206: How to land a book deal from someone who's done it - interview with entrepreneur-turned-author, Ian Whitworth

This episode's guest is Ian Whitworth, a reformed branding and advertising creative director turned entrepreneur and co-founder of Scene Change, a national corporate AV company that once used a toothless gypsy lady to help set its strategy!

Ian studied as a vet, got expelled, and became a corporate AV technician. He claims he has been "exposed to radioactive megadoses of corporate motivator shtick", before realising they’re generally 99% showbiz and 1% business experience.

More importantly, for the purposes of today’s episode –

Ian is a blogger and published author, with a new book out now via Penguin Random House: UNDISRUPTABLE: Timeless Business Truths for Thriving in a World of Non-Stop Change.

(High profile Australian entrepreneur Zoë Foster Blake described UNDISRUPTABLE as "witty, clever and extremely relevant in these godforsaken Zoom times.")

In this wide-ranging chat with host Trevor Young, Ian touches on:

• How he snagged a book deal with a major publisher
• The importance of telling real-life stories
• The power of blogging (and the role it played in landing him a book deal)
• The use of humour in storytelling
• Finding and honing your public voice
• Writing is thinking - it's valuable to clarify what you stand for and what you do.

Ian also discusses developing a point of view and why it's sometimes good to have a "straw man enemy" to go up against. In Ian's case, he preaches doing the opposite to what an MBA-trained consultant would tell you to do (the original title of Ian's book was 'Kill All MBAs!').

Connect with Ian:

• Twitter
• Blog