Honorée Corder: Turning a Book into Your Most Valuable Business Asset

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. It is my great pleasure to introduce you to my newest friend that I just went to Tennessee to visit. I’m joined by Honorée Corder, executive producer, best selling author, TEDx speaker, and founder of Honorée Enterprises. Honorée has written 68 books, sold more than 5 million copies in 40 languages, and helped produce more than 600 books for entrepreneurs, executives, and thought leaders. She’s on a mission to help business leaders stop thinking of books as publishing projects and start treating them as strategic business assets that build authority, create opportunities, and leave a lasting legacy. Today, we’re talking about why your book should mean business, the power of taking radical responsibility, and how sharing your expertise can transform both your business and the people you serve. Honorée, welcome to the show.

Honorée Corder: I’m so happy to be with you. How fun to hang out with you again.

Trisha Stetzel: I know. Too bad it’s on a screen, but I’ll take it. I’ll take it.

Honorée Corder: We’ll take whatever we can get.

Trisha Stetzel: All right.

Honorée Corder: What else?

Trisha Stetzel: What else do we need to know about Honorée?

Honorée Corder: Um. I love chocolate in all temperatures. I’m a dog mom, a cat mom. I also have a turtle.

Trisha Stetzel: A turtle?

Honorée Corder: Yep. Okay, Monty. I did not.

Trisha Stetzel: Know.

Honorée Corder: Yeah. Monty, the turtle is the size of a jelly jar lid, and he has a 40 gallon tank. As one would. As one would do. So we’re big animal people here at Shea Quarter. Um, I’m married for 18 years to the best man alive, and I. I read books for pleasure. I craft and publish books for work, and people find that confusing. Wait, what do you do? What? In your free time? Actually I’m reading. Oh.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that. How do you make time for that? How do you make time to read?

Honorée Corder: Oh, um. Gosh, it’s it’s built into my schedule, so I’m up at, oh, dark 30. Mhm. So, you know, as we are, the cool kids are up are up pretty early. I’m just saying. Um, and whether it’s my husband who’s up early, but he stayed up or I’m up early because I went to bed early. We’re going to we’re going to split the hair on that one. Um, no, I, I make it a point to read nonfiction every day because I want to make myself better. So I’m reading something to learn something, to review, something to inspire myself, to make myself better. And then I have friends who write really fun and thrilling fiction. And I’m a supporter, right? I if you can’t be an athlete, be an athletic supporter. So. So I’m a book supporter. And yeah, they come out with books faster than I can read them. So I’m just doing I’m just doing what I can. Yeah. Yeah. I find that time. It’s no extra time.

Trisha Stetzel: No extra.

Honorée Corder: So when I’m on the treadmill, I’m listening. When I’m waiting for my coffee or my tea to heat up or I’m making hummingbird food, right? I’m just, I have my, my Kindle app on my phone or I’m carrying a book around with me. I listen, we find what we make time for. And so I, I do, I still am a scroller, right? I’m an Instagram. I want to see the puppy videos, but I also have the books to read, so I’m making that conscious decision. Let me just open Kindle just for a minute, read some pages, and then I can scroll. Right?

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. All right, so you guys heard it right from here. Someone who’s written 68 books and helped write 600 other books, she makes time to read, which means each of you have time to read better yourself, enjoy yourself, make time to read. All right, let’s dive into the business for today. You’ve written 68 books and helped produce more than 600 books for your clients. Somewhere along the way, you stopped viewing books as publishing projects and started viewing them as business assets. What led to that shift?

Honorée Corder: Watching my some of my books succeed and some of my books fail, and constantly asking myself the question, why is this book effective in my head? I’m wired differently and I don’t I I’m a weirdo nerd nerd alert. Um, I don’t like to view things through the lens of good or bad, right or wrong. I like to look at things through the lens of effective or ineffective. I’m always asking myself, how can this be more effective? How can specifically the book projects that I work on? Because that’s what I do for work. So I read for pleasure. I also produce books. That is my work. That is my passion. I’ve been very interested in how could a book be more effective? How could I be a better servant to my authors? How could, how could the books that I produce be better servants to the readers? I’m constantly asking that question. And when I realized, and I’m going to use a Tony Robbins phrase, I noticed that a lot of authors were running East looking for a sunset. So they would say, I’m going to write a book and I’m going to tell people about how to do what I do. So that’s like a prescription or a cookbook. It’s a recipe. And secretly or not so secretly, if you ask them, what do you want the reader to do when they’ve read your book? They would say, I want them to hire me. Mhm. They’ve created the recipe for how to do what they do. And so the reader feels empowered. What do I need you for?

