Ep235 Peter Srodoski—From W2 Trap to Authority: How Your Book Becomes Your Freedom Plan

Peter Srodoski 0:00

For me, that's that's why I establish pathways. Book presses is a way to, you know, get people's ideas into a book, something that they can hold, that's tangible, that they're proud of, that they can, you know, start a training course on or or really establish themselves as an expert in their field.

Mike O'Neill 0:18

Welcome to get unstuck and on target, the weekly podcast that offers senior leaders insights and strategies to not only lead with confidence and vision, but also to achieve groundbreaking results. I'm your host. Mike O'Neal I coach top level executives on the power of ethical leadership to forge teams to be as united as they are effective in each episode, join me for insightful conversations with leaders just like you providing practical advice to help you get unstuck and propel you and your company forward. Let's get started.

Mike O'Neill 1:01

What if the book that you've been meaning to write is actually your escape route from the w2 trap? My guest, Pete stradosky, watched brilliant executives with decades of expertise stay stuck in jobs that they had outgrown because they couldn't see their knowledge as currency today. Pete reveals why most business books fail before page one, and the counter intuitive approach that's turning Friday afternoon, Sunday dreams into Monday morning revenue streams. If you've ever thought I should write a book The next 30 minutes might be the push that you're waiting for. You know that idea that's been rattling around in your head for years, the framework that you've taught 100 times, the story there always lands in the boardroom. My guest today, Pete srodowski, believes it's time to turn that into something bigger. Pete's not your typical publishing guy, former CEO and COO turn executive coach. He's been in the seat, carried the weight, led through the chaos. Now he's helping leaders like you turn those hard won insights into books that actually matter. Here's what caught my attention. Pete founded pathway press specifically for entrepreneurs who want their book to be real, no ghost riding Mills, no AI shortcuts, just Authentic Leadership captured on the page. I brought p on because I keep hearing the same thing from leaders. I should write a book someday. Well, today we're going to show you why someday should be sooner than you think. Welcome back, Pete,

Peter Srodoski 2:47

thanks, Mike. Appreciate you having me on. Pete, our working

Mike O'Neill 2:51

title for this episode is turning ideas into books that build credibility. You. We could talk about a variety of things, but I would like to spend most of our time today on your role in founding pathways press. You've sat in that C suite, you've scaled companies, you've coached executives, but that's not exactly the typical publishing background. What made you look at the publishing world and think I need to fix that.

Peter Srodoski 3:23

Yeah, you know, it's great. I saw this, this opportunity, and really it's based on cost. I saw this opportunity through my own book publishing, through writing and publishing books for myself and becoming a self publisher. And I got excited about it, and I said I could really help some other people do the same thing and do it a lot inexpensive, a lot less expensively than than the premier places, right? You know, they charge longtime royalties, they charge a significant upfront cost. And I was just within this, in myself. I said I could do this so much cheaper while while delivering a great product. In fact, today, one of our books went number one in three different categories within pathways book press and is doing, you know, fantastic on the sales charts. And this is something that I put together in a few months, right? It wasn't, it wasn't years that it took. It didn't take 10s of 1000s of dollars to put this together, hundreds of 1000s of dollars, in some cases. So I saw an opportunity. I saw a low cost, high quality, high return, using the same vendors and and getting people, you know, it's essentially the same as that business coaching aspect, that executive coaching is, how can I help people, right? And, and that's what you do, Mike, so you understand how valuable that is, and, and for me, that's, that's why I established pathways. Book presses is a way to. To, you know, get people's ideas into a book, something that they can hold, that's tangible, that they're proud of, that they can, you know, start a training course on or or really establish themselves as an expert in their field.

Mike O'Neill 5:15

You know, because of the technology being what it is, and self publishing being more readily available, I I see a lot of junk out there, and I don't know about you, but you know what I hear is people just say, well, that's just kind of a marketing play. But from your experience, you're a publisher as well. But what role does a well crafted book play, actually, in building credibility.

