0036: Gain More Confidence in Your Business and Life By Learning How To Think Like A Negotiator with Airforce Veteran, Former Master Sargent, CEO, Author, Speaker, & 501(c)(3) Founder Eldonna Lewis Fernandez

Intro [0:00]

EA Interviews Episode 36. Inspiration, transformation, success stories and the Imperfect Action Round seven days a week. Join Mario Fachini for today’s Expert Authority Effect interview. 

Mario Fachini [0:14]

Welcome Expert Authority World. I’ve got a question for you. Have you ever looked at your boss and wondered, you know, they’re not really a leader, why is everyone following them? Have you ever worked with colleagues or coworkers, maybe it’s your clients and wondered how do they get out of bed in the morning? How do they communicate with the world? Have you ever wanted to think like a negotiator? Do you want to increase your sales? I’m excited to bring to you Eldonna Lewis Fernandez. And she has a training program, Think Like a Negotiator. She is an Air Force Veteran and CEO of Dynamic Visions International. She’s been on many news publications like Fox Business, CNBC, and she has a best selling book. She’s going to be sharing with us right after we thank our sponsor. 

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Mario Fachini [1:17]

Here she is everybody, Eldonna Lewis Fernandez. Eldonna, it’s great to have you here. How are you feeling today? 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [1:22]

I am awesome soft, like I like to say. Thanks so much for having me. 

Mario Fachini [1:26] 

I’m excited to have you here. And thank you for your service in the Military. I can’t wait to learn from you myself. I would personally love to have someone else rubbing this, but I got to say, I like the blue. 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [1:37]

Well, we sort of match today, blue. I see your blue tie. It’s looking good. 

Mario Fachini [1:42]

Well, I appreciate that. So let’s jump right into it. What is the inspiration behind starting your own business? I mean, you have a successful career in the Military. I know you’re a strategic consultant on the F-18 Radar program. Why do you want to do your own thing after all of that success? 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [1:58]

Well, I retired from the Military in 2003. And I was working in the aerospace industry as a defense contractor. And I started speaking in 2006 going into shelters to do leadership and self- esteem workshops and found that I really liked speaking and sharing. So I went down the path of figuring out what my expertise was and started realizing that I could teach people negotiation skills. 

Mario Fachini [2:25]

So why negotiation? You can talk about leadership, communication, but why negotiation? 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [2:31]

Well, negotiation is one of those things that everybody does every single day. I always say whether it’s a multimillion dollar deal, how to get your kids to do their homework, or where to meet for dinner, we’re negotiating constantly throughout our life. And knowing the skills how to get a better deal for yourself is something that everybody can benefit from. 

Mario Fachini [2:50]

It’s so important. I can’t wait for you to share even more with that. So let’s go into a little bit of detail of who you help and how you help them. Who’s your perfect audience and what do you do for them? 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [3:02]

Well, I focus a lot on women, because women are, in my experience and through research, are more afraid to ask for exactly what they want than men are. So I like to inspire women to ask for exactly what they want and get a better deal for themselves by thinking like a negotiator. I do work with – I have a contract with Southern California Edison here in Southern California and work with community partners and do workshops there. And I’ve had some government contracts. And I do keynotes and trainings for both men and women. And I really enjoy teaching anybody who will listen about negotiation. 

Mario Fachini [3:39]

Very good. Why don’t you tell us a little something personal about you. You mentioned California. What do you like to do when it’s sunny out there? 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [3:47]

I like to ride my Harley. 

Mario Fachini [3:49]

I love that. 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [3:51]

I’m a Harley ride and bad biker chick, like I like to say. And I’ve been riding Harley’s for over 20 years. And it’s beautiful riding here especially along Pacific Coast Highway along the beach. And I love to feel the wind in my face from the ocean. And it’s a beautiful place to ride. 