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm.

Honorée Corder: Most of the time. And my mistake book, which is still wonderful and still sells and still helps helps people is you must write a book. I published that 50,000 copies sold in the first month. I was like, this is amazing. I’m going to get all the people to hire me to do their books. And they didn’t. They did their own books, and then they mailed them to me and said, thank you so much. I wrote, You Changed My life. And I went, why are they high? I mean, I’m slow. I was like, why are they writing their book and mailing them to me with so much gratitude? And hey, this is what I do for a living. Hire an expert. And then I went, hey, genius. The title is You must Write a Book. And so they went, okay. I know, I know, I can throw myself under the bus. And so it was maybe three years ago that I wrote your book Means Business. So this my book that is for people to read to make the case for why they should hire me and why they shouldn’t necessarily try to do it themselves. Because there are six master skills for writing, publishing, and monetizing a book. So when did that start? It started ten years ago when I was in a puddle of confusion, and I just kept asking the A question. And then I started doing this type of a book. A your book means business type of book for clients because they were smarter than me in some ways. And they would say, I want a book that makes people hire me and I’m a technician. I know how to write a manuscript that does a job. And then I realized I didn’t have that book for myself. And once I did, it’s been an absolute game changer for my business. And also, this type of book is a game changer for people’s businesses because it’s helping the reader to understand, hey, Honorée, you have a problem. And Tricia has a solution. Here’s her book about the solution and why it would benefit you or why it wouldn’t.

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm.

Honorée Corder: Right. Because the right readers go, where have you been on my life? Here’s my Amex card. Let’s like that kid on fire. And the reader who says, oh, I don’t like this author. I don’t like their voice. I don’t like their process. It’s too expensive for me. It’s not cohesive enough for me. I’m not the ideal client. They get to choose out and it’s all in their own time. They’re building the case for you or against you on their own time, which is a less pressure kind of a situation to write because you feel like I’m going to raise my hand and ask a question, and then anybody with sales training is going to be like, and what that means to you today, it’d be amazing.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So, uh, thank you for sharing that. And your book means business book. The book that you wrote, you distinguish between the publishing transaction and the business asset. So what’s the difference? And why do so many entrepreneurs focus on the wrong goal?

Honorée Corder: Well, they don’t know. Nobody’s talking about it. It’s just me. I’m just one person. I need sleep so well because here’s the here’s the here’s the truth. Authors are authorities, and no one no one that I know of talks about. What type of book do you need? They just say, if you’re going to be a speaker, you have to write a book. You have to have a book. You’ve got to be an author. No one says, hey, wait a second. If you want to get on stages, then you need this type of a book. If you want people to hire you, you need that type of a book. And if you want something that memorializes your life, that’s a legacy book for your family, you need yet another kind of book. And if you want a book that helps people to hire you, to coach them and consult with them, and you want to get on stages and boards, then you need yet another kind of book. It’s all been grouped into one thing. And so we’ve read enough books that are prescriptive books, right? If you’re if you’re thinking of writing a book, you’ve read a lot of books. And so you go, well, I know how to. I’m a reader. How hard could it be? And so you’re going to model what you’ve written before. It only makes sense. It only makes sense. And then when I have the conversation with someone, I’m like, I have a question. Have you thought about it this way? It’s really interesting to see the light go on and have them say, oh, wait a minute, I can be more purposeful and intentional, and I can help the reader get where I want the reader to be and where the reader actually wants to be.

Trisha Stetzel: So it sounds like people need to have a conversation with Honoré, because Honoré can help them with the direction they need to go in. And the purpose of the book. Yeah.

Honorée Corder: And even if I’m not the right, even if I’m not the right avenue or resource, I can at least shine a light in a place that has been pretty dark and scary. And also, I made all of the mistakes ever. Whenever I’m like, oh, did you have you thought about doing this or are you doing this? And someone goes, maybe. And I’m like, oh, don’t worry, look at this. You see this? I got one at you and I got three coming back at me. I’ve made every mistake at least three times and probably 50. And so I can say, let me just let me just give you some information and maybe help you to avoid making a mistake. And a one degree difference is the difference between, you know, Spokane and Honolulu.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So there are a lot of people out there who want to write a book, uh, because they read books. I love that you said that I read a book, so I must be able to write one. Yeah. Um, and you’re a message that, that I heard from you recently is that most business books fail before page one is ever written. So what are, what are a couple of things that every executive should know before or business owner, whoever wants to write a book that they should know before they start writing.