Peter Srodoski 5:43

Well, I think it's built out a ton, you know, for me in my own business, right? So the amount of people that I've met that are more confident in my abilities after reading a 250, page book that I've wrote and seeing those ideas, I mean, we learn so much, and we have so much experience in our brains, and we only have such a limited time to to share that experience as an expert in our field, and books allow us to really put forth all of our ideas, or many of our ideas, all of these learnings and experiences that we've got with the stories that go along with them, and share them with an audience, especially when you get an audible or you get an audio book done, there's just so much opportunity to share that with an audience. So you know, the the amount of folks that have found me as a business coach, as a an executive coach, a leadership coach. My book publishing, as a result of my books have been astronomical, and so I want to be able to share that for other folks. I want to I want to be able to do that for the individual that is writing a devotional series or has learned so much about their specific industry, and they want to share that information and turn it into something more tangible, or even writing a memoir, you've got some incredible people living incredible lives, and they want to document it, right? They don't want to lose that out to history. In fact, I helped a gentleman write a book as a an homage to his grandson, and the main character's name was his grandson's name, and that's just something that will stick with his grandson and his family forever. It's a lifelong book and something that he was incredibly proud of, and I was too. So there, there is a variety of different sources or resources that we can use to create a legacy for for your your individual business and your experience.

Mike O'Neill 7:44

You know you were talking earlier about things kind of float around in one's head. I imagine there's folks listening here who have had quote a book float around their head for a long time. Um, why now? Why should a leader who's already stretched thin? Why do you think now, in today's business climate is such a good time for leaders to capture these ideas in a book?

Peter Srodoski 8:14

Well, I'm really excited about those folks that are ready to ascend beyond w2 they are. They have spent their entire lifetimes stuck in that world of w2 where they can't, they can't break free, and they're trapped. But there is so much money to be had in this world. There is so much revenue that can be captured. And how do you establish yourself? Where do you start? And a book is a great way to establish yourself as an expert within a field, training courses, audio books, websites. These are, these are small things that we do, and we help put together, and we work with vendors on to help establish your credibility as an expert in your field and break free, right? And this is a great opportunity for those folks that have a tremendous amount of finance background that want to be a fractional CFO, or they've been an operator their entire life, and they want to move into the fractional C suite, or they want to open up a consulting business, or they want to go on tour and start doing podcasts, and they want to do executive coaching sessions, or life coaching, or financial coaching, or, you know, health coaching. There's just so much opportunity out there, and there's so much just money to be had. So if you're stuck and you're sitting in a w2 job, and you're saying to yourself, I want to get out, but I have no way to do it. This is that moment. This is that inspirational moment that you need. Well, let's start with a book, and let's, let's have that be the center point to our our future endeavors, right? We'll turn that into speaking engagements, we'll turn that into a training course. We'll turn that into a website. We'll get everybody. Excited about it, and then let's go live, right? And it's, it's all of that that's stuck inside your brain that you're, you know, I love the word stuck, and I love your podcast, for that reason that get unstuck, right? Is that there is this safety net of w2 there is this safety net of getting that guaranteed paycheck that prevents people, the fear that prevents people from going out there and making it on their own. But the opportunity is endless if you can break free from that,

Mike O'Neill 10:37

that transition from w2 to entrepreneurship that has been a recurring theme in many of the episodes here. Pete, you know, I came out of a w2 background. I was a corporate HR leader for many, many years. I led large HR teams, but I understand, I understood what that required. I was good at it. But when you go out on your own, it's a whole new world. And what I think I'm hearing you describe is these folks who really lean into what it is that that pathway press does. They've got this perhaps in their head, or they may be thinking, what do I have? What could I tell that would be compelling? How do you help them assess, do they have the makings of a book?

