Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

EP 379 - Simplifying Your Life & Work with Dre Baldwin

Sep 13, 2024

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Mark interviews Dre Baldwin the CEO and Founder of Work On Your Game Inc. about his books and his experience helping others in finding their own paths to success.

Prior to the interview Mark shares comments from recent episodes, a personal update, and a word about this episode's sponsor

This episode is sponsored by FROM PAGE TO PLATFORM by Matty Dalrymple and Michael La Ronn. You can learn more about the book at https://theindyauthor.com/platform.

During the interview, Mark and Dre talk about:

The importance of the simplification process as a great place to begin
The 80/20 rule and the less-than-smooth ways we have of not being able to drop the 80%
How, over time, Dre has accumulated little pieces of wisdom that have ended up being part of the training and coaching that he does
The first question that Dre often asks which is: What is your goal?
The challenge of being inundated with so many messages which results in trying to work on more than one priority
How Dre has always been a big reader and a bit of a closet computer geek
The appeal of self-generated media and being able to articulate his ideas
Putting videos on YouTube about the basketball he was playing professionally and how other players began to take advantage of his advice and coaching
How even people who weren't playing sports could benefit from those basketball videos, which led to Dre recognizing he could help people beyond athletes
How a lot of Dre's mindset stuff started to come out around 2009/2010
Blogging his ideas and starting to put out his books
How discipline is the most important hallmark of the professional
The way people can fall off their structure and the importance of finding the structure that works best for you
Coaches being one of the ways that people can find/apply the proper structure
How a true professional holds themselves accountable to a structure
Shortcuts as something that can come from the right coach
The way that a coach can KEEP a professional athlete good
Human beings doing better work when accountability is involved
The importance of showing yourself the same respect you would show to a "boss" or some other supervisor or superior you report to at work
How the two golden questions related to your goal (What do you want and why do you want it?) help you build that bridge to the structure that can get you there
Knowing that he had always wanted to write a book and combining that with the fact he knew he already had an audience via his YouTube channel
The reason Dre didn't really pursue traditional publishing and decided to publish it himself in 2010
Dre's book Buy Me A Game (which is available as a free download)
Publishing about 19/20 books between 2010 and 2017
Doing an in person speaking gig in Atlanta all on his own dime and what opportunities that led to, including a New York publisher (McGraw Hill) who was interested in publishing a book for him. That book was Working on Your Game
Why Dre wasn't interested in reliving that experience again without the right offer/contract in place
Adapting part of the traditional publishing editing process into his own procedure for self-publishing his books
Why Dre prefers to have direct sales of his books on his own website
How in business the most valuable thing you have is your customer list
Dre's book The Third Day: The Decision That Separates The Pros From The Amateurs
How a professional shows up and delivers even when they don't "feel like it" - that's what makes them a professional
The fact that most people don't hear something you say - repeating it or exploring it in different ways can help
And more . . .

After the interview Mark reflects on several of the points Dre brought up in the conversation, including re-leveraging your own IP by exploring a single topic into further detail and the fact that a professional always shows up.

Links of Interest:

Dre Baldwin is CEO and Founder of Work On Your Game Inc. He has given 4 TEDxTalks and has authored 35 books.

Dre’s content has been consumed over 103 million times. His daily Work On Your Game MasterClass has amassed over 2,900 episodes and over 7.3 million listeners.

Dre had a 9-year professional basketball career, playing in 8 countries. Dre’s framework is the "roadmap in reverse" for professional Mindset, Strategy, Systems & Accountability.

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0