Honorée Corder: Um, that if they start with tuning into the radio station of WII FM, that would be really helpful. Before you write anything, answer the question what do I want the book to do for me? What’s in it for me? Wii fm. What’s in it for me? This isn’t altruistic. We don’t want to save the children. You know, the horned frog is still going to die, right? So sorry. Bad news. But what is it that you want the book to do for you? Is it authority, credibility, new clients, new revenue, legacy positioning? What is it like? Give yourself a moment to just say this is about me for a second. That’s question number one. Question number two then, is what do you want the reader to to do once they’ve read it? Do you want them to hire you? Do you want them to come and see you speak? Do you want them to become a coaching client? Do you want them to, um, do exercises because, I mean, I love James Clear and I really want him to help me habit stack, but there is nowhere in his book where he’s like, here’s my text. You know, send me a text message. I’m going to help you to drink water, brush your teeth and do squats every day all in the same three minutes because this is what you need to do. It’s prescriptive in his book, and he will come and talk to you for $100,000. You meaning your audience.

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm.

Honorée Corder: But I write so like, what is it that you want the reader to do? And then what do you want? Not that there’s a wrong reader, but the right reader. Mhm. And then that then we answer those questions and then several more. But I would want them to know that being intentional and purposeful before they just say, I was at the dog park. The true story, not me, but someone called me and said I was at the dog park and I’m going to write a book called lessons from the Dog Park. And I was like, are you a dog trainer? No. You have a puppy mill? No, I’m a business coach and I. But I would have these moments of thought and I would do lessons from the dog park. So when you’re titling a book, if someone doesn’t know exactly what the book is about, they’re going to miss the opportunity to read your book. So we ended up doing a book with a completely different title. I’m not ever going to throw anybody under the bus because again, I’m under it to.

Trisha Stetzel: Make maybe more than once I’ve been there. I’ll be there with you.

Honorée Corder: Yeah. Sometimes I go over and then I back, back it up. Right. So but, but when we’re thinking about every aspect of a book, every choice that’s made is very important.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. All right. We’re about halfway through our conversation today. And I know there are listeners who already want to connect with you. So what is the best way to find out a quarter or learn more about you?

Honorée Corder: Um, honorary quarter.com. And for those that are driving or on the treadmill, good job. Honorecorder.com.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s so easy. So simple, so easy.

Honorée Corder: Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: All right. Um, I know that you have a case study, so, um, it really caught my attention because you have a client whose book generated more than $26 million in revenue. So tell us about that. And what made that book different from the thousands of other business books that are published every year?

Honorée Corder: Yeah. So we started with what did he want? He wanted market domination. So when he came to me, he said, I want a short book that is fast to read that my sales person at the time can. I don’t want to ever sell the book I, I do, and this is true. He’s a $60,000 a year service and they sign five year contracts. So $300,000 per client. There were four competitors in his geographical area and he said, my first goal is I just want market domination. I just want to get all the clients. So I want my sales person to have a book that’s a freemium size, right? Like a small book that would take 45 minutes or so to read that my sales person can take around to all these businesses, and all they’re going to see is my logo, my service, what I can do for them. Either they’re going to read it or they’re not going to read it, but I want those $300,000 contracts. So fast forward eight years. He has acquired two of the four competitors and their salespeople. So he now has three salespeople and has done over $26 million. And when I call him, my first name is rounding and my last name is error. In his phone. And I just, I just called to check in and I’m like, what are what number are we up to? And when I did the book, you know, I think he invested about 60 grand in the book.

Honorée Corder: And so he was like, one client is a five X return. It’s more expensive than that. Now to do that size of a book because it’s eight years later. Right? Um, but he’s like, I would do it again in a minute and he sends me clients and they’re just like, take my money. Like if you can do anything like that for me. And so I suppose it’s important to note that with the book production, I’m obsessed with quality content and quality. I also provide marketing guidance to go with the business generating asset, because the book and motion is money in motion. A book at rest is money at rest. So people who have a box of books on their credenza or in their trunk, that book is not going to make them any money. So the goal is to get the book into motion. And so I provide guidance granularly and 30,000 foot level for how they get the book in motion. So they’re not going well. I don’t know what to do with it now that I have it. We want to deploy that asset.