Peter Srodoski 11:30

That's a great question. I think one of the things that helps me so much is, you know, my background as an executive, my background as a CEO and CEO and and even my business coaching is looking at your ideas, having a conversation and just being honest with you. Yeah, I think that that thing's got legs on it. How can we turn that into an organic, five tiered, pillared, based system that we can write a book on? How can we capture that information? What do you have that's compelling to say, and then how can we sell that? And that becomes, you know, essentially, the ethos of what we do, right? We we, my conversations with people up front are not your traditional, yeah, I can publish your book. You have an idea. Great, let's go. No, I want to. I want to chat it out. I want to talk about what is the what do we really have here? How can we turn that more sophisticatedly? How can we turn that into something that you can sell? So I think that my unique background and this being a passion piece for me turns into more of an opportunity for my clients. How can we turn this into something that's actionable? What kind of framework can we build? What does this look like, and then turning that into a book or a training series, or a series speaking engagements or podcasts? How can we turn that into something that will yield revenue, right and get you unstuck, right? Get you out of that, that security blanket of w2 right.

Mike O'Neill 13:09

Now, you've mentioned the spin off possibilities once a book is written, and perhaps, if you knew what those were up front, you might write a different book. But you describe not only writing a book, but perhaps converting that book into an audio book, to convert that book into a training course or courses to position yourself as an authority as an author, by either hosting or guesting on podcast or speaking, I forget the exact word you mentioned, but you're, you're kind of creating a whole ecosystem that kind of revolves around the book. What is it about a book that gets published? You can hold it in your hand, and I know you have one right off your shoulder there, once you pull that out, this is your latest book.

Peter Srodoski 14:05

Yes, this is, this is build kick ass teams. There we go. Build kick ass teams. This is a, it's a solid hardcover, 270 page book. At the end of every chapter is a Monday morning playbook, and that is a way for you to do something with what you've learned. This is an example of one of those Monday morning playbooks. You know, instead of just learning about that chapter and and going on to the next chapter, we have specific actionable steps for you to take the day you go back into the office. So what are you going to do to turn that around for you in the business? This is a perfect example, though, of of how to get your your message out there. This was years of experience. This is 20 plus years of experience. There are stories, there are examples, there are things that I've learned through executive. Of coaching through there being a CEO, being a CEO, of what good looks like, and how do I see what recurring themes exist in the world to ensure you can build a kick ass team. What does that look like? What are the what are the things that pull you away? So, yeah, this, this is the epicenter of that. And then there's training courses that you can develop. And exactly it's the centerpiece

Mike O'Neill 15:26

for those who are listening, not watching. What Pete just showed is an example of the playbook within the book, and what I can assure is that it looks very professional. And I guess what I would say is, if you have the idea, I might want to write a book, but I don't want it to look cheap. I don't want to look mass produced. I want it to really have substance. What Pete did is he pulled out a hardcover book, a hardcover book that actually has a spine, because there's 200 plus pages in it, but just when he opened the page, you can see there's intentionality and how you did that, the fact that you are also writing a book that is intended to be applied literally, chapter by chapter, I can see how that can and probably has already led to training resources that spent sim off this book. Needless to say, We weren't planning to talk about your book on this podcast, but here we are talking about your podcast, your book on the podcast, so it lends itself to more exposure there. What I was going to ask you is, I have discovered audio books because of my travel or when I'm running long runs. What is it about when a book is converted to audio? What does that do when first to the author, when the author has not only this high quality book in hand, but it is out there on Audible or Spotify or the like. What does that do for the author?

Peter Srodoski 17:05

Well, first off, it allows them to reach an entire audience that otherwise would never pick up a book. You know, I don't know about the the numbers on it, but frequently within my coaching world, I have people that say I'll never read a book until the day I die it but they will comfortably throw an audible on. They'll comfortably throw an audio book. And so I think, first off, it's reach. Second off, it is Polish, right? It is sophistication. You talked about something important just a moment ago. Is the book I showed you was a labor of love. I put a lot of effort into the cover design, in the spine design, the formatting, the intentionality of those Monday morning playbooks that go at the end of each chapter, the table of contents, the the spine design, everything that you talked about, those were all things that were intentionally created. We're not leaving anything up to chance, and audio books are just another form of polish to that, that the sophistication, the intentionality, the professionalism, to make you be the expert that you are right. It's to show the world that you are that expert, right? That professionalism that will garner you more interest from the public, things like websites, training courses, right? If you want validity for your your idea, if you want to be viewed as an expert,

Speaker 1 18:38

you have to look like an expert. Yeah. Interesting. You know, I

Mike O'Neill 18:46

know there's a lot of folks out there who bounce around. I think I should write a book. There's probably another segment out there that have quote started a book, but there's a difference between starting and finishing. In your opinion, what is it inside a wannabe author that takes them from starting to actually finish? What needs to be in place?

