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Ep147: Empowering People with DeLayna & Leon Elliott
Today on the Book More Show, we have a great conversation with DeLayna & Leon Elliott, authors of ' 'The Power of OneNess-Winning in Marriage and Money. ' and Relationship and financial advisors
This discussion is fascinating, especially if your business and passion align. As financial advisors, DeLayna and Leon help families secure their financial future, but they are also passionate relationship coaches. Their book combines their expertise in these fields and is the perfect way to start a conversation with the people they can best help.
They know that taboos around financial conversations cause many failing relationships, and their approach is to uncover a unique approach by interweaving financial literacy with conversation and intimate relationship elements to create a holistic approach that empowers their clients.
Having been in business for more than 20 years, they know their financial products are the perfect fit for most clients they speak to about relationship counseling. It removes selling pressure and becomes one of many issues people are excited to resolve.
Their book is the perfect tool at the top of the funnel to help them identify new clients and support even more referrals.
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
LINKS
DeLayna Elliott - LinkedIn
Leon Elliott - LinkedIn
Leon & DeLayna
World Fidelity Life
Show notes & video: 90minutebooks.com/podcast/147
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TRANSCRIPT
(AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors)
Stuart: Hey everyone, welcome back to the Bookmore Show. It's Stuart Bell here and today, super excited, I'm joined by DeLayna and Leon Elliott, authors who just wrapped up the book. We had a strategy call last week maybe, so I'm really excited about sharing some of their story with you. So guys, welcome to the podcast, great to have you here.
DeLayna: Hi, it was good to be here. Thanks, Stuart.
Stuart: Fantastic. Okay. this is going to be a great episode. I love your story so much. I'm really excited to share some of the background with people and then we'll obviously move into the book and how we plan on using it. I think this is going to be one of those examples where I always recommend that people kind of Head over to follow the links and follow the story, but for you guys particularly, because you've got such an established presence and the book ties in so nicely with that, this is going to be a really interesting story for people to follow along with and see how the book ties in with the business.
So with that in mind, why don't we start with a bit of background on what you guys do and, and the business and who it is that you work with.
Leon: Yes, Stuart, again, we just want to thank you for allowing us to be on your program on your podcast and it means a lot to us to be here with you. When we very first got started, we chatted for a little bit.
It was just absolutely awesome. I think it went a little bit longer than you expected.
Stuart: I always apologize for people in check that they don't have a hard out because I sometimes. I think we said as, as we were talking, when I noticed that my voice gets really croaky, that's a sign I've been talking too long, but it's also a sign of the passion that you guys bring to it.
So yeah, excited to share this with people.
Leon: we've actually been, working with couples. For many years, and we actually started doing like conferences and events with married couples. We also work with singles that want to be married. We did marriage counseling or coaching. for many years, our background is ministry, church, if you will.
And, that's how we got started. DeLayna and I met, DeLayna and I met in, what they call now, I call it a junior high. I think they call it middle school now. And, when I saw her, Stuart, when I saw her in the, cafeteria that morning, it just, with that great smile, it just blew my mind.
From that point, I started doing my thing, doing my sales pitch. And, but definitely we, we started, right after we got married, we had couples actually reaching out to us and we were like, wait a minute, we haven't even been married that long. And they were reaching out to us and asking us questions about our marriage.
And, we were sharing with them, what we were. Doing and everybody was loving it. So we started doing the events years later, and they just worked. And, so what we wanted to do when we put the events together, we had put together what my wife calls a workbook.
I call it a book to help guide us through and to help those couples to be guided through. And we would do is dealing with, Money, we were dealing with, sex or intimacy, and, we were dealing with, what's the other part of it? Communication, which is very important that you have that communication.
and that's that's how we got started.
Stuart: And that's,I guess one thing I have to ask first is, DeLayna, do you remember the middle school experience in the same way? I've got visions of, I , I don't on know Spotlight on Leon as he's sauntering over .
DeLayna: I was a, actually, I was a cheerleader, Stewart, so he forgot to, put that little plug in.
So I was in cheerleading uniform. but Leon was, he was really shy. we were outgoing and, bubbly. And we even have some classes together, but he was really shy. So I didn't really know that he had an interest until we started becoming friends. And then we joined a, we formed actually a singing group.
Yeah, my mom was like our director and, and so we started recruiting our friends and then we just clicked. we thought alike, we got along so great. And so we knew then as teenagers that we could be a couple. but it wasn't until after we graduated, that we got married right out We, both of us were in college and we decided that we were going to get married,
And so then he went into the military and we got into the mortgage industry and that's where our financial background, came into when we were in Monterey, California. So back then though, like I said, he was so shy. I didn't really know that he was really interested until we became really good friends.
And that's how it works. And we're still friends today. So definitely.
Stuart: My wife and I think some people know the story. We were friends in the last year of college back in the 90s, and then our past kind of went different ways and then we always loosely stayed in touch, but she was over here in the States and I was back in the UK.
But we reconnected when I was over in the States more with work, 10 years ago now. So that's Long burn of a friendship and the common communication that you have without the pressure of a relationship. I guess that helps in establishing some of the foundations that the other people then saw and were asking you questions.
you mentioned the mortgage business then, so you're financial advisors now and offer people the financial advice element as well, the relationships, the relationship counseling for want of a better term, did that come completely independently? Was that almost a pastime thing or was there a business interest in that right from the start?
Right from the start.
DeLayna: Okay, definitely. Yeah, right from the start. we knew we wanted to be professionals because I come from a single parent home, where my mother was the breadwinner and most, 74% of our community Stewart, are headed by black women that are the breadwinners.
And so growing up with that. I knew that this was a passion for me. I saw my mother, she basically She was it, she was, ex military, she was in college and raising us at the same time. So with that was such a burning passion, for me to learn about money, to understand money.
I watched her budget, prior to computers with shoe boxes and, organizing her money and her bills and paying her bills. And, we come in with all the paper. All over the bed, as she was organizing her finances. I'm like, what are you doing every month? and, and so watching her do that.
and then she was so organized and then when computers came in, she automated everything. And when she passed in 2017, Stuart, all my sister and I had to do was grieve. Yes. Because mom had her life insurance, Yeah. Everything was organized. We, she passed on a Monday, Tuesday, we were in negotiations, with the funeral home by Saturday, she was buried.
So we didn't have time to get it together. We had it, it had to already be together. And so again, that kind of. Fueled the passion, for us to teach our community, that we can have a good relationship with money. So that, yeah, that's a passion for us.
Stuart: Was your experience the same, Leon?
Did you see it from a family perspective? Was it something that you'd grown up with?
Leon: Yes. basically what DeLayna is saying. I watched my grandparents raised me until I was about 12 years old. And I watched my grandmother. Put money away and put, make sure that the family was taking care of my grandfather would work, but my grandmother would take care of the money and everything.
I saw her kind of buy her own home and put it on land. And, so I saw that happen, but on the flip side, my parents worked so hard, they were focused and working. But they just, they didn't know what to do with their money. So as a young person, this is what's really funny. I was about, 13, 14 years old when I told my parents, I said, listen, I don't know what y'all doing.
Y'all make money, but you need to give it to me so I can manage it. And that's very true. My dad laughs about that now, but they're in a better, way better position than they were then.
Stuart: That generational split, assumedly they'd seen it from their parents, because you'd seen it from your grandparents, but something gets lost in translation and I always think that, I'm guessing that we're similar age. So at school in the UK in the 80s, there was like a, We would call it home economics class.
DeLayna: Yes, yeah, we had it here too. Home economics.
