The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Prince: A Portrait of the Artist by Paul Sexton

Episode Date: September 14, 2021

Prince A Portrait of the Artist by Paul Sexton Prince Rogers Nelson was a musical phenomenon who constantly reinvented himself throughout his long and colourful career, changing his style and even his name to keep his artistic output fresh and funky. Eccentric and flamboyant with an impressive vocal range, Prince influenced many other musicians with his trademark mix of funk, rock and R&B. In addition to his remarkable musical output, Prince helped other performers on their path to stardom, written songs for a variety of artists and even directed (and starred in) his own movies. He produced over 35 albums, including ten that went platinum in a career that spanned 5 decades, with 100m records sold worldwide. Fans around the world mourned his untimely death in 2016 but continue to buy records, books and memorabilia.

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times. Because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. Chris Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com. Thechrisvossshow.com.

Hey. Oh, my gosh. It happened again. We're doing another podcast. Who knew? Almost 1,000 podcasts, and we did another one. No one saw it coming. my gosh it happened again we're doing another podcast who knew almost a thousand podcasts and we did another one no one saw it coming not even me i was like what there's another one we have to do another one after 12 years anyway guys welcome to the podcast uh we certainly appreciate

you coming by everyone every one of you and you not that guy in the back though in the backseat of your car there we don't want that guy at the show but everybody else is welcome we're gonna be talking about prince today you may have heard of him he was a guy i think he made an album or two or song or something something in the 90s i think went on and so we're gonna be talking about him and of course i'm joking around everybody knows who prince is and if you don't you're gonna find out a lot more but you should probably check yourself if you don't know who Prince is. Anyway, guys, we're going to be talking about a wonderful author who's written a beautiful book about a beautiful man, Prince. But in the meantime, to see the video version of this, you want to go to youtube.com, 4chesschrisfons, hit the bell

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Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, all those places the kids are playing at these days. And there's one other place I almost forgot, goodreads.com. Goodreads.com, you can see everything we're reading and reviewing over there. And we actually just opened up, it's a Goodreads giveaway for our books. So if you want a free book, I think we're giving away like 10 autographed books over there. You can go over there and check that out as well. So we're excited to announce my new book is coming out. It's called Beacons of Leadership, Inspiring Lessons of Success in Business and Innovation. It's going to be coming out on October 5th, 2021. And I'm really excited for you to get a chance to read this book.

It's filled with a multitude of my insightful stories, lessons, my life, and experiences in leadership and character. I give you some of the secrets from my CEO Entrepreneur Toolbox that I use to scale my business success, innovate, and build a multitude of companies. I've been a CEO for, what is it, like 33, 35 years now. We talk about leadership, the importance of leadership, how to become a great leader, and how anyone can become a great leader as well. So you can pre-order the book right now wherever fine books are sold. But the best thing to do on

getting a pre-order deal is to go to beaconsofleadership.com. That's beaconsofleadership.com. On there, you can find several packages you can take advantage of in ordering the book. And for the same price of what you can get it from someplace else like Amazon, you can get all sorts of extra goodies that we've taken and given away. Different collectors, limited edition, custom made numbered book plates that are going to be autographed by me. There's all sorts of other goodies that you can get when you buy the book from beaconsofleadership.com. So be sure to go there, check it out or order the book wherever fine books are sold. And speaking of books, we of course have on deck the most important thing

we're going to be talking about today. Prince, a portrait of the artist coming out September 28th, 2021. So it's just coming right hot off the press by Paul Sexton. And Paul has written an amazing book about Prince, and it's a beautiful large picture book about Prince as well. Lots of different cool things, memorabilia. This is going to be a collector's item if you're a Prince fan. So anyway, welcome to the show, Paul. How are you? Hey, Chris. I'm really good. What an introduction. I feel like I'm exhausted. There you go. And I flipped to your author page on Amazon, and they need to fill that in for you. So give us a little bit of bio and background on you. Okay. Short version. short version a music journalist all

my life basically all my working life and the only real connection i can think of that draws me together with prince would be the fact that he signed his record deal his first record deal with warner's same year that i wrote my first piece for a music bank that'll have to do i think in terms of the connections 1977 so i started out writing for a british pop magazine called record mirror when i was still at school and here i am many decades later still doing the same thing no it's been great to have this kind of a lifetime writing about music and it's been fun writing about prince in particular i must say oh yeah so what a subject so give us your plugs your dot com so people can look you up on the interwebs and get to know you better.

