Mick Unplugged

I picked up a book, the four hour work week by Tim Ferriss.

and then I in Jordan Peterson's book, 12 Rules for Life was very helpful to me. There was two books, Ryan Holiday's The Obstacle Is The Way made me look at my situation like this is my opportunity for growth.

I, especially if you're starting out as 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson. You can't lead others. You can't lead yourself. That's been my journey.

You can get it right now on Amazon. Go to this link and I'll send you an autographed copy today. Or visit my website at sonjakeeve.com.

I just dropped my new book, Beyond the Mic, The Game Changing Guide to Podcasting.

I wrote another book called a march or die. Same as the podcast that talks about our experience in Iraq and some small books that we've written on posttraumatic stress, suicide, spiritual resiliency.

It's called the March or Die podcast comes. The title comes from a story, um, a fight that we were in, in Iraq. And the principle is this in life, we're going to have traumas and trials ... we have to decide, am I going to stay where I am and die? Or am I going to march?

Right. Absolutely. And I think that's the perfect segue to the book. So, I'm going to hold it up for all the viewers. Yet Here I Am. Lessons from a Black Man's Search for Home. Segueing from the song from Diana Ross. Right. So, I got a copy of the book. Your team sent me a copy. And I was frozen. Just the title in and of itself. Yet Here I Am. I was like, oh, we're going to church.

I was like, there is a sermon in this title. And then I opened the book and we started going there, man. So, like, my first question for you about the book is ... why did you say, I've got to write this memoir. I've got to write this book. People need to know this.

Fast forward 20 years, I read Charles Blow's memoir, Fire Shut Up in My Bones. Again, raw, open, honest, introspective. And it showed me where the passion came from in Charles's columns for the New York Times.

My friend Richie Jackson, who had just finished writing his book, Gay Like Me, A Letter from a Father to a Son, he said to me, Jonathan, remember, put yourself on every page.

When I read Michelle Obama's book, Becoming, when I read Valerie Jarrett's book, Finding My Voice, to read the similar experiences that they went through with this same thing.

In your book, Supply Chains Ups and Downs, I find that is one of the most impactful leadership books out there, right? Like, yeah, it reads specific to the supply chain industry, the niche that's there. But brother, you have this one part of the book where you talk about the importance of contingency planning.

For the book, it's at supplychainupsanddowns.com or on Amazon as supply chain ups and downs.

And I want to segue to your book, The Personal Podium. Because in your book, you have a lot of really huge gems that I just go back to.

And in your book, you really talk about your personal gold standard.

He said, will you write a book with me? We'll call it The Coffee Bean. And in the summer of 2019 that book, The Coffee Bean, came out, took the world by storm, four to six weeks at the top of every bestseller list, got a global publishing deal and was reprinted in dozens of languages.

In the summer of 2019, that book, The Coffee Bean, came out, took the world by storm. Four to six weeks at the top of every bestseller list. Got a global publishing deal. It was reprinted in Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, French, Italian, German, Vietnamese, Korean.

Then in 2020, a global pandemic hits. The entire world becomes a pot of boiling water and the entire world is searching for the right message. That's when the world discovered The Coffee Bean guy.

I love it, man. And you brought up the book. So let's transition and segue there. Blue Collar Cash. Right. An amazing book. It's one that has been a quick reader for me, and I've given it to some family and friends that I have as well, too.

What should they be thinking about when they hear comfort, peace and freedom? ... those three words, I just couldn't get rid of them. ... I almost devised like in my mind, they're like a triangle, like they're independent upon each other for their very existence, comfort, peace and freedom.

So, Ken, man, like where can people follow, find you and more importantly, purchase this book?

Well, if you go to KenRusk.com, you'll see the book.

Exit, Voice, and Loyalty by Albert O. Hirschman, who looks at the different way that economists and political scientists think about how people react when things start to go wrong.

I love that. I love that. So let's go to speaking out the new book, man. Like I want to get the backstory of what compelled you to write it because me as a writer, you know, my first book is coming out later this fall.

Well, you know, I've been watching and studying how leaders in all sectors speak for 15 years or so. And at one point I noticed that corporate leaders specifically were addressing political and social issues in a way that they never had when I was growing up. And I thought this is a really interesting phenomenon.

I think that we mentioned one of them first, which is if you're the leader and you're thinking, do I say something? You do have to listen. You have to, so let's say it's your employees. I think that's really where this is most important is you need to be willing to spend time just listening and not coming in with a point of view about something you don't know or haven't experienced in your own lived.

Sure. Yeah. Well, matthewcohut.com is where everything is centered, but I'm in all the usual places as far as where you can find the book. It's at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, all the rest of the outlets, bookshop, et cetera.

The greatest thing anyone ever said about one of my books was that it was short and fast to read and I thought I succeeded.

I'm going to tell the story of one of my coauthors in a book I wrote called The Smart Mission. My late coauthor and mentor, Larry Prusak, was probably one of the world's leading authorities on the whole idea of knowledge in organizations.

It's apocryphal, but I know the person who this worked with, who actually had this happen. A knowledge expert was talking to the leader of a Japanese corporation...