Stuart: I'm glad those words translate. Sometimes I'll say something and I can't quite make the translation quick enough.
but those classes I think have broadly gone away as the budgets get cut or the emphasis just on qualifications goes up. So the people who are the younger generation now, unless they're seeing it from family. And even then, when it's such a close connection, sometimes you don't always appreciate it. So I imagine that in your experience, you've seen quite a lot of people coming in with really very little understanding of.
Either the financial side or even the interpersonal side, has that been experienced? Do you really see people coming in with, a low level of understanding?
DeLayna: Yeah, because people are living Stuart. they're just, they're in the grind, they get married and they think that understanding money is just going to come by osmosis, right?
Who thinks about money outside of earning it, spending it. Saving it, but coming together as a couple, understanding that there's different backgrounds and how we were raised and that there is a relationship with money. A lot of people don't have that understanding. And when they come, they may have joint accounts, they may have separate accounts.
some people don't bank at all. so you've got the, the. Pay loans. And, it's just a lot of different dynamics in our culture. And so I think what Leon and I are able to do is to bridge that gap. we've been in mortgage banking and financial services for over close to 40 years, and so we grew up with it because we were, again, I was able to get in it.
I think I was like 22, when I joined the bank. And so We come from that background, but a lot of couples do not. And so we're able to bridge that gap, help couples have the money conversation, help them understand that talking about money can be normal. It doesn't have to be a frustration, and we just help with that understanding.
So yeah.
Stuart: The, I guess that's a good transition into the book. So the book itself is called The Power of Oneness, which reflects the overall program. Those elements that are within that, so there's the communication, the financial and the intimate side of things. Is it a pretty even split, so the people who you help best, who resonate best with the programs, is it a pretty even split across all three of those elements of the stool or do, because of your financial background, is it more the financial element that people resonate with?
I think it's pretty
Leon: much a split between all of it because we want to make sure that, we cover the whole thing, but finances is a huge part of it because, marriage is split up mostly because of finance, they find that, they can get everything else right pretty much, but then they can't get on the same page with that money.
And so by us, being advisors, and loving it. Yeah, really enjoying it, and learning so much about, the financial industry with life insurance, things we didn't know, like Delaney is saying in our community, it was there, but it was for burial, enough to, to make sure that we got in the ground.
But what we know now, what we've learned about life insurance and how we can use it as, as a concept of a bank.
DeLayna: A wealth building tool. A wealth building tool. Never heard of that. Never heard of that.
Leon: although we've heard of stuff like cash value life insurance. Yeah, we've heard of it, but what does that mean?
Exactly. How do we use it? How do we use it to our
Stuart: advantage? Even as professionals, you talk, come from the perspective of people actually in the industry, and there's still that stuff that isn't the central mainstream, the stuff that's slightly on the edge or isn't commonly talked about. Even as professionals, the people closest to it possibly, it was still something that's unclear.
I really imagine that for the. for the general population out there, who were typically turned off from thinking about that type of thing too much anyway, such a, an opportunity that's missed. It's a, it's an interesting bridge because when we look at the job of work of. What you want the book to do and your core day to day business.
You're not just relationship counselors and this is your business and this is the job work. You're not just financial advisors. There's a bridge across the both. I think it's quite interesting often talk about this idea of topic bridging. So for example, if you were just financial advisors, you might still talk about the relationship element of it as an introduction to the conversation.
But for you guys specifically, there's such a tight connection between the two. What's the... I guess as I'm thinking about the audience who's listening in, there's going to be that mix of the audience that you share it with who might be your clients. We want to share now what the book is about to encourage people to get hold of it.
It's obviously going out to our audience and these are business owners and entrepreneurs thinking about a book for their own purpose. What's that bridge in your mind? What led you to write the book in the first place? And that bridge between. The community and the book and the health information and then how that translates into actual business.
Talk a little bit more about
DeLayna: that. Yeah, it's about empowerment. It's about knowledge. We wanted people to have a book, have something that they could, that's, relatable. Leanna and I tell our background, our stories, we don't talk a lot of tech. Techie, even though I am a technologist by, by, financial technologists as well, but we wanted to make sure that people had something in their hands, like I said, Leon and I've been doing power oneness conferences for years.
and we always had a book that they could follow, they could take their notes, husband and wives, whether whoever was in the room, could jot down the thoughts, cause that we all Stuart have stored beliefs. we have things, language, money don't grow on trees.
And, what do you think, who do you think I am, a bank and can't get blood out of a turnip, just what are you talking about? and so we wanted to be able to have something that was relatable, that was. Educational, and that people could have as a tool, they can look and read about life insurance, read about saving, making money, normal, generational wealth, how to pass that on, how to control it and hold onto it, and have those family conversations, with your children, we're here.
with our son and our daughter in law, they're going to be new grandparents, soon. Ah, fantastic. Yeah. And so when we get together, we have those family conversations. we talk about business with, they're entrepreneurs, both of them are in the entertainment industry.
and so we have those conversations and we make it normal. So we wanted to bring that. That climate, that energy, if you will, to the book. And then people know that, you know what we could have, we could talk about money during Thanksgiving and doesn't have to be awkward, we can have a conversation that's not taboo, during the holidays when we come together in your family chats.
you're talking with your family anyway, make sure that you're all on the same page. what about a family vision, what about a dynasty, what do you want to leave? Leon always teases, the kids about, he wants his picture on the mantle, so that our grandchildren can say, that's grandpa and grandpa had a saving grace.
so yeah, we want to, we want it to be fun. We don't want it to be stressful. And then we. Because we are,subject matter experts, if you will, in the products, we not only wanted to teach and have it, have seminars and conversation, but we wanted to make sure that our clients were in the right products as well.
so we're salespeople, we're teachers, and then we are. Ministers. so put all that together, right?
Stuart: The good thing about it is particularly when you're coming from a perspective of it's not like a hard close. no, Glenn Glammy, Glenn Ross, always be closing type sales pitch. The whole holistic approach is sharing the knowledge.
So the religious context of the word or just the sharing context, it's the empowering other people and. Increasing their understanding, one of the things that as you were talking, you said something about getting people on the same page, and I imagine that must be, quite a challenge in the, in the environment of a workshop or a seminar, because people come with so many different views, not everyone is on the same page when they walk in through the door, but the benefit Of the book is at least you're helping to bridge that gap or close that gap a little bit because it either whether it's commonality of language or familiarity of products or just the general approach and how it sticks together.
Someone having consumed that information a little bit more, at least they're walking through the door or jumping on zoom with. a little bit more being on the same page, both each other and with you guys. Do you find that at all as an element of getting people up to the same page and an anticipation that the book will help close that gap?
Leon: Most definitely. we wanted to start, in the book, we started out talking about communication. As one of the chapters is on communication. Communication is a two way street. and that,and then that, part of the book, we talk about, some of what the backgrounds are.
What was your background in this? What was your background in that? To try to start bridging that gap, as you say, putting them on the same, getting them to talk, communicate, And express themselves, because Delano was saying, sometimes communication can be a taboo thing. People don't really, when you got the husband who don't talk much, and you got the wife that, enjoys hearing stories or want to know what your day is like, and And you don't want, you come in, you just want to get into a lazy boy and watch football and, you talk to me. So we bridging that gap about, being able to communicate with one another, then start to talk about money, then start to talk about, life period.
Because what we want to do is we want to cover, we want to teach you how to get into that role of talking about money, talking about the family. where it's going, and that's huge for us. That's huge for us because we want to make sure that everybody is not just the parents, but when our son sees us, we only have one child, he saw us work all our lives together.
