Founder's Story - She Made $3M in One Week With 7 Words | Ep 296 with Aurora Winter Founder of Same Page Publishing

Episode Date: January 5, 2026

In this recorded episode of Founder’s Story, Aurora Winter joins Daniel Robbins to deliver a masterclass on storytelling, neuroscience, and why the right words at the right time can change the trajectory of a business, a book, or an entire career. Key Discussion Points Aurora shares the moment she realized storytelling wasn’t a “nice-to-have” but a revenue-defining skill—when seven carefully chosen words took a business from stalled to $3 million in a single week. She explains how the brain processes messages in three stages, why most founders mistakenly start with logic, and how pattern interrupts capture attention without triggering fear. The conversation explores why stories sell while data merely informs, how credibility and authority function neurologically, and why books, podcasts, and YouTube are becoming critical legacy assets as AI reshapes discovery. Aurora also dives into imposter syndrome, fame versus service, myth-busting as a messaging tool, and why practicing your message may be the highest-ROI activity a founder can do. Takeaways This episode reveals that attention isn’t disappearing—it’s becoming more selective. Founders who lead with emotion, story, and clarity outperform those who rely on features and facts. Messaging must first hook the reptilian brain, then establish social proof and authority, before delivering substance. Books function as intellectual passports that unlock stages, media, and trust. Story structure is not fluff—it is strategy. And ultimately, the most powerful messages emerge when founders shift the spotlight away from themselves and onto the people they serve. Closing Thoughts Aurora Winter reminds us that businesses don’t fail because ideas are weak—they fail because the message never lands. In an era where anyone can create content, the founders who win will be the ones who choose their words with intention, practice relentlessly, and understand that a single message can quietly change everything. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

So Aurora, I'm particularly excited to have you on. That's a hard word to say, by the particularly. But I'm excited to have you on because you and I, I think, both agree that stories are imperative to anyone. Telling a good story could be the differentiating factor between people remembering you and not remembering you. What was the moment for you when you realized just how important telling a story is? I had an occurrence where I had a million-dollar idea for business, and we were trying to sell it, and it was just not landing. But I knew it was a million-dollar idea, and when I came up with seven words that totally captured the idea that made $3 million in one week. So from going from completely stalled to $3 million in one week was seven words. So that was the moment where I'm like, holy-money-money. It's not enough to have just a great idea. You also have to have a great message. In that particular case, the seven words were five weeks of sun, fun, and tax shelter.

And the neuroscience behind that is like, what? Those three things don't go together, sun, fun, and tax shelter? And that was enough to be a pattern interrupt and grab people's attention. We were selling yachts with tax shelter benefits. And what happened is, in addition to the $3 million in a week at a boat show, we also doubled our profit margins from 12% to 24%. And we became the largest yacht dealer in Western Canada. Nobody could compete with us.

Well, they could have competed with us, but they chose not to. Because there were barriers to intrigues you had to figure out the tax shelter. So every client, I've helped, every founder I've helped nail their message, has come to me with zero capital raised. and they've all raised seven or eight figures. And it's about distilling your message to the essence that grabs attention. I call that the movie trailer mindset, like something quick. And then you want to lean into the Netflix series mindset and continue to give them more stories, more information, and engage until they say yes.

So why does this land with people? Like, what is the neuroscience behind it? The neuroscience behind how the brain works, you know, so many people are out there. They're saying people have short attention spans of eight seconds less than a goldfish. That's not really accurate. It's more that people have gotten very efficient at distilling whether they want to listen further to your message. So yes, you have to grab attention in the first couple of seconds. But if you grab attention and if you build trust, people will hang with you for three hours if you're Joe Rogan.

Right. So you want to both have a pattern interrupt or something really grabby, like five weeks of sun fun and tax culture, which appeals to the crock brain. The crock brain's always looking for, is this novel? Is this new? Is this dangerous? Is this interesting? Is this something tasty, yummy to mate with or munch on? But you don't want to make people shut down with fear.

But you also don't want to be just like every other message. And you want to do your message in this order. First, ancient reptilian brain, crock brain. Secondly, midbrain. So many people miss this step, midbrain, and the third cerebral cortex, which is most people start with the cerebral cortex. This is not the place to start.

