Joseph A. Michelli, Ph.D., C.S.P., is a Wall Street Journal, U.S.A. Today, Publishers Weekly, Nielsen BookScan, and New York Times #1 bestselling author. He is also an internationally sought-after speaker and organizational consultant who transfers his knowledge of exceptional business practices in ways that develop joyful and productive workplaces focused on customer experience. His insights encourage leaders and frontline workers to grow and invest passionately in all aspects of their lives.
Joseph holds the Certified Speaking Professional designation from the National Speakers Association (N.S.A.). He is a member of the Authors Guild, an editorial board member for the Beryl Institute’s Patient Experience Journal (P.X.J.), and is on the founders’ council of CustomerExperienceOne. Other achievements include winning the Asian Brand Excellence Award and selection as the number 2 thought leader in Customer Service by Global Gurus. He received his master’s and doctorate from the University of Southern California.
Having journeyed with a close family member through a six-year battle with breast cancer, Dr. Michelli is committed to social causes associated with curing cancer and abating world hunger.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you ended up writing a book?
I have a Ph.D. in clinical and systems psychology from the University of Southern California, which gave me a chance to work with the Pike Place Fish Market owner in Seattle, Washington. That 1,400 square foot retail fish stand became very popular for its employees’ antics and playful customer experience.
For example, the team chanted and threw fish. A corporate training company (Charthouse Learning) produced a widely distributed video about the Pike Place Fish Market. Ken Blanchard’s team wrote a business fable (Fish: A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results), which sold over 5 million copies.
Despite those successful products, the market owner, Johnny Yokoyama, wanted to share his business’s transformational story. Johnny asked me to co-write that book with him (When Fish Fly: Lessons for Creating a Vital and Energized Workplace from the World-Famous Pike Place Fish Market), and Hyperion published it in 2004. Fast forward to 2020, and I have been fortunate to write eight other business books (The Starbucks Experience, The New Gold Standard, Prescription for Excellence, The Zappos Experience, Leading the Starbucks Way, Driven to Delight, The Airbnb Way, The MindChamps Way) plus my most recent McGraw-Hill release titled Stronger Through Adversity: World-Class Leaders Share Pandemic-Tested Lessons on Thriving During the Toughest Challenges.
What do you hope your readers take away from this book?
I hope readers will emerge for my latest book, as the title suggests, Stronger Through Adversity. As COVID-19 disrupted the business world in the first quarter of 2020, I began talking to my consulting clients (mostly Fortune 500 CEOs) about their challenges and how they addressed them.
Stronger Through Adversity resulted from more than 140 of those conversations with C.E.O.s, presidents, and senior leaders of organizations like Target, Google, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Feeding America, United Way, Verizon, Southwest Airlines, Goldman Sachs, and H&R Block. As such, I want readers to walk away with actionable tools for crisis management, keeping employees and customers safe, maintaining a culture of engagement, rapidly innovating, and being an authentic leader in their business, family, and community.
What are the top three tools you are currently using to write, publish, and promote your books?
On the promotion side, I have been fortunate to develop an audience for my books and maintain a relationship with readers by creating content on LinkedIn (such as weekly live broadcasts) and a monthly email newsletter.
From the perspective of publishing, McGraw-Hill released my book The Starbucks Experience in 2006. Based on that book’s success and the performance of those that followed, I have maintained a strong relationship with and loyalty to McGraw-Hill. That has made it easier for me to “pitch” a book to the acquisition editor and have my proposal reviewed by the publication board. So, my publishing tools are relationship building, driving sales, and maintaining reciprocal loyalty.
On the writing side, I have a small team that reviews and proofs my drafts before sending them to my publisher. That frees me to generate drafts quickly, knowing that people will elevate the manuscript through revisions.
When will you consider your book a success?
I have three key performance indicators for the success of a book. The first is long-term impact. Is the book changing the way readers think or behave? For example, a few weeks ago, someone posted on LinkedIn that their company’s book club was reading my 2008 book (The New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company). So, I offered to pop in via videoconference on an upcoming book club meeting. I enjoy hearing how the book’s ideas apply to their company’s needs in 2021.
My next measure of success is pre-sale numbers. My team and I work hard to launch my books so they can be placed on a trajectory to reach those who can most benefit. Finally, I track interest in the book based on interview requests, media hits, foreign language translations, and my ability to earn out my advance swiftly.