Yeah. So in communicating together, and, I wasn't, I'm, I was that guy that didn't want to talk a lot, I let, I didn't, I enjoyed listening to her, but getting my thoughts out was a little bit harder. Yeah. And so I had to learn how to do that. And it's okay. if you don't know to reach out, even as a man, I had a gentleman reach out to me and say, Hey man, my wife and I are not on the same page.
I need your help. That way they could contact us if we needed to do deeper work, we're open to that, if it works out, if you're, if it works out where we can work together with you, we're open to that, we're open to help relationships and that's where
DeLayna: we are. Yeah, like I said, it's not just about a sale.
It is about Can you succeed as a couple and, and the whole, like you said, the holistic view, the power of oneness, one mind singleness of thought, there's power in that, there's a stability that you bring to your children when they see that you can communicate about anything and everything that, that gives them confidence, that, that gives them,a sense of stability and so they're more ready.
Thank you. To talk, with their husband and wife or
Stuart: girlfriend or whatever, that's such an interesting insight because I think there's so much, my wife's a kindergarten teacher in a Waldorf school. So over the summer, they had some, the staff had some, collected reading.
And then one of the books, the name was on the tip of my tongue. It's disappeared. it might be called anti fragile. Anyway, it was a semi, I think it was written by an academic, but not particularly an academic book, but it was pointing out some of the fragility of kids today. So I think he was talking from the concept of, Lucy read it, I didn't.
I was just listening in and she was sharing pieces. So I think it was written from the context of kids going to college and university and entering the works workplace and how the difficulties they're having is partly due to the Society and parenting over the last 20 years. So as opposed to when we've grown up, where you were kicked out of the house and told to come back when it goes dark, you were abducted, you'd get a clip around the ear for being abducted first.
And then there'd be the sympathy. so anyway, this kind of slightly fragile element. So I think a long way of saying that example you were just giving. Of people coming to you because they recognize the need for making a change. There is a better path. They see it in you guys. They want it for themselves.
So there's that first tier of improvement. And then from that, there might come relationship conversations and financial conversations and intimacy conversations. They might, there's a product element to it, which you can help with just on that side of the business, which that helps, but this broader generational element of them.
their children, seeing them work through it and everything doesn't get handed to you on a plate, you have to work for it a little bit. Challenge and difficulty leads to growth and opportunity. As a generational swing, that must be Seeing that in practice must be quite, uplifting for you to see it because you've been doing this now for, this isn't your first year, you must have
DeLayna: over 30 years.
Stuart: it just feels like a year, but it's actually been longer. So Lucy's the same. She's been teaching for 2027 years, so she's starting to see the children of people who were. In the community before. So anyway, long way of saying that generational change. Do you firsthand see that impact on the next generation down as the kids are responding to what the parents decided to do 30 years ago.
DeLayna: Yeah, we have children that are now grown. And they affectionately call us mom and dad, and they're so excited about thank you for helping my parents. One of, one of the families I'm real specifically in my mind thinking about right now, when he got his job and everything, he saw how we were helping his parents and he called, Leon, and he said, I just want to thank you so much because we have food in our cabinet.
we have, food in our refrigerator. it's like we're not struggling financially anymore. And when a teenager says that, that's really powerful because they see that their parents made money choices. Differently because they had the information, they had the support.
And that's what it's all about, Stuart. It is about one generation after the other succeeding, and you have a part in that. And that, that to me is stability. You talk about lead generation, right? if you help the parents and then the children see that there's fruit there, then they're going to, they're going to trust you.
And then they're, you're going to take care of the grandchildren. And, cause it's about. Every generation succeeding because we have the right information, put them in the right products and we're advisors that care. So I'm excited about that.
Stuart: That's a great point as well. And a good way of switching into kind of, the more business side of the conversation, which is always difficult.
A lot of these conversations, the people who come to the point of wanting to write a book, the majority are thinking about things. Sorry, my phone just rang. I'm not sure if you hear that. so the majority of people who are thinking about writing a book where there's two camps. Okay. I have a problem sticking on one train of thought today.
Two camps. This is what happened when we had the strategy call last time. There's so much excitement.
DeLayna: We do that to people. There's
Stuart: two camps of people who write the book. One who are coming to it purely from a kind of process point of view of it's lead generation. We want something that's effective. But really it's part of a campaign.
And then the next group is, no, we've got, as well as that, we've got a very clear message that we want to share and there's an emotional connection to it. And, and a real desire to share, like you guys share the information and the knowledge. But the lead generation piece of it almost comes. Secondarily, But it's something that we want to focus on and orchestrate that journey through. So the book, your book, The Power of Oneness is, we're just wrapping that up now, it's pretty new. Do you think about writing that specifically? I know you talked about there being another book that you used in the business.
DeLayna: Yes, definitely a series.
Stuart: yeah. So this idea of how it fits into the bigger picture, was that pretty orchestrated? You've got a pretty clear. Idea now of how to use it and how to use it next rather than a kind of build it and they will come type approach.
DeLayna: Yeah, because we, we also do coaching, and so we saw that people would come in through our coaching, for marriage, for empowerment, do a lot of work with women,and,mind of their money, so they can understand that there's, is a mental aspect as well.
So they come to us for coaching and empowerment and information. And then as a part of our coaching program, the finances. Again, was it was foundational. And so in the talking about their finances, we gave them what their, what their steps would be, and to us, life insurance is the foundation of every financial plan.
If you don't have life insurance. What are we talking about? we don't have a plan, because that's foundational. So they, to them, it's okay, this is part of, this is part of the process. It was no, no sales needed. It was just part of the process to be successful financially. And that's what we found.
And so we said, Writing a book just substantiates that, it helps us be the subject matter expert in the mind of people, but this was something we were already doing, before the book, because we feel like we are the book, right? We were the walking, talking evidence of what we're teaching.
We live it every day. And so we want to provide that and that confidence and they seeing it happen in our life. And then they watch our children and now our grandchildren, is evident. So the book is, again, it's an extension of what we were already doing, but I think the book is going to now help us even get a more national, reach because again, we're seeing a subject matter experts.
So we really thank, you guys for helping us get there. Yeah.
Stuart: pleasure. And I think that's the, when people come to us with the seed of the idea, the fact that we've done a thousand of these, we can just plug in a little bit of a tweak here and a direction here and a use case there and just help amplify.
It really is the. The kind of synergy of the passion and the expertise that you bring on the subject and what we can bring to the process and not only just make sure that it happens and gets done, but is amplified and leveraged to make it as effective as possible. One thing that I really like that you mentioned there is this idea of the product, the sale, the fact that there is a financial instrument in there somewhere.
Is almost secondary to natural. Yeah, much better way to think about it. Yeah, exactly. it's the obvious logical part of the overall solution that we're trying to create for people. And I think that's true no matter what. Business you're in. If you can think about the knowledge that you're sharing and trying to bring people along in a way that's very beneficial for them.
And there is that natural component of it. It just makes it a much more smoother and less stressful process
DeLayna: for both parties, we don't have to feel like we're. selling you or convincing you. and then you don't have to feel like you're being sold. and so it's just, so it's just natural. It's like breathing.
It's just, it's very natural. Yeah.
Stuart: I'll switch gears slightly into the process. So for you guys, I think there was more of a, the, the seminars you've been doing were on message with the book and you've got years of experience of doing it in a particular way. Was there. The process of creating the book, we always talk about the work from the outside in.