Peter Srodoski 19:12

Yeah, you know. And I'll tell you, 95% of the people I meet, and that's just a made up number, but it feels right, 95% of the people I meet that are in this this, publishing journey are stuck about 1/3 through the writing of their book, because they're an expert in their field and they're not a creative writer, and so putting prose behind the story becomes incredibly difficult, right? You spent 30 years in the restaurant industry. You didn't spend it writing essays. You didn't spend it writing creatively. So how can you make a compelling story? And that's where most people read their own material and give up. And you need to find partners. You need to find partners in everything that. You do? You need to find an editing partner. You need to find a writing partner. You need to find a formatting partner. And part of what we do is source those individuals that we know and trust, that we've worked with a number of times, and then give you those tools to succeed. Some folks have zero interest in writing that book, and they think if there is no way to do it unless I do it. And that's just not true, right? Many, if not all, the books that are written, that are nonfiction, are written by other individuals. But it doesn't mean that story can't get put out there. It doesn't mean that you can't energize the public with your experiences. You just may not know how to put the pros to it, and just like you know you bought that Ford Bronco, it doesn't mean that you can fix the engine there is there is parts to it that we have to trust the experts, and we have to work with those experts and learn more about what we're working on, and teach them and guide them through that process. So we work collaboratively with a lot of different partners through the publishing process to ensure your book looks great and sounds great and carries your authentic voice. So yeah, I think that's that's probably the most important thing is, they get stuck right at that beginning part where they go. I'm not a writer, you know, I write like a fifth grade reading level, and that's okay.

Mike O'Neill 21:30

You mentioned getting stuck. May I put you a little bit on the spot, a little bit, and that is, you know, this show is about helping leaders get unstuck. But when might be an example where you hit that wall where the old playbook, it just wasn't working anymore, and when that happened, what'd you do to

Peter Srodoski 21:50

get unstuck? Yeah, it's great. In fact, we've been I've been inspired a little bit lately after one of our most recent conversations, Mike, but I hit this wall within my coaching world and where I can't duplicate myself. Yes, I can't find a way to add more hours to the calendar. You and I have talked about the fact that I've got five kids and I'm on multiple boards and running a couple of different companies and hours become more important than anything else, and you run out of them, and where do you prioritize them? And so I had to go back to the drawing board. How can I duplicate myself? How can I take what I know and maximize that? And that turned into my next endeavor, which is the r3 operational methodology, right, is, how can I take the ethos of what I've learned and the experiences that I've learned and turn it into a tactical operating system? And for me, that's how I found a way to get unstuck. That's how I found a way I had to evolve my training and evolve my coaching and evolve myself as as a leader, because I can't be available 480 hours a week, right? I have to be able to duplicate. I have to maximize my output, my throughput, and be a force multiplier myself. So yeah, I went back to the drawing board. I visioned it out just like I would do and you do for for clients, and then I turned it on myself. How can I maximize?

Mike O'Neill 23:36

So may I attempt to paraphrase what you just said, and that is, you looked at your current revenue streams, and you you came to the realization that we all do, if you are providing a service that's being paid for your time, you only have x amount of time, therefore you only can generate X number of dollars in revenue. What I'm hearing you say is that there can be a multiplier of that if what you are offering is something that is not dependent on you and the limited number of hours you have r3 if I understand correctly, is something that could enable you and your businesses to scale

Peter Srodoski 24:25

Correct, yeah, offer my brain at a inexpensive rate that I can multiply and continue to evolve that and grow that and provide more and more content from what I've learned from the education and experience that I've had, and multiply it, find ways to provide value to the customer, my clients, and give them more and more and more. At less of a rate, but by being able to do that and sell that at seven o'clock at night while I'm coaching a soccer game or a soccer practice for my six or 10 year old, I can offer that at a more affordable rate than my individualized coaching.

