Different Isn’t Enough: How to Build True Distinction as an Author - BM518

Everyone says your book needs to be different.

But what if “different” is exactly why it gets ignored?

In a marketplace flooded with AI content and endless new titles, standing out has become harder than ever. Many authors respond by trying to be louder or trendier.

This week’s guest, Scott McKain, argues that approach misses the point.

In his book Beyond Distinction, Scott explains why difference creates attention… but distinction creates authority.

In this conversation, we explore why authors who chase trends disappear, why AI cannot replace your lived experience, and how the most memorable experts build a reputation readers trust and remember.

If you want your book to do more than exist on a crowded shelf, this episode will challenge how you think about standing out.

Key Takeaways

• Different vs. Distinct
Being different gets noticed. Distinction makes you memorable.

• The Trend Trap
Follow trends, and you look like everyone else. Leaders create their own lane.

• Your Human Advantage
AI can generate content. It cannot replace your story, perspective, or lived experience.

• Finding Your Distinction
The clues often sit inside your own life story and professional journey.

• Beyond the Book
Authority grows when the conversation continues through speaking, podcasts, and community.

If you want distinction rather than noise, tune in now!

Here's how to connect with Scott:

Buy your copy of Beyond Distinction

Website:

LinkedIn

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Transcript

Susan Friedmann [00:00:00]:
Welcome to Book Marketing Mentors, the weekly podcast where you learn proven strategies, tools, ideas, and tips from the masters. Every week I introduce you to a marketing master who will share their expertise to help you market and sell more books. 

Today, my special guest is Scott McKain. Scott is one of the world's most sought-after business speakers and customer experience experts. A member of the National Speakers Association Hall of Fame and the Sales and Marketing Hall of Fame. He's delivered more than 2,000 presentations in 36 countries. From early leadership roles that led to thousands of speeches by the age of 21 to advising organizations around the world, Scott helps leaders stand out, create distinctive experiences, and rise above the noise in an AI-transformed world. He's a multi-time bestselling author, and his most recent book is Beyond Distinction: How Leaders Transcend the Turbulence of an AI-Transformed World.

Susan Friedmann [00:01:12]:
A dear friend and colleague, Scott, what an absolute pleasure it is to welcome you to the show. Thank you for being this week's guest expert and mentor.

Scott McKain [00:01:22]:
I'm honored, Susan. We've been friends for a long, long time. It's not only a pleasure, it's a privilege to have a chance to share this time with you. So thank you for the invitation. Great to be with you.

Susan Friedmann [00:01:31]:
Well, my pleasure. And it suddenly occurred to me that for the number of years that we've known each other, why it's taken so long for me to have you on the show. I feel embarrassed by that one.

Scott McKain [00:01:42]:
But hey, better late than never, right? It's all good. Here we are.

Susan Friedmann [00:01:46]:
Exactly. Here we are. So I really am so curious about the new book, Beyond Distinction. And I know you wrote another one previously, Create Distinction. So many authors try to stand out in this crowded marketplace. What's the difference between being different and then being distinctive?

Scott McKain [00:02:13]:
You know, Susan, when I'm giving a speech, I also indicated this in the new book, it occurred to me that if I slapped every customer in the face, I would be different. But it doesn't mean anybody would buy my next book or come back and do business with me again or whatever. Maybe my logo is red and the competition's is green. Maybe my book cover looks different, but the content is the same as everybody else. To me, what separates distinction from differentiation is that your uniqueness has traction and meaning for the audience that you're seeking to serve. If I do something that is unique, but it serves my customers or my readers in an extraordinary way, that to me is the point of distinction because it's fulfilling something that customers are seeking, that customers need. I'm doing something that's meaningful to them, not just for myself.

Susan Friedmann [00:03:09]:
When you look at experts and authors that are trying to build authority today, and you know, we know many of them between all the different contacts we have, what do you feel is the most common mistake you see that they make?