So the front cover grabs people's attention and the back cover is the call to action. And then the table of contents is the quick stepping stones where people can scan down and get that feeling in the right place. and then the content kind of comes from that. So for you guys. Going through the process.
Was that an easy thing to pull together because it was so married up with the existing way of doing things? Or was there a lot of kind of manipulating what you do day to day into the structure of a book? Your
Leon: team did a great job. first of all, helping us get an outline,
kept us in line as to, where we wanted to go and, we definitely Work, work with them very closely.
and they helped walk us through the process. Okay. And, it was, with that outline, with what they brought, and they helped us create our stories. Yeah, they're great interviewers. Yeah, they're great interviewers. And,it was wonderful. It was absolutely wonderful.
Stuart: yeah. I can imagine, I haven't listened back to the recordings, but I can imagine that as you were recording the content, just the level of energy and yes, yeah, it would have made a very kind of smooth and seamless process. You mentioned there, this idea of being a little bit all over the place.
I guess that comes from having such a. a wide sphere of influence and a wide breadth of experience, one of the elements in the scorecard, the book blueprint scorecard is this idea of beneficial constraints. And that by being narrow, it actually helps getting it done. And then obviously there's all of this stuff outside of the pages of the book, but in terms of narrowing the scope to get it done, that kind of, Particularly when you come from such a broad experience, that beneficial constraints is one of the key things to narrow it down and get it done.
Did you have a feeling anywhere in the process that. It was difficult to narrow that scope down or was it easy to think okay this is in the book and this
DeLayna: is out of the
Leon: book. That is a
DeLayna: very good question. Yeah, Leon had to stop me from rewriting the book. Okay, DeLayna hits in. Okay, we'll cover that in the next book, because you want to tell everything you know you're so excited he is You understand the benefits and, what you want to give. and, and then I'm, I'm, Avid reader, so I wanted to make sure that all the grammar and everything was correct. And when I'm going through it, I'm like, Oh, this is so conversational. And,are people going to be, are they going to, are my academics, going to feel like this is too basic, And so then I said, okay, send, content is good. they can talk to us and coach with us. They know that we're real, they'll get it.
Stuart: And that's actually such an interesting point because. The idea of, a conversation starting book, a minimum effective book, is the anti book in a way. It's not this set in stone, typeset by monks, costs 100, 000, in a tone that people wouldn't recognize as you if you then spoke to them on the phone.
This idea of a conversation starting book, which is... Cost effective and time effective to get out there that starts the conversation that reflects the language that you use so that when you do get on the phone with them, because the risk of going off on another tangent, but this idea of a traditionally published book, the
DeLayna: job.
It would have took us forever, Stuart. We wouldn't have never got it done. We would still be, we would still be thinking about it, trying to get it done.
Stuart: Exactly. And to what end the people who purchase or the whole marketplace for traditional books is to make money off the cover price of a book.
The whole purpose of the conversation starting book is you want them to have a conversation with them. The outcome you want is for them to jump on a call and say, Hey, when's the next seminar? And if they walk into the room feeling like they know you already, then that's done a job that. Exceeds the, just the words on the page.
It's, I
DeLayna: agree. Yeah, it's powerful experience. And I was in a mastermind book club and we were meeting every Saturday and we were talking and it's just great. And now we're published what, three months. Oh my gosh, it's powerful. The process is powerful. Now I would just implore anyone to get it.
Done. Yeah. Stop thinking about it. Stop talking about it. Stop angsting over it and just do it. Yeah. The
Stuart: idea that you don't know, no plan survives contact with the enemy or what's the Mike Tyson line? Everyone's got a plan until I punched him in the face.
You can go into a book project with an idea of what the outcome will be or how it will be received or which elements will resonate. And there was a show that we did a couple of weeks ago, I think it was with Paul Ross. And he was saying there was a throwaway line almost that he had in the book that he was talking about one particular thing, but.
80% of the people who have spoken to him afterwards have all picked up on this one tiny thing. So now he knows that element is such a critical path on the road to people becoming clients. He could have doubled down on a book and not included any of that at all. Or now there's an opportunity for that to be a whole follow up in the funnel or a whole second book focused on that piece individually.
It's, Yeah, getting it out there and reacting and responding to how it actually is received and pivoting and amplifying those pieces. Yeah. so powerful. I just looked up in the top corner of my screen and realized how long I've been talking about the game.
Yeah. At least this is the second time we've talked. I feel like I've caveated it enough now. and people listening to the podcast understand as well. One of the things I'd really want to encourage people as we started was saying that people follow along with your journey and what you do and then see how the book.
anchors in with the rest of the programs, where's the, as people are listening to this, both kind of our clients listening on our podcast feed and your clients who are listening to, if you share it, where's the best place for them to go to learn more about what you guys do and take that next.
Oh,
DeLayna: watch it on the next step. Two websites. We have Leon and DeLayna. com. That's Leon, L E O N A N D D E L A Y N A. com. and, yeah, Leon and DeLayna, Leon and DeLayna. com. And that's my little tagline, that's first. And then, the, the URL for the book would be powerofonenessbook. com.
That's power of oneness. book, no s book, singular dot com. So start there and then we'll take it right on.
Stuart: Yeah. And like I say, this example, both for people reading the book and consuming the information, because it's fantastically useful and, Mind expanding a little bit in terms of the approach that you take in and the breadth, but also joining along because of this tie in between the business and the seminar and what you do and what you promote in social media and all of the communications with what's in the book.
So we want to encourage people to see that connection because it is, it's, it is very strong. So I'll make sure that we put links to this, both in the podcast show notes. So if people are just listening, that'll be in a. The show notes and they can click through on the website if they're listening and click through to the website.
We'll put the links in there. I think we've covered it all, but any last thoughts on
DeLayna: I think for my Engineers and technology people who don't, not necessarily looking at the relationship piece, world fidelity life is our financial services company here. And,Leon is right there.
We have our photo there, all of our background as far as, as advisors. So if you're looking for specifically, financial advice, for, Okay. Life insurance and annuities. World Fidelity Life is our company. so they can go right there. Ah,
Stuart: perfect. So we'll put a link to that as well.
Like you say, some people just want to cut straight to that piece.
DeLayna: Get to the money. Yeah.
Stuart: Yeah, we'll make sure that's there as well. Okay.
Leon: no, it's been great. I just I've enjoyed the whole process of putting the book together. It's been a dream of mine for oh, 20 plus years, to get this done.
And now to have it, where it's marketable and to be able to put it out there and, however it's thought of. Our whole heart was to get to talk to the people and to share with them the information that we feel like that changed our lives that can change their lives and finances.
We wanted to start with that finance piece because that's what breaks up so many marriages, as I said before. So the power of oneness. Winning in marriage and money, you can do it all, you can have it all. That's
Stuart: what I love. Thank you. Fantastic. guys, it's been an absolute pleasure. I enjoy it every time we get to talk.
We'll be talking more offline off the podcast, I'm sure. And then it'll be great in a little bit down the track. Get you guys back on and then we can get some, it'd be really interesting to hear some stories of how the book's impacting people, because I really think that's gonna not be eye-opening 'cause I think everyone knows.
But to get that real feedback and hear the stories firsthand, that'd be great to share with people as well. So thank you. Thank you, everyone for thanks for listening. As always, check out the show notes. As I mentioned, we'll put links to. To the websites, in the podcast notes, and on the websites. So check those out and then we will catch you on the next one.
