The Power of Storytelling in Leadership & Legacy with Karen Strauss | 005

Every time that I have said yes, it works out and and that's how I run my company. That's how I run my life in the sense of yes, that opportunity may scare me half to death. Running my own event scared me half to death. But doing things as my business coach says, Be comfortable. Get comfortable with the uncomfortable.

Hello. Today on Leading with Purpose. I am honored to welcome my dear friend Karen Strauss, founder of Hybrid Global Publishing, and a true visionary in the world of publishing with decades of experience helping authors bring their stories to life, Karen has been instrumental in turning ideas into best selling books, including our soulful leadership anthology with three best selling books, our number one bestsellers on Amazon. Her passion lies in creating lasting impact through the written word. I'm excited to dive into her journey the evolutionary publishing and the legacy of storytelling and leadership. Hello, Karen, welcome.

Hi Mark. It's wonderful to be here. Thank you. My

pleasure. It's interesting because we've been on this journey for quite some time, and I'm excited to dive into the journey that we've had, but also like your journey in publishing, but I think it's important to start off with, why is this such a passion for you? Like, what is it about the written word and having people get their message out to the world that's so important for you? How

much time have you got?

Let's hit the highlights.

I'll hit the highlights, but my love of reading and books really stem from my childhood and my relationship with my father. It was our bonding, you know, bedtime reading, so on and so forth. And so I always kind of associated that with pleasure and fun and squeals of laughter and so on and so forth. So I always, always loved reading in books. And then English became my favorite subject, etc, etc, and, and then what happened was, you know, how do I get to the love of reading to really finding my purpose? And that really stemmed from, I finally put it together where I always felt, even as a child, that my voice was muted. I had two older brothers, and, you know, I was the loud mouth of the family, if you will, and I was always kind of told to chill, to calm down a little bit, and throughout school and then. And then, when I worked in corporate, it was more like, you know, I the voices my I felt my voice as well as other female voices were really being muted and and so when I decided it was time to start hybrid global I really felt that a real big reason for me to start this company was to give, to give support and help, particularly women men too, but anyone Whose voice needs to be heard and amplified, and so that is like a standing ovation to me, because I'm a theater kid and and every time I do a book and it gets out in the world, I'm like a proud mama. I'm just so amazed by by the authors that go out into the world and really make an impact and really, really have their voice move out into the world. Messages are heard by a lot of other people.

Well, yeah, I mean, just from the soulful leadership anthology, from the three different books that we published there, that some 80 plus authors, and I always say over 100 but is it 120 books that you've published?

authors, right, within over 120 books that are all well,

I published way more than that. I don't know the the math, but I published probably at least 300 books at this point, so So I don't count every anthology as like a single author got it, yeah. But

again, in that position, you've given many, many leaders a platform to share their stories. And how does storytelling play a role in leadership, and why is it so crucial for being able to create a lasting legacy? So

storytelling is critical, because without storytelling, you just have these kind of Troy facts, and so anybody can put out a program or. Or, you know, just, just the facts, informational type of a book, informational, exactly right? Informational, information. But it doesn't, it doesn't bond you to somebody else. Do you know somebody else? If you're telling a story, if I'm telling my story, I want you're going to the idea is, I want to pull you in so that you get to know me better, right? And to see if we're aligned. And with storytelling, you get to open up a whole wide world of of, of things. It's you go past the, you know, the the transactional, right? The transactions, so to speak, and you you open up a whole new world to people. And when you're telling a story, then you also open up another person to say, Yeah, you know, the same thing happened to me. I can totally relate to what you're saying. And so it's a way of connecting people. It's so important whether you're writing, obviously in fiction, but in non fiction, to tie it together. You know, to put your voice out into the world, I have to know who you are, who you're aligned. You know how you're aligned, what your purpose is, what is your passion. All of those things will come out when you're telling me a story. I love

that because, again, you're talking primarily of authors that are all experts in their field, and so it'd be very easy to share the information and their processes and all of that stuff that just can be really, really easy, but it's diving into the the stories that got them there that really people connect to. I think that's what I heard you saying, is one, it creates this deep connection, and people can relate to you, and we know that people want to invest in people they know, like and trust. And so it sounds like the storytelling builds the connection so that then you can listen to the information that they have to share, right?

