#MeetCoolPeople

Most people think writing a book is about selling the book. It’s not. The book is a door. What’s behind it is the whole point.

I’ve known David Hancock since 2008. We met at a seminar in Atlanta. We don’t talk nearly as much as I’d like to, but nearly 20 years later, the friendship is still there. So sitting down with him for this episode felt less like an interview and more like a long-overdue conversation between two people who’ve watched each other grow.

David is the founder of Morgan James Publishing, a Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author, and the person Publishers Weekly first called the pioneer of hybrid publishing. He didn’t set out to start a publishing company. He set out to solve a problem that nobody else was willing to fix.

Key Takeaways

• A book doesn’t make you money directly. It stops people from negotiating with you, gets media calling you, and brings clients out of the woodwork who never would have found you otherwise.
• There are two bridges every author must cross before launch: the authority bridge and the permissions bridge. Most people skip both and wonder why nobody buys.
• The best time to start marketing your book is the moment you decide to write it. Not the week it drops.
• Traditional, self-publishing, and hybrid each serve a different goal. Knowing which path fits your situation matters more than picking the most popular one.
• People want connection just as much as they want content. A book that shows who you are will always outlast a book that only shows what you know.

Listen If You…

• Have been thinking about writing a book but don’t know if it will actually do anything for your business
• Already wrote a book and aren’t sure how to make it work harder for you
• Are trying to figure out which publishing path makes sense for where you are right now

Connect with David

Find David at davidlhancock.com or morganjamespublishing.com. When you reach out, let him know you found him through the show.

Tired of prospects ghosting you after your first conversation? Grab my FREE 5-day email course at https://thefollowupfix.net and learn the five relationship-killing mistakes that are costing you sales (and how to fix them without being pushy).

About the Show

#MeetCoolPeople is where founders, creators, and entrepreneurs share real stories about building businesses that matter. Hosted by Ely Delaney, each episode goes past surface-level advice to uncover the mindset shifts, failures, and frameworks that separate people who talk about success from people who actually build it.

Most people think follow up is about timing and frequency. Send more emails. Make more calls. Stay visible.

But that's not the real problem. The real problem is most people follow up without ever stopping to think about who they're talking to.

This solo episode is drawn from the chapter about compassion in my book, The Follow Up Code. And it might be the piece that changes how you look at every prospect you haven't closed yet.

Not everyone buys on your timeline. And the sooner you really accept that, the better your results get.

Key Takeaways

• Why "let me think it over" is often the truth, not an excuse, and how to respond differently
• How the four DISC personality types buy differently and what that means for your follow up
• Why changing your language (not your offer) can bring a cold prospect back to life
• How to stop reading silence as rejection and start reading it as information
• Why patience with purpose beats pressure every single time

Listen If You...

• Have prospects who went quiet and you don't know if they're gone or just slow
• Keep following up the same way with every person and wondering why it's not working
• Want a practical framework for communicating with different personality types without it feeling forced

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Tired of prospects ghosting you after your first conversation? Grab my FREE 5-day email course at https://thefollowupfix.net/ and learn the five relationship-killing mistakes that are costing you sales (and how to fix them without being pushy).

About the Show

The #MeetCoolPeople Podcast is where founders, creators, and entrepreneurs share real stories about building businesses that matter. Hosted by Ely Delaney, each episode goes past surface-level advice to uncover the mindset shifts, failures, and frameworks that separate people who talk about success from people who actually build it.

Most founders reach a point where something feels off. The message isn't landing. The deals aren't closing. The brand feels like it belongs to someone else. So they do what seems logical. They call a designer and ask for a rebrand.

Elise Bay says that's almost always the wrong move.

Elise is a brand strategist who works with established founders who have outgrown where they started. She helps them find the disconnect between who they are and how they're showing up. Not by overhauling everything, but by going back to the thing that got them here in the first place.

Elise and I connected not too long ago and hit it off right away. She's the kind of person who asks the questions most brand people skip. And this conversation covers a lot of ground that I think a lot of founders need to hear.

Key Takeaways

• Why the urge to rebrand is usually a symptom, not the actual problem
• How borrowed words from competitors quietly kill your brand's connection with the right clients
• What emotional intelligence has to do with branding (and why most brand people skip it)
• The two red flags that signal a brand is starting to break down inside a growing team
• Why "who do you want to be a hero to?" might be the most important question a founder can ask

Listen If You...