Mario Fachini [4:06]

I’ve seen some of the pictures you shared and it does look very beautiful indeed. So let’s talk about your training program, Think Like a Negotiator. What’s the biggest transformation someone’s had going through it? 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [4:17]

I think getting the confidence to realize that they can create the deal that they want. The best deal for themselves. Whether it’s personal or professional, whether it’s in business, having a contract or negotiating a salary, or even negotiating something, when you have a repair or something, or somebody’s done something that you don’t feel is, what I say, is fair and reasonable, you don’t think it’s right. So having the confidence to stand up for yourself and knowing the things to do to ask for what you want and how to prepare for that. And I see, I think, confidence is the biggest thing that people get after they’ve taken my trainings. 

Mario Fachini [4:54]

Well, I know confidence is a big thing not only in business, but in life. And if you can help them with that – I mean, I know what it was like being not confident and I know what it’s like being confident. I will definitely take confidence every day. So I’m glad that’s what you focus on in the training. Tell me about a specific success story of someone who came into the training and maybe they weren’t as confident as they could have been. And you know, who had the hugest breakthrough from your standpoint? 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [5:24]

Well, I’ve had people that – I have one person and a couple people I think of that come the top of mind. One person in particular – when I do my three-day trainings, I have people get up on stage and share about what it is that they’ve learned and takeaways and that. And I had somebody who was sitting, didn’t want to share, wanted to argue with everything, was very difficult the entire time. And at the very end, she was basically – and I do like do a double high five and say, “You are a master negotiator. Turn to the person next to you and give them a big double high five and say you are a master negotiator.” People attempted to double high five her and she was all closed off, “Don’t get near me This is ridiculous.” And by the end, she’s running around double high fiving people. And her takeaway was, see it through until the end. So she had a big shift. Actually, somebody paid for her to go. And I understand why when she got there. It was like pulling teeth and dragging her through the entire training. But at the end, she had a big shift and big breakthrough. And she was definitely changed when she left there. 

Mario Fachini [6:30]

That sounds remarkable. I would have loved to see that. Because I’ve witnessed people who didn’t have that breakthrough but had something similar, where they were just in a, let’s just say, not a good place. And then by the end of the training, it was like, “Oh my gosh. Who is this person?” So how long does it take, in your experience, for someone to experience that? Is that something they can do in an hour? Is that something that they can do in a day? Does it take a week, a month? 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [6:56]

That all depends on the person. Some people are more resistant to change than others. Some people will adapt right away and integrate the things that they’ve learned and go out and start using them. And others need to hear them several times or need to go through an extensive amount of training or sometimes coaching. I’ve had to coach people to get their mindset right to where they can build that confidence and be strong enough to stand up and ask for exactly what they want. I had a client that asked me to help them with getting money back from their landlord. I’m quite the expert on landlord-tenant issues. And the landlord had sent him $1,000. His deposit was $2,450. And there was no written information as to what was deducted. There was no receipts. There was nothing. And I helped him get the confidence. He was really hesitant to construct the letter. He was getting anxiety about it. I told him some places to contact. I suggested he construct a letter that I then edited. I told him to send it certified. And he got the entire deposit back. And I’ve had that happen several times with people. And they feel very confident and very strong and powerful after they get a result like that. 

Mario Fachini [8:11]

Well, that’s huge. Would you say that a lot of the companies – and I don’t want to pigeonhole any industry or person or career choice or whatever but ones pop into the top of my mind and they’re not all bad. But would you say that certain industries and some of these tactics of the companies are to just, “Hey. Let’s give them crap here, here, and here, and see if they can come through to the end.” 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [8:36]

Sometimes a lot of people will not expect people to stand up for themselves because people typically don’t. Actually, the first person I helped with the situation like that was my daughter. And I talked about her and a lot of times when I do my Think Like a Negotiator talks. And her landlord took her for – because she’s quiet unless you really know her – took her for somebody, because she was quiet, that she must not know anything and she’s just a college student. So out of an $800 deposit with no things noted at the pre-move out walkthrough inspection or the final inspection, he only gave her $98 of the $800 back. And had all these ridiculous deductions and no receipts and nothing really because there was nothing. In the state of California, and I’m sure every other state has something like this, you’re allowed to have a pre-move out walkthrough inspection and a final inspection so you can say, “Okay. This is what will be deducted and this won’t unless I fix it.” And both times he said, “I’ll give it a good cleaning. Oh, it looks clean. It’s good.” And then comes back with this whole list of stuff which came out of nowhere. She challenged it and got the whole thing back with my guidance and help. 