Scott McKain [00:03:25]:
I think it's trend chasing. I think that for a couple of reasons. As I was researching for this book, one of the things that occurred to me is that when you're in reaction mode, it means you're already behind. If you're chasing a trend, it means that someone else has already written about it. Someone else is already leading the charge on that particular topic. And the other aspect of that is when you get caught up in trend chasing, then you never build your own personal brand other than I write about what everybody else is writing about. I do what everybody else is doing, which is not really where you want to be as a brand. I think it's critical.

Scott McKain [00:04:03]:
For example, there's a lot of folks that write about leadership. But if you could find your own unique take on that, then that becomes your brand. Jeff Bezos of Amazon fame said, your brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room. That makes it difficult because it means you're not in the room to hear it. But it also means that the conversations that you stimulate, or the lack thereof, is really what your personal brand is. And so one of the things I realized along the way as I was researching distinction for my own business, even prior to writing about it, was that you've got to be known for something. And I also see authors who will write a really terrific book on one particular topic, and then they jump in a completely different field. And they haven't established enough of their authority within that one particular area to really interest me in what they have to say in something else.

Scott McKain [00:04:54]:
We have seen so much in publishing of people who claim to be thought leaders, but really what they are are highly vocal trend followers. And I think it's critical that we develop our brand through our own unique viewpoints, regardless of what the situation, the topic might be that we're writing about.

Susan Friedmann [00:05:13]:
You talk about how you looked at distinction within your own business, and you're definitely a thought leader. So what makes you distinctive?

Scott McKain [00:05:25]:
Gosh, what a great question. It's significantly easier to identify it in others than it is in yourself. I've become known, I guess, for the point of view about distinction. And then how do you take it to higher levels? And then how does it change in terms of its relevancy? That's really what the new book is about, is with AI and all of this incredible transformation that we're seeing in the world, how do we maintain our relevancy? So distinction still to me is a model that we can expand upon. So that having developed over a period of years expertise within my subject matter, I would hope would separate me from others in the category.

Susan Friedmann [00:06:03]:
Yeah, I mean, I always remember your book. What was it? The Show Business? Right. Business is Show Business. I was like, I love that. I love that book.

Scott McKain [00:06:13]:
One of the really interesting things that happened to me recently, for authors, this just goes to show you never know. I talked about this at the NSA National Speakers Association meeting we recently had in New Orleans. I got this email from this guy and he wrote, all businesses show business was kind of my Bible. It was one of the books, the 3 books that I used to start my own business. And we applied the principles of that to build our business. I'd love for you to come visit me and let me show you how we've used what you wrote about. And if there's anything I can do for you, I would love to have the opportunity to do that. Signed, Jesse Cole, owner, Savannah Bananas.

Scott McKain [00:06:53]:
Which is just incredible. So he had me come out and visit him in Savannah and learn about what they're doing. And it was just an incredible experience. But never did I think when I was writing that book that it would impact somebody that in turn would make such a great impact as that. So that's part of the motivation, I think, for those of us that spend those lonely, difficult hours writing is You just never know. You never know the impact that what you write is going to have.

Susan Friedmann [00:07:22]:
Mm. Scott, with AI producing more content than ever, what actually makes an author's message memorable and valuable?

Scott McKain [00:07:32]:
Gosh, what a great question. And I address that to a degree with all businesses in the book. But I just think the humanity, the human experience is something that AI can never truly replicate. For all of humankind, we've learned through the power of story. We've learned through compelling narratives. For each of us, our own personal story, our own personal take, our personal opinions, that can't be duplicated. I'll admit, I used AI as a part of writing the new book. I would write, and then I'd say, you know, I'd enter it into AI, and I'd say, review this, give me some ideas, give me some suggestions, some of which I used, some of which I didn't.