• Have been in business a few years and feel like your brand no longer sounds like you
• Have hired agencies, rewritten your messaging, and still can't figure out why it's not connecting
• Are scaling your team and starting to notice that marketing and sales aren't on the same page

Connect with Elise

Find Elise on LinkedIn, where she shares her thinking on brand strategy for founders.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/elisebay/

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Tired of prospects ghosting you after your first conversation? Grab my FREE 5-day email course at https://thefollowupfix.net/ and learn the five relationship-killing mistakes that are costing you sales (and how to fix them without being pushy).

About the Show

#MeetCoolPeople is where founders, creators, and entrepreneurs share real stories about building businesses that matter. Hosted by Ely Delaney, each episode goes past surface-level advice to uncover the mindset shifts, failures, and frameworks that separate people who talk about success from people who actually build it.

Most people who want to write a book start with the wrong question.

They ask, "How do I write this?" when the real question is, "Have I done the work that makes writing it possible?"

I sat down with Bonnie Daneker, a book coach and publisher who has guided more than 120 authors through the process of getting their stories out of their heads and into print. She has been doing this for over 20 years. She knows where people get stuck, what separates a book that lands from one that quietly disappears, and why working with the right publisher changes everything.

This is a conversation worth your time if you have ever thought about writing a book and felt like you didn't know where to start.

Key Takeaways

• The Rule of 12: Bonnie's framework for nonfiction authors, and why starting with 12 core ideas makes the writing process far less overwhelming
• Why your voice is the one thing AI can't replicate, and how to protect it throughout the writing and publishing process
• What to look for when evaluating a publisher, including the questions most first-time authors never think to ask
• How to know if a publisher is actually the right fit for your genre before you sign anything
• Why a crappy first draft is not just acceptable, it's the starting point every good book needs

Listen If You...

• Have a book idea you haven't started because you don't know how to organize your thinking
• Are in the middle of the publishing process and feeling unsure whether you have the right people around you
• Are an entrepreneur, coach, or consultant who wants to use a book to establish credibility and grow your business

Connect with Bonnie

Reach out to Bonnie directly on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bonniedaneker/

Tired of prospects ghosting you after your first conversation? Grab my FREE 5-day email course at https://thefollowupfix.net/ and learn the five relationship-killing mistakes that are costing you sales (and how to fix them without being pushy).

About the Show

#MeetCoolPeople is where founders, creators, and entrepreneurs share real stories about building businesses that matter. Hosted by Ely Delaney, each episode goes past surface-level advice to uncover the mindset shifts, failures, and frameworks that separate people who talk about success from people who actually build it.

I have known Drewbie Wilson for about four or five years now. We met through a group, and honestly the first thing that stood out about him was how easy he was to talk to. At an event once, I was going through a rough stretch and he just took a few minutes to sit with me and have a real conversation. That stuck.

He wrote a book called Crushing the Day Before It Crushes You. He went from tech support to C-Suite at a multimillion dollar consulting company. And he built his entire brand around one phrase: Call the Damn Leads.

This conversation was a lot of fun. Drewbie is one of those guys who has actually lived the stuff he teaches, and his audience has watched him do it in real time since 2017. We got into his origin story, how he built a lead generation system out of pure frustration, how he walked away from multi-six-figure residuals to start over, and why he still picks up the phone every single day.

We also talked about memes. Yes, memes. And you’re going to want to hear that part.

Key Takeaways

• Why most phone reluctance comes down to one of two things, and what to do about each one
• How Drewbie tracked more than a million dollars in commissions back to memes he sent in follow-up sequences
• The math that makes every call worth money, whether you close or not
• Why “calling the damn leads” has nothing to do with cold calling and everything to do with doing the work
• How to figure out your prospect’s preferred communication channel, and why forcing someone to get on a phone can kill the deal

Listen If You...

• Avoid picking up the phone and know it’s costing you sales
• Have leads sitting in your CRM that you haven’t followed up on in weeks
• Want a real conversation about what follow-up actually looks like across email, text, DMs, and the phone

Connect with Drewbie

Tag @callthedamnleads on any platform when you share this episode and he will personally follow up with you. He’ll also send you one of his books for free in PDF if you do it.