And so I had an old, just a quote, an old mentor of mine. Um, he used to say, and we would do, like writing workshops, and he'd say to everybody there, no one cares about your story. And everybody would go, what, wait, what? What are you talking about? And the the, basically, I had to do the translation. So the translation was, maybe nobody cares about what I ate for breakfast this morning or, you know, but they might care that I had breast cancer. And because how many millions of women have gone through this and their families, right? And so they might care about about my story in its larger sense. And so if someone else feels that connection with you because of a story that you told, and can relate to your story, then people will absolutely care about my story. And it's very

interesting that you bring that up specifically around your story, because you've been in three of our soulful leadership books. I realize I've got one of them pulled off right here, our most recent one, the one before this. You did talk about your story, yes, with cancer, but in this most recent leadership, elevating purpose and empowering change, your chapter explores navigating life, love, legacy and business in times of rapid change. So what inspired you to write about that topic, and why do you feel it was so relevant for leaders today? Because I feel it was really, really touching and very, very timely.

Thank you. Well, my personal story was I got married very late in life, and this was to a man that I had known for over 16 years. We met in the dog park, and I knew the the my I love this story. My dog Izzy. It was five or six months old at the time. It was his first time at the dog park. He's running around like a banshee without a leash, and the first person he jumps on his lap is Andy. And it was like, wow. And so Izzy knew way back then, and so, and Andy and his wife and I became very good friends, and we live a block away, and all of that so. And then when Andy's wife died a number of years later, Andy and I started hanging out. You know, I was his supportive friend, and then one thing led to another, and we fell in love. And it was the most amazing thing, because I never thought that would ever happen to me at at my age and mid to late 60s. And if I can admit that, i. Um, and the the story really is that so Andy and I started, started seeing each other, but at one point I had to make a very purposeful decision. Did I want to pursue this relationship? Was I going to really take this to another level for several reasons. One is I had held back. I've done that a lot in my life, and when I held back, I've usually been sorry, and that's rather in business when I didn't listen to my gut, and also in personal life, and in this particular case, the the the facts, the facts were, Andy was an eligible bachelor with all his hair and all his marbles and and so he was a very desirable person.

Marbles are very desirable at that over 60,

over 60 with your own hair, oh my God, and all your marbles, unheard of, right, unheard of. And so I and the women were swooping up, swooping up. And so I really had to make a decision, like, is this, did I want to pursue this relationship, you know? And at one point I even said to him, you know, Andy, maybe you should, you know, this is, this is a lot, and maybe you should go out with other women. I said it in a different way, but this is family. And I said, I said, Maybe you should do that. And so he said, Why would I do that? When I know what I want? So I knew that was an opportunity for me. Okay, yes or no, get off the pot. So I chose Yes. And so for for business, it's exactly the same every time that I have said yes, it works out and and that's how I run my company. That's how I run my life in the sense of yes, that opportunity may scare me half to death. Running my own event scared me half to death. But doing things as my business coach says, Be comfortable. Get comfortable with the uncomfortable, right? And so, and that's so true. So I now do things that make me uncomfortable. I say yes, and I figure it out later. And so that personal example is exactly the same that holds true for business leadership, because you sometimes you need to make a split decision in the moment, because the opportunity is arising before you and it's going to go away, and so you need to trust your instincts and your gut. And that has never failed me when I when I listen to it, and again,

when you say yes, you're you're saying you got a soul Yes, a heart yes first, and it's going with that yes, and taking aligned action with that internal Yes,

yes. And that is important to know, to know, I mean, I have a sign, like when I'm looking at book covers, for instance. And I know this is a little example, but, but when I, when I know that it's the right book cover, I get chills down my spine. That's my that's my sign, that's my signal. And so it's kind of the same thing when I know that it's right for me, I'm I, I kind of get chills behind you know? And, and it's like, that's a hard yes for me. Um, even though the voices start right, the voice, I'm not sure. This is money, this is time, you know. Do you really want to do this? This is scary, you know? And it's like, go away. I got that chill. I got that hard. Yes, I downloaded it Exactly,

yeah. Once you get that hard Yes, and you can commit to that, that makes it a lot easier. Yeah. And so for those who have for people that are leaders that are on their path, I think many of us are really focused on the impact that we want to leave behind. How do you define legacy in the context of leadership, and what steps can individuals take today to ensure they're building a meaningful legacy?