Mario Fachini [9:45]

I love that. I mean, there’s been so many times, especially in grade school, because I wouldn’t say I had any confidence until ninth or tenth grade. And it was more a self-observation. And one of my friends goes, “Oh, you did a 360 interview with yourself or whatever.” I’m like, “A what?” Well, I never had a corporate career background or anything. I was just sitting there in band class one day just, like, clearly not paying attention. That was kind of my M.O. But I asked my friend I said, “If there’s one thing you could improve about me, what would it be?” And I’ll never forget her saying, “You kind of hunch over when you walk. Stand up more.” I was like, “Ha.” So then I just practiced that all week. And then I asked someone else something and someone else something. And in ninth grade I decided, “You know what? I like having friends. I don’t like being picked on. You know, I’m going to make some shifts here.” And it wasn’t any self-help. It was just I tell people to this day, “Just common freaking sense.” It’s like, if you don’t like something, change it. You don’t need to read 18 self-help books on it. But the confidence issue I see in teenagers, adults, experienced adults, young adults, whatever the case is, what is one thing you could say to anyone to have more confidence? 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [10:58]

Well, what you think about you bring about. You have to get your mindset straight and figure out what room of consciousness or thought you show up in. Do you show up in the room of impossibility where your mind goes right to, “It’s impossible. I can’t do it.” Do you go to possibility which is, “Maybe.” Or do you go to places like it’s inevitable but it’s going to happen? Definitely, you have to control what goes into your head and the thoughts that you think. And guard your thoughts. Because thoughts are things. And thoughts can really pollute your mind. And then if you have other people – like, I grew up in a pretty rough environment. Both my parents were alcoholics. And my mother died of alcoholism when I was 12. 

Mario Fachini [11:41]

Sorry to hear. 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [11:42]

And managed to tell me – well, she told me all my life I was no good. So I heard that voice constantly. It took me a long time to gain confidence and realize that I’m pretty awesome. Every single one of us is awesome. And we all have our own gifts and talents that we can use to make a better world. And the first thing you have to do is love the person you see looking in the mirror. You got to love yourself first. And do some self-leadership to eradicate those negative thoughts. 

Mario Fachini [12:11]

Wow. You’re bringing me back a little bit here. And that kind of hit home for me, too, because I may have not always been told good things also. And I was actually going to ask you, what is something you could say to someone? I had no idea that was the case. But I wanted to ask if someone’s in a situation like that, how do you break free from it? Because I know success stories such as yourself where people go, “I grew up this way. And I overcame.” And other people say, “Well, you know, what was me this, that, the other thing.” How did you manage to go, “You know what? I’m going to cap this and add something positive.” What’s like a tool that you used to break through? 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [12:49]

Well, probably the first thing I did was I had gotten to a point – everybody needs to get to a point where they look in the mirror and realize the problems looking back at them. The only person that you can change is that person in the mirror. You can’t change anybody else. And you can’t get anything from anybody else. You can get good information. But you have to apply it to yourself. Zig Ziglar, who was one of the first motivational speakers that I heard many years ago, he’s a great leadership speaker. And I heard him -gosh, I don’t know – in 2004, maybe. And he had something – and this wasn’t that long ago. Because even though I was successful in the Air Force, retired as a master sergeant, I still every morning when I looked in the mirror, I had the voice of my mother telling me I’m no good. I was also a high school dropout. And I had, “Who do you think you are? You’re a high school dropout. You’re a loser. You’re never going to make it.” That was my mother’s voice constantly. So I had to fight against that. And I did. I joined the Air Force as a way to turn my life around. And I actually got two associates and a bachelor’s degree and a great training in the contracting career field, which is where I learned my negotiation training. But Zig Ziglar has something called A Life Changing Procedure. You can find it anywhere online. And it’s something that you say to yourself in the mirror every single day. You have to combat those thoughts. So the only way to do it is replace it with powerful thoughts. Powerful self-talk. You have to watch what you say to yourself. There’s a proverb that says, “Kind words are like honey sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.” If kind words are like that, what are unkind words? We can destroy ourselves with our words. And we can destroy others with words. But the first person you have to watch what you say something to is yourself. And the first thing I used was that life changing procedure. It suggests doing it twice a day for 60 days. Because you’re waking up saying affirmations to yourself. You’re going to sleep saying affirmations to yourself. I did it for 90 days. And I still use it at times today. And I use it in a lot of my trainings when I do self-leadership training because that’s the thing that builds the most confidence is lead yourself first. 