So grab attention with, like, what category we have, like a book title, turn words into wealth. It's got a benefit. But the midbrain part is the awards. The brain, human beings survive for millennia, not because we're faster or stronger or have sharper teeth, but because we live in tribes. So we're hypervigilant.

for who else thinks this is cool. Does this messenger have status? As a founder, I'm thinking a lot about my goals for 2026. We want to hit a million subscribers on YouTube. We want to hit revenue milestones that we never have done. In order to do that, I need to build the right team. And I need to make sure I surround myself with people who are great at what they do. Because here's the truth. Finding the right people is very hard. It's like when you're hiring, how do you even know who's qualified for the role on your team. That is where ZipRecruiter comes in. ZipRecruiter makes it easy to find top talent fast. Their matching technology works quickly to connect you with people who are a great fit so you don't waste time or money. You can even see how many qualified candidates are in your area right away.

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And the root of the word authority is author. Congratulations on your new book. That's great. And so you want to hit that second stage. You can do that really quickly by just awards you've won, clients you've worked with, name drop. And then third, go on to the main core of your message. But you want to blend stories with data.

And in fact, most people don't realize this, but data triggers the analyst brain and the analyst brain does not buy. Whereas the story brain does. We buy with emotion. We decide emotionally. and then we rationalize with the numbers. I learned a lot.

As you're saying it, I was thinking about messaging that I've been doing. Like, oh, okay, I've been doing this all wrong. I need to tweak the messaging. So would you say that I imagine when it comes to sales, this could be a major thing. But how does this tie into a book? Like you said before about the yachts, I could totally understand from a sales perspective.

I'm thinking about my copy, by the way. I totally redid my whole way. website in that first couple of minutes that you were talking. But how do you see this translating into a book and obviously something that's much longer? It applies to every element of communication. And so I invite people to just think about your title of your book. Make it really clear what problems you solve. Think about the subtitle of your book and test it. But every bit of information, like every chapter should start with a hook. In my books, usually the chapters start with a little quote that grabs attention really quickly, then there'll be a story, and then there'll be a lesson,

there'll be some action you can take. So, and even within the chapter, each, like I, there are so many hidden story structures. Once you learn these structures, I know you're also in media, so you know most of these structures as well. Once you master these structures, which I've explained in the book Turned Words into Wealth, then you can lay over it almost any story. So the hero's journey, story structure is super effective. Most people are familiar. with that from watching any movie like Star Wars. But each founder should have their own hero's journey story to share. Like, why did they start the company? What was the turning point? Or how have they impacted and transformed the lives of the people who use their product or service?

So you want to collect all of those stories and really leverage them. But there are shorter things. For example, I can teach really quickly, a myth bust is a great way to do a pattern interrupt. I will get that crock brain. You know, so you want to consider what is it that everybody knows? That is absolutely wrong. So for example, at same page publishing, which is the company that I found in most recently, I've founded a bunch of companies. You know, I think the myth is people think they need a ghostwriter. But the fact is they don't need a ghostwriter. They actually need to be launched as an author, as a thought leader. So what we do at same page publishing is instead of just getting them the manuscript or just getting them book, you know,

we book them on podcasts, we do media training, we apply for awards, we get the book launch with reviews, we set up like a three-month pre-launch campaign. So it's interesting, like you can always do a myth bust, see what people think in your industry and then if it's not right, bust it. And that'll quickly grab a touch. What do you think needs to change internally for people? I think I obviously know people that I can tell they really want to be famous. Like they go on TikTok and they dance and they get a lot of followers and they love the fame part. But I think there's also a lot of people that are hesitant because they don't, they're afraid of the, you know, the word fame, right?

Most likely they're not going to become famous. But still, the thought of that makes them nervous. What do you think needs to change internally? Well, I think we all suffer from imposter syndrome from time to time. And I'm not an expert. I'm fame. I'm not a Kardashian. But what I would offer is that when we have the spotlight focused on ourselves,

that's when depression or uncertainty or imposter syndrome creeps in. When we can shift the spotlight of attention onto the people that we want to serve. Like, I know, you're up to a mission, right, with your founder's story. You're not just saying, hey, I want to be famous. You're saying, hey, I want to change lives. I want to help founders. So when you turn the spotlight onto the lives of your clients, your listeners, or your audience, then you can communicate so much more effectively.

And who knows, fame may or may not happen, but you're far more likely to enjoy the journey. I like famous in your industry versus like general faith. I'm fascinated by this, by the way. I feel like I want to take your brain and put it into like chat. GBT and just have a chat GBT that tells me all my stories. Was there a time, though, when your story didn't land, and maybe you thought it was going to, but for some reason it didn't take up the way you wanted it?