Scott McKain [00:08:15]:
I looked at AI as a digital editor, but not to generate content because AI can hallucinate. AI can, you know, AI can turn out very generic, good material, but generic material. And that doesn't advance where we're going as authors. I think there is a place for AI. But when I pick up a book, I want to know what that author believes in their soul, what they think, what they're committed to. Is that true for a fiction book? Of course it is. But I think it's even just as true, maybe more so, with nonfiction books, because we don't buy nonfiction books for a generic opinion. We buy them to see things through the prism of the author's experience.

Scott McKain [00:09:00]:
That's something that AI can never duplicate. That's something that AI isn't going to be able to deliver. That's really a lot of what my book is about, is that leaders have to make certain that they— there's a great line from Scott Galloway who says too many leaders think that AI is corporate Ozempic. You know, give me a shot, we can cut the humanity out of this thing and be easier to manage. And that's the pathway to destruction for authors individually and for organizations collectively. It has its place. It's a tool. But, you know, there's some of us been around a few times and the internet was talked about it this way.

Scott McKain [00:09:36]:
Cellular communication was talked about it this way. Yes, AI is maybe the most dramatic change in technology that we've ever seen. But we also have to keep it in perspective is that humans want to be connected with humans and that isn't going to go away.

Susan Friedmann [00:09:50]:
Yeah, that human connection. Now, I did a program on storytelling with using AI and AI can do a certain amount, but at the end of the day, that human story, your story, your uniqueness, it can't duplicate.

Scott McKain [00:10:09]:
Exactly.

Susan Friedmann [00:10:10]:
So that human to human, and I love this idea, the prism of an author's experience. That's beautiful. Oh, thank you. Was that in the book?

Scott McKain [00:10:22]:
I said that and I thought, gosh, I got to write that down.

Susan Friedmann [00:10:25]:
I wrote it down.

Scott McKain [00:10:26]:
Isn't it funny that AI can know everything and can have a ton of information and maybe not a whole lot of wisdom, right? I mean, they call it artificial intelligence. They don't call it artificial wisdom. And that's what we're looking for from the author, is to assimilate and associate these aspects of information and intelligence to create something where we go, wow, I hadn't thought of it that way. Now, it might mean we might apply it or we might not apply it.. But if we can stimulate thinking through our writing, to me, that's the ultimate goal of an author. My feeling has always been the reader has the responsibility of whether or not they act on what's in a book. But the author has the responsibility to at least stimulate their thinking, to trigger something in them that makes them contemplate either accentuating what they're already doing, or trying something different or unique, or opening their mind to new perspectives. That's our goal as authors, it seems to me.

Susan Friedmann [00:11:26]:
Very much so. Stimulating the thinking. I mean, I know when I use AI, that's what really grabs me. When I can stimulate the thinking, it's not only stimulating my thinking, but then if I can pass that on, because looking at things from a different perspective that sometimes we become too myopic with our own subject. That we don't see the wood for the trees.

Scott McKain [00:11:52]:
Yeah. Yeah. And there you go with learning how to use AI, because, for example, one of the things that I'll do before a speech is go to AI and let's say I'm speaking to a group of car dealers. I can say to AI, okay, you're playing the role of a car dealer. What questions would you have about how you could apply this material into how you're running the dealership? And it's really good at giving me the perspective of what the audience or what the reader might have that the blinders I have on might not have thought of. That stimulating thinking can work both ways between us doing that for our readers and AI doing that for our thinking as authors. When I read something really generic, I used to think, well, the author hasn't done a whole lot of research or they don't have a lot of experience in this. Now if I read something generic, I think, oh, that's ChatGPT.

Susan Friedmann [00:12:44]:
Yes, you can spot it a mile off now, more and more as you see the same words that come out over and over again. And it drives me crazy when I ask AI for something and it comes out with this generic stuff. I was like, please do me a favor.

Scott McKain [00:13:00]:
It's funny that you mentioned that too, because one of the things in my writing style, I didn't try to overuse it, but I used a lot of em dashes, you know, because that's kind of how I speak. And with this new book, I had to be very careful because that's one of the things that I know that people notice and go, oh, it must be AI, look at all the em dashes. It made me very aware that there are certain things that people look for to identify something as AI slop. And I really had to be careful because that's just part of how I write, part of how I think. And I had to be very careful about that.

