My Favorite Mistake: Business Lessons from Failures and Success Canadian Journalist & Author Mike Ulmer Learned From a Conflict With a Colleague
Publisher, book coach, and more.
Episode page with video, transcript, and more.
*** I WANT TO WRITE MY BOOK *** (AD)
My guest for Episode #176 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Mike Ulmer. While he specializes in helping business people write their books, he has written 13 books with a total of nearly $1 million in total sales revenue.
His latest book (March 2022) is Show and Tell Writing: A Great Short Business Book About How To Write A Great Short Business Book.
His other recent titles are Drop The Mic Marketing with Jason Hunt (2022), The 50-Year-Old Millennial: The Leadership Gap Exposed By Millennials And How To Close it with Marc Petitpas (2021) and The 40 Ways of The Fox (2021) with Ron Foxcroft.
He worked as the in-house storyteller for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Raptors and TFC as the senior writer at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment.
He has written for The Toronto Star, National Post, Southam News Bureau as well as news organizations across Canada.
Interesting fact — With 170,000 in sales, his book, M is for Maple is the bestselling alphabet book in Canadian publishing history. His website is https://www.mikeulmer.ca/
In this episode, Mike tells his favorite mistake story about striking a journalist colleague while in flight on a plane. Why did his sense of “grandiosity and recklessness” lead to this moment that changed his life? Why was this a “favorite mistake”? How did this moment make Mike realize that he needed help so he could now lead a better life?
We also talk about questions and topics including:
- As a cancer survivor, why is it a mistake to use the phrase “battle with cancer?”
- Why should people write a business book? You say in your book “everyone should” — why is that?
- Even if you’re not a writer?
- Credibility… Mistake to assume you can also speak?
- Mistake to write with the audience in mind?
- “Have to take a contrarian stance”
- Publishing mistakes?
- Predatory people in the publishing system?
- “When I see the term best seller… bullshit”