Sure. Okay. Twitter would be a good thing, which is at P Sexton three, the numeral three. The Instagram is at Paul Sexton writes, as in writing. So, yeah, there's no website. Somebody needs to set me up with a website. You got to have one of those author websites. That's always good. But so we'll look forward to that. So what motivated you want to write this book? Is this your first book you've ever written? Yeah, it is. And a lot of people have been asking me why that is.

And there's no real answer to it, except that it's the right place, right time. And the fact that this guy is just, it feels like he's been, as with all of us, he's been in my life forever. And I had the opportunity to meet or to talk to a bunch of people who really knew him well so the idea of the book was let's not make this a celebrity fan fest but actually to have it really structured by people that you may not have heard of although if you're a prince fan you will who were you know around him at different key moments in his life and had some particular stories to tell so that it really is not intended to be a sort of full long exhaustive biography of prince it seems from his life as told by the people that were close to him and i should say also that it's an unusual one

because the book actually started out on the right i made it alongside all my writing i do a lot of broadcast work in the uk and internationally and that includes a lot of shows documentaries in particular for the bbc for bbc radio 2 over. And I made a documentary which aired on the first anniversary of Prince's death called Prince and Me, which was a two-hour show. So I got to do a bit more of a deep dive into his story. And that's where some of these interviews originate from there. That includes people that I had met before in some cases and I think I hope won the trust of, which is quite a big thing

in a case of something like prince because everyone's wary of talking to people like me quite understandably i think if you think about it you know that you'd certainly you totally get that because especially when it's people that are not necessarily as hugely known in their own i'm sure they all think that they just must get hounded a lot because of their association to Prince. You have to work hard in some cases to nudge the door open and to win their trust. And as I say, in some cases, I had managed to do that before with other things that I'd written or broadcast. That really was the starting point. Somebody from the publishing company, Welbeck, heard the documentary.

You never know who's listening, do you? It went from there and we obviously expanded it, augmented it and made it into the sort of the book that you see now and it's an extraordinary beautiful book i'm looking at the pdf right now on my screen that they sent me a while ago actually it's beautiful it's got these beautiful pictures it's got a coarse text so it's not like a book that's just 100 text text or some pictures that are thrown in. These are beautiful, extraordinary spreads that are put across the book. Let's see. A combination of rarely seen items, stunning photographs, and engaging narrative that includes interviews and quotes from people close to him,

pictures of custom-built guitars and other instruments, unique articles of clothing, stage accessories, handwritten notes, personally labeled recordings, interviews and quotes, of course, from so many people. It's a beautiful, it's almost a piece of artwork when it really comes down to it. So if you're a Prince fan, this is like, you have to have it. Thank you for the kind words. I can deflect all of the praise about the visuals to other people because I was very lucky to work with a really good picture editor. And the praise about the visuals to other people because I was very lucky to work with a really good picture editor. And the thing about somebody like Prince is that whoever is in that role really needs to know what they're doing and to know where to go to find this sort of imagery.

And then, of course, to license it is a whole other... And it's interesting because, as I think is the case with a lot of major artists now, some of the images that you'll see, whether it's the stage costumes or guitars that you play or various other artifacts in some cases now those things are in they reside in auction houses and they go in and out of private ownership it feels like every week i'm reading about something like an eric clapton guitar from 30 years ago that's suddenly on the blocks that was part of it and then there are photographs from private collections and newspapers both you know national and and international and indeed local from his early days when he was still doing interviews of course in those days um and everything from that to

instruments that he played on stage or his bible from when he became a jehovah's witness yeah it's we're not calling it a picture book as such but it's the idea of course is that the narrative supports the photography and the other way around, I hope. Yeah. Pictures start from, it looks like everything begins around his preteen era. Is that correct? Yeah. There's even the school yearbook picture.