Susan Friedmann [00:13:35]:
I know, I mean, I'm scared to use an em dash now, even though I would use it Normally I was like, oh, because people will think that AI did this. So no em dashes. That's one of my rules. I always say to AI, no em dashes, no adverbs. Exactly. So you talk a lot about the ultimate customer experience. So if you think of that for an author interacting with readers and their audience and clients, What does that look like for you?

Scott McKain [00:14:11]:
Wow, that's a great question. I think for an author, the ultimate experience is not just in the book, right? I mean, you obviously want to, to connect with the audience that you are writing for. I don't think you can write a generic book and believe it's going to be successful. So it begins on the page. But secondly, how are you as a nonfiction author continuing the conversation with your readers or prospective readers, whether it's through social media, Substack, blog posts, podcasts like you're doing, Susan. What are we doing as an author to continue and stimulate more conversation? Because when we do that, we are providing— the late, great Zig Ziglar, who really is who got me started writing my first book, you know, always used to say, you can have everything in life that you want if you help enough other people get what they want. I've always thought that about book sales. If I can help enough people, and part of that's not just putting a book out there, it's also providing a way that they can reach out to you personally through social media or LinkedIn, whatever source it might be.

Scott McKain [00:15:20]:
And you can encourage and stimulate conversation between readers who— somebody in California reads a book and has one opinion, and somebody in New York has another one, and facilitate discussion. I think that's part of how we serve our public. And let's face it, it helps us sell books. It gets publishers more interested in us or gives us the avenue to create more of our own work. Mm.

Susan Friedmann [00:15:45]:
Very much so. I always like to get very practical in my discussions with my guests. So if we talk about what might be one practical thing that an author might do to be able to stand out and be more distinctive. What might be a first step if somebody came to you and said, Scott, what should I do? Give me one thing. What might be your first thing that you would tell them?

Scott McKain [00:16:12]:
Okay, this is really gonna sound strange, but this is one of the things that helped me a lot. I was encouraged to write an autobiography, not a big work, not a boastful, ego-centered work, but just kind of write down the things that had happened to me from childhood on. And then get someone who you're acquainted with, but doesn't— maybe not like your best friend— to just review it and say, oh, wow, that's interesting. Because my mom and dad owned the one grocery store in Crothersville, Indiana, and we had a supermarket move in when I was in middle school. I knew it changed my parents' perspective because I saw mom in the office crying and dad being upset. Because how is our little grocery store going to survive with a supermarket coming to our small town? They could always beat us on the price of a loaf of bread. They could always beat us on a gallon of milk with a price. And I watched how Dad in particular responded to that.

Scott McKain [00:17:12]:
And I never realized how much that shaped my viewpoint and perspective until somebody else— to me, it was just part of how I grew up, right? I mean, It's funny, when you grow up, you think that everybody has similar experiences, perhaps, until you meet someone that thinks that's interesting. And it really helped form the basis of the things that I write about, because it never occurred to me that that was unique or different or compelling. And, you know, I mentioned it earlier, sometimes the hardest things for us to recognize that make us unique and distinctive It's that we take it for granted. I have learned over these years that for most authors, we tend to run from our own uniqueness. We can identify it in others. We can write about it for other organizations and other companies. But we really have difficulty with that internally, either because we don't recognize it or because our humility won't permit us to talk about it. But it's the very thing that the potential reader would find illuminating and would find unique.

Scott McKain [00:18:19]:
I'm not saying that it has to be your next work or your first work, but I'm saying there are so many ways through AI and everything else that we can learn about others, but we haven't yet mined the depths of our own experience. And that would be a step that I would recommend.

Susan Friedmann [00:18:37]:
I love that. Thank you. Yes. I mean, I was thinking, yes, because if somebody says to me, you know, well, what makes you unique? That's a tough question to answer.

