I have a D&D group I get together with from time-to-time, and one day one of the members started talking about Sanderson and a book called Mistborn. I was always an avid fantasy reader, so it piqued my interest. He then went on to say he was reading another epic fantasy series from the same author called The Stormlight Archive, which seemed even more up my alley, but I was reading ASoIAF at the time and felt this might be too large a commitment.
So I picked up Mistborn, mainly because the books were shorter in length. I had always been someone who reads multiple books at a time depending on my mood that day - after I started Mistborn: The Final Empire, that all changed. I got sucked in nearly immediately, and that was the beginning of my journey.
I'm still somewhat new to this, having only finished the Mistborn Era 1 trilogy and now almost finished with Wax and Wayne, but I'm really looking forward to moving onto Elantris, Warbreaker, and then The Stormlight Archive, along with everything else Cosmere related.