Woman Shares Video of Author Sitting Alone at Book Signing. Now, His Book Is a Bestseller (Exclusive)

• Jonathan Stanley was sitting at a table at his local Barnes & Noble in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., promoting his book Purposeful Performance: The Secret Mix of Connecting, Leading, and Succeeding
• Although a stack of books sat in front of him, only a few people had stopped by to chat, purchase a book and get a copy signed
• As Stanley sat there, Taylor Dinelli, who was shopping at the store with her 4-year-old daughter, Ella, noticed the author sitting alone. She pulled out her phone and recorded a quick video of the scene
• Later, she posted the video on TikTok, where it’s amassed more than 75 million views

Jonathan Stanley was sitting at a table at his local Barnes & Noble in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., promoting his book Purposeful Performance: The Secret Mix of Connecting, Leading, and Succeeding. Although a stack of books sat in front of him, only a few people had stopped by to chat, purchase a book and get a copy signed.

As Stanley, who wrote his book after losing his job, sat there, mom of three and content creator Taylor Dinelli, who was shopping at the store with her 4-year-old daughter, Ella, noticed the author sitting alone. She couldn’t help but feel sympathy for him, seeing that no one had approached him about his book since they had arrived. She pulled out her phone and recorded a quick video of the scene before Ella began asking questions, intrigued by who he was, why he was there and what he was doing.

“I was explaining to Ella that the books on that table were written by the man sitting there, and that he was there to tell people about his book and see if they wanted to buy it,” the mom, 29, tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I told her people could talk to him, and she said, ‘Well, Mommy, I want to talk to him.’ So, we went up to him. She told him, ‘It’s so great that you write books. I want to write books too.’ “

While his book clearly wasn’t for a 4-year-old, Ella was so amazed by the whole thing. She said, ” ‘Mommy, we should definitely get this book.’ ” Dinelli adds, “I said, ‘All right, let’s do it.’ Ella thought it was so brave of him to be sitting there, sharing his story. She said, ‘Mommy, I’ll do that one day.’ “

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Later that day, Dinelli took to her TikTok account to post the video. Despite her small following, she thought that maybe somebody online would see the clip and be inspired to go up and talk to an author or anyone promoting themselves. Not long after, she noticed a couple of comments asking questions like, “What’s the name of the book?”

A little while later, she posted a second video and didn’t check her phone for a while. Then that night, she got on her phone and saw the video had reached 800,000 views. Since then, the video has amassed more than 75 million views and upwards of 28,000 comments, and Stanley’s book is now sold out online and listed as a bestseller on Amazon.

“We were baffled. We had no idea why this was happening, what was going on, but the comments were so kind and so inspirational, which was amazing to see,” Dinelli says.

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Right away, she reached out to Stanley, who wasn’t on TikTok at the time, to explain what was happening. “I thought, gosh, he’s going to wake up tomorrow and be like, ‘What on earth is going on?’ ” she says. “He was already sold out online and climbing the bestseller list. I was really excited to reach out to him and be able to connect with him after it all happened.”

“Taylor reached out to me on Sunday and again on Monday morning, and just said, ‘Are you doing okay?’ ” Stanley recalls to PEOPLE exclusively. “She said, ‘I know this must be overwhelming.’ She said, ‘I never thought in my wildest imagination this would go hyper-viral, but I just wanted to check in on you.’ “

Thinking back to that moment in the bookstore, Stanley tells PEOPLE how although the conversation he shared with Ella and Dinelli touched his heart, in the moment, he didn’t understand the impact he would have on them and thousands of people worldwide. He adds how when he began the process of writing the book, he told his wife his dream was to reach just one person. Now, thanks to the mother-daughter duo, he’s far surpassing that.

To thank Dinelli, Stanley invited the family over for a meal and suggested the three of them film another video together for their followers.

“I’m trying to really just take a moment of pause and really reflect on what’s next for me,” he says. “I certainly want to embrace the TikTok community. I think that it’s a really important moment in time to continue to share this message of bringing humanity back into the workforce and to continue spreading the message of kindness.”

“But at the same time, I certainly want to keep giving back,” he adds. “I think that the most important thing we can do as leaders is really begin to change our mindset in terms of what our responsibility is. And I believe we have to stop thinking about what we can gain to what we can give.”

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Dinelli adds that since going viral, she’s brought out the globe in her house and will sit down with Ella to pinpoint where in the world the comments are flooding in from, to help her understand just how far this message has spread.

“I was explaining to Ella how much doing this helped him and will help his career and really change his whole life,” Dinelli says. “Her immediate response was, ‘Mommy, we can help everybody.’ So, we’re going to start something called Sunday Spotlight, where once a week, we’re going to spotlight another person.'”

“If people in the TikTok community can rally behind another person, even a teeny fraction of what we did for Mr. Stanley, that can be life-changing for anybody, even if it’s on a much lesser scale,” she adds. “Ella is all about helping people and making people smile. She’s really special. And so that’s our next task — to just keep the train going.”