Scott McKain [00:18:47]:
It is a tough question. Yeah.

Susan Friedmann [00:18:48]:
It's a very tough question to answer. But just that little story, that vignette that you shared is beautiful because all of a sudden now I see things very differently. You grew up in this small town. I grew up in a big city. I grew up in London. I had no clue what it was like growing up on a farm or in a small town, even though now I live in a very small town. It's even a village. It's not even a town.

Susan Friedmann [00:19:17]:
It's a very, very different way of growing up and seeing the world and experiencing life.

Scott McKain [00:19:25]:
It is. It's funny, for example, part of what my dad did to survive with the competition was you could call our store, tell us what you wanted from the grocery store, and we would deliver it. Well, now I look at, you know, Instacart and Uber Eats and think, gosh, why, why didn't we turn that into a business? I mean, that's part of where the ultimate customer experience comes from, is finding ways that remove all friction from the customer doing business with you. You don't have time to come to the grocery store? We'll bring the groceries to your house. That was just part of what we did in our small town to survive and thrive. And by the way, about 10, 11 years later, the supermarket closed their doors and left town. Yay! The small mom-and-pop business very seldom defeats the big box, but it did in our little town. It's those kinds of things that make a difference.

Scott McKain [00:20:16]:
The other thing, and I hope you don't mind me throwing one more in, is— No, I love it— is to do the work. You remember my late wife Sherry. I was involved in the student group. You talked about all those speeches I gave before I was 21, I was a national officer of a student organization. And I'd been out, I don't know, 4 or 5 years, and I was just beginning my speaking career. And they asked me to come back and speak to the national convention of the student organization. Now, the national convention, there's 20,000 in the audience. So to get to come back and speak to this was amazing, was huge at that early time.

Scott McKain [00:20:52]:
And one of the other speakers was Zig Ziglar. Well, Sherry and I check in the hotel room and I'm just thinking, gosh, I can't wait to go hear his speech. And the phone in our room rings and it's Zig Ziglar. And he said, hi, Scott, I saw that you're on the program. I know that you're a member of the National Speakers Association along with me. Do you have plans for dinner tonight? Well, I'm like a Little League shortstop that an All-Star Major League player has invited out. This is so far out of my realm. And so he took Sherry and me to dinner.

Scott McKain [00:21:25]:
So we're sitting at dinner and he said, Scott, I looked and I couldn't find any books that you'd written. And I said, well, Zig, I've never written a book. And immediately he said, oh, I get it. I haven't written a book either. Well, Sherry and I look at each other because we had like 10 on the shelf at home. What do you mean? And he said, but I get up every morning and I write 3 pages. And he said, after about 100 or so days, somebody says, you know, Zig, I think you got a book. And then he leaned back in his chair and he just smiled.

Scott McKain [00:21:57]:
And it was like the light bulb went on over my head. Writing a book seemed so overwhelming, so daunting to me that I just couldn't get started. But I could get up the next morning and write 3 pages. That's what I did. That's where all the books come from, is not necessarily writing the book. And obviously, you develop your own personal way of doing it, and We've all experienced that. But the other thing was it made me realize that it became easier for me then to market the book with deep belief because over that period of time writing 3 pages a day, you might be writing, by the way, as you well know, Susan, sometimes that 3 pages happens pretty quickly and sometimes you're talking about a full day to get those 3 pages. It all depends.

Scott McKain [00:22:47]:
But by the time the manuscript is ready, you've been writing, but you've also been thinking and learning and growing, and you have more to say, and you get more passionate about the material. And therefore it becomes easier to market because it's part of your DNA by that point. And I love that. I love that process of writing and then of marketing and engaging, because good grief, I know you've talked about that. It's scary when you put it out there in the world because What are people going to say about it? How are they going to respond to it? But it also can be incredibly simultaneously gratifying when you see that people look at— no book is going to appeal to 100% of the market or the readers. But if it can make them think, if it can move people to think, hey, this is something I can use, I don't think there's a bigger gift or a bigger responsibility than that. We have as authors.