Trisha Stetzel: All right. So since you started down this path, I’d like to know more about the work that you do with your clients. So you’ve described some of it at a pretty high level. What kind of work do you do with your clients?

Honorée Corder: We start with a blank page and what the author wants. So we do what’s in it for me. We craft the manuscript from scratch. So there’s a ghost writer assigned to the project, and they work with the author to get out of their head and on paper what they do, who they do it for, who’s on the team, what it takes, all the questions that you’re addressing in a quote unquote, sales conversation when you’re having a discovery conversation with a client, and then the editorial, the design, the publishing, and then the marketing assets are all wrapped into that.

Trisha Stetzel: I love everything that just the. I’m, I hate to call it hand-holding, but I feel like it’s really being right there by their side, walking in their greatness to help pull out whatever that is that’s inside of them and get it on paper. I think that’s just so amazing. Um, I want to shift gears just a teeny bit because you and I had this conversation a couple of weeks ago. Radical responsibility. I want to talk about it. So tell me about your show. Tell me about this idea behind radical responsibility. And I think that it may go with a piece of work that you’re working on as well.

Honorée Corder: Yeah. So the honorary quarter show will be coming out here before too long. And the theme is real Stories and Radical Responsibility. And, um, a very good friend of mine who had the idea for me to write the book and have the show said, you are the person who makes taking total ownership of every aspect of your life seem like it’s a good idea, that it’s not a judgment if you don’t do it. But come on in, the water’s fine. Saying, well, that was a really unfortunate experience, but I chose into it whether it was a relationship, a job, a situation. You can look at it not from a place of self-flagellation. Like, why did I do that? Why was I so stupid? But hey, I did the best I could at the time. I made the best decision I could possibly make, and now I’m going to make a new decision and go in a new direction. And so on the show, I talk to amazing people like you who have come to a fork in the road, as Yogi Berra would say, and they’ve taken it right. They’ve taken they’ve taken the direction of radical responsibility. And we just talk about how it actually is really a good idea to drop the hot rock of being angry and not forgiving someone, and also forgiving yourself, and then figuring out how you’re going to move forward. Taking ownership and responsibility of everything finances, relationship, work, mental health, physical health, all the things family, relationships, all the things that are complicated and sometimes ugly.

Trisha Stetzel: So I know that it’s important to you and I can hear the passion. Why is it so important to you to get this out so others can hear these conversations?

Honorée Corder: Gosh, I think we’re in a time when I, I hear a lot of it’s their fault, whoever they are.

Speaker 4: Mhm.

Honorée Corder: And when you place blame, you also lose your personal power. And I think personal power is where it’s at. Right. Maybe maybe it’s because my hair is. But I have found that understanding that I am. Cause I am not at the effect of someone else’s decisions. I might be at the effect of someone else’s decisions, but I am still powerful. I still have my own personal power, my my own agency. And when I feel powerless, when I felt powerless in the past, that just doesn’t feel great. When someone said, you are not a tree, you can move, right? You don’t have to accept the past equaling the future. You can make a new decision. You can make a new choice. You can start again today. You can begin again today and end up in a different place. That feels great. It actually feels really good on the inside, and I just want everyone to feel like that because I don’t like feeling powerless. And I can tell that a lot of people do feel powerless. They feel like the decision, whatever it is, has been made by someone else. They’ve been dumped or fired or divorced or whatever. Right. And so with that, they have then allowed someone to go ahead and just take their power. And I think that’s unfortunate. And it doesn’t always need to be necessary. And I’m not saying that that’s a blanket 100% of the time. I just want to open up another line of thinking for people and give them some hope and possibility, because I don’t think hope is a strategy, but you sure do need hope if you’re going to make any great change.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. I think it also matters a lot. And we we’ve had this conversation too, about the people that you surround yourself with and the relationships that you’re building. I know you do a lot of networking. I do a lot of networking. I like to consider that building relationships. So talk about the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people and building relationships with the right community.