Visit: https://callthedamnleads.com

Tired of prospects ghosting you after your first conversation? Grab my FREE 5-day email course at https://thefollowupfix.net/ and learn the five relationship-killing mistakes that are costing you sales (and how to fix them without being pushy).

About the Show

#MeetCoolPeople is where founders, creators, and entrepreneurs share real stories about building businesses that matter. Hosted by Ely Delaney, each episode goes past surface-level advice to uncover the mindset shifts, failures, and frameworks that separate people who talk about success from people who actually build it.

Why Being Honest Is Now Your Best Marketing Move

People are exhausted. Fake reviews, inflated results, made-up income claims. It's everywhere. And honestly, I'm tired of it too.

This episode is about something I've been thinking about a lot lately, especially with the launch of The Follow-Up Code. Honesty isn't just a virtue. Right now, it's the clearest way to stand out.

This one digs into what honesty in marketing actually looks like in practice. Not the feel-good version. The real one.

Key Takeaways

• Only promote what you genuinely believe in. If you don't trust your own product, fix that before you say another word publicly.
• Affiliates and referral partners are fine. The rule is simple: promote it because you use it and love it, not because the commission is good.
• Tell people your shortcomings. Admitting what you don't do builds more trust than claiming you do everything.
• The long game pays off. Every honest promotion adds to a reputation that makes people want to work with you and refer others to you.
• Honesty connects directly to loyalty. When people know you're straight with them, they stick around.

Listen If You...

• Have been promoting things that don't fully feel right and aren't sure how to course-correct
• Want to build a referral-based business but haven't figured out why people aren't sending you more clients
• Are tired of competing with people who seem to be winning by inflating their numbers and faking their results

Tired of prospects ghosting you after your first conversation? Grab my FREE 5-day email course at https://thefollowupfix.net/ and learn the five relationship-killing mistakes that are costing you sales (and how to fix them without being pushy).

About the Show

#MeetCoolPeople is where founders, creators, and entrepreneurs share real stories about building businesses that matter. Hosted by Ely Delaney, each episode goes past surface-level advice to uncover the mindset shifts, failures, and frameworks that separate people who talk about success from people who actually build it.

Are You Building Loyalty or Just Collecting Contacts?

I talk to a lot of business owners who've given up on email.

Open rates dropped. Nobody replied. They figured the tool was broken.

The tool is fine. The relationship is the problem.

This episode is a solo from me, pulled from the chapter about loyalty in my upcoming book, The Follow-Up Code. It comes down to one idea: people buy when they're ready, not when you want them to. Your job is to still be there when that moment comes.

Key Takeaways

• List size means nothing if the relationship is shallow. A 300-person list with real trust outperforms 16,000 overly pitched subscribers every time.
• Showing up consistently with value is what builds loyalty. It does not have to be about your product.
• People will save emails they don't want to lose. That's the sign you're doing it right.
• The "slacker email" is a simple, no-pitch message that restarts conversations with people you've lost touch with.
• Conversations lead to sales. You don't need a pitch. You need a starting point.

Listen If You...

• Have an email list you haven't touched in months (or years) and don't know where to start
• Keep sending newsletters that nobody replies to and wonder if email even works anymore
• Want to build the kind of trust where clients refer you to their family a decade after you first met

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Tired of prospects ghosting you after your first conversation? Grab my FREE 5-day email course at https://thefollowupfix.net/ and learn the five relationship-killing mistakes that are costing you sales (and how to fix them without being pushy).

About the Show

#MeetCoolPeople is where founders, creators, and entrepreneurs share real stories about building businesses that matter. Hosted by Ely Delaney, each episode goes past surface-level advice to uncover the mindset shifts, failures, and frameworks that separate people who talk about success from people who actually build it.

Why Integrity Isn't Just About Keeping Your Word

There are two sides to integrity in business. Most people only think about one.

The obvious side is doing what you say. Deliver what you promised. Show up. If you say you're going to do something, do it. Most of us get that part.

The other side is where things get tricky. And it's the side that quietly kills your confidence when you ignore it.

In this solo episode, I'm talking about integrity. Not just toward your clients, but toward yourself and the work you actually do. There's a version of "keeping the peace" that's really just cowering. And if you've ever bent over backward for a client who was simply wrong, you know exactly what I mean.