Mario Fachini [14:57]

I can attest to the truth of that, too. I actually have – have you ever heard of AquaNotes? 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [15:02]

Yes, I have. 

Mario Fachini [15:04]

They are waterproof notes. And their tagline – I thought that was cool in it of itself. So I was like, “Cool. I want to get some.” Because they’re waterproof notes. Who doesn’t want to have waterproof notes? I think that’s cool. But their tagline is, “No more bad ideas down the drain.” I was like, “I’m just sold on your good marketing of this.” So I’ve been using them for years. And I have the affirmations in the shower. I mean, how many times do people have great ideas and they’re lost down the drain? So not only when I’m jotting stuff out like the podcast here. I have those before it was, you know, reality. And it’s a little surreal to realize it’s real now. But thoughts are things. What are those affirmations? What are you saying to yourself? Are you utilizing that time? And if you want to take it a level deeper? Are you familiar with like how water plays a role in your body and the crystals and the snowflakes? 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [15:59]

Yes. Yes. 

Mario Fachini [16:02]

So for everyone listening, they’ve done studies about what negative music does to snowflakes -or, actually, the water while they’re crystallizing. And they have diagrams and I’ll put a link in the show notes here. But it’s fascinating to watch. So if you want to double up on the affirmations, the best thing I can suggest is take Eldonna’s advice and say good things. But also do it when you’re in water and drinking water and it will literally affect the cells in your body. And we’re not going to do a full training on that. But I am in full agreement with you. So thank you for mentioning that. So you said you use this in your negotiation program, correct?

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [16:44]

Yes. Definitely. I call it Self-leadership. Because you have to motivate yourself and persuade yourself before you can lead or motivate or persuade others. I just did a training for the Army in Indiana – an Army unit – and I was teaching them about, first of all, you need to motivate yourself and you have to lead yourself first. And here’s some things to do. And then you need to share it with your people. Because there’s a lot of people walking around. There were even some in this training, they were all slouched over and they had a scowl on their face. And one of the things I did as a review, I said, “Here’s some things you need to do with your people. Set a goal for the year, at least one. I suggest you set more but at least one.” And I have a goal setting statement that says, “It is now blank,” which is the date you want to get the goal by. And “I am committed to having or being blank,” whatever that thing is. And we went around the room and ask people to – I was asking just one goal, personal or professional. And one lady just had a blank look on her face. She said, “I have nothing.” And I was like, “Well, you don’t have anything you want to accomplish this year?” “Well, I want to get to retirement in three years.” And I thought, “Wow. To live in that space to where the only thing that you’re looking forward to is retiring.” Like, there’s nothing – 

Mario Fachini [18:11]

Then why do you even do that? What does that mean? Are you going to sit there and stare at the grass or the wall? 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [18:15]

Right? So it’s like, “Okay. What happens next?” And then the next lady piggybacked on her -aligned with her, “I’m retiring in three years.” I’m thinking, “Wow. That’s sad. That’s really, really sad.” So it doesn’t mean you have to have, like, 500 goals or whatever. But you need to have some goals for what you want to accomplish this year. Even when I was in the Military and it was, what I call, a wind up toy environment, we still set goals. We set goals for the mission. And we set our personal goals. I had personal goals, whether it was to get promoted or finish my degree or whatever it was I was doing. I still had some goals. And it’s sad to think the only goal somebody has is to make it to retirement. “To make it,” that’s minimum. Minimum possible to get by. 