So many times. What went wrong there? Firstly, no matter how good your story is, it's not for everyone. So I think we can lean into, I think Jack Hanfield was the person who said it, but maybe he wasn't the first, you know, some will, some won't so what someone's waiting right i really like that but for me the times when i have failed to connect and thought that i should have it was because i rushed too much and i thought well it was obvious to the other person why whatever i was up to was going to be like better than

sliced bread but i didn't slow down enough to check in with them and here's a quick tip everybody can use right away so a good way to check in with other people know what the meeting is or if you're dealing with a prospect, is have them describe in their own words what they think their hell is. Like, what are their challenges? What are their problems? What are their frustrations? What's driving them crazy? And then what would heaven look like? Like, what would it look like if they solved those problems? If they overcame that adversity, if they were a better communicator, if they got, you know, best-selling awarding book, have them describe those two things and then sit with that and just reflect back.

and say, what I'm hearing you say is, and then you feed back what the hell is, you're currently having these challenges. And what I'm hearing you say is you'd really like these challenges to be solved. And if they were solved, this would be the impact. And the time of when I failed to have my message land, I did not do that. And that's a simple thing to do. And I've had so many people, when I do take the time to do that, go, wow, that helped me so much. I just mirrored back what they said, but the penny dropped for them. And then I'm like, well, duh, I guess I definitely want a bestselling award winning but can you help me with that be a penny dropper i like i could remember the times you're right where i was it was more selling it's like you know you can sell the

value of something or you can sell like what it is and when you sell too much of what it is it totally doesn't land because who cares about what it is it's like how it's going to impact me i've made that mistake many times aurora i imagine to your name stands out to people i really I think what do you think about having like a like something that defines you? For example, like your name. And I know a lot of actors would change their name or I know someone, every time he goes to like a speaking engagement or somewhere, he wears these wild looking pants.

And I ask someone, he's like, it's just my thing. People remember, boy, how do you feel about that? I think that can work for some people. You know, whatever feels right to you and is fun. I think if it's part of your brand, like one of my clients, she's got purple hair. And that's really part of her brand. And it gives her joy. So I think if it gives you joy that you're onto a correct kind of branding.

But if you're forcing it, then probably not. So if it's not your thing to wear like a glittery glove like Michael Jackson, don't go there. The other time what the penny really dropped for me about the power of message, I, you know, I host nilly-nulli message training. and I had one of my clients, and it's like a couple of day event, and I have them come and present at the beginning of the event, and then at the end of the event. And one of my clients came up, and everybody in the audience was like, okay, I know this guy's smart.

I think he's got, you know, integrity, but I have no idea what he's doing. I don't understand his business because he was getting in the way, weeds. Like, it was 14 steps down into the coding of it. And then on the last day, when he came up, And he was much more clear after having practiced and having all of the tools, people in the audience actually invested in his business on the spot. So again, the power of having the right words, the right words at the right time can just change your whole life. And a quick example, like we all know how what a success the Apple launches are. But Steve Jobs spent three weeks practicing what to say, where to stand, where to pause.

And so if you think you're too busy to practice your message, you could be wrong. In fact, I think it's the highest payoff activity that you can do. I think a big mistake is people work so hard on their products, their services, their SOPs, their team, their culture, whatever. And then they just pay no attention to their message. And I would love people to lean into practicing your message. And read the book, Turnwords Into Wealth, and give you a bunch of tips. And it's even for free. You can get it at Turnwords Into Wealth.com.

mine gift to you, you get the ebook for free with. Lots of things you can do. I mean, turn words into wealth. Like, when you first said, I'm like, I need that book right now. And I'm not as busy as Steve Jobs. So I know that, you know, there's no excuse for me. And I didn't realize that about three weeks. If I could meet someone, I would have really like to meet Steve Jobs and have a conversation.

I feel like that would be very interesting. We had his business coach on here before some. And the guy gave us some very fascinating stories about him. But I feel like that'd be an interesting person to me. Who would you want to mean? If you could sit down and have a conversation. I'd love to meet Elon Musk. He's my hero.

In spite of all the flak, he's been gotten. That guy is so intelligent. He's scary, smart. Gosh, I'd have to think what would be a good question to ask him? That would be that I could understand the answer to. I would love to know more about why he wants us all to have an ability to live on Mars. I guess that kind of makes sense, but I would like to learn more about that. When you, and I understand all these things that you're saying today.

And I mean, this is really a master class. And I know obviously people can get the book and all the things that you offer to. What was it, though, a turning point when you said a book? Like, why is a book the shift? Because I think books used to be like, I write a fiction book because I'm an author. And I think a lot of people say, I don't want to write a book because I'm not an author.

And I know you mentioned me for some tips there. But why was it that a book is such an important piece that people can build wealth and do things? Whoa. That's the adult fantasy, magic mystery, and the multimedia. I like that. That looks amazing.

