the time. Like someone sent me a picture the other day. He was sat at his daughter's swimming lesson just reading a copy of my book and he sent like a picture. And it's absolutely crazy to think it's a platform in a way that you can reach people so far and wide in so many different countries with a positive message that makes their life better. And that, for me, is why I wanted to start writing books. It was like, you know what? I've gone through these challenges. I want to find a way that I can help others do the same. And that's always been the goal with every book. And I think from an author's standpoint, it's just having that fulfillment of knowing that you're just helping people in ways that you sometimes can't even comprehend.

Mike Capuzzi [00:19:25]:

Well, Byron, congratulations on the success to date and obviously in the future success. How can our listeners learn more about you and where do you want them to go?

Byron Morrison [00:19:34]:

Buy your book so you can order my new book? Maybe you should give up any way you can get books. It's available for preorder. Now, whether it's Amazon Bands and Noble Waterstones. You can also find out more about me at Byron Morrison.com, and I'm also active on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Just search for author Byron Morrison. I put out a ton of content and videos and thought leadership on how to really take control of your life.

Mike Capuzzi [00:19:59]:

Well, Byron, thank you very much. And again, best of luck with the new book launch.

Byron Morrison [00:20:03]:

Thank you.