Mario Fachini [19:09]

Yeah. There’s definitely a difference between minimum mentality and maximum and abundance mentality. And I never understood that because what does it take to retire, age or income? Income. You can retire at any age. But the whole, “If I can just make it to retirement. If I can just make it.” It’s like, “What do you do the next 30, 40, 50 years? It’s not some end all be all. 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [19:32]

I had a friend send me a text message today, “Oh, I can’t wait until this part -” he’s a teacher. “I can’t wait until the semester is over.” And I’m like, “Okay. You need to find something. Okay. Your work is whatever. The administration is not working well. But you need to find something to be happy about. Because you can’t be looking forward to this and this and this. And everything in between is nothing.” I mean, I’m leaving for Kenya. I’m looking forward to that. But between now and then, I have some things planned that I’m going to enjoy doing until that time. I’m not wishing my life away. 

Mario Fachini [20:08]

Why don’t you touch on – I think this is good time to bring that up. I want you to share what you’re doing with your charity. 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [20:14]

Well, my foundation became a 501(C)(3) nonprofit on November 16th of 2018, Dynamic Vision Foundation. 

Mario Fachini [20:23]

Congratulations. 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [20:24]

Thank you. I’m really excited about that. Because last year this time, there was no such thing as Dynamic Vision Foundation or Baskets and Beads Kenya project. Actually, last year this time, I was preparing to go on a trip with a group called Reaching Beyond Ourselves to Kenya. They’ve been going there for 20 years. And were going to do some outreach and sharing. I was asked to speak and share a lot of my story, my strength, hope, and empowerment with people, especially women. And I’m looking forward to it. Actually, my business wasn’t doing too well. I was actually considering going back to a corporate job. And I decided that I would figure it out when I got back. I got on a plane and went there. And I met a lady in a place called the Kipsongo Slum. Her name is Patricia. And if you go to BasketsAndBeadsKenya.com, you can see a picture of her. She gifted me with this bead that I’m wearing. It’s made out of paper. It’s made out of magazine rolled type paper. 

Mario Fachini [21:24]

Is she the one on the site that I was looking at with you? 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [21:26]

Yes. Yeah, I have a picture. There’s a picture of a bunch of women there. She’s in that picture. And there’s another picture of she and I and her son, Maxwell. And she gifted me with this bead and said, “I’m hoping my son, Maxwell, would get the money to go to school.” And I left there thinking, “Well, maybe that’s what I can do.” Because I felt like I wanted to do more. I knew I’d come back to Kenya. I really resonated with the people there and thought that I could be of service somehow. And I woke up in the middle of the night with this idea to buy some beads and sell them with my book when I speak. So Book and Bead was born. It’s called Baskets and Beads Kenya. And I bought some beads, brought them back, sold out instantly. Doubled the orders and sold out again. Tripled the order and sold out again. Instantly, I went back in July.  I brought back hundreds of beads. And I’m pretty close to being sold out. I’m going back again. I started the nonprofit to help these women eradicate poverty in their lives to become entrepreneurs. It’s a hand up not a handout. So they can be fully supporting by their own contributions and stop having to sell themselves and sell illegal alcohol and beg for food. So it’s not 100% sustainable for them yet. So in November or December, we bought food packs for 35 women. We started out with five women. We’re up to 35 now and growing. And the bigger goal is to get some land and start a farm so they can have multiple streams of income doing farming and making the beads and getting the beads into bigger stores. I have them in five now, little stores, around Southern California. But I’m looking for bigger clients like Whole Foods and Costco and Francesca’s, and some of the bigger accessory stores and things like that. I’ve actually had contacted an airport store in an airport that’s reached out to me and wants more information. So I fully expect this to grow. And I am excited that I get to help these women change their lives and the lives of their children. So my tagline is, Saving children. Empowering women. 