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By 90-Minute Books
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Today on the Book More Show, we have a great conversation with DeLayna & Leon Elliott, authors of ' 'The Power of OneNess-Winning in Marriage and Money. ' and Relationship and financial advisors
This discussion is fascinating, especially if your business and passion align. As financial advisors, DeLayna and Leon help families secure their financial future, but they are also passionate relationship coaches. Their book combines their expertise in these fields and is the perfect way to start a conversation with the people they can best help.
They know that taboos around financial conversations cause many failing relationships, and their approach is to uncover a unique approach by interweaving financial literacy with conversation and intimate relationship elements to create a holistic approach that empowers their clients.
Having been in business for more than 20 years, they know their financial products are the perfect fit for most clients they speak to about relationship counseling. It removes selling pressure and becomes one of many issues people are excited to resolve.
Their book is the perfect tool at the top of the funnel to help them identify new clients and support even more referrals.
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
LINKS
DeLayna Elliott - LinkedIn
Leon Elliott - LinkedIn
Leon & DeLayna
World Fidelity Life
Show notes & video: 90minutebooks.com/podcast/147
How does your book idea score against the 8 book building blocks we use here all the time: Book Blueprint Scorecard
Titles & Outline Workshops: 90MinuteBooks.com/Workshops
Ready to get started: 90MinuteBooks.com
Questions/Feedback: Send us an email
Extra Credit Listening: MoreCheeseLessWhiskers.com
TRANSCRIPT
(AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors)
Stuart: Hey everyone, welcome back to the Bookmore Show. It's Stuart Bell here and today, super excited, I'm joined by DeLayna and Leon Elliott, authors who just wrapped up the book. We had a strategy call last week maybe, so I'm really excited about sharing some of their story with you. So guys, welcome to the podcast, great to have you here.
DeLayna: Hi, it was good to be here. Thanks, Stuart.
Stuart: Fantastic. Okay. this is going to be a great episode. I love your story so much. I'm really excited to share some of the background with people and then we'll obviously move into the book and how we plan on using it. I think this is going to be one of those examples where I always recommend that people kind of Head over to follow the links and follow the story, but for you guys particularly, because you've got such an established presence and the book ties in so nicely with that, this is going to be a really interesting story for people to follow along with and see how the book ties in with the business.
So with that in mind, why don't we start with a bit of background on what you guys do and, and the business and who it is that you work with.
Leon: Yes, Stuart, again, we just want to thank you for allowing us to be on your program on your podcast and it means a lot to us to be here with you. When we very first got started, we chatted for a little bit.
It was just absolutely awesome. I think it went a little bit longer than you expected.
Stuart: I always apologize for people in check that they don't have a hard out because I sometimes. I think we said as, as we were talking, when I noticed that my voice gets really croaky, that's a sign I've been talking too long, but it's also a sign of the passion that you guys bring to it.
So yeah, excited to share this with people.
Leon: we've actually been, working with couples. For many years, and we actually started doing like conferences and events with married couples. We also work with singles that want to be married. We did marriage counseling or coaching. for many years, our background is ministry, church, if you will.
And, that's how we got started. DeLayna and I met, DeLayna and I met in, what they call now, I call it a junior high. I think they call it middle school now. And, when I saw her, Stuart, when I saw her in the, cafeteria that morning, it just, with that great smile, it just blew my mind.
From that point, I started doing my thing, doing my sales pitch. And, but definitely we, we started, right after we got married, we had couples actually reaching out to us and we were like, wait a minute, we haven't even been married that long. And they were reaching out to us and asking us questions about our marriage.
And, we were sharing with them, what we were. Doing and everybody was loving it. So we started doing the events years later, and they just worked. And, so what we wanted to do when we put the events together, we had put together what my wife calls a workbook.
I call it a book to help guide us through and to help those couples to be guided through. And we would do is dealing with, Money, we were dealing with, sex or intimacy, and, we were dealing with, what's the other part of it? Communication, which is very important that you have that communication.
and that's that's how we got started.
Stuart: And that's,I guess one thing I have to ask first is, DeLayna, do you remember the middle school experience in the same way? I've got visions of, I , I don't on know Spotlight on Leon as he's sauntering over .
DeLayna: I was a, actually, I was a cheerleader, Stewart, so he forgot to, put that little plug in.
So I was in cheerleading uniform. but Leon was, he was really shy. we were outgoing and, bubbly. And we even have some classes together, but he was really shy. So I didn't really know that he had an interest until we started becoming friends. And then we joined a, we formed actually a singing group.
Yeah, my mom was like our director and, and so we started recruiting our friends and then we just clicked. we thought alike, we got along so great. And so we knew then as teenagers that we could be a couple. but it wasn't until after we graduated, that we got married right out We, both of us were in college and we decided that we were going to get married,
And so then he went into the military and we got into the mortgage industry and that's where our financial background, came into when we were in Monterey, California. So back then though, like I said, he was so shy. I didn't really know that he was really interested until we became really good friends.
And that's how it works. And we're still friends today. So definitely.
Stuart: My wife and I think some people know the story. We were friends in the last year of college back in the 90s, and then our past kind of went different ways and then we always loosely stayed in touch, but she was over here in the States and I was back in the UK.
But we reconnected when I was over in the States more with work, 10 years ago now. So that's Long burn of a friendship and the common communication that you have without the pressure of a relationship. I guess that helps in establishing some of the foundations that the other people then saw and were asking you questions.
you mentioned the mortgage business then, so you're financial advisors now and offer people the financial advice element as well, the relationships, the relationship counseling for want of a better term, did that come completely independently? Was that almost a pastime thing or was there a business interest in that right from the start?
Right from the start.
DeLayna: Okay, definitely. Yeah, right from the start. we knew we wanted to be professionals because I come from a single parent home, where my mother was the breadwinner and most, 74% of our community Stewart, are headed by black women that are the breadwinners.
And so growing up with that. I knew that this was a passion for me. I saw my mother, she basically She was it, she was, ex military, she was in college and raising us at the same time. So with that was such a burning passion, for me to learn about money, to understand money.
I watched her budget, prior to computers with shoe boxes and, organizing her money and her bills and paying her bills. And, we come in with all the paper. All over the bed, as she was organizing her finances. I'm like, what are you doing every month? and, and so watching her do that.
and then she was so organized and then when computers came in, she automated everything. And when she passed in 2017, Stuart, all my sister and I had to do was grieve. Yes. Because mom had her life insurance, Yeah. Everything was organized. We, she passed on a Monday, Tuesday, we were in negotiations, with the funeral home by Saturday, she was buried.
So we didn't have time to get it together. We had it, it had to already be together. And so again, that kind of. Fueled the passion, for us to teach our community, that we can have a good relationship with money. So that, yeah, that's a passion for us.
Stuart: Was your experience the same, Leon?
Did you see it from a family perspective? Was it something that you'd grown up with?
Leon: Yes. basically what DeLayna is saying. I watched my grandparents raised me until I was about 12 years old. And I watched my grandmother. Put money away and put, make sure that the family was taking care of my grandfather would work, but my grandmother would take care of the money and everything.
I saw her kind of buy her own home and put it on land. And, so I saw that happen, but on the flip side, my parents worked so hard, they were focused and working. But they just, they didn't know what to do with their money. So as a young person, this is what's really funny. I was about, 13, 14 years old when I told my parents, I said, listen, I don't know what y'all doing.
Y'all make money, but you need to give it to me so I can manage it. And that's very true. My dad laughs about that now, but they're in a better, way better position than they were then.
Stuart: That generational split, assumedly they'd seen it from their parents, because you'd seen it from your grandparents, but something gets lost in translation and I always think that, I'm guessing that we're similar age. So at school in the UK in the 80s, there was like a, We would call it home economics class.