Honorée Corder: I think we have all heard you are the sum of the five of your closest relationships. I think it even actually goes deeper and broader than that. I like to be in relationship with people who are yes and people that. On a scale of 1 to 10, it’s an eight, 9 or 10. If they show up on my phone, if it’s an eight, 9 or 10, I’m answering the phone. And if it isn’t, I’m probably not right. And also, I really look for the relationships where one plus one equals three, like the two, the two of us together equal more than we are by ourselves. And that’s really important. So I’m looking for people who fall into givers, the givers gain category. So I’m always asking like, Tricia, what can I do for you? And I know because we all know about like the karma. We’ve heard of karma.

Speaker 4: And her her very.

Honorée Corder: Good attention to detail.

Speaker 4: That.

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm.

Honorée Corder: Intense attention to detail that what you put out is going to come back. What I put out is going to come back to me. And so I just go, well, if I’m, if I give ten times, then it’s going to come back multiplied. So I’m just going to give ten times. I’m not going to go, what can I get? I’m going to see what I can give. I’m going to plant the seeds. And so I surround myself with people who have the same philosophy because some people, and I think it’s an Adam Grant book, givers, takers matters. The book is give and take, and he talks about people who give, people who take and people who match. And I legitimately went to dinner. We went to dinner with some friends last night and they were like, Will you pay last time? And my husband and I were like, are you sure? Because we could not remember. I could not remember. I was like, well, we’ll pay. And they’re like, no, no, no, you pay less. I’m like, I honestly did not remember. I’m gonna have to write it down because I don’t keep track. I always, I always just want to offer.

Speaker 4: And those are the people that we want to hang out with. Yes, yes. And it’s not about paying.

Honorée Corder: It’s about the giving, right? It’s about. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4: Absolutely.

Trisha Stetzel: It’s not about it’s not about keeping track of your turn. My turn. Oh, you gotta pay because I paid last time. Not my friend. Right. I, I don’t want to be around people like that.

Speaker 4: Yeah.

Honorée Corder: I can’t remember what I ate yesterday. How am I going to remember who paid?

Speaker 4: So.

Honorée Corder: Like, legitimately, someone will say, I got your thank you card in the mail. And I’m like, oh, good.

Speaker 4: Oh, good. I’m so glad.

Trisha Stetzel: And you handwrite your thank you notes.

Speaker 4: By the way.

Honorée Corder: I do, I do, I have, I have some right here that are going to go out. But if you ask me in two weeks, if I sent it only if I wrote it in my bullet journal will I remember I just have ceased to keep track of things that I don’t feel like make that big of a difference, if that makes sense.

Speaker 4: It does.

Trisha Stetzel: Absolutely.

Speaker 4: Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: All right. I have as we wrap up today, one last thing for you. If our listeners remember just one thing, just one thing from our conversation today, what do you hope it is?

Honorée Corder: Oh gosh. Um, that your show is awesome and they should listen to all, all of the episodes.

Speaker 4: And that’s nice.

Honorée Corder: And also perhaps that if they thought about writing a book, they absolutely should write a book. 100%.

Speaker 4: Yeah, I love that.

Trisha Stetzel: And they should reach out to you. So, uh, your book means business, I saw it. It’s beautiful. I think everyone should have a copy of.

Speaker 4: And I’ll send you one.

Honorée Corder: I’ll send them one. They can just send me an email or mail them a copy.

Trisha Stetzel: Yes. So say that you heard Honorée say that on my show. So that. Right? Uh, yeah. Honorée will send you a book. I love that, thank you. That is so kind of you. There you go. Giving again, giving again. I it has been such a pleasure to have you on the show today. I want you to tell folks one more time. Please tell us where they can find more information or connect with you.

Honorée Corder: Yep. So you can find more information@Honorée.com, honorecorder.com. You can download a copy of the book there. I will mail you a copy of the book. And also I’m on the LinkedIn, like all the cool kids on the LinkedIn hanging out, they’re.

Trisha Stetzel: All on LinkedIn. I think that’s how I found you. Oh, actually, I found you through six other people, you know.

Honorée Corder: Seven levels that I just love that I love going back and playing like genealogy, but with networking.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Like, how did I actually meet you? And it is an amazing story. It is absolutely honoring. Thank you so much for being with me today. I appreciate your time.

Honorée Corder: Thank you for the honor of being here. You’re such a blessing to me. Thank you so much.

Trisha Stetzel: Thank you. All right, you guys, that’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in the conversation and I had today, please share it with a fellow entrepreneur, a future author, veteran or Houston leader ready to grow. Be sure to follow, rate and review the show. It helps us reach more bold business minds just like yours and your business, your leadership and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.