Steve Anderson joins me today! He is the author of The Bezos Letters and has positioned himself as the “Risk expert who is saying you should take more risk in your business” as a core concept to drive your business forward. Find out how Steve addressed the issue of writing a book about Amazon without working at the company and how he created a book from the letters of Bezos, building his content upon the principles which catapulted Amazon to one of the most successful companies in the world.
Meet Steve Anderson
Steve Anderson is an expert in strategic risk and business growth. Drawing on decades of experience in the insurance industry, he wrote The Bezos Letters: 14 Principles to Grow Your Business Like Amazon, a Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and international bestseller. With hundreds of thousands of followers, Steve has been handpicked by LinkedIn as one of the world’s most influential thought leaders. Steve helps business owners understand how to leverage the exquisite tension between risk-taking and business growth.
Why Steve Decided to Write a Book
With a background in the insurance industry, Steve fell in love with technology and showed others how to better utilize technology in the insurance sector. While working in insurance, Steve thought that the most significant risk you can take in business is not taking enough risk. He looked at different companies – both successful and those that have failed – and wondered what they did differently.
When looking at Amazon, he found that Jeff Bezos had hidden his plan for growing Amazon in plain sight. Steve found principles that he used and realized these could be applied to almost every type of business to increase growth. “I was shocked how much Bezos talked about their secret sauce at Amazon and nobody had it [written in a book]” Starting out as a lead generation pdf, Steve talked to his wife, who told him that his content was a book, not a lead generation. At that point, Steve started the book writing process.
The Bezos Letters
His book, The Bezos Letters™, unlocks key lessons, mindset, principles, and steps Bezos has used to make Amazon a successful company. Applying these principles helps drive higher, faster results for companies everywhere. Risk & Growth Expert Steve Anderson shows business owners, executives, and leaders how to apply Bezos’ same practices to their business so they can more quickly become efficient, productive, and successful companies.
Show Highlights
- [02:30] Why Steve Anderson chose to write a book.
- [04:30] Steve was originally going to give away his book summary as a lead generation tool.
- [07:00] Researching the competition in his book topic.
- [08:14] Pulling out principles, themes, and ideas from the Bezos letters and how he decided on the structure of his book.
- [10:06] Balancing the research aspect along with writing his book.
- [12:04] How he found the artist who did his book cover art.
- [19:28] Research came easy for Steve as he is a researcher, learner, and teacher at heart.
- [23:56] Launch tactics that were used to propel book sales for his book.
- [25:33] Podcast interviews as the most effective tool to promote his book.
- [35:05] How Steve sold his book and gained international book-selling rights.