DeLayna: Yes, yeah, we had it here too. Home economics.
Stuart: I'm glad those words translate. Sometimes I'll say something and I can't quite make the translation quick enough.
but those classes I think have broadly gone away as the budgets get cut or the emphasis just on qualifications goes up. So the people who are the younger generation now, unless they're seeing it from family. And even then, when it's such a close connection, sometimes you don't always appreciate it. So I imagine that in your experience, you've seen quite a lot of people coming in with really very little understanding of.
Either the financial side or even the interpersonal side, has that been experienced? Do you really see people coming in with, a low level of understanding?
DeLayna: Yeah, because people are living Stuart. they're just, they're in the grind, they get married and they think that understanding money is just going to come by osmosis, right?
Who thinks about money outside of earning it, spending it. Saving it, but coming together as a couple, understanding that there's different backgrounds and how we were raised and that there is a relationship with money. A lot of people don't have that understanding. And when they come, they may have joint accounts, they may have separate accounts.
some people don't bank at all. so you've got the, the. Pay loans. And, it's just a lot of different dynamics in our culture. And so I think what Leon and I are able to do is to bridge that gap. we've been in mortgage banking and financial services for over close to 40 years, and so we grew up with it because we were, again, I was able to get in it.
I think I was like 22, when I joined the bank. And so We come from that background, but a lot of couples do not. And so we're able to bridge that gap, help couples have the money conversation, help them understand that talking about money can be normal. It doesn't have to be a frustration, and we just help with that understanding.
So yeah.
Stuart: The, I guess that's a good transition into the book. So the book itself is called The Power of Oneness, which reflects the overall program. Those elements that are within that, so there's the communication, the financial and the intimate side of things. Is it a pretty even split, so the people who you help best, who resonate best with the programs, is it a pretty even split across all three of those elements of the stool or do, because of your financial background, is it more the financial element that people resonate with?
I think it's pretty
Leon: much a split between all of it because we want to make sure that, we cover the whole thing, but finances is a huge part of it because, marriage is split up mostly because of finance, they find that, they can get everything else right pretty much, but then they can't get on the same page with that money.
And so by us, being advisors, and loving it. Yeah, really enjoying it, and learning so much about, the financial industry with life insurance, things we didn't know, like Delaney is saying in our community, it was there, but it was for burial, enough to, to make sure that we got in the ground.
But what we know now, what we've learned about life insurance and how we can use it as, as a concept of a bank.
DeLayna: A wealth building tool. A wealth building tool. Never heard of that. Never heard of that.
Leon: although we've heard of stuff like cash value life insurance. Yeah, we've heard of it, but what does that mean?
Exactly. How do we use it? How do we use it to our
Stuart: advantage? Even as professionals, you talk, come from the perspective of people actually in the industry, and there's still that stuff that isn't the central mainstream, the stuff that's slightly on the edge or isn't commonly talked about. Even as professionals, the people closest to it possibly, it was still something that's unclear.
I really imagine that for the. for the general population out there, who were typically turned off from thinking about that type of thing too much anyway, such a, an opportunity that's missed. It's a, it's an interesting bridge because when we look at the job of work of. What you want the book to do and your core day to day business.
You're not just relationship counselors and this is your business and this is the job work. You're not just financial advisors. There's a bridge across the both. I think it's quite interesting often talk about this idea of topic bridging. So for example, if you were just financial advisors, you might still talk about the relationship element of it as an introduction to the conversation.
But for you guys specifically, there's such a tight connection between the two. What's the... I guess as I'm thinking about the audience who's listening in, there's going to be that mix of the audience that you share it with who might be your clients. We want to share now what the book is about to encourage people to get hold of it.
It's obviously going out to our audience and these are business owners and entrepreneurs thinking about a book for their own purpose. What's that bridge in your mind? What led you to write the book in the first place? And that bridge between. The community and the book and the health information and then how that translates into actual business.
Talk a little bit more about
DeLayna: that. Yeah, it's about empowerment. It's about knowledge. We wanted people to have a book, have something that they could, that's, relatable. Leanna and I tell our background, our stories, we don't talk a lot of tech. Techie, even though I am a technologist by, by, financial technologists as well, but we wanted to make sure that people had something in their hands, like I said, Leon and I've been doing power oneness conferences for years.
and we always had a book that they could follow, they could take their notes, husband and wives, whether whoever was in the room, could jot down the thoughts, cause that we all Stuart have stored beliefs. we have things, language, money don't grow on trees.
And, what do you think, who do you think I am, a bank and can't get blood out of a turnip, just what are you talking about? and so we wanted to be able to have something that was relatable, that was. Educational, and that people could have as a tool, they can look and read about life insurance, read about saving, making money, normal, generational wealth, how to pass that on, how to control it and hold onto it, and have those family conversations, with your children, we're here.
with our son and our daughter in law, they're going to be new grandparents, soon. Ah, fantastic. Yeah. And so when we get together, we have those family conversations. we talk about business with, they're entrepreneurs, both of them are in the entertainment industry.
and so we have those conversations and we make it normal. So we wanted to bring that. That climate, that energy, if you will, to the book. And then people know that, you know what we could have, we could talk about money during Thanksgiving and doesn't have to be awkward, we can have a conversation that's not taboo, during the holidays when we come together in your family chats.
you're talking with your family anyway, make sure that you're all on the same page. what about a family vision, what about a dynasty, what do you want to leave? Leon always teases, the kids about, he wants his picture on the mantle, so that our grandchildren can say, that's grandpa and grandpa had a saving grace.
so yeah, we want to, we want it to be fun. We don't want it to be stressful. And then we. Because we are,subject matter experts, if you will, in the products, we not only wanted to teach and have it, have seminars and conversation, but we wanted to make sure that our clients were in the right products as well.
so we're salespeople, we're teachers, and then we are. Ministers. so put all that together, right?
Stuart: The good thing about it is particularly when you're coming from a perspective of it's not like a hard close. no, Glenn Glammy, Glenn Ross, always be closing type sales pitch. The whole holistic approach is sharing the knowledge.
So the religious context of the word or just the sharing context, it's the empowering other people and. Increasing their understanding, one of the things that as you were talking, you said something about getting people on the same page, and I imagine that must be, quite a challenge in the, in the environment of a workshop or a seminar, because people come with so many different views, not everyone is on the same page when they walk in through the door, but the benefit Of the book is at least you're helping to bridge that gap or close that gap a little bit because it either whether it's commonality of language or familiarity of products or just the general approach and how it sticks together.
Someone having consumed that information a little bit more, at least they're walking through the door or jumping on zoom with. a little bit more being on the same page, both each other and with you guys. Do you find that at all as an element of getting people up to the same page and an anticipation that the book will help close that gap?
Leon: Most definitely. we wanted to start, in the book, we started out talking about communication. As one of the chapters is on communication. Communication is a two way street. and that,and then that, part of the book, we talk about, some of what the backgrounds are.
What was your background in this? What was your background in that? To try to start bridging that gap, as you say, putting them on the same, getting them to talk, communicate, And express themselves, because Delano was saying, sometimes communication can be a taboo thing. People don't really, when you got the husband who don't talk much, and you got the wife that, enjoys hearing stories or want to know what your day is like, and And you don't want, you come in, you just want to get into a lazy boy and watch football and, you talk to me. So we bridging that gap about, being able to communicate with one another, then start to talk about money, then start to talk about, life period.