Mario Fachini [23:36]

I love that. I knew you were awesome when we first connected. And I had you on the shortlist to come on the show. But when you were telling me about this, I just got so excited for you. And like I said, I’m going to reach out to my contacts. And if anyone is listening or watching this and can help Eldonna out, feel free to reach out to her or me and we definitely want to get this bigger for her. So thank you for being contribution minded also in making a difference. And I like how you said, “I got the idea to have the beads when I sell my book.” So let’s talk about your speaking. What’s that done for your business and how are you utilizing it right now? 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [24:12]

I speak a lot. I’m an accredited speaker through Toastmasters International. Which for those who don’t know, it’s a professional speaking designation. There are only 81 of us out of the 350,000 plus members, which is point 0.02% of the membership. Now, outside of Toastmasters, not many people think about that inside of Toastmasters. It’s helped me get more visibility. I was a speaker at the International Convention in Chicago in 2018 and I’ve been speaking at a lot of districts and that helps me to sell my book. Because we don’t charge a fee. They cover our travel. And we’re allowed to sell our products. That’s our negotiated agreement with Toastmasters. But I’ve been able to get some coaching clients and help them build their speaking business. And then, like I said, I’ve got a contract with Southern California Edison. I won an army contract and they would like to bring us back. I’m looking for more contracts to bid on. And then I speak at different events, conferences, and things like that. And a lot of them are paid. Some are not. It depends. I can sell my products at a lot of events. So when I tell the story about the ladies and Book and a Bead, people are really moved by it. So a lot of people are taking beads home with them and supporting the women. And I take photos and put it up on my Facebook page and Instagram profile, BasketsAndBeadsKenya or Baskets and Beads on Instagram. So the ladies – I have somebody over there a name Leila. My boots on the ground business partner, I call her. And she works with the ladies every week. And she takes her phone and shows them, “Look. Here’s more people that are supporting and buying your items.” So it gives them encouragement and hope that their lives are definitely going to change. 

Mario Fachini [26:03]

That’s fantastic to hear. And you’re doing the same with your book too. I know you’ve leveraged you’re speaking. But what made you want to release and publish a book in conjunction with your training program? How have those two helped each other out? 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [26:18]

Well, the book is – a lot of people see you as more credible when you have a book. And I self-publish. I didn’t do the Best Seller thing or any of that. It was basically, I publish my book to give me a little more credibility. And sometimes when people can’t pay a speaking fee, they will buy books because they have an education fund. So you still earn income that way. Or even if they do pay you, you have extra income opportunities for selling your book. And then I offer some freebies like my 52 Negotiator Tips video series or something like that. And just connecting with more people. And I’ve been doing my Think Like a Negotiator live training. And I’ve taken the last year off because I’m revamping it and bringing a little more leadership things into it. But it’s all experiential. There’s experiential game and that’s going to be coming out again this year. So I’ll be bringing that back onboard because I love to train people how to negotiate. And anybody who will let me get in front of them and speak, even if it’s only for 30 minutes, they will learn something about negotiation. 

Mario Fachini [27:27]

I’m excited to hear that. I got a peek inside your training and the group. I remember when you were working on it and I liked what I saw already. I can only imagine what you’re going to be adding to it. So I’m glad you’re staying on the cutting edge of it. We’re going to jump into the Imperfect Action Round right after we thank our sponsor.

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Mario Fachini [29:01]

We are back Expert Authority World, Eldonna, are you ready to take Imperfect Action? 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [29:06]

I am ready. 

Mario Fachini [29:07]

Excellent. So first question, what is the biggest problem you see your audience make? And how can they fix it? 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [29:14]

The biggest problem is not asking for exactly what they want. And that is with getting the courage to ask and knowing, not only going out and asking, but understanding what you need to do to prepare in advance even before you’re asking a simple question or a big negotiation. You have to understand what you’re going in to ask for and then have a desired outcome. And a lot of people don’t go for win-win. They don’t think about win-win.  It’s like win-lose, lose- lose, lose-win. That’s a lot of what’s out there. But training their mind to go for a win-win result is kind of what I want my audiences to do. 