Key Takeaways

• The best way to show people you can help them is by actually helping them, before they pay you
• How to handle a client who's unhappy without backing down on work you know was done right
• Why "the customer is always right" is one of the biggest lies in business
• The questions to ask yourself when you're deciding if a mistake was yours or theirs
• Why over-educating your clients on the front end prevents most of these problems from ever starting

Listen If You...

• Have ever caved to a client you knew was wrong and regretted it
• Are in a situation right now where you're not sure if it's your fault or theirs
• Want more confidence in how you handle pushback without losing the relationship

Tired of prospects ghosting you after your first conversation? Grab my FREE 5-day email course at https://thefollowupfix.net/ and learn the five relationship-killing mistakes that are costing you sales (and how to fix them without being pushy).

About the Show

#MeetCoolPeople is where founders, creators, and entrepreneurs share real stories about building businesses that matter. Hosted by Ely Delaney, each episode goes past surface-level advice to uncover the mindset shifts, failures, and frameworks that separate people who talk about success from people who actually build it.

Why Most Follow-Up Fails Before It Even Starts

When was the last time you followed up with someone and actually felt good about it?

If that question made you pause, this episode is for you. Most follow-up fails, and it fails fast. Not because people forget to do it. It fails because of what people say when they do it.

I've been working on something for several months now. My book, The Follow-Up Code, is almost here. And putting it together got me thinking hard about the core problem most people have with follow-up. They treat it like an ATM. Reach in, pull something out.

The people you want to work with, founders, CEOs, real decision-makers, they're not buying from someone who makes them feel like a credit card number. But flip the script a little, show up with something worth their time, a resource, a check-in, something you genuinely thought they'd like, and the whole dynamic changes. They stop dreading your name in their inbox and start looking forward to it.

Key Takeaways

• How sending something genuinely helpful shifts your relationship from vendor to trusted resource
• Why "I need to think about it" is often the truth, not a dodge, and what to do with that
• The simple consistency habit that keeps you top of mind without being pushy
• Why the follow-up process that works in B2B looks nothing like a traditional sales script

Listen If You...

• Have followed up once or twice and then given up, wondering why nobody responded
• Know you should be nurturing relationships better but aren't sure what to actually say
• Are building something real and want clients who come to you, not the other way around

Tired of prospects ghosting you after your first conversation? Grab my FREE 5-day email course at https://thefollowupfix.net/ and learn the five relationship-killing mistakes that are costing you sales (and how to fix them without being pushy).

About the Show

#MeetCoolPeople is where founders, creators, and entrepreneurs share real stories about building businesses that matter. Hosted by Ely Delaney, each episode goes past surface-level advice to uncover the mindset shifts, failures, and frameworks that separate people who talk about success from people who actually build it.

Why "I'll Just Do It Myself" Is Costing You More Than You Think

Most business owners don't have a task problem. They have a letting-go problem.

I got to sit down with Cathy Baillargeon, founder and CEO of Virtual Cathy, and this one hit close to home. She runs a US-based virtual assistance agency built around support that actually moves the needle. Not just task work. The real right-hand-person relationship that gets you back to running your business.

Cathy and I met at gathering get-together back in December and clicked fast. This conversation was no different. She has a straight-talk approach to what getting real help in your business looks like, and she doesn't hold back.

Key Takeaways

• Why "I'll just do it myself" is usually the most expensive decision you can make
• How the best VA relationships go way beyond tasks and become a true accountability and sounding board partnership
• What to look for in a client-facing VA, and why protecting your energy and time matters
• Why delegation is a skill set that takes practice, and what to do when it's not clicking
• How to hire for what you actually need instead of expecting one person to wear every hat

Listen If You...

• Are buried in email, scheduling, and quick tasks that eat your whole day
• Have tried getting help before and it didn't stick, and you're still not sure why
• Know you need support but don't know where to start or what to hand off first

Connect with Cathy

Find Cathy on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathy-baillargeon.

To book a consult or learn more about Virtual Cathy, head to virtualcathy.com.

Tired of prospects ghosting you after your first conversation? Grab my FREE 5-day email course at https://thefollowupfix.net/ and learn the five relationship-killing mistakes that are costing you sales (and how to fix them without being pushy).

About the Show

#MeetCoolPeople is where founders, creators, and entrepreneurs share real stories about building businesses that matter. Hosted by Ely Delaney, each episode goes past surface-level advice to get into the mindset shifts, real talk, and hard-won lessons that actually make a difference.