There's a picture of him, I think, in a basketball jersey and probably on a PE team. That's right. And you can, I think you can recognize that it's him. And you can even, there is that, you can almost caption one or two of those photos. Go on, PE team. That's right. And you can, I think you can recognize that it's him and you can even think there is that. You can almost caption one or two of those photos, go on, try me, because he feels like he's ready for anything. And when you think about a picture of Prince

from his later years, little suggestion of a playful smile about his features, I think, and a kind of glint in his eye, a devilment in there somewhere. He was an extraordinary musician extraordinary gifted and talented musician the just what he used to do i think he had the studios were in maniapolis and he would just just do amazing stuff there forever

in early on you have pictures of him i he was just i think what i'm trying to say is a picture a pseudo picture book with the pictures at least that you put in here, really speak to him as an artist. Because not only was he an incredible artist, but he was a fashion genius or fashion god, if you will. And I think any book about Prince would be remiss if it didn't include pictures of how amazing it was. I'm seeing a picture here with Blackbeat that he's holding up and he's dressed like, he looks a little bit like Eddie Murphy in Raw. So he has a consummate

style very early on, I imagine. Yeah, and it changed repeatedly, didn't it? I think on a scale almost as a Bowie-esque kind of scale. Chameleon has become a bit of a cliche word, but it Bowie-esque kind of scale. Chameleon has become a bit of a cliche word, but it's true in the case of Prince.

Different hairstyle every time you saw him, amazing outfits in any setting. That really is in the showbiz tradition, isn't it? You cannot imagine this guy ever turning up, even on his own, in a pair of jeans. You'd figure that he's going to look pretty sharp, whatever he's doing. And that is very much in the style of his early heroes,

Little Richard or James Brown. I know this from other stories that I've heard and interviews I've done that those guys, they were never in plain clothes. They were just dressed to the nines, really, for their public at all times. I think Prince was similar. I imagine he recognized how important that was, or maybe he wanted to stand out as an artist.

And you have a picture here of Prince's first reel-to-reel demo tape recorded in 1977 when he was 18 years old. This is really cool. It's got the liner notes and stuff in it. That's right. It's amazing and great that some of in it. That's right. Yeah. It's amazing how great that some of those things have survived from his early days. And we've got to remember,

what I've done in the book as well as all of my interviews, we've got some examples of interviews that he did in his early days with local newspapers in Minneapolis, for example. And he is, you can tell by the the tone of some of those that he is pretty impatient. He thinks that he should be making it much more quickly. They can't understand why he knows he's good. That's the thing. And things are not happening quickly enough. And yet

when we look back, you we think of somebody who signed their first deal with a major label at the age of 19, which was with with warner brothers of course wow and a revolutionary deal pretty much no pun intended a contract in which he was basically given full creative from the very beginning and still as a teenager he is producing his own records and on a major label in those days or even now actually pretty outrageous i was growing up i don't like i think i was a kid and i was working on construction sites so we we would play the radio all day. My father had a subcontracting stucco business, and so I would help him during the summers, and we would blast the radio across the construction site, and that was our entertainment. And I remember Little Red Corvette and all the great hits that were coming out at the time.

I think one of his first or second albums or something. And it was like fire and just come out. His talent was just so amazing. And like you say, just at a very young age. What are some other things that we want to touch on or you want to tease out about the book to get them to pick it up? I suppose if we just go on a theme for a second about how precocious he was, he goes back even much further than we've just been discussing there

because this is a guy who wrote his first song when he was seven. Wow. And even then then music is beginning to be his life he was the he came from a broken home his parents were splitting up around that time he is moved really from pillar to post around the different locations in minneapolis and music is almost like his only constant so you can see how it became that important that quickly plus his father was an entertainer as well a stage performer in his own so that that And music is almost like his only constant. So you can see how it became that important that quickly. Plus his father was an entertainer as well, a stage performer on his own.

So that definitely had a big influence on him. But it's not until after the lovely foreword in the book by Susan Rogers, who was his engineer in all the classic stuff in the 80s. And after that, the first chapter is really about the meeting between Prince and a guy called Andre Simone, who really became one of his earliest friends because they met on their first day at a new school together at the age of 12, I think. And, you know, chatted in the playground, immediately feeling rather ostracized from everybody else, but bonding with each other over music. That was basically what they discussed from almost day one. And within a short time of that, Prince, who, as I say, had issues in his upbringing, was sharing, actually rooming with Andre in his parents' house, which gave him kind of the first signs of any stability in his life, really. And the two of them were together musically for quite some time after that, in the early versions of the bands together, before it became obvious that Prince really was going to be going along.