Mario Fachini [29:54]

I absolutely love that. I’ve told my clients the same thing. You know, everyone thinks there’s this economic pie where someone wins and someone else has to lose. And that’s complete crap. You can have a win-win. And if it’s not good for you and it’s not good for me and it’s not good for the customer, then it just doesn’t make sense. Because you’re not striving for good and greatness. You’re just going, you know, whatever the wind throws at you. So I’m glad that – that’s a really good point. So take note if you haven’t already. Okay. Next 60-second question, what is the fastest path to the cash? 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [30:27]

The fastest path to cash is getting in front of people and sharing what you have to offer them. And asking them to either sign up for something free or come to your training or bring you in to speak. It’s all about connecting with people and continually putting yourself out there. Sharing your expertise on social media. You have to be everywhere and share as much as you can kind of in a strategic method. You don’t want to jump all over the place like, “Okay. I’m doing negotiation. I’m going to talk about how to do underwater basket weaving over here. And I’m going to talk about how to ride a Harley over here.” But life’s focus on giving negotiation strategies and tips and putting myself out there and speaking as many places I can so people can know, “Hey, I heard her speak I really want her to come to our event.” 

Mario Fachini [31:19]

Would you recommend doing it on video? 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [31:21]

Well definitely video is good. Video is kind of the forefront of things that need to happen either doing something – I do like blog posts a lot. But I’ll do a Monday Mastery or Mastery Monday, depending on what I want to call it for the week. And I’ll do a little blurb on video and share about things. And I have, like, a video series. Video is good. I think both mediums are good. 

Mario Fachini [31:47]

Very good. Last question. Customer lifetime value. How do you maximize this? So you got all the clients. You’re doing all this publicity. You’re thinking like a negotiator. You’re bringing them to those speeches. They’re buying your books. How do you maximize all the effort, time, energy and money you’re going in? 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [32:05]

Well, you have to – it’s a relationship economy we’re in. So you have to continually build relationships first, which is to think like a negotiator strategy. People want to do business with people they know, like, and trust. So you have to put out that know, like, and trust factor. You have to connect with people. You have to talk to people. You have to do face-to-face if you can or on video chat if you can. Constantly have touches with them because we’re bombarded with information. So they need to know that they can trust you and that you have their back, should they trust enough to invest with you. 

Mario Fachini [32:38]

They’ve got your fix, right?

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [32:39]

Exactly. 

Mario Fachini [32:40]

Well, I appreciate you for sharing. The last question I have is, what is a book you would recommend that’s made the biggest impact on your business in life? 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [32:50]

Wow. Just one? 

Mario Fachini [32:52]

You’re an entrepreneur. You bend the rules. But at least one. 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [32:58]

Right. My commander in the Air Force many, many years ago, gave me a book before I got promoted to master sergeant called The Art of the Leader. And it’s something that, for me, opened that door to me realizing that I could be a leader. He put me in a leadership position before I thought I was ready. He actually removed somebody out and said, “Oh. You’re the leader now. Here, learn how to lead.” “Okay. Great.” I didn’t know – I knew a little but I didn’t know a lot then. But that really helped build a foundation for me to build my confidence and more knowledge on being a leader. And then even though it’s older schools, some people want the new thing. There’s really not anything new. Everything’s just reverberated from previous things. Anything by Zig Ziglar or Mary Kay Ash. Because Mary Kay Ash was somebody I’ve admired for many, many years based on what she did turning a Mary Kay Cosmetics from a $5,000 life savings into a multi billion dollar international corporation. 

Mario Fachini [34:02]

Well, those are two great recommendations. And I definitely love Zig Zigler as well. And I’ve read a little bit on Mary Kay Ash. But it sounds like I should look into her a little bit more. But definitely, Zig Ziglar, you can’t go wrong with there. So thank you very much. I’ve enjoyed this as much as I hope the listeners and watchers have. But thank you again, Eldonna. And it was great having you on the show. 

Eldonna Lewis Fernandez [34:25]

Thanks for having me. I enjoy being here. 

Mario Fachini [34:27]

We’ll see you next time. God bless. 

Expert Authority Checklist [34:31] 

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