Because what we want to do is we want to cover, we want to teach you how to get into that role of talking about money, talking about the family. where it's going, and that's huge for us. That's huge for us because we want to make sure that everybody is not just the parents, but when our son sees us, we only have one child, he saw us work all our lives together.
Yeah. So in communicating together, and, I wasn't, I'm, I was that guy that didn't want to talk a lot, I let, I didn't, I enjoyed listening to her, but getting my thoughts out was a little bit harder. Yeah. And so I had to learn how to do that. And it's okay. if you don't know to reach out, even as a man, I had a gentleman reach out to me and say, Hey man, my wife and I are not on the same page.
I need your help. That way they could contact us if we needed to do deeper work, we're open to that, if it works out, if you're, if it works out where we can work together with you, we're open to that, we're open to help relationships and that's where
DeLayna: we are. Yeah, like I said, it's not just about a sale.
It is about Can you succeed as a couple and, and the whole, like you said, the holistic view, the power of oneness, one mind singleness of thought, there's power in that, there's a stability that you bring to your children when they see that you can communicate about anything and everything that, that gives them confidence, that, that gives them,a sense of stability and so they're more ready.
Thank you. To talk, with their husband and wife or
Stuart: girlfriend or whatever, that's such an interesting insight because I think there's so much, my wife's a kindergarten teacher in a Waldorf school. So over the summer, they had some, the staff had some, collected reading.
And then one of the books, the name was on the tip of my tongue. It's disappeared. it might be called anti fragile. Anyway, it was a semi, I think it was written by an academic, but not particularly an academic book, but it was pointing out some of the fragility of kids today. So I think he was talking from the concept of, Lucy read it, I didn't.
I was just listening in and she was sharing pieces. So I think it was written from the context of kids going to college and university and entering the works workplace and how the difficulties they're having is partly due to the Society and parenting over the last 20 years. So as opposed to when we've grown up, where you were kicked out of the house and told to come back when it goes dark, you were abducted, you'd get a clip around the ear for being abducted first.
And then there'd be the sympathy. so anyway, this kind of slightly fragile element. So I think a long way of saying that example you were just giving. Of people coming to you because they recognize the need for making a change. There is a better path. They see it in you guys. They want it for themselves.
So there's that first tier of improvement. And then from that, there might come relationship conversations and financial conversations and intimacy conversations. They might, there's a product element to it, which you can help with just on that side of the business, which that helps, but this broader generational element of them.
their children, seeing them work through it and everything doesn't get handed to you on a plate, you have to work for it a little bit. Challenge and difficulty leads to growth and opportunity. As a generational swing, that must be Seeing that in practice must be quite, uplifting for you to see it because you've been doing this now for, this isn't your first year, you must have
DeLayna: over 30 years.
Stuart: it just feels like a year, but it's actually been longer. So Lucy's the same. She's been teaching for 2027 years, so she's starting to see the children of people who were. In the community before. So anyway, long way of saying that generational change. Do you firsthand see that impact on the next generation down as the kids are responding to what the parents decided to do 30 years ago.
DeLayna: Yeah, we have children that are now grown. And they affectionately call us mom and dad, and they're so excited about thank you for helping my parents. One of, one of the families I'm real specifically in my mind thinking about right now, when he got his job and everything, he saw how we were helping his parents and he called, Leon, and he said, I just want to thank you so much because we have food in our cabinet.
we have, food in our refrigerator. it's like we're not struggling financially anymore. And when a teenager says that, that's really powerful because they see that their parents made money choices. Differently because they had the information, they had the support.
And that's what it's all about, Stuart. It is about one generation after the other succeeding, and you have a part in that. And that, that to me is stability. You talk about lead generation, right? if you help the parents and then the children see that there's fruit there, then they're going to, they're going to trust you.
And then they're, you're going to take care of the grandchildren. And, cause it's about. Every generation succeeding because we have the right information, put them in the right products and we're advisors that care. So I'm excited about that.
Stuart: That's a great point as well. And a good way of switching into kind of, the more business side of the conversation, which is always difficult.
A lot of these conversations, the people who come to the point of wanting to write a book, the majority are thinking about things. Sorry, my phone just rang. I'm not sure if you hear that. so the majority of people who are thinking about writing a book where there's two camps. Okay. I have a problem sticking on one train of thought today.
Two camps. This is what happened when we had the strategy call last time. There's so much excitement.
DeLayna: We do that to people. There's
Stuart: two camps of people who write the book. One who are coming to it purely from a kind of process point of view of it's lead generation. We want something that's effective. But really it's part of a campaign.
And then the next group is, no, we've got, as well as that, we've got a very clear message that we want to share and there's an emotional connection to it. And, and a real desire to share, like you guys share the information and the knowledge. But the lead generation piece of it almost comes. Secondarily, But it's something that we want to focus on and orchestrate that journey through. So the book, your book, The Power of Oneness is, we're just wrapping that up now, it's pretty new. Do you think about writing that specifically? I know you talked about there being another book that you used in the business.
DeLayna: Yes, definitely a series.
Stuart: yeah. So this idea of how it fits into the bigger picture, was that pretty orchestrated? You've got a pretty clear. Idea now of how to use it and how to use it next rather than a kind of build it and they will come type approach.
DeLayna: Yeah, because we, we also do coaching, and so we saw that people would come in through our coaching, for marriage, for empowerment, do a lot of work with women,and,mind of their money, so they can understand that there's, is a mental aspect as well.
So they come to us for coaching and empowerment and information. And then as a part of our coaching program, the finances. Again, was it was foundational. And so in the talking about their finances, we gave them what their, what their steps would be, and to us, life insurance is the foundation of every financial plan.
If you don't have life insurance. What are we talking about? we don't have a plan, because that's foundational. So they, to them, it's okay, this is part of, this is part of the process. It was no, no sales needed. It was just part of the process to be successful financially. And that's what we found.
And so we said, Writing a book just substantiates that, it helps us be the subject matter expert in the mind of people, but this was something we were already doing, before the book, because we feel like we are the book, right? We were the walking, talking evidence of what we're teaching.
We live it every day. And so we want to provide that and that confidence and they seeing it happen in our life. And then they watch our children and now our grandchildren, is evident. So the book is, again, it's an extension of what we were already doing, but I think the book is going to now help us even get a more national, reach because again, we're seeing a subject matter experts.
So we really thank, you guys for helping us get there. Yeah.
Stuart: pleasure. And I think that's the, when people come to us with the seed of the idea, the fact that we've done a thousand of these, we can just plug in a little bit of a tweak here and a direction here and a use case there and just help amplify.
It really is the. The kind of synergy of the passion and the expertise that you bring on the subject and what we can bring to the process and not only just make sure that it happens and gets done, but is amplified and leveraged to make it as effective as possible. One thing that I really like that you mentioned there is this idea of the product, the sale, the fact that there is a financial instrument in there somewhere.
Is almost secondary to natural. Yeah, much better way to think about it. Yeah, exactly. it's the obvious logical part of the overall solution that we're trying to create for people. And I think that's true no matter what. Business you're in. If you can think about the knowledge that you're sharing and trying to bring people along in a way that's very beneficial for them.
And there is that natural component of it. It just makes it a much more smoother and less stressful process
DeLayna: for both parties, we don't have to feel like we're. selling you or convincing you. and then you don't have to feel like you're being sold. and so it's just, so it's just natural. It's like breathing.
It's just, it's very natural. Yeah.
Stuart: I'll switch gears slightly into the process. So for you guys, I think there was more of a, the, the seminars you've been doing were on message with the book and you've got years of experience of doing it in a particular way. Was there. The process of creating the book, we always talk about the work from the outside in.