Here’s an exemplary snippet from Stronger Through Adversity:
Leaders Need Care Too
“Unfortunately, while most leaders understand the importance of self-care, understanding doesn’t necessarily translate into self-directed action. Despite an extensive background in human resiliency and vast experience as a healthcare leader, Chris Recinos found herself pulled into a leadership spiral where self-care was an afterthought. Chris holds a Ph.D. in nursing, is the C.E.O. of the Nurse Leader Network, and is also the Chief Nurse Executive at a major healthcare system in Los Angeles. She noted, “Like other senior leaders, I felt like I couldn’t leave the hospital or step away from patient care. For example, I worked 52 consecutive days with no days off. It was hard to take time away when so many people came to me for solutions. It was also difficult to express weakness–so I put on my emotional armor to seem strong.” This intense external focus seemed to be working for Chris until she could no longer ignore the large price she was paying for poor self-care. According to Chris, “Everything took a backseat except what was happening in the hospital. I was no longer teaching, recording my regular podcasts, or running my Nurse Leader Network. Since my husband also works at a hospital, our kids struggled in school. It was like Lord of the Flies at my house–with our children virtually stranded on an uninhabited island.” – Joseph A. Michelli – Stronger Through Adversity
“Well into this downward self-care cycle, Chris realized she needed to make a change. Sparked by a spontaneous and vulnerable conversation among nursing supervisors, Chris noted, “One leader said she felt like she should get the Worst Mother of the Year award, and every other leader with a child at home expressed that same feeling. At that moment, we knew we hadn’t taken care of ourselves or our broader priorities. So, we assigned accountability partners to make sure we were all taking respite. Every week we’d talk to our partner about what we did to re-energize, and they would make sure we were taking days off and truly disconnecting from the work. It’s amazing how we as leaders can get so pulled into the importance of our work that we can lose ourselves and deprioritize our families in the process.” – Joseph A. Michelli – Stronger Through Adversity
At the risk of sounding like a Nike commercial, my advice is “just do it.” That may seem overly simplistic, but the biggest writing barriers for most people are fear and perfectionism. They know they have a book inside them that needs to see the light of day but convince themselves that “they can’t write” or “who would want to read my book?” Once you get past the first hurdle, I encourage people to think about their book’s goal so they can pursue a path to publication (self-publish or traditional publication). Often I’ll encourage them to consider a writing coach, a writing community, or a copy editor, depending on their goals.
What is the one thing you wish you knew before publishing your first book?
I wish I would have known the powerfully positive impact it has had on my life because I would have written it sooner. Beyond that, I wish I would have known how much work it takes to get a book from idea to the bestseller list. I had a naïve belief that my job would be to write the manuscript, and poof, it would be on the shelf at Barnes & Noble. I also didn’t understand the publishing business and my role in a much larger ecosystem (agents, private PR companies, the publisher’s P.R. and marketing team, audio recording studios, etc.).
If you had the chance to start your career over again, what would you do differently?
I am not sure that I would do anything differently. It’s tempting to wish I’d taken a different path when a choice didn’t work out the way I’d hoped. In reality, each of those missteps or miscalculations resulted in priceless learnings. For example, I once did a commissioned book for which I had no marketing input. That taught me the importance of partnering so I could maintain brand identity.
If you only had $1000 to promote a new book, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?
I am laughing as I respond to this question because I’ve spent less than $1,000 on promotion for most of my books. Marketing spend is in the purview of my publisher. For that dollar amount, I guess I would buy some of my books and send them to influencers or clients that I think will be interested in purchasing additional copies for their clients or team members.
What is your favorite quote?
My favorite quote comes from a writer (someone who reported that he NEEDED to write every day simply to survive).
Henry David Thoreau shared, “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
Who should we interview next and why?
Dave Von Drehle. Dave and I were in an independent writing class together as undergraduates at the University of Denver. He became a fabulous journalist (Denver Post, Washington Post, Time) and author. One of my favorite books of his is titled Rise of Greatness: Abraham Lincoln and America’s Most Perilous Year. Dave is brilliant and can talk about writing across multiple platforms.
How can we get in touch with you?
Thanks for asking and for the opportunity to share my thoughts with your audience. I can be reached via my website JosephMichelli.com, email joseph@josephmichelli.com or LinkedIn.
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