Well, I define legacy as you've made a difference. You've made a difference in one person's life, or maybe you've made a difference in a million person's lives. But legacy really is you had maybe transformed someone's life, right? And so maybe by just, you know, just having a conversation with them you don't really know you. You might affect them. Now, there are certain things that you can do. Obviously, I think that books and writing and authoring a book is one of the biggest things you can do to have a legacy, because people still feel that the written word is the end all and the be all, and not that you don't need the other things around you. However, writing a book, I think seals your legacy, because it will always be around, particularly in the age of the internet, it's always going to be somewhere and available somewhere. And so you can make a real difference and have a real legacy. If you've written a book, and you might have, again, you might have changed somebody's life with what you've written, or a story that you have told that says to somebody, oh, if that person, after all, they've been through, if they can do it, come out on the other side, then that's giving me inspiration, and that's giving me the courage to also get up and do something and that's beautiful, that's there's nothing better than that.

Love that so much. And then also made me think about our own book, the soulful leadership series of anthologies or compilation books, or I like the word collaboration, so you can call the collaboration book, right? Many people are familiar with things like Chicken Soup for the Soul. A lot of people are familiar with another very famous book called the Bible.

The Bible, I've heard of it. Yes,

another collaboration book, many different authors within it. And right,

but that took centuries to write, didn't it

to consolidate and rewrite all the editing. It's still being edited. I think

still being edited so and

I look at that from the individual authors, let's look outside of maybe the Bible and go to something more like the chicken soup or the soul or soulful leadership. Many of them have already written their own books. Sometimes they're writing for the first time. But what are some of the advantages for somebody, first of all, actually tell me a little bit more. I'm breezing over what a collaboration book is. Yeah.

beautiful, very nice and concise. So you said a lot of things again, that are important in there one becoming a number one best selling book, all three of ours, hit Amazon bestseller on launch day. There's a whole process. We've done trainings, and we'll have upcoming trains. People will get access to our our previous trainings. We'll have links below if that's something that you'd like to do, but tell us a little bit about like, what are the advantage other than becoming a number one best selling book? Some people are like, Oh, I don't I don't need the vanity of it, but I know the advantages of being a number one best seller. But tell us some of the other things that might entice well,

like sharing the stage. And when you say, Oh, I was on the stage with Les Brown, saying that you're on a book with somebody like that has that kind of effect. And so when you are a part of that, you get shared credibility and influence,

right? Exactly right. Yeah.

And, of course, the best selling part, and the going out there and being able to talk about the book, and just that having a reason to go out there and talk to your own community and adding value to it. So I love that. And like you said, we have a whole training on the value of being able to host a book. I loved doing that with you, not once or twice, but now three different times. And yes, even the authors that I that are in the book, many of them have written their own books and were best sellers, but the process of really refining a chapter and the transformation that you're wanting to create from that one chapter, and being able to tie in your story and your message and all of that, I know that all of them got great value and benefit just from participating as well. No,

that's true. And all the training that we did, you know on how, on monetizing your book, on storytelling, even if you're writing a chapter right, it's storytelling is so such a critical part of it, and so that alone and it just, you know, how many close friends now, you know, everybody's everybody's so close, and they bond. And you know, it's just an invaluable experience when you're part of a collaboration book,