It looks like in the book you talk about his quote-unquote family, people that he had around him, people that he played with and stuff like that. Talk to us a little bit about that. He's an interesting contrast because this is somebody who had unbelievably exacting standards for both of himself and those around him. Certainly didn't suffer fools, got frustrated with people who were not up to his mark and that was pretty much it could have been almost anybody because he was you know multi-instrumentalist and developing genius tendencies even then i think having said that he he was and remained quite a loyal person who in the very early days before that first record deal he had to be persuaded to go solo there were people that were noticing him around town and he for a while was much more of a sort

of band ethic he wanted to to do it that way but i think because he even then as a teenager he had this magnetic personality and charisma it was always going to end up being him on his own having then you'd notice the next thing is that he he then and again throughout his life he gives great opportunities to people to be in his band in one or two cases almost literally plucking people off the street to be in the band and play live all over the place and that's an endearing thing i think he wanted to give people the opportunity and he's sometimes they weren't up to it. But it's a nice idea. I always think that's a facet of any musician is if they retain that sort of band ethic, which I think a lot of people do. It's really extraordinary.

What did you learn that you didn't know or maybe a lot of people don't know that when you did your research for them? One of the recurring things about Prince and Susan Rogers talks about it a lot, is his great sense of humor, which is not necessarily something that's always to the fore when you think about him, because you say his name, you think of showmanship, mystique, glamour, all those things. But Susan in particular and others point out

that he had a really, quite a boyish sense of fun. She at one point said to me that he had, sometimes he could have the sense of humor of a 13 or 14 year old boy. She was smart enough to realize that quite a few of us are like that actually. It's not exactly unique. I'm still 13. Yeah. Yeah. I think we all are in our minds. As anybody who knows me. Yeah. Yeah. So that's something that comes through in a few particular stories about

what it was like to hang out with this guy and it's somewhat hidden behind the work ethic because there are many other stories in there about how how demanding he would be how he would call Susan and other musicians in the middle of the night show up at Paisley Park straight away yeah but then there are other times where they could be maybe in a rehearse you know rehearsal or something or they'd actually they're on top of the situation and then again at Paisley Park they would all go out and into the courtyard and play basketball or something he was one of the boys to his degree but i don't think there was ever much doubt about who was in charge and he did a lot of private shows i think just for the city and stuff and people can come by paisley park right and do stuff yes he did yeah and of course all of the that they are legendary is a very

overused word but i think you have to use it about his after show parties as well because they were as as amazing as the shows themselves and what a i mean what an amazing showman because the other part before you even get to that is on a show day he'd be doing a very long rehearsal a sound check as well at the venue and his sound checks were like other people's gigs so they could go on a very long time then you've got the gig itself which is probably going to be the better part of three hours and then you've got the gig itself, which is probably going to be the better part of three hours. And then you've got the after show, which again, could be another two to three hours long. So this is somebody who was just, he could not stop himself. It was like something got in him on a show day and he did love the attention. There's no doubt about that, but it was also just down to the level of musicianship. And again, it's back to that thing of being in a band,

being the leader of a gang, I think that definitely appealed to him. Most definitely. It was a great tragedy when he passed. Tom Petty also passed, I believe, a fentanyl overdose, I think. And we lost so many great people. Jimi Hendrix. Sadly, we lost Stevie Ray Vaughan to a helicopter accident of all the stupid things to go on.

But still, so many of these great people. Like, why can't we lose, like, I don't know. I don't know who we should lose, but can we trade? Maybe, I don't know. What are some other things that we want to touch on and tease out about the book? Well, you know, just for a moment to dwell on that, his sad departure, it's especially sad

because it's not a traditional rock and roll death. He's not like in the 27 Club or anything like that. Really, I think in a lot of ways, it was a sort of byproduct, unfortunate byproduct of his workmanship because he worked so hard. He's on stage all those hours every day. He's in high heels. He was a short guy.

He put enormous strain on his body that way, and that did sadly result in the use of painkillers. That's a sad thing. But I hope that gradually, and we're five years down the line now already, And that did sadly result in the use of painkillers. That's a sad thing. But I hope that gradually, and we're five years down the line now already, five years since he died. And Susan and Susanna Melville and others said to me, I think they actually feel that their role really is to keep his memory alive. Not like he's somebody we're going to forget, but really to just make sure that the focus is on his music and not on how he died or anything else. I learned a lot after he passed away i didn't know about the paisley park stuff i grew up in the 80s 90s being

