A NEW BOOK BY FRED SMITH · LEAD YOUR POWER

The Other Nine Rooms is my book for leaders who are winning on paper and carrying it alone. It shows you why harder never fixed it, and walks you back into every room of your life, one at a time.

Instant PDF download · Start tonight with a ten-minute first read · $27

You're at dinner, and someone asks how you are.

"Good," you say. It's out before the question's finished, the same word you handed out all day at the office.

And this time, for some reason, you hear it.

Across the table, someone who used to ask when you'd be home hasn't asked in a while. Nobody slammed a door. They just stopped asking.

Later you stand on the sidewalk across from your own house. From here it looks fine. Better than fine. Anyone driving past would think, somebody's doing well.

One light's on. It's the office. It's always the office.

The rest of the windows went dark one at a time, so quietly that even you didn't hear them go.

What you did about it

You noticed. That's the part nobody gives you credit for.

Then you did what's always worked. You worked harder.

You set the alarm earlier. You bought the planner, the app, the assistant. You told yourself next quarter there'd be room.

The office got brighter. The other rooms got darker.

Here's what nobody selling to you has any reason to say: you didn't fail at fixing it. You fixed the wrong thing. Harder is the tool that built the office. It's also the tool that's been turning the other lights off. Nobody ever showed you what was underneath.

That's what this book does.

What's underneath

A dark room is what the problem looks like from the street. It isn't the problem.

So the book keeps asking why, one floor at a time, until it hits something solid:

• The symptom. The rooms went dark. The dining room nobody eats in. The friends who stopped calling.
• The behavior. You work harder, because harder has never let you down.
• The cause. The noise. Everything that tells you it's urgent, it needs you, and the next push will finally buy you room. Most of it isn't real demand. You can't hear it as noise, so you treat it as the job.
• The root. Somewhere along the way you started running someone else's script. Open your calendar and read it like handwriting. How much of it is yours?

And on the other side, the standard the whole book points at. I call it Able. The old root of the word power means "to be able." Able to hear the noise as noise. Able to choose. Able to step away, and it holds.

You can't fix a room you can't see. Once you can see it, you can walk back in.

What's inside

It's three books in one.

All of the method is in these pages. Nothing's held back for later.

Book One: The Diagnosis.

Why the rooms go dark, one link at a time.

• Why the hours you add to the office come out of the rooms you can't see
• The one question that tells you whether a message is communication or noise: the Daylight Test
• How the noise gets built, in plain sight, so you can turn it down when it shows up in your inbox
• The Axioms: the short list of truths everything else stands on. You'll recognize every one, because you've lived them

Book Two: The Method.

Twelve chapters, one week each, and each one leaves you holding something you built.

• Score your ten rooms Lit, Dim or Dark, and find the one to fix first
• Write down what you actually want, on one page, for the first time
• Find where your 168 hours really go, and where the margin's been hiding
• Climb the Freedom Ladder, from Doer to Owner, one rung at a time, and see why the 9 p.m. text still comes to you
• Put work and home on one plan, instead of balancing them on a seesaw
• Fill the four seats at your table: the few people who'll tell you the truth and have your back

Book Three: The Reference.

Everything in one place when you need it.

• The Manual: every rule and maxim on a few pages
• Your Pages, to draw and score on
• The whole Vision Design Process on one page
• A plain-English dictionary of 372 terms, so no word ever stops you

How to read it: straight through, the way a house is built. Or start where it hurts. Each chapter tells you which rooms it lights, and each one asks for one exercise before you turn the page.

Who's across the table

You should know who you're handing this to.

I didn't start with anything. I grew up in the hood, around crime and drugs, in one of the hardest places to get out of. What got me out was the power of words: clear thinking and clear communication.

I joined the Marine Corps in 1995. I'm a combat veteran. In the Marine Corps, we make Marines, period. There's a proven, repeatable process. Leaders get built the same way, one piece at a time. That's why our motto is simple: we make leaders.

I worked inside multinational corporations, in someone else's seat, never the founder's. Today I'm the mentor of the mentors' mentors. I coached the coaches.

And here's the line I don't leave out: I gave out to everybody, and my own cup was empty.

That's why I wrote this book. I've sat across from good leaders who'd stopped trusting their own judgment, the one thing a leader can't afford to lose. This book is the real conversation, all of it, in your hands.

I wrote the method down years ago in my book Creators. This is that book, rebuilt from the floor up and renamed for what it's really about.

What this book is, and what it isn't

It isn't a pile of tips, a secret held back for later, or a promise about how you'll feel.

It is a diagnosis you run yourself, one method with all of it here, and things you build and can hold.

It's about executive coaching and leadership development, for your whole life. It isn't therapy, and it isn't medical, legal, tax or financial advice. Nothing in it promises a result. When something you're carrying needs a licensed professional, see one first. Leaders get help.

What happens after you read it

You don't have to have it figured out to start. Here's the whole road, in plain steps:

1. Start with Read This First. It takes a few minutes. Pull your chair in.
2. Walk the ten rooms. At leadyourpower.com/start you score each room of your life Lit, Dim or Dark. It's free and private. It saves nothing, and nobody sees your score but you.
3. If you want to talk about what you saw, there's the First Call. About fifteen minutes, free, with me or someone on my team. Nothing is sold on it. If we're not the right fit, we'll tell you.

That's it. No countdown, no pressure. The rooms will be there when you're ready to walk them.

Questions people ask

You get 168 hours this week, the same as everyone. The rooms don't wait for a quieter quarter.

Tonight's a good night to turn around.

Read the first chapter by the time the house goes quiet. Find out which room you've been walking past for years. Then go switch on one lamp.

Lead your power.