and again, without going too far in it, just as a host for a collaborative book. For me, the biggest thing is really about galvanizing the community. It was really fun this year for Renee to make the decision that we were not inviting people outside of meta mind. It was just all of our meta mind members and have 33 different 34 chapters all together. One, we literally had people read the book and say, oh my gosh, I want to be a part of your community, or I want to show event, or I want to have you on my podcast. Like there's so many different things that came from that I can talk about a lot more. Well, again, we'll have all the links below. So if you would like to host a book. We can put that in the chapter down below. Is there anything else you want to say before I ask you one final, very important, actually, I have two questions for you. But is there anything you want to say about

hosting? I think we're going to save it, you know, revenue wise, you know, well, we'll share the math with you. So it's great, but I love the idea that this really puts you at the head of the class in terms of of not only building but maintaining your community, right? And you know, because you're really directing it, and people do look at you as the leader, you know, of, you know, of putting their message out into the world, and it was a beautiful experience. And

I agree, I think that's like one of the number one things is the authority elevator of hosting a book with all of these other people. And yeah, definitely look forward to that. So look for those, those links below. Of course, this podcast and YouTube channel is called leading with purpose. And I'm curious again, as somebody who has supported so many authors, so many transformational leaders, what does leading with purpose mean to you?

I think that you have a reason to get up in the morning. And we teach you know, we talk to every single author that we work with about this, because you're never going to actually finish your book if you don't know your purpose, if you don't know why you're getting out of bed every morning, why you do what you do, then you probably won't be very, a very effective leader, for one thing. And if it's just transactional, people are going to take notice of that. People get that and so and it's a mindset thing where, if I wake up and I just know that I'm doing this, there are several reasons. The immediate one is my family and taking care of, you know, my husband and my dog, and being able to, you know, do the things that we want to do together. But the bigger purpose for us, for Andy and me, that we share, is that we want to, we want to have a rescue, a dog rescue farm. And so that takes a lot of money and land and, you know, hiring a team, you know, and all of that, but that, putting that in front of me, or putting a post it note, you know, looking at it every single day. Uh, laminating it, looking at it every single day gives me that motivation and that wolf that I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna love this day, because every day brings me closer to my purpose. And so you can't lead other people, in my opinion, if you don't know the reason why you're there in the first place, it's that's everything

I love, that I love hearing about that vision for having a doggy rescue. Oh yeah, look forward to tying that in more around the work that we're doing together. And it leads to the final question, really, around the title of your chapter, was race against time. And so for those who might be feeling their own race against time right now, what's one powerful shift they can make today to navigate change with purpose and clarity?

One thing they can do today is to write down, I guess, what does motivate you, right? Write, write, write down. A couple of things. Write down, what motivates you, like, what is the reason that you're getting up out of bed if you are suffering from limiting beliefs, so to speak, right? And you're you're maybe don't have enough confidence. One thing you can do is talk to your partner, your spouse, talk to a really good friend, or talk to a long term client, and say, give me five things that you like about me, that are special about about me, that you notice is my friend or as as my long term client. Why do you keep coming back? What makes me different from other people? And once you hear all these amazing things about you, I think it's going to create a huge mind shift in you that, oh, I didn't know that people notice that about me. That's unique, that's that's really something. Because I was thinking I'm a fraud, or I was thinking I'm an imposter. I'm thinking, why would people we hear this all the time? You know, I'm not an expert, I'm not a writer people, why would people want to read what I have to say? Ask, you know, just ask, and you will find out that people do really want to hear what you have to say. And so I think just doing those simple things just shifts your mind in a very quick, easy way to know that people surrounding you do have respect, do have love and do have clarity about what makes you special and unique in the world. It's funny that

you were saying that, because it's as you were saying that I was looking over and I saw that I have a name cloud, a word cloud, which is basically taking what you said, you know, having people say, here, tell me what's one word that people think of, and then you create this word cloud of all the things that people think of. And when you're saying this, I think it's such a beautiful exercise. It's great to be what motivates you and write down that what makes you get up in the morning. But I love the idea about what makes me special to you, and getting all of those reminders from the people that you love. Because it's one thing when you hear from your own head, but when you hear from other people, and then you can save those things, whether you do it on social media or you get an email or you get letters. I think it's really, really important, like you said, to be able to say those, to be able to go back and look at those when we're not feeling so good about ourselves, and where we have the self doubt, the limiting beliefs to to be reminded from people that we love about what makes us special. Got you Juicy, juicy, juicy. That is really great. I encourage everyone listening to to go out and do that right now again, reach out. What makes me so special to you? You'll love the rewards. It's like all the money that you put in the little jar. If you can put all of those little reminders in the jar and save them up. What

a good idea. I like that. Yeah, put little pieces of paper in a jar. Love it, you know, pull them out, or, yeah, or take post it notes, and write down what people say, put it on the wall, and then all you have this whole wall of accolades about you.