a heavy metal fan i'm a huge metallica and rush fan and i pushed a prince a little bit off to the side great music and stuff but even now i think it's better celebrated through the test of time i think i used to bully uh new wave people that liked his music in the i might have been guilty of that in high school not really i was a thin little kid anyway but i would there was the metal crowd there was the new wave crowd you yeah the the twain did not meet when he did because i always think that he was somebody that brought together the genres more than most he married rock and and r&b didn't he yeah i wonder how you as a rock fan would have thought about that amazing guitar i mean when i was younger really heavy and then now i'm into everything like you

can listen to classic rock uh still can't quite do country christian rock or uh what's the other thing i really i i don't get rap at all i just don't i just i don't get it but that's me i grew up in a generational thing. Yeah. Metallica just released their Black album again. I've been listening to that nonstop at the gym. I mean, with Prince in the early days, I think there's an interview probably on YouTube still

where somebody asks him what he wants to achieve with his music. And he's extremely focused. And it's not just about him. He says his real goal is to bring, it may sound corny, but he wanted to bring people together through music and to appeal to people no matter what their creed or sexuality or anything else was.

And I think he did it. You can quite fairly say that he really did achieve that. He really was huge. I'm telling stories of listening to him on the construction site. I would have been 11 years old at the time. And I'm 53 now what what a

story career but yeah i read about the paisley park stuff and the the shows used to do for the city and just how he was such a giving charity person i was like holy crap yeah that's amazing yeah and never made any fuss about that he's not it's not the first thing you think of when you think about him but that's what's the best way, isn't it? The best kind of charity, charitable endeavor, I think. Yeah, they should make a giant statue of him in that city or something, if they haven't already. He retained his connection to Minneapolis. A lot of people, that would have been a love-hate thing.

I'm sure in his early days, he couldn't wait to get out of there. Most people are like that. But as much as he did live in other places, he lived in Los Angeles, and he spent a lot of time in London, for example, and elsewhere, he retained those links with Minneapolis the way through. And you can tell that by the fact that the people that I interviewed for the book did something similar. They may have moved away now, but they have this connection with the area.

And it was an amazing music city at that time. And he could play with anybody. In fact, here's a picture i think from the super bowl i think a halftime show that he did i remember watching that he could play with anybody he was so versed as a musical genius yeah i think he's you look at the people that played with him that were influenced by him or that he it's a mutual thing of course but it's everyone miles davis um joni mitchell got up on stage with him one time and he and she's she loved him yeah and that's not an obvious you wouldn't necessarily jump to

that connection but and he actually recorded a version of a case of you for a joni tribute album he he was a he's just such a music fan that's the thing that comes across it and music of all i really enjoyed the book. The pictures are extraordinary, beautiful, just so amazing too. Oh, this is Amy Winehouse is in here. Sorry to interrupt. Yeah.

She played at the last of the very famous after show part of parties that he did at the, at the end of his incredible 20 to 21 night run at the O2 arena in London. She was there on the last show, along with a friend of mine, who's another amazing soul artist, Beverly Knight, who's in the book a lot as well. Another extraordinary last two, unfortunately, overdose.

But what an incredible book. What a celebration of the man's life, his talent. And I think anybody who's a Prince fan or wants to know Prince more should definitely pick up this book. To me, it's a collector's item. It looks like a collector's item. It's beautiful and extraordinary. Thank you very much. I think the idea is to make it something that could be that Prince fans

who already know a lot will get something out of. But it also has that sort of entry level kind of thing for anybody who wants to, is new on the block about Prince and wants to find out more. He produced over 35 albums, 10 that went platinum,

five decades with 100 million records sold worldwide. That's extraordinary. Where is he on the list? I know Billy Joel's high up on the list. The Beatles probably. Where is he on the list? I couldn't tell you a number, but he would be pretty high up there because partly because of his time. We're obviously talking about an era when people were still selling Where is he on the list? I couldn't tell you a number, but he would be pretty high up there.

Partly because of his time. We're obviously talking about an era when people were still selling unbelievable numbers, physical quantities of records. And that's changed now. And it changed even in his last 10 or 15 years as a recording artist that we consume music differently now. But yeah, it would be quite high on that chart, I think. And yes, the scorecard of albums while he was alive was 39, by the way. Wow.