Mike O'Neill 25:24

So for those listening, we were going to only talk about the hat you wear as as the founder of pathway press, but you can see how seamlessly these other things have kind of emerged. And for those who are listening, for those who are kind of watching as we kind of begin winding down our time together, for those listeners who are listening and they're sitting on a great idea, maybe it's a framework, it's a story, or maybe even a philosophy, what is one small step that they can take this week to start turning that idea into a book.

Peter Srodoski 26:07

So you know, we have great tools right now, and I definitely steer very clear of using any AI resources when it comes to the creation of your book. However, AI is a great tool for you to bounce ideas off of. And my recommendation is, say I'm interested in creating a book. Here's some ideas I have. What do you feel like is a strong idea right now? How can I turn my experience into a book? What is it that I can offer just to get the creative juices flowing, just to get inspiration from our good friend chat, GPT or Claude, what could that look like? Then from there, build out a story arc, just like you would a TV Show, episode or a movie, there's a start, there's a medium, there's a finish, there's three acts. What? What is it that we can learn through those three acts? What is it that we can teach? What? What would the reader walk away from? How would they be better at their life, in their job, or, what? What story are you trying to tell? And from there, you know, bring it in front of me, and we'll see if it's got some bite to it. Once again, this is not an expensive journey. I guess expensive is subjective, but when it comes to how much traditional publishers cost, it's very inexpensive to see this turned into a book and an audio book and and turn yourself into an expert. So if you've got that idea and you've got that passion, you've been sitting on it, what can you do right now? Throw it in front of chat GPT, and see what it says. Come up with an idea, send me an email.

Mike O'Neill 28:05

You know, Pete this conversation, it's been rich on multiple levels, and it's going to have me thinking for all week. So I want to thank you for helping kind of pull back the curtain on what really is possible here. For those who do want to reach out to you, what's the best way for people to connect with you and learn more about you and your work?

Peter Srodoski 28:29

Probably, you know, through Amazon, you can look at any of my numbers of books that I've both published with pathways press or myself. Pete Sadowsky, the author, I have a website, www, dot roll with punch.com or pathways book press.com so pathways book press.com roll with punch.com or you could just shoot me an email. I'm just a guy, you know, I just exist on the internet, just like anybody else. So my email address is Pete at roll with punch. Feel free to shoot me a note and we'll chat. Excellent.

Mike O'Neill 29:01

We will include all of that in the show notes. So as we kind of wrap, if you've been telling yourself, someday, I'll write that book today's your sign that somebody that someday you said about it needs a date on it. Connect with Pete directly. You can do so through the links that you will find in those show notes. And if this conversation has gotten you thinking about your own leadership journey, how you're building your legacy or scaling your influence or just getting clearer on what's next, let's talk. I offer complimentary two hour game plan sessions for leaders ready to move from thinking to doing? There's no pitch, just clarity on your next move. If that is something that would benefit you, you'll find a link in the show notes as well, and to everyone listening, your ideas matter more than you know. Thanks for sharing. Showing up, doing the work and staying curious about what's next. I hope this episode has helped you get unstuck and on target. Thank you for joining us for this episode of get unstuck and on target. I hope you've gained insights to help you lead with confidence and drive your organization forward. Remember, at bench builders, we're committed to your success, your leadership excellence and your strategic growth. If you've enjoyed our conversation today, please leave a review, rate and subscribe to keep up with our latest episodes. This show really grows when listeners like you share it with others. Who do you know, who needs to hear what we talked about today? Until next time, I encourage you to stay focused on the target and continue to break new ground on your leadership path. You

Speaker 2 31:04

This show is powered by media leads to get your next great podcast produced. Go to media leads, co.com