Author Interview: Kerry C. O'Hallaron, Author of 'People Skills 101' @ps101_book #interview

Kerry O'Hallaron was born in St. Louis, MO. He attended college at the University of Missouri, and later "emigrated" to Florida. His passion in life is to help others maximize their own potential.

His latest book, "People Skills 101 - tm: How to Have More Friends, Fewer Conflicts, and Better Relationships," is a compelling and life-changing new spin on one of the oldest "self-development" books in print. In it, he adds new color the art and science of people skills, which wealthy industrialist John D. Rockefeller called the most valuable asset under the sun. O'Hallaron teaches us in a humorous way how to use time-tested principles in our quest for friendships and positive business and personal relationships. The teachings aren't new - but O'Hallaron's unique twist on them certainly is. Whether you're a shy, reserved introvert or a bubbly, outgoing extrovert, "People Skills 101" could be the only book you need to understand the simple tools that will help you both create and manage the perceptions people have of you.

You will be amazed how a few, subtle changes you can learn from this book will craft a new, more influential, more charismatic, more likable, YOU!

O'Hallaron lives in Tampa with his wife, Carol, and can't seem to get away from spending significant parts of each year in his home town of St. Louis.

Website Address: www.peopleskills.training

Twitter Address: @ps101_book

Facebook Address: https://www.facebook.com/PeopleSkills101/

Q: Welcome to The Writer's Life! Now that your book has been published, we’d love to find out more about the process. Can we begin by having you take us at the beginning? When did you come up with the idea to write your book?

At the very beginning of the book I share an anecdote about how, just over 25 years ago, I nearly got fired from a “people” job for having horrible people skills. As I was walking out of the office of my boss, demoted but not fired, I made a promise to myself that I would either find a place to learn the necessary people skills – or I would create such a place. Over the following 25 years I did master them bit by bit, not in one particular place but rather through dogged determination and persistency. As each day went by, I just naturally assumed that somebody, somewhere, would write a book or create a class dedicated to people skills. Finally, about two years ago I realized that wasn’t going to happen, and the only way to keep my promise to myself was to write this book. So here we are!

Q: How hard was it to write a book like this and do you have any tips that you could pass on which would make the journey easier for other writers?

Of course it was work, but it was a labor of love, with no deadlines or pressure from anyone but myself. I started with nothing but may smart phone to take notes. For about six months, I just paid close attention to myself and countless others in human interactions, and made notes of ideas that came to mind. Later, the ideas were distilled into topics, and the topics into an outline. The rest was truly easy. There were many more topics than there was room for in the book, so I chose just the most relevant ones. Interestingly, at least to me, I did not write the chapters in sequence. I wrote a chapter at a time based on what inspired me at that time, and then made sure they all linked together nicely.

Q: Who is your publisher and how did you find them or did you self-publish?

I self-published because of my desire to get the book to market. I have been approached by publishers relative to certain foreign language rights. I’m also open to traditional publishing in English, assuming that I can find the right partner/publisher. But my vision is that most people improve their lives and the lives of others by reading this book, so I’m happy even on days when sales are a little slow.

Q: Is there anything that surprised you about getting your first book published?

This was not my first book, though with due modesty I think it’s the first one that is worthy of traditional publishing. What surprised me, though, is the huge number of “indie” self-publishers at various stages of the process. My goodness, thousands upon thousands of people are dedicating every free moment, sometimes for years, just for the possibility of breaking even and maybe making a small profit. The good news for us readers is that there is a ton of good new content out there, free or at a very low price, if you are willing to wade through some mediocre books to find the good ones. And the good news for us authors is that the competition isn’t really very intense if the product is worthwhile, because the market weeds out the poor competition.

Q: What other books are you working on and when will they be published?