I'm just reading off of Amazon, so just so you know. 39. Wow. I don't have time to produce my first album. I'm not musical. I'm just doing that joke. So anything more you want to plug, Paul, before we go out on the book? I think only to say that there are some nice stories in there from

people who they've all been interviewed many times about prince but i hope there's some things that people haven't heard too many times before and little insights into the way he was and some of those as i say are as part of the narrative i uh used some early interviews that he did or there's just some silly little vignettes about what he was like as a kid and the trouble they got into. And the impression you get, as I say, is somebody who was a workaholic for sure, but also fun-loving and liked to party as well. Yeah, hopefully.

In fact, I think years ago I met, oh, who's the gal who was on Baywatch that was actually one of his girls for a while and his little crew of oh not ladies uh not pamela the other karma electra okay yeah i got a chance to meet karma like i guess she was one of in one of his if i remember koki she was in his groove yes girls and wonderful gal just beautiful in person oh my god i was just like wow sometimes you meet people that are beautiful on tv and ads you meet them in person you're like there's a lot of makeup that goes on there but she was extraordinarily nice and they gravitated towards him i think i had a i was having a conversation with a guy here last week who actually met prince at the as a member of a british band who had a

had a grammy nomination in fact you may remember a bank called cutting crew who were had a really big hit yeah and the uk called Just Died in Your Arms. And they were nominated as Best Picture. I still hear that on the radio to these days. Yeah, of course. Yeah, and Colin Farley is the guy's name. And he told me the story about meeting Prince at the party. You know, because they were nominated, they got that chance.

And he's very matter-of-fact about it. He said Prince was on one side, Quincy Jones was on the other. But Colin was there with his girlfriend, and Prince was far more interested in the girlfriend than his girlfriend. I would never take my girlfriend around Prince. That would never happen. But maybe I'll start dressing him like Prince, then I can maybe

put that on my t-shirt. Maybe you need to start wearing the, I don't know if you saw it, the chainmail cap. Yeah. You've got the pictures too of him just wearing like a little sort of bikini thong bottoms at his early shows. I thought that was funny. I'm like, there you go.

You've got some magic mic. You've got some music. You're rocking and rolling. That's it. Some tips for all of us there. There you go. There you go. I'll start wearing that in public.

I think my parole agent says I can't do that anymore. Anyway, it's wonderful to have you on the show, Paul, and sharing this data with us. Thank you so much. And everyone should go buy the book. Thanks for coming on the show. Great to see you. Thanks. Thank you.

Give us your plugs wherever people can find you on the interwebs one more time, if you would. Okay, sure. Yeah, so Twitter, at P Sexton 3. And Instagram, at Paul Sexton Writes. And the book, just to mention mention is out for pre-order. Now it comes out in the States on the 28th of September. So Amazon Barnes and Noble, all the usual places.

There you go, guys, order it up wherever fine books are sold. Prince, a portrait of the artist. I got to tell you, it's a beautiful book. It really celebrates this life.

You definitely want to get it, especially if you're a fan, order that up. You can also go to goodreads.com for just Chrisesschrisvoss, youtube.com, 4chesschrisvoss, all the groups we have on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok. Go follow the show over there. We certainly appreciate it as well. Thanks for tuning in, everyone.

Be good to each other, and we'll see you guys next time. So we're excited to announce my new book is coming out. It's called Beacons of Leadership, Inspiring Lessons of Success in Business and Innovation. It's going to be coming on October 5th, 2021. And I'm really excited for you to get a chance to read this book. It's filled with a multitude of my insightful stories, lessons, my life, and experiences in leadership and character. I give you some of the secrets from my CEO stories, lessons, my life, and experiences in leadership and character. I give you some of the secrets from my CEO Entrepreneur Toolbox that I use to scale my business success, innovate, and build a multitude of companies.

I've been a CEO for, what is it, like 33, 35 years now. We talk about leadership, the importance of leadership, how to become a great leader, and how anyone can become a great leader as well. So you can pre-order the book right now wherever fine books are sold. But the best thing to do on getting a pre-order deal is to go to beaconsofleadership.com. That's beaconsofleadership.com. On there, you can find several packages you can take advantage of in ordering the book. And for the same price of what you can get it from someplace else like Amazon, you can get all sorts of extra goodies that we've taken and given away.

Different collectors, limited edition, custom made numbered book plates that are going to be autographed by me. There's all sorts of other goodies that you can get when you buy the book from beaconsofleadership.com. So be sure to go there, check it out, or order the book wherever fine books are sold.