Susan Friedmann [00:23:44]:
Oh, it is a real gift. It's so funny because it was taking me back to my first book, which came to an NSA convention first time, and I was introduced to Nido Qubein. Yes. And I said to Nido, I'm brand new at this, new in the business, give me some words of wisdom. And he said, Write a book.

Scott McKain [00:24:11]:
There you go.

Susan Friedmann [00:24:12]:
Right, right. Write a book. And that was the furthest thing from my mind. And like you said, you don't just sit down and write a book, but I gave myself a goal. Every day for 2 hours, I had to write at least 2 pages.

Scott McKain [00:24:27]:
There you go.

Susan Friedmann [00:24:28]:
Yeah. And as you say, some days it was so easy, it just flowed, and other days it was like Oh, it was like pulling teeth. I mean, it was so painful, but I wouldn't get up. I had this sign on my wall that says, "Bum glue." So my bum was glued to the chair until those two pages were written.

Scott McKain [00:24:53]:
I love that, bum glue. I need a sign.

Susan Friedmann [00:24:55]:
You're gonna steal that one.

Scott McKain [00:24:56]:
You can steal it. I need a sign. That's perfect.

Susan Friedmann [00:24:59]:
You need a bum glue sign.

Scott McKain [00:25:00]:
You need to start marketing those signs, right? I will, yes. Bum glue signs. It's great.

Susan Friedmann [00:25:05]:
I love this, Scott. This is a great segue to tell our listeners how they can find out more about you, the book. What would you like to share with them?

Scott McKain [00:25:15]:
Oh, I appreciate that. The website for the new book is beyonddistinction.ai, and it'll tell you about the new book. And obviously it's available everywhere books are sold— Amazon, Barnes Noble, on and on— thanks to the publisher Wiley. My personal website is scottmckain.com. By the way, my last name is spelled M-C-K-A-I-N. There you can find out everything about my speaking and the other books I've written and everything else. I'm also very active on social media, so let's connect on LinkedIn or anywhere else that you desire. And there's tons of information out there, but it's just a privilege to share with your listeners, Susan, and to be a part of your terrific podcast.

Susan Friedmann [00:25:57]:
Thank you. It's my pleasure to have you here. That's wonderful. And I'll put all that in the show notes, Scott. Oh, great. As long as, yeah, as well as your Substack, cuz you've got a great Substack I noticed recently. So again, I've subscribed to that as well. Yes.

Susan Friedmann [00:26:13]:
So all good. And as you know, we always have our guests leave our listeners with a golden nugget.

Scott McKain [00:26:22]:
What's yours? The one that I would suggest is to find your uniqueness. In the ways that we've talked about through this podcast, is to find your uniqueness and find ways to leverage that for the good of others. What makes you unique is also what will attract people to read what you write, to be interested in what you say. Don't fall in the trap of trend following, trend chasing, being a lemming that's part of the crowd. Find your own uniqueness, find your own distinction, and write so that you can leverage that to help as many other people as you possibly can.

Susan Friedmann [00:27:02]:
Beautiful. Oh my goodness. Listeners, you have got to re-listen to this podcast. Thank you. Such gems. So Scott, it's been an absolute pleasure. Thrilled that we could have this. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom.

Susan Friedmann [00:27:18]:
And listeners, If your book isn't selling the way you want it or expect it to, let's you and I jump on a quick call together to brainstorm ways to ramp up those sales because you've invested a whole lot of time, money, and energy, and it's time you got the return you were hoping for. So go to bookmarketingbrainstorm.com to schedule your free call. And in the meantime, I hope this powerful interview sparked some ideas you can use to sell more books. Until next week, here's wishing you much book and author marketing success.

Here's how to connect with Scott:

Buy your copy of Beyond Distinction

Website:

LinkedIn