I want to read that book. It's amazing. It's kind of like Harry Potter meets Doctor Who. And it won the Reader's Choice Award for now. Yeah, so that's pretty cool. There's a trilogy of books. And we also have a YouTube channel called Anna ZSS series. So why a book to answer your question? Amazon is the number three search engine, but YouTube is the number two search engine. So as SEO, search engine optimization is being overtaken by AI, so AEO or generative engine optimization, whatever we're going to call it, GEO. I think it's a really wonderful chance in 2026 to jump on your branding because I, I'm going to say, I'm going to call it GEO. I think it's a really wonderful chance in 2020s, because I think it's a really wonderful chance. I think it's a really wonderful chance. I think it. I think it's a I think there's an opportunity right here right now to really boost your brand. And I think if you miss this window of opportunity in 2026, maybe part of 2027, you're going to regret it. So I don't think it's only about a book.

I think it's about communicating what you're up to and what you care about in a way that's useful to others. A book is a legacy piece. You kind of really only need one amazing book. Like James Clear has done just fine with just atomic habits. I think it took them 10 years to publish the workbook to Atomic Habits. but that book, he promoted it for a whole year before it came out, and then he's been speaking about it for a decade after, with five years on the New York Times best seller list.

So a legacy piece of intellectual property like a book opens doors that you didn't even know were closed to you. It's like having an MD or a PhD or an MBA, he didn't even know that you couldn't get in that door without it, and then, well, all of a sudden, you can speak on larger stages, get on media, get on TV. But I also really would love the listeners, to pay more attention to YouTube.

So in October of 2025, so just two months ago, OpenAI dropped Sora 2. And as a result, it's now possible at a small business budget to do amazing videos. You can see some examples that Anna ZS series. We had a video go viral. I spent 250,000 views. And it's just shocking, amazing what you can do now.

You know, my backgrounds in film and TV. But you couldn't. do that on a reasonable budget to have a character and have motion and have music and have dialogue and having, you know, just emotion. And now you can do it. So whether another example is at strategic basics, it's me talking to camera, but then a lot of B-roll. So that's the in-between step. That's if you want to go with an animated avatar or not. I think there's a huge opportunity to step up your branding in 2026. And in fact, I have a new book coming out in 2026, called brand strategy in the age of AI, catch the wave, own the future.

It's great, like you said, you can do things you couldn't do before at a very low budget. Yeah. The same time, everyone can do things at a low budget. So I almost feel like you now have millions more people who could potentially be competing with you in your same space. So what's going to really make you stand out? And, you know, I didn't, I'd never even thought about the atomic habits of just you, if you have one book, it's like having that one TED talk. Yeah, it's that X talk. Like if you have that one thing, that one thing, you're only one step away.

We had a guest on this like nobody was watching his stuff, but one person watched it and it changed his whole life. So it's only that one thing. You only need one fan. That's fair. one. You can be one video away, one book away, one podcast, a periods away from 10xinger, more your business and your income and your influence. So it's pretty exciting time to be alive. Yeah. And I really love it. Like we, you know, our two minute videos have the same amount of structure behind them as a 90 minute feature film. So that's kind of, you know, our edge is as an

award-winning screenwriter. I know the story structure behind successful feature films and I can write a draft of a video that's two minutes long, but that is structured like a feature film. So it hooks attention. And I'm finding that a really fun challenge. That's amazing. I just find myself making videos and stuff that are useless. I have nothing to do in my business. It's like a hobby.

And I saw Disney will start allowing, I don't know if they already did or they're about to start allowing people on Sora to be able to use Disney characters and such. but can you tell your website again how they can get the book and all that? Sure. So my website is same pagepublishing.com because I come on the same page as my clients. And if people would like help being launched as a thought leader, they can sign up for a business breakthrough call for free at bookcall.biz, bookcall.biz. And if they would like to get Turn Words Into Wealth, absolutely for free, they can go to, guess it,

turn Words Into Wealth.com. it really simple for you and you'll get the e-book for free or the physical book is available wherever books are sold and many people like the physical book i really like that i can see now it's like we don't always think about the name of something it's like we come up with the name we come up with things but i don't think we always put a lot of thought into like what that will represent and what that means but i can tell you are you do everything you do is strategic and that is amazing. Aurora Winter, how can you forget that name? That's like, I'll never forget your name, but thank you so much for giving all this information today. I learned so, I think I might have

learned the most in 22. It's, I'm glad to finish out the year with this, with this episode, because I think this might be the most I've ever learned. Wow, what a nice compliment. Almost six years of doing that. I saw that. Covered a lot very quickly. A lot. This is, this is really a lot. This is amazing, but they can. It's so much. And they, the year and thanks so much. Exactly. Exactly. I think we're going to have a huge 2026 just off this information today. So thank you for joining us. Thank you.