My first book, written some years ago, was on public speaking. I think the content was good; I’m not really happy with the title – The Public Speaking Gold Mine. The book teaches anyone who is willing to learn, how they can become a fearless and persuasive public speaker and get compensated for it – even if the sponsor is unwilling to pay. When People Skills 101 is standing on its own two feet, so to speak, I’d like to re-write the public speaking book. Today’s readers demand a quicker pace, shorter sentences and paragraphs, and more reinforcement along the way in the case of non-fiction books. So I’ll re-write it in today’s preferred format, add a few illustrations, come up with a relevant title, and hopefully have a good offering for the market that needs that information.

Q: What’s one fact about your book that would surprise people?

If I have the great fortune of gaining you as a customer, you won’t be surprised for long because it’s in the first chapter. OK, since you asked, I’ll share now. The very first four words of the book are, “I was born shy.” They are followed by, “I was also born an introvert.” I go on to tell how the two are related but not the same, how you can and I did get over shyness, but introversion or extroversion never really change. So the fact that probably would surprise people is that a guy who is perfectly happy without too much people time and who worked hard to go from terminally shy to having a reasonably good personality, would have the expertise to write a book on people skills. Of course, my hope is that after reading People Skills 101 you will quickly understand why I was far better equipped to write this material than someone who at least appears to have been born a master of people skills. I’ve spent a lifetime gathering the material I share in the book.

Q: Finally, what message are you trying to get across with your book?

Hmm. I actually answer that question in the book. I state that if I had to boil the entire book down into just one single, solitary word, that word would be empathy. If we can learn to be empathetic to everyone – to clearly understand how they feel, why they feel that way, what makes them act a certain way – we can quickly master people skills. I don’t mean to imply we should learn manipulation – just the opposite. It’s not manipulative to learn what it would take to have a person think more highly of you – to like you more – and to then genuinely and sincerely provide them with that in the hopes of furthering a more positive relationship with that person. It’s not manipulative. That’s using people skills. And if I’ve done my job well, I’ll teach you how to do it in People Skills 101 .

Q: Thank you again for this interview! Do you have any final words?

Thank you for having me. Yes, I have just one comment. I’ve shared the book with people who are absolute masters of people skills, and presumably would not need this material. Ironically, they seem to be the most impressed with it. I think they reason for that is you can never fully master the concept until you’ve positively interacted with every human on the planet. The so-called masters realize that they, along with the rest of us, still have more to learn. So my final words are that if you want to interact with people more effectively – no matter how strong or weak your skills are today – I think I can help and I hope you’ll give me the opportunity to try with .People Skills 101-tm. Thanks again for letting me share my thoughts with you today.

About the Book:

Title: PEOPLE SKILLS 101: HOW TO HAVE MORE FRIENDS, FEWER CONFLICTS AND BETTER RELATIONSPS
Author: Kerry O’Hallaron
Publisher: Shamrock Publications
Pages: 301
Genre: Nonfiction/Self-Help/Self-Development

BOOK BLURB:

A life changing modern-day twist on Dale Carnegie’s timeless classic – learn how to have more friends, show more charisma, and better manage every relationship – all in the comfort of your home.

“Kerry O’Hallaron simply nailed it with People Skills 101,” says Jason Broadman, international book critic. “He took something everyone needs to know, which nobody teaches, and made it interesting, eminently readable, entertaining, and exceptionally useful to just about everyone.”

Do you remember that course you took in school called “Basic People Skills?” You don’t, do you – because nobody, anywhere, teaches such a course. Whether grade school, high school, or beyond, NOBODY thought it was important to teach us how to interact. NOBODY thought it was important enough to teach us interpersonal skills – how to get people to like us, how to get them to see us the way we want to be seen, how to manage our relationships.Apparently they just assumed that we are either born with “people skills” – or we weren’t!

People Skills 101 offers an elegantly simple and completely unique solution. It works, whether you are a shy and reserved introvert, a bubbly and outgoing extrovert, or anywhere in between. Simply choose any three of the twenty-one “GoldenRules” offered in the book, begin to use them faithfully, and watch the results with awe. You will be amazed how a few, subtle changes will quickly craft a new, more influential, more charismatic, more likable, YOU!