Mm, hmm. And again, it's all about that race against time you've, I know you say it all the time. We don't know how much time we have we

don't and and thank you for reminding of that for two reasons. One, you know the aging process reminds you that you don't you don't have all the time in the world. And you know my story two bouts now with breast cancer and the. First time that I went through it, it was like, I realized, wow, tomorrow is not guaranteed. So that's when I really started to to think about, what is my purpose? What do I want to do to make an impact in the world? And that's when I said, Wow, will I have these gifts in publishing, and my passion is about helping people, you know, not keep themselves like the biggest kept secret, best kept secret, you know, in their industry, but the basically unmuting people's voices, right and amplifying their voices and and that's what jazz is me, and that, that that bout with with cancer, really made me, really made me think about the urgency of time and how you can't just keep saying and putting it off. I'll do it tomorrow. I'll do it tomorrow. And, and there's no time like the present, you know. And then the second time, you know, it would, you know, I already have my purpose in, in a way, but it would reminded me again, you know, that? Okay, let's get it together, you know. So,

and it is very interesting too, like the first time when something like this happens. If anybody's been through the cancer journey, you know how devastating it is, and when you can make it through the other side, and you have your clarity around your purpose, and then it comes up again. It's still very difficult and challenging, but you have this knowing that you made it through and you can do it again. It's

really true. It's a very different outlook. And it's kind of like, okay, let's hurry this up so I can get back to my mission and accomplish what I want to accomplish. So and that's it's a beautiful feeling. Well,

congratulations on your journey. I'm grateful to have you in my life, and for anyone again, if you are considering writing a book or want to get that book out there, there's nothing more important to me than getting your message out into the world, and we would love to help and support you. Any final words Karen, that you want to say before we say goodbye,

I would just say I'm grateful to you, Mark and to your community. To meta mind, it's really talk about transformed me and so that that's been an amazing experience. And I just want to say to all of you out there, if you haven't written your book, what are you waiting for? Right? And so just write down a few words every day, right? So I have a journal in my phone and so and so, just a few keywords or whatever it is, and maybe just what you experience every single day. Writing is a muscle and and so, just like working out, you know, work out your writing muscles, because you will then something will pop up and really resonate with you, I promise you. And you don't want to let these golden nuggets go by and you know, because you're going to forget about it. So write it all down. And eventually, I think it will come to pass that, you know, most people, when when asked, 80% of the American public has said they want to write a book. But only 2% actually get their books published. So let's be the 2%

and if you've been like me, where you had 75% of your book done because you've been doing what Karen was just saying, you've been writing and but you're waiting for it to be perfect. Perfection is the enemy of done, right? And there are people for that, there are editors for that, you should not be the one to make it perfect. You get it out there the best you can. And then there's a whole process and structure to make that beautiful and easy. And

there's no such thing as perfect anyway. And the other thing is that people want to hear your voice. They don't want perfect. They don't want perfection. They want to hear your authentic voice. What do you stand for? What do you believe in? How are you going to what are you going to teach me? Right? How can I learn and benefit from you? And so you can only tell that in your voice, because a lot of people can be life coaches, but only you can approach being a life coach in a very unique and different way than anybody else in the world. Mm, hmm.

Love it. Karen, thank you so much again. Appreciate you. Look forward to our next book again, coming out sometime in the near future. For now, Namaste, delight in me, appreciates and respects. Delight in you.

Namaste, Mark. Thank you so much.

Lead with purpose. We'll talk to you soon.