Jim DeFelice’s name might not be too well-known to you, but if you’re a fan of bestselling books or insanely popular movies, you’ll probably know his work. Jim was Chris Kyle’s ghostwriter on the bestseller American Sniper, which was recently turned into a blockbuster Clint Eastwood movie starring Bradley Cooper. On top of that, Jim is amazingly productive, having already written over 50 books! So who better to have as a guest on a podcast about creating a successful, productive lifestyle?
In this week’s Hardcore MBA, Jim and I discuss:
- The mental strength and focus on achieving goals that is needed to be an effective SEAL.
- The things that keep him motivated to write so productively.
- And the methods he used when working with Chris Kyle on American Sniper, and his account of the sad day of Kyle’s death.
I also asked Jim about the recent changes in the publishing industry. “Things have changed a lot since I got started,” he told me. “It’s a lot harder to get the big publishers interested in a new writer, but Kindle has been a help for everyone. I’ve actually put a lot of my older books out on Kindle, making them available to people who have read my more recent stuff and might be interested. And I think Kindle has also brought out a lot of talent and diversity that we might otherwise not have had access to. You can be writing the kind of work that a big publisher might not take a chance on, but it can still get an audience of a few thousand at least by using Kindle.”
As you can imagine, Jim has a lot of great stories to tell, and this week’s podcast is a must for anyone interested in the craft of writing. However, he also has a lot to say about motivation and the skillset that a great entrepreneur needs to be able to take advantage of, so I encourage even those who don’t know much about Jim’s books to give it a listen as well. Jim’s new book, American Wife, is available on Amazon now.