So the front cover grabs people's attention and the back cover is the call to action. And then the table of contents is the quick stepping stones where people can scan down and get that feeling in the right place. and then the content kind of comes from that. So for you guys. Going through the process.
Was that an easy thing to pull together because it was so married up with the existing way of doing things? Or was there a lot of kind of manipulating what you do day to day into the structure of a book? Your
Leon: team did a great job. first of all, helping us get an outline,
kept us in line as to, where we wanted to go and, we definitely Work, work with them very closely.
and they helped walk us through the process. Okay. And, it was, with that outline, with what they brought, and they helped us create our stories. Yeah, they're great interviewers. Yeah, they're great interviewers. And,it was wonderful. It was absolutely wonderful.
Stuart: yeah. I can imagine, I haven't listened back to the recordings, but I can imagine that as you were recording the content, just the level of energy and yes, yeah, it would have made a very kind of smooth and seamless process. You mentioned there, this idea of being a little bit all over the place.
I guess that comes from having such a. a wide sphere of influence and a wide breadth of experience, one of the elements in the scorecard, the book blueprint scorecard is this idea of beneficial constraints. And that by being narrow, it actually helps getting it done. And then obviously there's all of this stuff outside of the pages of the book, but in terms of narrowing the scope to get it done, that kind of, Particularly when you come from such a broad experience, that beneficial constraints is one of the key things to narrow it down and get it done.
Did you have a feeling anywhere in the process that. It was difficult to narrow that scope down or was it easy to think okay this is in the book and this
DeLayna: is out of the
Leon: book. That is a
DeLayna: very good question. Yeah, Leon had to stop me from rewriting the book. Okay, DeLayna hits in. Okay, we'll cover that in the next book, because you want to tell everything you know you're so excited he is You understand the benefits and, what you want to give. and, and then I'm, I'm, Avid reader, so I wanted to make sure that all the grammar and everything was correct. And when I'm going through it, I'm like, Oh, this is so conversational. And,are people going to be, are they going to, are my academics, going to feel like this is too basic, And so then I said, okay, send, content is good. they can talk to us and coach with us. They know that we're real, they'll get it.
Stuart: And that's actually such an interesting point because. The idea of, a conversation starting book, a minimum effective book, is the anti book in a way. It's not this set in stone, typeset by monks, costs 100, 000, in a tone that people wouldn't recognize as you if you then spoke to them on the phone.
This idea of a conversation starting book, which is... Cost effective and time effective to get out there that starts the conversation that reflects the language that you use so that when you do get on the phone with them, because the risk of going off on another tangent, but this idea of a traditionally published book, the
DeLayna: job.
It would have took us forever, Stuart. We wouldn't have never got it done. We would still be, we would still be thinking about it, trying to get it done.
Stuart: Exactly. And to what end the people who purchase or the whole marketplace for traditional books is to make money off the cover price of a book.
The whole purpose of the conversation starting book is you want them to have a conversation with them. The outcome you want is for them to jump on a call and say, Hey, when's the next seminar? And if they walk into the room feeling like they know you already, then that's done a job that. Exceeds the, just the words on the page.
It's, I
DeLayna: agree. Yeah, it's powerful experience. And I was in a mastermind book club and we were meeting every Saturday and we were talking and it's just great. And now we're published what, three months. Oh my gosh, it's powerful. The process is powerful. Now I would just implore anyone to get it.
Done. Yeah. Stop thinking about it. Stop talking about it. Stop angsting over it and just do it. Yeah. The
Stuart: idea that you don't know, no plan survives contact with the enemy or what's the Mike Tyson line? Everyone's got a plan until I punched him in the face.
You can go into a book project with an idea of what the outcome will be or how it will be received or which elements will resonate. And there was a show that we did a couple of weeks ago, I think it was with Paul Ross. And he was saying there was a throwaway line almost that he had in the book that he was talking about one particular thing, but.
80% of the people who have spoken to him afterwards have all picked up on this one tiny thing. So now he knows that element is such a critical path on the road to people becoming clients. He could have doubled down on a book and not included any of that at all. Or now there's an opportunity for that to be a whole follow up in the funnel or a whole second book focused on that piece individually.
It's, Yeah, getting it out there and reacting and responding to how it actually is received and pivoting and amplifying those pieces. Yeah. so powerful. I just looked up in the top corner of my screen and realized how long I've been talking about the game.
Yeah. At least this is the second time we've talked. I feel like I've caveated it enough now. and people listening to the podcast understand as well. One of the things I'd really want to encourage people as we started was saying that people follow along with your journey and what you do and then see how the book.
anchors in with the rest of the programs, where's the, as people are listening to this, both kind of our clients listening on our podcast feed and your clients who are listening to, if you share it, where's the best place for them to go to learn more about what you guys do and take that next.
Oh,
DeLayna: watch it on the next step. Two websites. We have Leon and DeLayna. com. That's Leon, L E O N A N D D E L A Y N A. com. and, yeah, Leon and DeLayna, Leon and DeLayna. com. And that's my little tagline, that's first. And then, the, the URL for the book would be powerofonenessbook. com.
That's power of oneness. book, no s book, singular dot com. So start there and then we'll take it right on.
Stuart: Yeah. And like I say, this example, both for people reading the book and consuming the information, because it's fantastically useful and, Mind expanding a little bit in terms of the approach that you take in and the breadth, but also joining along because of this tie in between the business and the seminar and what you do and what you promote in social media and all of the communications with what's in the book.
So we want to encourage people to see that connection because it is, it's, it is very strong. So I'll make sure that we put links to this, both in the podcast show notes. So if people are just listening, that'll be in a. The show notes and they can click through on the website if they're listening and click through to the website.
We'll put the links in there. I think we've covered it all, but any last thoughts on
DeLayna: I think for my Engineers and technology people who don't, not necessarily looking at the relationship piece, world fidelity life is our financial services company here. And,Leon is right there.
We have our photo there, all of our background as far as, as advisors. So if you're looking for specifically, financial advice, for, Okay. Life insurance and annuities. World Fidelity Life is our company. so they can go right there. Ah,
Stuart: perfect. So we'll put a link to that as well.
Like you say, some people just want to cut straight to that piece.
DeLayna: Get to the money. Yeah.
Stuart: Yeah, we'll make sure that's there as well. Okay.
Leon: no, it's been great. I just I've enjoyed the whole process of putting the book together. It's been a dream of mine for oh, 20 plus years, to get this done.
And now to have it, where it's marketable and to be able to put it out there and, however it's thought of. Our whole heart was to get to talk to the people and to share with them the information that we feel like that changed our lives that can change their lives and finances.
We wanted to start with that finance piece because that's what breaks up so many marriages, as I said before. So the power of oneness. Winning in marriage and money, you can do it all, you can have it all. That's
Stuart: what I love. Thank you. Fantastic. guys, it's been an absolute pleasure. I enjoy it every time we get to talk.
We'll be talking more offline off the podcast, I'm sure. And then it'll be great in a little bit down the track. Get you guys back on and then we can get some, it'd be really interesting to hear some stories of how the book's impacting people, because I really think that's gonna not be eye-opening 'cause I think everyone knows.
But to get that real feedback and hear the stories firsthand, that'd be great to share with people as well. So thank you. Thank you, everyone for thanks for listening. As always, check out the show notes. As I mentioned, we'll put links to. To the websites, in the podcast notes, and on the websites. So check those out and then we will catch you on the next one.